Epiphany 2 (John 1:43-51) “Follow me”.any 2

Epiphany 2 (John 1:43-51) “Follow me”.

Jesus is God’s invitation to a new life and a new way of living.
Epiphany season reminds us that life is a journey. It is a journey through time as we age. It is a journey through space as we leave home and make our own way in the world. It is a journey of discovery.

The new life in Jesus derives from the very nature of God. That nature is love. That love is infinite and eternal. The journey Jesus invites us to choose is a pilgrimage of exploration and delight in love.

In Jesus God finds us and calls us where we are. Through Jesus God reveals himself to us and offers to walk with us. We become more of who God created us to be as we make a real choice to cultivate the friendship God offers to us in Jesus.
Jesus is the way human beings can discover more about God, more about human nature, and more about our own unique identity.

Certainly, Peter and Andrew, James and John, Philip and Nathaniel all heard the invitation to follow Jesus as a personal invitation to enter into a new life and a new way of living through a new relationship.

At first, the relationship was of a teacher and a student. The three sets of brothers who heard Jesus were intrigued by his teaching. As with many people of their generation they were deeply religious but frustrated and confused by contradictory and competing claims to truth. They asked the question: which is the right religion? They also asked: who is the right teacher? What is the truth? How can we know the truth?

They thought Jesus would answer those questions. They weren’t prepared for the answer Jesus brought. They were looking for an answer in an institution, a set of laws and rituals, and in the categories of culture.

Jesus lived within that religious system and its expectations but he brought something radically new to the question. Jesus presented himself as the answer to these and other questions people were asking.

Jesus didn’t command people to follow a set of rules, perform a set of rituals or submit to one particular political agenda. Jesus said: follow me. Follow me.
Only Jesus could issue such an invitation. Only Jesus is the fullness of God in human flesh. Jesus issues the invitation with a mixture of infinite compassion and deep humility. The invitation “follow me” respects the process of choice God gives to every being God has created to experience love.

The most amazing, awesome and indeed terrifying import of Jesus is that He holds each of us in the center of Divine Love. He meets us where we are in time, in space, in culture and as individuals. His presence reveals to us that the activating principle of love for all created beings is real choice.

The testimony of Moses and the prophets is the reality of real choice. We are personally responsible to complete our own creation though the choices we make.
God the Father created us according to the pattern, plan and purpose of God the Son by the power of God the Holy Spirit. That pattern is open ended, creative, active dynamic. As beings created by love, through love and for love we have the real choice to follow the principle of love in the path of love. We are responsible to complete our own creation by following the path of love.

It is a real choice. The vast panorama of Biblical history shows us how our choices enter into the world of cause and effect and produce a result, a consequence.
Jesus is the very pattern of love. His invitation to follow him is a more particular and personal expression of the call to worship revealed in the first four of the Ten Commandments.

Jesus is God up front and personal. Jesus is God making his appeal to us to accept personal responsibility for our lives.

Those first disciples of Jesus heard the call and made a real choice to respond to the call. Their understanding was limited and in many ways distorted. They would need to learn to think in different categories. They would need to grow and mature. It was a process that began at a single point in time and continues forever. It continues forever because Jesus is forever.

Jesus himself is the answer to the question: what is truth? The answer appears, unfolds and evolves in a personal relationship.

Nathaniel made a real choice to listen to Jesus and to respond to Jesus. Jesus assured him that choice was pivotal. Through that choice to follow Jesus, Nathaniel would discover greater things than he had ever imagined. He would discover the real presence of the infinite and eternal God in a particular person at a particular place in a particular time.

The call to worship is the call to salvation. The call to salvation is the call to find ourselves in the center of divine love and compassion in Jesus Christ.

For Nathaniel and his brother Philip it was a call to spend the next three years following Jesus on his mission to preach, teach and heal. It was a journey that led the brothers to Jerusalem and Jesus to the cross. It was a journey that seemed to end tragically. That tragic end became a glorious new beginning.

For Nathaniel and Philip the journey led to the ends of the earth in the outpouring of apostolic evangelism in the first century.

In every generation and in every nation Jesus continues to invite people to follow him. As we make a real choice to follow Jesus we enter into a new relationship. The challenge of that relationship is the challenge of where we place our priorities, where we devote our time and attention.

The challenge of following Jesus is the choice to follow where he leads. He leads us to the alar of sacrifice in worship. He leads us to discipleship through Bible study and prayer. He leads us to service through acts of kindness, compassion, and fellowship. He leads us to participate in the proclamation of the Good News that God is real, God is personal, God is love, God is Jesus Christ.

Our response to Jesus sets the pattern and purpose for our lives here and now and forever.

Jesus calls to us today as he called to Nathaniel. Follow me. Follow me into the Real Presence of Divine Love and Compassion at work in the world today. Follow me and become the active dynamic creative love of God at work in the world today. Follow me.