Advent Devotions

Today’s author is Prince of Peace Intentional Interim, Pr. Steve Sylvester.

Yesterday we kicked off a new theme for worship: “Invited to Come and See.”  At the root of this invitation is curiosity.  In the first chapter of John’s Gospel, John the Baptizer saw Jesus in the crowd of people around him and said, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!”  Two of the people who would end up being among Jesus’ disciples began to follow Jesus.  Seeing them walking behind him, Jesus turned to them, spread his arms wide and said, “What are you looking for?”

In 1976, Campus Crusade for Christ launched the “I Found It” evangelism campaign.  I was 17 at the time.  I remember being annoyed by the bumper stickers the campaign spawned.  It wasn’t until perhaps a decade later that I realized the source of my annoyance: a sense of smug certainty.  And it was a long time after that I came to understand that an “I have what you need” attitude is a questionable place from which to begin a relationship, and relationship is what Jesus really calls us to.

At the root of any good relationship is a sense of curiosity.  Marriages grow stale when we believe we know everything there is to know about our partner.  We will see nothing new in a walk through an “I’ve already seen all this” section of woods.  Likewise, Jesus will be a wooden moralist or a cosmic good luck charm if we approach stories about him with certainty instead of curiosity.

During these next several weeks, I encourage you to set aside what you think you know about Jesus.  Perhaps start by reminding yourself that the stories we will hear from John’s Gospel are about a brown skinned man who lived 2,000 years ago.  He was immersed in a culture very unlike our own.  He was a devotee of a religion we don’t really understand.  He spoke a language that has largely died out.  Before you hear each Gospel reading on Sunday morning, ask yourself this question: “Who IS this man?”  If we do that, I think we will be in a good place to hear Jesus’ invitation to “Come and see.”