Loving God, your only Son came to do your will and to give himself for the life of the world.  Fill us this day with the power of his endless life, that we also might offer ourselves in your service; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

    There are some things in the Bible that are pretty hard to grasp without any context or background – like the Lamb of God, for example.  If you had been standing there with John the Baptist, and you had heard him say, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!” (Jn. 1:36), would that have prompted you to take off after Jesus and follow him?...  Why or why not?...  It seems a pretty safe bet that those first disciples who heard John’s testimony had a better background than we do when it comes to making sense of what on earth the Lamb of God might mean.

    While there have been times in the history of Christianity that church leaders have advocated getting rid of the Old Testament altogether, in this case we would be hard pressed to make sense of the gospel of John without it.  It seems that two stories in particular are related to this odd little exclamation by John the Baptist.

    The first of these stories is found in Genesis, where Abraham thinks that he is being required by God to sacrifice his son, Isaac.  As Abraham and Isaac approach the place on Mount Moriah where the sacrifice will take place, Isaac asks where the lamb is for the burnt offering.  Abraham’s reply is somewhat prophetic: “God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering, my son” (Gen. 22:8).  Could it be that God was again providing the lamb in Jesus?

    At the same time, the gospel of John makes some very obvious connections with the Passover lamb.  At the time of the Passover, the Israelites were quite literally saved by the blood of the lamb.  They took the blood and painted the door posts and the lintels with it, and it was this blood that saved them from the angel of death, who “passed over” their houses (Ex. 12).  In this case, the lamb gave life.

    Of course, our modern sensibilities are quite offended by any thought of burnt offerings or sacrifices or being saved by blood, and this is one of the things that many people find troublesome in the Old Testament.  However, when we pay attention to the Old Testament as a whole, we see that the attitude toward burnt offerings and animal sacrifices changes over time.  In fact, when we read today’s Psalm carefully, we see this change in attitude right there in the Psalm.  Consider it with me, beginning at verse 6:

Sacrifice and offering you do not desire; you have opened my ears: burnt-offering and sin-offering you have not required.  And so I said, “Here I am; I come.  In the scroll of the book it is written of me; ‘I love to do your will, O my God; your law is deep within me.’” (Ps. 40:6-8, EvLW)

Did you catch what was being offered to God instead of burnt offerings and animal sacrifices?...  The Psalmist is offering himself, to do the will of God.  Jesus also offered himself, to do the will of God.  I can’t help but think of the Hokey Pokey, where you put your whole self in!

    We have the servant in Isaiah who is called to be a light to the nations.  We have the apostle Paul, who is “called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God” (1 Cor. 1:1).  We have John the Baptist, whose mission is to reveal Jesus to Israel (Jn. 1:31).  And then we have Andrew and Simon Peter, who end up spending the rest of their lives offering themselves in order to tell others about Jesus. – All of that just in today’s readings!

    So how would you offer yourself in order to do the will of God?  To some extent, how you offer yourself is going to depend upon what gifts God has given you.  Some of you will offer yourselves through your work.  Some of you will teach about Jesus and set an example of love in your families.  Some of you will take leadership roles in the congregation or in various community organizations.  Some of you can offer the gift of time, or the gift of transportation to somebody who needs it, or the gift of food to those who are hungry.  Some of you have the ability to inspire others through music or writing or art.  What are the gifts that God has given to you that will help you to share the love of Jesus with others?

    Perhaps sometimes we think that we need to have the really big and obvious gifts in order to be able to serve God.  However, when we think about the people in today’s gospel, they really don’t do anything that is beyond our capabilities.  They simply notice what God is doing and share it.

    John the Baptist tells those who are with him what he saw when Jesus was baptized.  Andrew tells his brother Simon that he thinks he has found the Messiah.  Each one notices what God is doing and tells their family and friends.  This continues to happen as this first chapter of John unfolds, as people see and experience Jesus and invite others to come and see.

    Are we, too, able to notice what God is doing?  Have we seen answers to prayer, or experienced the presence of God or the power of the Holy Spirit?  Have we met Jesus here and experienced God’s love and forgiveness?  If we have, are there not other people we know who might appreciate the same experience or might need the presence and power of God in their lives?  We actually never know what might happen with a simple invitation to “Come and see” (Jn. 1:39).  It is the Holy Spirit who works in people’s hearts, but sometimes God also uses us in order to extend the invitation.

    And so, do some thinking today about what particular gifts God has given to you.  What are the things that you are good at?  What are the things that you enjoy doing?  And how can you offer those things to God in order to do God’s will?

    The reading that we heard today from 1 Corinthians talks about how the church community would not be “lacking in any spiritual gift,” something that Paul addresses a number of different times in his letters.  And so we often think about ourselves as members of the body of Christ who each have different gifts for the building up of the church community.  However, the service tonight that opens the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity highlights what gifts each of the different church bodies have to share.  The leaders of each of the churches have been asked to bring objects of some sort that represent the gift that their particular denomination has to offer.

    As I’ve been thinking about this, I’m quite curious to see what some of these objects might be.  What would represent the gifts that Lutherans have to share?  What would represent Mennonites, or Roman Catholics, or the United Church?  For surely each church body has its own unique gifts as well – so this is your invitation to come and see!

    And so, to go back to the beginning, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!” – the one who rescues from death – the one who gives life – the one who offers himself in order to do God’s will.  Thanks be to God!  Amen.

Epiphany 2 (A)                                John 1:29-42
January 19, 2014                                Isaiah 49:1-7
St. Luke’s Zion Lutheran Church                        Psalm 40:1-11
Pastor Lynne Hutchison                            1 Corinthians 1:1-9
© 2014 Lynne Hutchison  All Rights Reserved