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“Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” Amen.
I want to tell you a story.
Several years ago, I served on the Cathedral staff in Asheville, North Carolina. Like many houses of worship, we were concerned about how few children were a part of the cathedral parish. We were fortunate in being able to throw some money at the problem.
So, we painted the church school rooms. Didn’t help.
We redid the font type in the bulletins to make it appear more welcoming to newcomers. Didn’t help.
We sent some staff away to a conference on ministry to children in an Anglican context. Didn’t help.
Finally, we gave up. The active retiree recently relocated to Asheville, that’s a mission field, right?
After we gave up, we hired a young man, on a part-time basis, to assist with our children and youth. We assigned him the task of leading the children’s chapel time each Sunday.
In a matter of a few weeks, the number of children attending the chapel doubled. And then it doubled again. A few weeks after that, new families started showing up at All Souls, having been invited by the children from All Souls. And those new families started bringing new families.
What was going on in that chapel? What had this young man figured out about welcoming children that we had not been able to discover or plan for before he arrived?
As it turned out, it was a rather simple addition to the chapel time that had transformed the experience for our children and all these new faces, too. Thomas, the young chapel leader, had found a rag doll of Jesus in a closet at All Souls. Each Sunday morning, before chapel, he would hide the Jesus rag doll behind a book shelf or under the sink, somewhere out of sight but easily found. The first exercise of each chapel time was set aside to discover where the rag doll was hidden. The child who found the doll then had great joy in being able to go back to their parents after chapel and exclaim, “Mom, I found Jesus at All Souls!”
“Sir, we wish to see Jesus.”
Thomas’ rag doll game was a gimmick, but it reminded us then and it reminds me now that what was true in the Gospel of St. John read to us this morning is also true for us today in East Tennessee. We wish to see Jesus. Don’t make us so indirect. We wish to see Jesus. Don’t give us thoughts on moralizing and civic duty, but rather show us the image. We wish to see Jesus. Don’t split hairs on doctrine or devotional styles. Show us Jesus.
I think that is why you and I are here. I mean why we are here in this room, ordained deacons and priests. We are here, in this room, because at some point someone, some gracious person, showed you Jesus. And you believed. Or, you believed more deeply. Or, from that seeing you found you could not turn away. You felt a call to keep on seeing and seeking Jesus.
After a time, after a discernment process, good and faithful people decided you had the gifts to help others see Jesus. Let’s be clear, they did not say you were Jesus. They did not hear a call in you to be the Messiah, to save the Church.
Don’t worry about saving the Church. And don’t worry that I should be worried about saving the Church. Remember your first call was to show people where to find Jesus. And Jesus is found in the Church. And Jesus is found in the world. And Jesus is found in the places we have not found yet. And we still believe you have gifts of knowing where to look when people come wishing to see Jesus.
And, remember, when people come to you, seeking Jesus, that you are not the only one who knows how to find Jesus. I love that when Philip is approached by the Greeks, he first goes to Andrew. It is as if Philip is practicing a very early kind of apostolic succession.
You see, when Philip was called by Jesus, Andrew was already by Jesus’ side. So, when Philip sees Jesus, he can’t imagine seeing Jesus without also seeing Andrew. He is following a line of people who have seen Jesus.
I can’t imagine my life in Christ without first seeing all those women in my hometown who taught me about Jesus. They made sure there was constant supply of Kool Aid and Nilla wafers to accompany me as they showed me Jesus. If you want me to show you Jesus, then I’ll first go to Mrs. Chism and Mrs. Gill and Mrs. Dawson. They knew where Jesus was and they showed me.
Along with those women, I think of the clergy mentors, women and men, who showed me what it is to show Jesus to others. They are like Andrew to me. Some are still living, most are now dead, yet still they teach and inspire me to stay clear about what the ordained work is and what the ordained work is not.
Today, when we renew our vows, it would be easy to believe we are renewing our vows simply because of inertia. “Well, I ‘m still here, still ordained, might as well re-up again.”
My sisters and brothers, don’t give in to the force of weariness. Don’t give in to the force of feeling stuck, of no other options, of pious paralysis.
We are here today asking to see Jesus again. We are here, not simply to renew our vows, but asking to be renewed. Let those things that keep you from seeing Jesus fall away. Let those things that keep you from showing Jesus to others, let them rest at your feet. Remember, they are here because they wish to see Jesus.
Along with renewing vows, today we will leave this place with oils. We will leave with oil set aside for baptizing and oil set aside for healing or for preparing those under our care, lying in great weakness, for death.
You are here and you wish to see Jesus, so we give you oil and send you out. We do not give you each a Jesus rag doll. We give you oil and we tell you it now possesses a sacramental strength as we baptize, as we offer healing, as we prepare the dead.
The oil that you will carry from here reminds us where Jesus is to be found. Jesus is found in the face of the child we baptize, in the face of the woman who is healed, in the face of the man who is dying.
You wish to see Jesus? We believe that the Christ, the image of the Holy One is found resting upon the human, the finite image of the new life, the broken, the struggling, the healed, the redeemed, the dying.
I wish to see Jesus. No doubt, there are days that I wish seeing Jesus would only involve going into a room and finding a bearded, vested rag doll behind a book shelf. Rag dolls do not disappoint us or betray us or fail us or confront us with our own shortcomings and false faces.
However, the true wisdom is that to see Jesus now means we are willing to look into the faces of those who come to us for help. They come to be baptized, to be healed, to die without being alone or forgotten, touched one last time with oil and marked again as belonging to Jesus.
When Philip went to find Andrew and Andrew and Philip went to find Jesus, he told them if you wish to see me now, then look upon the place where the grain of wheat dies, where glory is found, not in painless triumph but in loving, both friends and enemies, to the very end. Because he chose to love in that way, he was spat upon and that face was wounded.
On this day, in this week, that is the face of Jesus most present to us. We have been baptized into that life. We have been healed because of that love. We are renewed again in the belief that the image of that face is now impressed upon us all.
You all have been gifted with eyes to see and ears to hear and tongues to confess and hearts to care. Those gifts can become burdensome, too, which is why you and I need to keep on seeking Jesus for our own sakes, too.
So, let us be renewed. Let us share bread and wine at this table. Let us see in the face of each other the image of the One we seek.
