whatcha lookin’ for

    One of my primary purposes on the planet has appeared to be, for years, finding things for my disorganized ADHD son, and to a lesser extent, my overloaded wife.  I’m pretty good at it.  My wife and her secretary (even more overloaded than Marylee) are constantly losing track of one report or another as they are interrupted in the middle of things and put it down to respond to someone’s latest emergency.  You may remember from my New Year’s sermon that a UK research project estimated that people spend approximately six months of their lifetime looking for lost objects.

     So I admit, Jesus’ question to two of John the Baptizer’s disciples, “What are you looking for?” suckers me in instantly!

    Andrew and his brother Simon were “looking for the Messiah,” and met him on the road.  They followed Jesus for the rest of their lives and beyond.

    We cannot forget that is the same thing many people around us, today, in zip code 14850, are looking.  Looking pretty much for the same thing, albeit they rarely use that kind of religious language.  They are looking for their messiah, their hope, their direction, their spiritual community.  And such life-helping answers are still in the gospel of Christ Jesus as preserved and lived in the community of faith which is the church.  The community of faith which is First Congregational, Ithaca.  Our job is to help our family, neighbors, coworkers, and friends find what works for them, what they are looking for.  Whatever “it” is.

    But we know the catch: people are not asking the same questions many churches have familiar stock answers to.  The answers of the past are between irrelevant and dumb to folks around us.  Honestly, they don’t work for most of us in the congregation, either!  What does work is honesty about others’ searches and honesty about what we have found when we looked ourselves.

    But the tough part of that honesty is that few souls now are looking for institutional, religious answers, the stuff churches have been so good at in the past.  Real community knitting people together, expansive welcomes, intellectual curiosity, worship touching heart and soul and mind yet propelling us out into the world, hugs and caring instead of platitudes when life gets tough, and a bright view of heaven and the landscape and people around us here on earth, those are living answers to what folks are looking for.

    Be listening to what people you love and know are looking for, and, like the scripture lesson says, “Come and see!”  And maybe bring them with you Sunday?

                                                                           In Christ,

                                                                      
                                                                                David

Be sure to come Sunday yourself as we unpack the results of the U.S. Congregational Life Survey we took in November during our all-church congregational self-study after worship and lunch on the 19th.  Hope to see you there!


Texts For Sunday Worship:
      From the Hebrew Bible         Isaiah 49:1-7
      From the Epistles                 1 Corinthians 1:1-9
      From the Gospels                John 1:29-42