Evangelism: Recommending Jesus

2 Epiphany A January 15, 2017   
Isaiah 49:1-7 Psalm 40:1-12
1 Corinthians 1:1-9 John 1:29-42

Lectionary Link
Why is there so much translation in the Gospel of John?  The writers of the Gospel of John translate Hebrew and Aramaic words into Greek for their readers.  Why do they have to do this?  We can assume that many of the readers did not understand the Hebraic and Judaic background of the life of Jesus.  We can assume that the readers of Gospel of John did not have a background in the Hebrew Scriptures or the life of the synagogue.  One would not have to translate the words Rabbi and Messiah for those who attended the synagogue.

I think that translation is the fitting word for the Gospel of John.  In some ways, all of human life is about translation.  Translation in language means that one tries to put in words of another language and culture words that are not necessarily known or familiar to the other party.

Rabbi, which means teacher.  The Messiah, which means, the anointed.  Cephas, which means Peter.

The Gospel of John is about an expanded notion of translation.  The Gospel of John starts with "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God."  But for two sides to be able to communicate, one party has to be bilingual.  And so who would be able to translate the meaning of God, a foreign Being, into human terms and language?  What does John's Gospel say? "And the Word was made flesh and dwelled among us."

Jesus was God becoming fully "bilingual" so that the life of God could be translated into human terms.  The translation of the life of God into human terms began with the Hebrew Scripture traditions.  And in the time of Jesus there were different religious parties which had teachers who were trying to translate the meaning of the life of God into human language and experience.  There were the rabbinical schools of Hillel, Shammai and Gamaliel.  There were resistance groups like the Zealots.  There were Pharisees and Sadducees. There were monastic communities in the desert, like the place near where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found.  One such known group was the Essenes.   But to understand how the churches in the cities of the Roman Empire came to be, there had to be some knowledge of how the ministry of Jesus happened and developed.  The ministry of Jesus derived and happened within Judaism but also within and growing out of the ministry and movement of John the Baptist. 

The community of John the Baptist could be called the "proto-church" because some of the chief followers of Jesus were first followers of John the Baptist. In today's Gospel we have read that Andrew was with John the Baptist and through John the Baptist, Andrew was introduced to Jesus.  And then Andrew went home and told his brother Simon.  And when Simon encountered Jesus, he was given a new name, Cephas and translated into Greek, it was Petros or Peter.

Do we understand what the writer of this Gospel was doing?  The writer was providing us with the lineage and genealogy of the church.  Matthew and Luke provided the genealogy of Jesus and included his birth story.  The writer of the Gospel of John was more interested in the spiritual lineage of the church.  While Joseph is seen to be the earthly father of Jesus, John the Baptist was like the mentor or faith father of Jesus, who in turn succeeded John gaining the following of the disciples of John including Andrew and Peter and many other disciples.

How did and does the church happen?  It happens through translation.  It happens when people come to have the meaning of God in their lives translated into words which they understand.  And words are creative; words renew and remake our lives if they are words that come from lives that live the truth of these words in charismatic and dynamic ways.  People saw the life of John the Baptist; they listened to his words.  They followed him.  And because they believed him, they also believed that he was a worthy witness for the surpassing greatness of Jesus Christ.

John the Baptist and Jesus had very special callings from God.  They were called to translate the meaning of God into words which could be so understood by other people that those people would feel moved and called to commit their lives to understanding the meaning of the life of God, but also become people who were willing to share their faith and build communities of faith.

Today, we are welcoming the 7th Decade of the Mission of St. John the Divine in Morgan Hill.  Instead of celebrating 60 years as being the Episcopal Church in Morgan Hill, we are welcoming the 7th Decade of ministry.  This is partly due to the fact that there are no longer any charter members of St. John the Divine who are with us.  We stand on the shoulders of people who started and kept our parish going for many years.  But we need to be like John the Baptist, Jesus and the disciples of Jesus.  How so?  We need to be concerned about our successors in the future.  John the Baptist handed off his ministry to Jesus and he asked his followers to follow Jesus.  Jesus called and eventually handed off the ministry of the church to his disciples.   And they called others to follow Jesus.  They went throughout the world and made disciples and baptized in the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

And we are part of this succession of ministry here and now at St. John's.  We are the link in the chain between what came before us and what will come after us.  How do we do this in the best possible way?

We can follow the evangelism of John the Baptist.  John the Baptist was one who said, "I'm not the main man, it's Jesus."  The evangelism of John the Baptist was to refer people to Jesus.  And that is our evangelism today.  Why?  Because Jesus is the one who deals with our sin.  Jesus is the link between God and humanity and allowed us to share in God's perfection, so that we can tolerate our imperfections.  The Lamb of God was reference to the Passover Lamb a symbol of substitutionary innocence.  Jesus declared that God would take all of our efforts of failure at trying to live well and he would let us assume his resume as our own.  We have not arrived yet, but Jesus has and he is carrying us on his coat tails.  This is how he "takes away" the sins of the world.

We welcome the 7th decade of our parish's existence with hope that we can extend the mission of our parish into the future.  We embrace the hope of the future with present faith and how are we going to survive and thrive in the future?  We are going to be like John the Baptist.  We are just going to keep referring people to Jesus Christ as the one who can help them deal with their sins.  John the Baptist said that he baptized with water but Jesus baptizes with the Holy Spirit.  Jesus is the one who announced the presence of the Holy Spirit dwelling in our lives.  From the Holy Spirit we attain God's perfection while still being vulnerable to all of the conditions of our imperfect lives.  We can recommend and refer to Jesus because we believe that he is the one who does not just help us tolerate our lives with all of its vulnerable conditions, he helps us to grow in holiness.  Jesus has shown us a path of perfectability to walk on.

So we gather here today to welcome the 7th Decade of our ministry and mission.  And thank God, we will be aided greatly in propelling this parish church into the future.  But we have a very important role.  We need to be like John the Baptist and continue to refer people to Jesus because Jesus will do the inside job of the Holy Spirit upon the lives of people.  Can you commit with me now to do your part to propel this parish into its 7th decade?

Will we continue to recommend Jesus Christ to all?  Will we continue to gather to keep the meal Jesus asked us to keep?  Will we continue to pray for the sick?  Will we continue to practice and declare the forgiveness of sins?  Will we continue to promote the commitment of loving relationships?  Will we continue to baptize in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and thus ordain people to their ministries in this parish?

To all of these let us answer: We will, with God's help.

May God's grace help us to fulfill our baptismal promises and so keep our parish alive and faithful in the work of recommending Jesus Christ to all.  Amen.