Christ Church Uniting
Disciples and Presbyterians
1300 Kailua Rd.
Kailua, HI 96734
262-6911

Things happen in the afternoon. Around four o’clock, around the tenth hour (as people in Jesus’ day used to say). Tea time, afternoon delight, subtleties, things happen, questions.

"What are you looking for?" Los Angeles. Hey you. What are you looking for? There are places you don’t want to be around the tenth hour and questions you don’t want to be asked. Hey you. What are you looking for?

But this was Palestine, down by the riverside. Even today, however, you wouldn’t want some West Bank militiaman squinting at you in the hazy afternoon sun saying, "Hey there. No pictures. What are you looking for?"

Hard not to hear this as a hostile question. "What are you looking for?" It’s not a hostile question though. Not, at least I imagine, on Jesus’ lips. It’s a discovery question, a revealing question. It’s an invitation to pay attention to your own yearnings.

Suppose someone stood in the lanai this morning and asked everyone who drove into the parking lot, everyone who walked up the steps, "What are you looking for?"

In the morning before we get out of bed, maybe we should ask ourselves, "What are you looking for?" And then if Jesus ever sees us following him and asks us the question , we’ll have something to say.

Remember the bumper stickers that went around, "I found it." And then there were the inevitable rejoinders, "I lost it." "What was it?" "What did you do with it?"

Back to this morning. What are you looking for? Did you come because you’ve already found it? Have you lost something? And if you don’t know for what you’re looking, it will be harder to recognize it and rejoice when you’ve found it.

Don’t answer now. Let the question, let Jesus’ question, roam in the background of your consciousness. Give it time to soak in. I expect John intends as much. "What are you looking for?"

Back to the story. Back to Jesus’ time. We weren’t there. Jesus was and two of John’s disciples who were following him. And Jesus wasn’t asking us. He was asking them, "What are you looking for?" What do you think of their answer? They answered Jesus with another question.

"Where are you staying," they said. It sounds like an inquiry about lodging. Are you at the KOA? Are you camping out Jesus or is someone putting you up? The disciples asked where Jesus was staying.

This would have been an opportune time for Jesus to quote himself saying, "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head," or something like that.

If this had been a story in the Gospel According to Matthew, Jesus would have said just that. But it’s John’s Gospel, and he has some different characteristics of Jesus he wants to highlight.

In the Greek of John’s Gospel word play is common. Words which have the same root get used in the same sentences. To the ear attuned to Greek, something is going on, deeper meanings are hinted.

This is going on the passage today. Words which in English get translated "staying," "remaining," "dwelling place," and "mansion" come from the same root and have similar sounds.

"In my father’s mansion are many dwelling places." "Remain in me even as I remain in the father." This word play suggests rootedness, enduring permanence, and security of dwelling in God.

In our passage, we hear this word play again in "Where are you staying?" And again, "They remained or stayed with Jesus."

The words "grounding" or "grounded" suggest a way to feel the impact of some of this word play.

Listen. John’s disciples ask Jesus, "Where are you grounded?" After the disciples had gone with him, they were "grounded" in Jesus just as he was "grounded" in his Father. Later, it was a grounded Andrew (someone who was staying with Jesus) who went and brought his brother Simon to Jesus.

Jesus had no place to call home yet he was grounded in God. When John’s disciples went to stay with Jesus’, they were grounded in him. This raises a second tenth hour question, where are we staying? Or, put in another way, "In what way are we grounded."

There’s a spiritual that picks this up. Something about, "woke up this morning with my mind stayed on Jesus."

John wants us to know that Jesus is grounded in God. John wants us to see that disciples can be grounded in Jesus.

Not only would it be good to ask yourself in the morning before you rise from bed, "What am I looking for," it would be good to resolve to go into the day seeking to have the mind stayed on Jesus, grounded in Jesus."

When John’s disciples asked, "Where are you staying?" Jesus says, "Come and see."

This is a reason to get out of bed in the morning. Jesus has invited us. Come and see. If, like John’s disciples you want to know where Jesus stays, where Jesus is grounded, if your hope and desire is to be grounded in God’s love, in Jesus, you are invited. Come and see.

Some get up in the morning and turn on CNN to see the disaster du jour, or to see what mess the president is in or responding to this morning?

Some, on the other hand, get up to see where Jesus is staying (ie among the least of these, among the poor, powerless, blind, imprisoned, oppressed) to find grounding in God’s love.

It makes a difference what you’re looking for. The proverb this morning is "Mostly, people find what they’re looking for."

The good news, the gospel of this story, is that following Jesus is fine if you know what you’re looking for.

If you came to worship looking to see where Jesus is staying, looking for the grounding of Jesus in God’s inclusive love, looking to be grounded in God’s love, you will not be disappointed.

You will find what you’re looking for. You will see Jesus, and you will be invited to keep your mind stayed on Jesus, to have your life grounded in God’s love. This is good news.

So, where were we? Oh yes, "What are you looking for?"

__________________________

Preached by Rev. Buddy Summers 1/13/2002

Christ Church Uniting Disciples and Presbyterians

1300 Kailua Road, Kailua, HI 96734

Return to Sermons Page