Journey of Faith
Last Sunday, the first Sunday after Epiphany, our Lessons were grouped under the heading of ‘The Baptism of Jesus’. We have left behind the stable, the child in the manger, the shepherds, the wise men, Joseph and Mary. We have leapt forward some thirty years or so. Last Sunday we heard of the Baptism of Jesus by John in the river Jordan.
Speaking of our own baptism, the Pastoral Introduction to the Service of Baptism in our Prayer Book begins: ‘Baptism marks the beginning of a journey with God which continues for the rest of our lives, the first step in response to God’s love’
This morning I want to reflect on journeys, the beginnings of journeys for Jesus himself, for the disciples, for us. For Jesus, his Baptism by John the Baptist marked the beginning of his public ministry, the beginning of a journey from the Jordan, through Galilee and ultimately to Jerusalem, the drama of conflict, of trial, of Cross and Resurrection.
As he set out on that journey, he called others to follow him. In our Gospel reading we heard John’s account of the beginning of that process. It begins with the Baptist pointing his two of his disciples to Jesus. We are simply told that they followed Jesus. The word used in the original Greek of the Gospel carries with it the mean of ‘following as a disciple’. There is awkwardness to what follows as Jesus asks them ‘What are you looking for?’ Well, what are they looking for? At that point they don’t know and so they just ask ‘Where are you staying?’ The response is the invitation ‘Come and see.’
We have that lovely meeting of Simon with Jesus: ‘You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas’ (which, when translated, is Peter). Simon didn’t know what his brother Andrew’s strange new friend was talking about, but there was something, something he could not put his finger on, that kept him there. And, as I often say, the rest of his life, the rest of his journey, was a process of the Simon he was becoming the Peter Jesus called him to be.
As I look back on the start of my own haphazard spiritual journey, I find myself facing that same question Jesus asked of those two men, ‘What are you looking for?’ I certainly didn’t know then. I’ve recalled my physics master, fabulous teacher, delightfully eccentric, deeply devout, having just expounded on the incredible order of the created universe, demanding of his sceptical 6th form ‘A’ Level class – ‘Don’t tell me its all an accident’.
Jesus called those early disciples as they were in all their humanity, in all their strengths and weaknesses, and worked in and through this most unlikely collection of men and women bringing the Gospel to the far corners of the then known world.
We are chosen not because we are especially virtuous, especially talented, especially anything – we are chosen, called to be saints, as we are in all our strengths, our weaknesses, our talents and our failures. And worship, in its broadest sense, is about offering our whole selves to God – our talents, our laughter and our love, our failure and our brokenness. The God we worship, the God who has called us and to whom we seek to respond, he will take us and use us to be his instruments wherever he has placed us – in the streets and the homes, the schools and the business, the shops, the pubs, the clubs, the meetings, the casual conservations, places where people are hurting, where people are being ignored.
This is the vocation, the calling of the Church as individuals and as a community in our country at this time.
As we continue on our journey of faith, may we be faithful to his call, may we in our own individual and community life bear a rich harvest of love, of integrity, of justice and peace, that his Kingdom may be upheld, his Kingdom advanced in this time and place in which we find ourselves.