S-Epiphany 2A.2020
Where do you stay?
Schools were integrated, but the town was not. Classmates from the other side of the tracks would ask, “Where do you stay?”
May have been on to something, because where we “stay” matters a great deal.
Word play going on here in this unusual conversation between Jesus and John’s disciples: John has just told them, “Yesterday, God showed me who Jesus is – the Lamb of God.”
So, his disciples follow Jesus. Jesus turns to them and asks a strange question, “What are you looking for?”
These are the first words Jesus speaks in the Gospel of John: “What are you looking for?”
Not “What do you want?” or “Why are you following me?”
But “What are you looking for?”
Then the disciples answer Jesus’ question with a strange question, “Where are you staying?”
What they are looking for, what they seek, is not so much the information of the teacher, but a chance to get to know him. The word we translate as “staying” refers to the source of one’s life and meaning.
So when these disciples ask Jesus, “Where are you staying?” they are asking, “What is it that sustains you? What power do you have? Where do you remain? Where do you live? How do you live? Who are you really? Where do you stay?”
It’s the same word used in John later, over in chapter 15, when we are told we are to abide in Christ. Abide, stay, remain, reside, dwell….
These disciples want a teacher, but more than that, they want a relationship. Then comes Jesus’ answer, Jesus’ invitation: “Come and See.” Jesus invites them to journey with him and hang out a while.
John says, “They remained with him that day.”
A careful listener would notice the repeated use of “remain” and “stay” in this passage:
The Spirit “remained” with Jesus;
God said, “The one on whom the spirit remains….”;
where are you “staying”;
they came and saw where he was “staying”;
they “remained” with him;
The Greek word is meno, “m-e-n-o”. It is sometimes translated “abide” and is used over 40 times in the Gospel of John. Meno is about relationship, being together with God, being sure of a future with God, experiencing a real connection to God.
Where we stay – where we are connected to God – informs how we live our lives. Where we “stay” is critically important.
This is Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend. We know where he ‘stayed’: he stayed in the place of equal rights for all; he stayed in the place of ‘love overcoming hate and light driving out darkness.’
I opened the Standing Committee meeting this week with this quote from MLK:
“Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness. Only light can do that.
“We must meet hate with creative love. Love is the most durable power in the world. Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend. The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state. It must be the guide and the critic of the state, and never its tool. If the church does not recapture its prophetic zeal, it will become an irrelevant social club without moral or spiritual authority. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice. Justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against love.”
Jesus stood for LOVE and for justice.
And what was Jesus’ answer to the question, “Where are you staying?”
“Come and see.”
They “went and saw” and then left there telling others, “We have found the Messiah!”
I wonder what would happen if we slowed down long enough to ask ourselves, “What are we looking for?” and then accepted Jesus’ invitation to “Come and See.”
This is the season of The Epiphany, the time in the church year when we hear and see more and more about who Jesus is as revealed in scripture…. Jesus – God manifest, Incarnate, in our presence.
In this season, “Where do we stay?”
“What are we looking for?”
If we don’t know what we are looking for, how will we recognize it when we find it???
We must know where we “stay” for that will be our anchor in this tumultuous, divisive times. Know where you stay and out of that relationship with God, let that foundation of love and justice inform your words and your decisions in 2020.
Amen