Collect
Almighty God, in Christ you make all things new: transform the poverty of our nature by the riches of your grace, and in the renewal of our lives make known your heavenly glory; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
or
Eternal Lord, our beginning and our end: bring us with the whole creation to your glory, hidden through past ages and made known in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Psalm
1 I waited patiently for the Lord; ♦
he inclined to me and heard my cry.
2 He brought me out of the roaring pit, out of the mire and clay;♦
he set my feet upon a rock and made my footing sure.
3 He has put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God;♦
many shall see and fear and put their trust in the Lord.
4 Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, ♦
who does not turn to the proud that follow a lie.
5 Great are the wonders you have done, O Lord my God. How great your designs for us! ♦
There is none that can be compared with you.
6 If I were to proclaim them and tell of them ♦
they would be more than I am able to express.
7 Sacrifice and offering you do not desire ??
but my ears you have opened;
8 Burnt offering and sacrifice for sin you have not required; ♦
then said I: ‘Lo, I come.
9 ‘In the scroll of the book it is written of me that I should do your will, O my God; ♦
I delight to do it: your law is within my heart.’
10 I have declared your righteousness in the great congregation; ♦
behold, I did not restrain my lips, and that, O Lord, you know.
11 Your righteousness I have not hidden in my heart; I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation; ♦
I have not concealed your loving-kindness and truth from the great congregation.
12 Do not withhold your compassion from me, O Lord; ♦
let your love and your faithfulness always preserve me,
Psalm 40
Old Testament
Listen to me, O coastlands,
pay attention, you peoples from far away!
The Lord called me before I was born,
while I was in my mother’s womb he named me.
He made my mouth like a sharp sword,
in the shadow of his hand he hid me;
he made me a polished arrow,
in his quiver he hid me away.
And he said to me, ‘You are my servant,
Israel, in whom I will be glorified.’
But I said, ‘I have laboured in vain,
I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity;
yet surely my cause is with the Lord,
and my reward with my God.’
And now the Lord says,
who formed me in the womb to be his servant,
to bring Jacob back to him,
and that Israel might be gathered to him,
for I am honoured in the sight of the Lord,
and my God has become my strength –
he says,
‘It is too light a thing that you should be my servant
to raise up the tribes of Jacob
and to restore the survivors of Israel;
I will give you as a light to the nations,
that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.’
Thus says the Lord,
the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One,
to one deeply despised, abhorred by the nations,
the slave of rulers,
‘Kings shall see and stand up,
princes, and they shall prostrate themselves,
because of the Lord, who is faithful,
the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.’
Isaiah 49.1–7
Gospel
The next day he saw Jesus coming towards him and declared, ‘Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said, “After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me.” I myself did not know him; but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel.’ And John testified, ‘I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, “He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.” And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God.’
The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, ‘Look, here is the Lamb of God!’ The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, ‘What are you looking for?’ They said to him, ‘Rabbi’ (which translated means Teacher), ‘where are you staying?’ He said to them, ‘Come and see.’ They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. It was about four o’clock in the afternoon. One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first found his brother Simon and said to him, ‘We have found the Messiah’ (which is translated Anointed). He brought Simon to Jesus, who looked at him and said, ‘You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas’ (which is translated Peter).
John 1.29–42
Sermon on Second Sunday of Epiphany
In this week’s reading, we hear about the dove descending and a voice proclaiming the Son of God at Jesus’ baptism. Last week it was the voice from heaven and this week it is the voice of John the Baptist.
This week we hear about testimony. We read “John testified,” and some of the extraordinary things he said are recorded in the fourth gospel. St John wrote that the baptist looked forward to the one coming after him, the one who was greater. Everything the baptist said anticipated the Christ. John told everyone that he himself had to fade into the background when that one came. And people came to the banks of the Jordan on which he cried out his message of repentance before the coming of the kingdom of God.
John the Baptist said nothing about himself, except to humble himself before the one who was to come. He humbled himself in the presence of the Kingdom of God. He waited in order to give witness to the one who was to come.
How many people are like John the Baptist? Who would say to those ’round about, “Here comes someone greater than I”? Who wants to accept a lower place in the everyday pecking-order? Like that fellow at the banquet who sat far away from the host, but was brought forward when the host saw him. Who would take that seat at the back of the banquet room? – I know you all race to the back for school assembly and church, but who goes to the back at a party they really want to be at? Who would demean themselves in the ordinary scheme of things? I don’t think there are many who would acknowledge any other person greater than they consider themselves to be. Do you? Don’t we see this all the time? There is a narcissism in contemporary culture. We can see it in this cult of “personalities”, in Facebook, Twitter, Chat – there are so many online manifestations we can take on for ourselves. Each of us massages our image, not just the electronic presence, to show forth that happy, enviable self, to the world. Why else do we hone our cv’s into the format expected with all those wonderful exploits? We turn ourselves into the crowd’s image of what they think of us.
Each of us turns into the crowd, a crowd composed of followers, the crowd leading that throng into a self-absorbed mass, each of whom fears to think for themselves. Perhaps that is why the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church has been ignored – I suggest it is because faith demands each of us must make that singular decision, looking to something other than self or the crowd. The vision demanded by faith sees through all vanity into the regions of meaning in our lives, not just the trappings of the happy, enviable electronic appearance and its cult of personality. The singular vision sets each of us apart from each other. Each of us can never be “the crowd” which bays for the blood of the innocent or abhors what is different and set apart. Each of us must see the singularity which stands in front of us – when we look in the mirror, but especially when we look into the eyes of the other.
What do we see when we look at someone walking toward us? John sees the “Lamb of God” in the person approaching him. How does this Lamb appear? – a person just like you and me, but John sees beyond this carpenter from Nazareth, a fellow who has chosen a peripatetic way of life very different from every one of us. Jesus is a wandering charismatic religious leader – so very strange to everyone in the Middle East and to us today.
John proclaims this man’s difference – a difference in the quality of his life, a quality no human being can attain. After all, doesn’t he testify that Jesus is the Son of God? Who else would claim that title? Who would let someone else proclaim such a title for themselves? Only the false gods, I think, and there are a great many of those cults which assault us daily. A cult, maybe, to which we have submitted. Haven’t we all wanted our “fifteen minutes of fame”? This is a cult of hubris, of pride, not a cult of humble kindness. We need only look at John to see the truth of this, John who proclaimed someone else greater than he, whom he names the “Lamb of God”.
This story is about how we name others, how we treat them, how we testify to them, as friend or saint, or, in Jesus’ case, the beloved son of God.
How that proclamation changes everything!
In John, we hear the declaration about Jesus and we are transformed – or you might want to say, we transform ourselves because we have accepted that witness’s statement as the truth in our lives.
What would John see if any one of us approached him? Would he see people struggling out of the chains of consumerism and “the next big thing”, people willing to stand naked against the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune? Would we show him that we have the strength for righteousness? I wonder whether John would see people whose faith drives them to love their neighbours as they love themselves?
What would John see as we approach him? I don’t know … What would I present to him today? Am I able to stand in my faith, alone and strong, clear-headed in my vision of the future in the deep amity of fellow christians, in the rapture of God’s glory? How would John announce me when I approach? – I truly don’t know.
That is why I keep my ears open, for what John might call me. I listen for the witness to my life.
Who do you say I am when I approach?
Do you smile and rush up like my dog does – with excessive enthusiasm because I have returned after a few days – or even just ten minutes? Or is your greeting more kindness than enthusiasm? Do you proclaim to the world, “Behold here comes my friend whom I love.” That is what I want to say about everyone who approaches me. They are my friends who are kind and happy to accept everyone into their hearts, and they have been ever so gracious to accept me.
Would anyone, let alone John the Baptist, ever be able to proclaim their testimony, “the Lamb of God,” at our approach?
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