Sermon: January 15, 2017: What are you looking for?

On John 1:29-42

Near the end of the film La La Land, the character Mia, played by Emma Stone, says to another character: “People love what other people are passionate about.”

She says this to encourage a sharing of that passion. She says this to inspire movement and action. Don’t just be a dreamer who dreams, she is saying. Be a dreamer who does. Sounds a bit like Field of Dreams, “If you build it they will come.”

People, in other words, want to see the passion in others. It moves them, motivates them, guides them, inspires them, and encourages them to move beyond just dreaming to doing themselves. It gives them hope in their own lives to see life being lived fully in others. Passion for life. People are looking for it.

“What are you looking for?”

That’s the very first thing we hear out of Jesus’ mouth in the Gospel of John. A question.  Not yet a call of “follow me,” as in the Gospel of Mark. Or asking to be baptized as in Matthew. Or chastisement of the devil as in Luke.

Instead it’s a question. A question that could also be posed more completely as: “What are you seeking?” or “what are you longing for?” or “What is it that you are missing?” And the Gospel of John will spend the rest of the next 20 chapters answering that question. In fact, by the end of the gospel, John will say that his whole reason for writing it is so that:

“You may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.”

Have life. That’s what the Gospel is meant to do to us. Lead us to life. That’s the good news. That’s pretty passionate news.

It’s helpful to associate passion with this question we get from Jesus because the truth is that without passion as part of the context, we are left with the way culture would have us answer the question.  “What do you need? We’ll tell you what you need. A new car. A better face cream. A more expensive vacation.  An iPhone. A quick way to lose weight.”

Admittedly, I’ve encountered some who say they are passionate about traveling or technology or even their car. But is that really true passion? True passion is more than that. True passion involves relationship. True passion is when the question “what do you need” is instead phrased: “what do you need down to the very center of your being?” Or maybe today in this gospel text, the question is better phrased as “Who do you need down to the very center of your being?”

This question that Jesus asks at the beginning of his ministry – what are you looking for – is a good question to begin the year with. For ourselves, and for our churches. What ARE you looking for? To the very core of your being, what is it you are truly need?

It’s fitting I think that this text comes today on the day of our Love Does Fair.  Love Does is where Passion and Need meet. Passion for service meeting the needs of the community.  But also our own need. I think it is fair to say that those who are passionate about the ministries in Love Does need to do what they are doing every bit as much as those who benefit from their service need them.

One of the new ministries that Love Does begins today, that we heard about in the temple talk this morning is the Volunteer English Program. I had the privilege, along with Anne-Marie Walters, to meet with Terri Potrako about the program as we were trying to decide how to fit it in with our Love Does ministry. Like Emma Stone in La La Land, I was swept away by Terri’s passion. “People love what other people are passionate about.” And nowhere is the connection to passion and relationship more clear than in a situation where two people sit down together to teach and learn together.

I’ll bet there are things you are passionate about that you haven’t even realized yet, so I hope that today you will take advantage of the Love Does fair to find out exactly what it is “you are looking for.”

Give yourself the opportunity to have your passion meet someone else’s need.

Come and see what it is that God might be nudging you toward.

Come and see.

That’s the next part of this gospel text. It doesn’t end with a question, but instead, and invitation.

After Jesus asks the two disciples of John what they are looking for, they reply with their own question. (I don’t know about you, but this is a common habit of mine – to answer a question with another question!)

“Where are you staying?” they ask.

Only the word translated here is a word that we hear again and again in the Gospel of John. What they are asking really is where Jesus is abiding. Abide as in, “abide in me.” That abide. They aren’t really interested in what hotel he’s staying at so they can stop by and catch up later, or where he lives, but instead they want to know where it is that they can go so that they can simply be with him.

Just be with him.

They are looking for lasting presence with Jesus.

And that brings us right back to relationship, doesn’t it? These two disciples – one of them, Peter’s brother, Andrew - immediately know that they want to simply be part of what this Jesus is doing. Be part of his life.

And so Jesus makes an ever-so-simple invitation into this simply being.

“Come and see.” “Come and see what it’s all about.”

The disciples didn’t answer Jesus as to what they were looking for. Didn’t say, we are looking for wholeness or purpose or a way to pitch in and help out because whatever it is that they were looking for, Jesus’ answer for them is that they are going to find it in relationship.

Meaning, purpose, wholeness, peace of mind…that comes from relationship. And relationship comes from sharing and giving and leaning in and loving and hoping with and for others.

There’s another line in La La Land that resonated with me for a different reason. John Legend’s character, Keith, plays a jazz musician who has improvised and changed his style into something of a jazz/funk/pop hybrid. At one point he lectures Ryan Gosling’s character, Sebastian – a musician who sees Jazz as a dying art form and wants to save it. But Keith thinks Sebastian is going about it all wrong.

“How you gonna save jazz if no one’s listening? How are you going to be a revolutionary if you’re such a traditionalist?” He asks. “You’re holding on to the past, but jazz is about the future.”

As I heard him say those lines in the film, I thought, “Gee. Take out the word, “jazz,”  insert the word “church” and I feel like I’ve heard this line before.

“How you gonna save church if no one’s showing up? How are you going to be a revolutionary if you’re such a traditionalist?” “You’re holding on to the past, but church is about the future – and the present.”

There are plenty bemoaning the so-called death of the church.  This reading today is a good reminder about what just might be the light to reignite the passion and bring life back into the old girl.

Philadelphia Seminary President David Lose posed a challenge that speaks to this very idea.

He said that he believes that decline in our churches will stop on the day that two things happen to a critical mass of the people in our pews…to a critical mass of YOU.

First, when we can articulate what is that we value about our participation in church. In other words, when we can answer for ourselves Jesus’ “What are you looking for” question. When we can answer for ourselves just what has changed in our lives because of our faith.

And second, when we can share that with others. When we can say “Come and see” and show the others in our lives what we are passionate about.” This isn’t heavy-handed evangelism – and there are folks who rightly distrust that word for just that reason.

Instead this is about sharing an experience. Inviting others to see the powerful, the hopeful, the life-giving – the “love doing.” Don’t we all have an inclination to share the things we are passionate about? Goodness knows you all have heard enough from me about U2 to last a lifetime!

Relationship. Passion. Meaning. Simply being. That’s what we are invited into by Jesus. And we are invited over and over again – because quite honestly this isn’t a once and done thing we’re talking about today.

This is a life long thing we are talking about. A lifelong relationship. A lifelong "being" with God.

Because as John will show us over and over again in his gospel. If you want to be in God’s presence…If you really want to experience relationship and wholeness and life, come and see and participate and be. Simply be.

So…what ARE you looking for?