Invitation

John 1:29-42
The Rev. Sara Fischer

What are you looking for? Come and see.

On Friday I was driving home and on the radio I heard the weekly broadcast of the City Club of Portland. Tom Potter, the mayor of the city down the river a mile or two, was giving his annual “State of the City” address. The unusual thing about the speech was not anything he said, but where he said it. He and others from the city government had just spent five days hanging out at Jefferson High School, because student leadership had invited them to move City Hall to the school for a week. In his speech he said this had been a transforming experience for him and for all the others who had been part of the work of the past week. He would never be the same. Occasionally during the week someone would ask him or one of his staff: “What are you doing here?” His answer was “I was invited.” He was there because someone at the school said “Come and see.”

In conversation among leadership types here at St. John’s about our ministry, mission and identity over the past year, we have talked a lot about hospitality, about welcome, and about invitation. At the risk of being overly nerdy, I want to share Webster’s dictionary definitions of the three terms. Hospitality is defined there as “the cordial reception of guests.” This rings true of our ministries of hospitality here at St. John’s: how we greet guests and newcomers, how we keep our physical space looking, wearing nametags so that we can all put names with faces, and so on. According to Webster, welcome means “received with pleasure and hospitality into one’s company or home.” Invitation means the act of inviting, or “a spoken or written request for one’s presence or participation.”

When we crafted our mission statement last fall and talked about continuing the ministry of Jesus through invitation (among other things), we chose that word carefully, because invitation more strongly suggests a specific action on our part. Have you ever been told you’re “welcome any time” at someone’s home, but never actually been invited? There’s a difference between saying to someone: “You’re welcome any time” and saying “would you come over to dinner next Friday at 7:00?” Odds are pretty good that in the second instance, you get a meal and fellowship. Hospitality and welcome are an integral part of invitation. And so we strive to continue the ministry of Jesus through invitation.

Come and see. This is how Jesus answers the question, “Where are you staying?” It’s a good answer for all sorts of questions, and in using it, Jesus reveals once and for all how truly Anglican he is. Last week in the Catechumenate, we explored the question: What is the Episcopal Church? Phil reminded us that the best answer to the question: “What does the Episcopal Church believe?” is always “Come worship with us.” What is the difference between Episcopalian and Protestant or Catholic? Come worship with us. Come and see. What happens at choir practice, anyway? Come and see. What’s the altar guild all about? Come and see. How do the mid-week services differ from Sunday morning? Come and see.

The disciples are invited, and they say yes. I wish I had a video camera for the time they spent with Jesus. We don’t know what they did or what they talked about, but we know that they came away from it saying “We have found the Messiah.” It was such a transforming experience that the story told decades later still includes the exact time: It was four o’clock in the afternoon. Sort of like the person who says: I met her seven years, four months, six days, and three hours ago, and I knew that she was the one for me.

Invitation was the context for their transformation. They came away from their time with Jesus saying “we have met the Messiah” because of an invitation. Many of us have probably had transformative experiences that start with a simple question or invitation. Bishop Matthew Bigliardi, whom I’m sure some of you remember, used to say: “One day I heard they needed high school boys to sing in the choir at the Episcopal Church in the small town where I was living. The next thing I knew, I was Bishop of Oregon.” For me—and many of you have heard this story before—I had quit smoking in my early 20s and I was going through withdrawal, at loose ends especially on weekends, and a friend said: Come to church with me, tomorrow. I’ll pick you up at 9:30. And the next thing I knew I was talking to all of you about invitation and transformation. Think about something essential about who you are or what you do, and complete the sentence: It all started when…Chances are, the rest of the story involves being asked or invited or encouraged to go somewhere or do something different. Think about it.

Along the way, you were probably affirmed in responding to that initial invitation. We continue the ministry of Jesus through invitation and affirmation. Affirmation says that when people respond to our invitation, who they are doesn’t go away. Affirmation says that our invitation is not: come and be like us, think like us, believe like us, sing like us. Affirmation means that the way we continue the ministry of Jesus is to meet people where they are and to invite them—their whole selves—to join us in following Jesus. Formation begins when we accept one another’s invitations, and when we accept one another, period.

A few weeks ago a friend reminded me of the saying: Jesus loves us exactly as we are, but he loves us too much to let us stay that way. It is the intense love of God in all of its forms that calls disciples and that brings about transformation. One way we can express that love of God is through invitation and affirmation.

The 55th chapter of Isaiah begins with an invitation; let us remember these words as we prepare to come to this table for a holy meal:

Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. … Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to me; listen, so that you may live.

Let us hear God’s word to us: Listen carefully to me and eat what is good. Come and see. Follow me.