EPIPHANY 2-A, January 16, 2005

Have you ever wondered what happened to the other disciple in today’s Gospel reading? You know, the one who accompanied Andrew: have you ever wondered what happened to him? We know what happened to Andrew. He became a disciple of Jesus. He was also the first evangelist. He told his brother, Peter, about Jesus. Peter quickly joined Andrew as a disciple and the rest is history. But what about this other disciple? What about him?

The truth is, we have no idea who he was or what happened to him. We can probably assume that because John did not name him, he never did become a follower of Jesus. He may have gone back to John the Baptist and continued to follow John. Or maybe he simply walked away and went back to the life he knew before he began to follow John. We do not know. We can only speculate.

So let’s speculate for a moment. Like Andrew this disciple, let’s call him Samuel, Samuel was curious. He was also devout Jew who was looking for the Messiah. When he heard about John, he thought John might be the one. But when John saw Jesus and said Jesus was the Messiah, these two had to see for themselves

Imagine the scene: Samuel and Andrew are traipsing after Jesus. Jesus feels their presence, turns around, sees them, senses that they are searching for someone or something and asks, "What are you looking for?" The question probably surprises them. It catches them off guard. All they can do is mutter something about where he is staying. That’s not what Jesus asked and that’s not what they really want to know. But the answer they receive is the right answer to their unasked question.

What these two men really want to know is who Jesus truly is and why or if they should follow him. So Jesus says, "Come and see for yourself." They do. Samuel and Andrew spend the rest of the day with Jesus. We do not know what they hear or what they see. We do know that Andrew is so moved, so impressed, that he goes home and tells his Peter about Jesus. The next day both Peter and Andrew join Jesus as his disciples.

But what about Samuel? Where did he go? If we can assume that he did not return, why didn’t he? He heard the same message as Andrew, whatever that message was. He saw the same deeds Jesus performed, whatever those deeds were. Whatever convinced Andrew to throw in his lot with Jesus obviously was not enough for Samuel. Whatever Andrew was looking for, he found in Jesus. Whatever Samuel was looking for in Jesus, he obviously did not find it. And so he walked away, perhaps never to return.

The truth is, in many ways you and I are just like Andrew and Samuel. We come here Sunday after Sunday, more or less regularly. But why? Why this morning did we climb out of a warm and comfortable bed on a cold and quiet day and come to church…again? This is no big day like Christmas or Easter. Two weeks from now is a big day, of course. It’s our annual meeting. But not today. Why did we come to church today? As he did with Andrew and Samuel, Jesus also asks us, "Why are you here? What are you looking for?"

The further truth is there are many answers to those questions. There may be many reasons not only why we are here this morning but also why we follow Jesus in our daily lives. As with everyone else Jesus encountered in his life and ministry, people followed him for many and different reasons. They followed him because they were looking for something. But what were they looking for?

Well, some people followed Jesus because they were sick. They wanted him to heal them of whatever disease – physical, mental, spiritual -- that possessed and ravaged their bodies and souls. Some people followed Jesus because he was a diversion. Like Herod during Jesus’ trial, they wanted to be entertained. They wanted to see Jesus work some kind of miracle. Some people followed Jesus because they thought he would get them what they wanted in life. They had needs and wants they believed Jesus could satisfy. And some people followed Jesus because they believed he was their ticket to heaven.

The further truth is there are as many reasons for following Jesus as there are followers. You and I have our very own particular reason why we are here this morning and why we follow Jesus in our daily life. We may be here because we want Jesus to heal us or heal someone we love from some illness. We may be here because we are angry with God and want to find an answer to why God has allowed something so bad to happen. We may be here because we want to thank God for a particular blessing.

But the further truth is it does not matter. It does not matter why Samuel did not follow Jesus. He simply did not. Nor does it matter why Andrew did. The fact is, he did. Nor does it matter why you and I follow Jesus. What matters is that we, in fact, do follow Jesus in our lives, and that is why we are here this morning. Yes, we must continually examine our faith. Just as an unexamined life is not a life worth living, so, too, an unexamined faith is no faith at all.

Yet, the real truth is being a follower of Jesus is not what is ultimately important. What is important is that we lead like Jesus. Because of our faith in Jesus each of us, like Andrew, is called to lead others to Jesus. Like Paul, each of us is called to be an Apostle. We are to teach others what we have been taught as we have been taught, by the words and examples of those who led and taught us. Like Isaiah, God calls each of us to be a light to others. We are to be that leader and that light so that, as today’s collect reminds us, Jesus "may be known, worshiped and obeyed to the ends of the earth."

Thinking back on Samuel again, perhaps he clearly understood what Jesus expected from anyone who would follow him. He understood that anyone who would follow Jesus would have to become a leader in his own right. Perhaps that frightened him. Perhaps he felt he needed to be perfect. Perhaps that is why he did not return. And maybe Andrew did not have the foggiest notion why he chose to follow Jesus; he just hitched his horse to Jesus and followed. It was only later on he learned that being a follower meant being a leader as well.

A final truth is that, as has been said, every life is a profession of faith and exercises an inevitable and silent influence on others. We lead simply by living out our faith. We are called to be perfect. But as someone else has observed, perfection consists not in doing extraordinary things, but in doing ordinary things extraordinarily well. And when we have doubts about what kind of example we give, about how well we teach others about Jesus, we need to remember what Thomas Aquinas once said: it is better to limp in the right direction than run in the wrong direction. We may be limping and we are far from perfect, but we are at least going and leading in the right direction.

In a few moments we are going to welcome Slade Lance White into our family of faith. We will promise him that we will not only support him in his life of faith but, more importantly, we will lead him by teaching him what it means to be a Christian, teach him by our very lives, by the way we live our lives. That is one of the reasons why we are here this morning.

So why are we here? What are we looking for? The answers to those questions do matter and we must ask and answer those questions within the recesses of our own hearts and souls perhaps on a daily basis. What is truly most important, however, is that we are here and not home in bed. Because we, like Andrew, have hitched our horse to Jesus, God will help us, God will help Slade and God will help us help Slade take it from here. That is our faith, our hope and our strength.