The United Church of Santa Fe
Santa Fe, NM
JOHN 1.29-42
29 Τῇ ἐπαύριον βλέπει τὸν Ἰησοῦν ἐρχόμενον πρὸς αὐτόν, καὶ λέγει, Ἴδε ὁ ἀμνὸς τοῦ θεοῦ ὁ αἴρων τὴν ἁμαρτίαν τοῦ κόσμου.30 οὗτός ἐστιν ὑπὲρ οὗ ἐγὼ εἶπον, Ὀπίσω μου ἔρχεται ἀνὴρ ὃς ἔμπροσθέν μου γέγονεν, ὅτι πρῶτός μου ἦν.31 κἀγὼ οὐκ ᾔδειν αὐτόν, ἀλλ’ ἵνα φανερωθῇ τῷ Ἰσραὴλ διὰ τοῦτο ἦλθον ἐγὼ ἐν ὕδατι βαπτίζων.32 Καὶ ἐμαρτύρησεν Ἰωάννης λέγων ὅτι Τεθέαμαι τὸ πνεῦμα καταβαῖνον ὡς περιστερὰν ἐξ οὐρανοῦ, καὶ ἔμεινεν ἐπ’ αὐτόν·33 κἀγὼ οὐκ ᾔδειν αὐτόν, ἀλλ’ ὁ πέμψας με βαπτίζειν ἐν ὕδατι ἐκεῖνός μοι εἶπεν, Ἐφ’ ὃν ἂν ἴδῃς τὸ πνεῦμα καταβαῖνον καὶ μένον ἐπ’ αὐτόν, οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ βαπτίζων ἐν πνεύματι ἁγίῳ.34 κἀγὼ ἑώρακα, καὶ μεμαρτύρηκα ὅτι οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ.35 Τῇ ἐπαύριον πάλιν εἱστήκει ὁ Ἰωάννης καὶ ἐκ τῶν μαθητῶν αὐτοῦ δύο,36 καὶ ἐμβλέψας τῷ Ἰησοῦ περιπατοῦντι λέγει, Ἴδε ὁ ἀμνὸς τοῦ θεοῦ.37 καὶ ἤκουσαν οἱ δύο μαθηταὶ αὐτοῦ λαλοῦντος καὶ ἠκολούθησαν τῷ Ἰησοῦ.38 στραφεὶς δὲ ὁ Ἰησοῦς καὶ θεασάμενος αὐτοὺς ἀκολουθοῦντας λέγει αὐτοῖς, Τί ζητεῖτε; οἱ δὲ εἶπαν αὐτῷ, Ῥαββί {ὃ λέγεται μεθερμηνευόμενον Διδάσκαλε}, ποῦ μένεις;39 λέγει αὐτοῖς, Ἔρχεσθε καὶ ὄψεσθε. ἦλθαν οὖν καὶ εἶδαν ποῦ μένει, καὶ παρ’ αὐτῷ ἔμειναν τὴν ἡμέραν ἐκείνην· ὥρα ἦν ὡς δεκάτη.40 Ἦν Ἀνδρέας ὁ ἀδελφὸς Σίμωνος Πέτρου εἷς ἐκ τῶν δύο τῶν ἀκουσάντων παρὰ Ἰωάννου καὶ ἀκολουθησάντων αὐτῷ·41 εὑρίσκει οὗτος πρῶτον τὸν ἀδελφὸν τὸν ἴδιον Σίμωνα καὶ λέγει αὐτῷ, Εὑρήκαμεν τὸν Μεσσίαν {ὅ ἐστιν μεθερμηνευόμενον Χριστόσ}·42 ἤγαγεν αὐτὸν πρὸς τὸν Ἰησοῦν. ἐμβλέψας αὐτῷ ὁ Ἰησοῦς εἶπεν, Σὺ εἶ Σίμων ὁ υἱὸς Ἰωάννου· σὺ κληθήσῃ Κηφᾶς {ὃ ἑρμηνεύεται Πέτροσ}.
JOHN 1.29-42 (NRSV)
29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ 31 I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel.” 32 Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. 33 And I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ 34 I have seen and I testify that this is God’s Chosen One.” 35 The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. 36 When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!” 37 When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. 38 Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?” They said, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?” 39 “Come,” he replied, “and you will see.” So they went and saw where he was staying, and they spent that day with him. It was about four in the afternoon. 40 Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. 41 The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). 42 And he brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which, when translated, is Peter).
“Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world! Blessed are those who are called to his Table.” (An ancient and common “Invitation” said at the conclusion of the Eucharistic Prayer by the Presider when he/she/they elevate/s the Chalice and Host for all to see.)
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis.
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis.
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, dona nobis pacem.
God of our weary years,
God of our silent tears,
Thou who hast brought us thus far on the way;
Thou who hast by Thy might,
Led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
(from the song, LIFT EVERY VOICE AND SING, by James Weldon Johnson, born in Florida in 1871, who was a national organizer for the NAACP and an author of poetry and nonfiction.)
We welcome Rev. Ben Larzelere as guest preacher for this special Martin Luther King, Jr. Sunday service. The scripture is from John’s Gospel (1:29-42) and tells how people gradually came to recognize who Jesus Christ was and what that meant in their lives. Ben says that whenever he thinks of Martin Luther King, Jr., he thinks of this passage. School-age kids are encouraged to be a part of the service. Nursery care is available for our youngest children. (From the Weekly Email Message of the United Church of Santa Fe.)
Preface: Much as I would prefer to have a Sermon which is one continuous and marvelous work of thought and preaching, this Sermon has several parts, like the scenes in a play.
+ In nomine Domini. Amen.
Scene One
Many years ago when my parents were still alive, I made a visit to the home farm in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. I woke up the morning after I arrived and went down to the kitchen to make some coffee and look at the morning newspaper. There on the table was the paper opened to the Crossword Puzzle for that day. I was just about to grab a pencil and begin to work on it, when I saw that my Mother had already finished it — in ink.
One of the entries didn’t make sense: She had penned in the word: SPLYTZNK. ‽
Just then Mom entered the room and I said, “What’s this in the Crossword Puzzle: SPLYTZNK?
And Mom answered, “Oh. When I run out of time, I just fill in the blanks with some letters. I like things to work out and be complete, so I just put in whatever letters come to mind — in the blank spots.”
🙂
Me too, Mom.
I like it when things work out. I feel wonderful when everything is in order. I rejoice in my soul when everything is lined up, when all things make sense.
Probably (if you also have a tendency towards OCD behaviour as well, you will understand what I’m saying).1
This also applies to the preparing and writing and preaching of Sermons — the goal for the Preacher is for every word, every sentence, every paragraph to make complete sense — with a rousing finish. As my Episcopal priest friend of so many years ago would say: “I yearn to write sermons that will bring many to tears and cause everyone to act with great deeds of boldness.”2)
But that is only a seemingly unreachable goal, but a goal none the less which makes the preparing, writing and preaching of Sermons really mean something, really matter — because, in fact, it does.
And there I am; rather here I am this morning — trying to make everything come together, everything to make perfect sense.
But one preaches sermons in the real world; and you listen to sermons in the real world. And the real world, of late, is anything but that which comes together perfectly and makes perfect sense.
There is a hymn entitled: Lift Every Voice and Sing. It was written by James Weldon Johnson born in Florida in 1971; and it was set to music by his brother, John Rosamond Johnson. It is sung to this day and is commonly known as the Black National Anthem. You can sing it tomorrow here in Santa Fe in the Rotunda of our State Capitol when you go to the celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day — tomorrow at 12 Noon.
[Nota bene: The hymn was not sung at the Celebration; rather we ended singing together “We Shall Overcome.” It was a powerful experience.]
It begins with the words: GOD OF OUR WEAR YEARS.
Scene Two
God of Our Weary Years —
Indeed.
This has been my prayer all week long. Or, as often these days too quickly comes to my lips (and your lips) from my heart (and your hearts), from my soul (and your souls) these days — how long, O Lord? And, when will it stop? And, when will it change?
The days of these weeks are fraught with horror. Shall we make a list of the most recent, even though the list is incomplete:
- rockets of death into boats
- bombs thrown down on a city
- invasion of a country
- killing of innocents
- the martyrdom of a Minneapolis mother (blamed for her own death)
- a being has come upon us, reminiscent of the Hydra (the mythological serpent-monster with many heads, which when one was cut off, two would grow in its place) this being is drawn to a not-so-quiet take-over of finance, law, justice, society, who knows what or whom will be next — replete with never ending boasting unthinking-oaths of narcissistic hubris — for which and whom the only title I can think of comes from two Greek words: κακος and τυραννος (evil tyrant).
We wake up each morning and wonder: what will it be today? What things will be added to the list of horror?
We ask: Is there any word which can be brought to bear against all this? Any glimmer of hope? A slice of intelligence? A morsel of redemption? A sip of solace?
Scene Three
And then, I looked again and again at the reading from the Gospel of John which is before us this morning. And I remember, I recall, that for so many years, week after week, standing behind the altar and taking bread and wine and holding them up to the Holy One, to be blessed, to be a blessing, to be a gift, to be the nourishment of hope and salvation — as I said these words:
Behold, the Lamb of God!
Yes, a morsel of bread and a cup of wine —
Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! Blessed are those who are invited to his Table.
Those words begin not with me, not with us, but with John the cousin of Jesus, the Baptizer, who one day, along the lake-shore maybe, in the village somewhere perhaps — he sees Jesus from Nazareth walking and turns toward two of Jesus’ followers and exclaims, “Look! Here is the Lamb of God.”
The Lamb, the sacrificial lamb, not upon the ancient altars, but upon the sin and sins of the world — upon the invasion and death and martyrdoms of his own time (back in the 1st Century) where there was another κακος τυραννος ruling from a distant land (there were actually two, and they bore the name of Caesar [one Augustus at the beginning of Jesus’ life, the other Tiberius at the end (Caesar, the Latin word for κυριος “Lord” [remember we sing often κυριε ελεησον at the end of our worship: “Lord, have mercy”] the invading soldiers of these κακος τυραννοι these evil ones boot-stepping through the countryside and villages, taking, removing, enslaving: the innocents, the mothers and fathers, sometimes the babies, and often without mercy the elderly, the senior citizens — in other words, any human beings deserving of care and compassion — and lest we forget the local κακος τυραννος in Jesus’ time, Herod (there was more than one) who through his under-wearer-of-power [Pontius Pilate] offered the Lamb of God up upon the altar of the Cross.
Agnus Dei,
qui tollis peccata mundi,
miserere nobis.
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us.
Scene Four
We honor a man this weekend, born on the 15th of January in 1929 and martyred on April 4, 1968 — he was born “Michael King, Jr.” the second of three children of Michael King, Sr. and Alberta King. His father was the Pastor of Ebenezer Church in Atlanta, Georgia. And in 1934 the church sent him on a multinational trip, one of the stops was in Berlin, Germany for the 5th Congress of the Baptist World Alliance — which Congress declared in the face of growing Nazism: “This Congress deplores and condemns as a violation of the law of God the Heavenly Father, all racial animosity, and every form of oppression or unfair discrimination toward the Jews, toward colored people, or toward subject races in any part of the world.”
The elder King also visited various sites in Germany associated with the 16th Century Reformer of the Church, Martin Luther. And, when he got home, he changed his name to Martin Luther King, Sr. and his son’s name to Martin Luther King, Jr. And it is the son we remember tomorrow in our national Holiday devoted to him.
What do we celebrate? That he led the Civil Rights Movement for 1955 until his assassination in 1968; the he advanced the rights, especially the voting rights of people of colour, that he led nonviolent resistance, marches for the rights of African Americans, and more and more and more.
This or any sermon cannot contain all the works of his life — his “ministry” we should say: because first, last, always he was a follower of the Lamb of God — like John, his life, his words, his actions pointed to that Lamb, that sacrificial Lamb. His sermons play out the theology of John’s Gospel, his actions are shaped around the Lamb’s gentle and self-giving love for others, even enemies.
But the Lamb, you see, is not weak, infirm, impotent, helpless, or fragile — the One we follow, Jesus, shows power when he is loving the poor and helpless; he exudes strength when he walks among the sick and distressed; he speaks words of sovereignty when he stands before those who put him on trial; he is the Lord over against all pretenders to the throne; and above all in the face and grip of death, he rises to life.
Read any of Martin Luther King’s Sermons, listen to any of his Speeches and you will find therein the Power of the Lamb.
Scene Five
[The sermon was completed “in the pulpit”. Here follows my transcript of what was said:]
Now that’s where the Sermon ended. So what how are we going to finish this? What are we going to say? How are we, worried in the midst of tyranny — and we are — what do we do?
You see, we have some choices.
Because what happens when the Church gathers for worship each week is that we train.
We’re like Marines marching here, training. We sing hymns, we go through the liturgy. We hear Story. We’re bound to each other. We greet one another with peace. We rehearse what we are to be in the world.
But, the real ministry is not here, it’s what happens when we leave and take ourselves and what we have been given here into the world.
So what? We could chose to hide. I like hiding. Yeah. We could submit (shaking my head “no”). Or we could act.
And I believe that the Gospel and John and Jesus and God are calling us to act — to follow the Lamb into the world. With what we say and what we do. Not to be silent, not to submit, not to run away, but to take each and every opportunity as we find it to do whatever we can, however we can to speak the truth and love of the Gospel, the Lamb of God, in the world. And let us say: AMEN.
The hymn can be found in EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN WORSHIP, Number 841.
Lift Every Voice and Sing
Lift every voice and sing,
‘Til earth and heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise
High as the list’ning skies,
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us;
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,
Let us march on ’til victory is won.
Stony the road we trod,
Bitter the chastening rod,
Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;
Yet with a steady beat,
Have not our weary feet
Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?
We have come, over a way that with tears has been watered,
We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered,
Out from the gloomy past,
‘Til now we stand at last
Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.
God of our weary years,
God of our silent tears,
Thou who has brought us thus far on the way;
Thou who has by Thy might
Led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee,
Lest our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee;
Shadowed beneath Thy hand,
May we forever stand,
True to our God,
True to our native land.
Deo Gratias (+)
The Rev. Benjamin Larzelere III
Retired
1“OCD” — Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.
2The Rev. Norman Alexandre (of Blessed Memory) while he was Rector of St. Bede’s Episcopal Church, Santa Fe (1975 or 1976).
Nota(ble) Be(n)e 