January 18, 2026

Epiphany 2 Year A

John 1:29-42

Epiphany, Winnipeg

Did you notice how John didn’t really know anything? Two times John says, “I didn’t know him.” John was not an expert on Jesus who could share his expertise with others. The whole story of Jesus begins with people who didn’t know Jesus. It all begins with a mystery. Then, when John sees the Spirit come down on Jesus, he recognizes Jesus.

And right away John tells someone what he’s seen. He tells two of his followers, who then leave him behind, and go off to try to catch up with Jesus. Jesus sees them and says, “What are you looking for?” Maybe just like he asks of us each day. When you get out of bed or when it’s too hard to get out of bed: “What are you looking for?” When you work an eighty-hour work week, or when you just wish you could find a job: “What are you looking for?” Whenever we draw another breath, “What are you looking for?”

Then they just say, “Where are you staying?” Jesus doesn’t really give a clear answer. He just says, “Come and see.” And for all twenty-one chapters in the gospel of John they follow Jesus around so they can come and see. And for twenty centuries and twenty some years that’s been our story too. Jesus says “Come and see.” And we follow Jesus around, to see where he’s staying.

And when we’ve seen? We just tell what we have seen. It’s called “bearing witness.”

So today, I am going to bear witness to a few things that I’ve seen.

There was a young man named Terry who used to go the church in the small town in Saskatchewan that was my first parish. Twenty-eight years before I arrived Terry and some of his friends – all about fifteen years old – snuck into the sacristy one night after confirmation class and got into the communion wine. The pastor found out and with no further questions kicked them out of confirmation, and that was that. Terry and his mom and dad left the church, and never came back. Thirty years later, I met Terry when his aunt asked me to visit him in the hospital. He had stage 4 cancer of somewhere and he didn’t have much time left, so I visited with Terry once a week for the next few weeks, and one afternoon he asked me to bring him communion. He had his first communion that afternoon, at 43 years old, and died a few hours later. It was like he said, “Where are you staying, Jesus?” And Jesus said “Come and see.” I witnessed a wonder that day: Terry’s faith had been kept alive over all those years. Kept alive by his mom, or by his aunt….kept alive by Jesus,…who said to Terry, “Come and see,” and who had never ever let go of Terry, even if the pastor had let go way back then.

Look – there’s Jesus, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world; who will never forget one of his sheep, who will never give up on anyone even when someone has given up on them, or even when they have given up on themselves. There’s the Lamb of God.

There was a woman I met at Seminary way back in 1986 whose name was Marie – not her real name. For years she had felt a call to ministry, so she finally took the step and ended up at Seminary. This was all still in the early years of the ordination of women – it was a pretty new thing. Marie was faithful and strong and sure of her calling, but at almost every step along the way she met resistance or gentle mocking or outright hostility. There was a church official who wrote her off as “an angry feminist,” there were the young men at Seminary, the majority of the population, who would mansplain to her things that she already knew better than they did, like Greek and theology and social skills - and there was always someone willing to make it clear that women had no place in a pulpit.

Sometimes she was really mad, and she had every good reason to be, and she had every good reason to walk away from the whole thing. But she stayed, and she kept on bearing witness to one – “Look there’s the Lamb of God” – who had kept on saying yes to her even when so many others around her said “No.” Maybe she kept on saying, “Jesus, where are you staying? Where are you, really?” And Jesus never grew tired of saying “Come and See.” Marie is still telling people what she has seen.

“Look – there’s the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” Even when that sin is deciding that a woman shouldn’t preach. “Look, there’s the Lamb of God, who’s still having a good old conversation with Marie,” just like Jesus sat at a well and spoke and listened to a woman from Samaria, just like Jesus always heard the ones whom so many others would not.

Here’s what else I’ve seen: I once knew a young Pentecostal woman who was married to a young Pentecostal man, and at the age of twenty-five she was diagnosed with cancer. She and her husband decided that she wouldn’t get any treatment; instead they would pray their way to a full recovery. Of course, I and my smart friends knew that these two were crazy and that God doesn’t just work that way. A few months after that announcement Val and I moved off to another town, and I forgot about the two young Pentecostals with their goofy ideas. Ten years later I met the two of them at a bike race. She had been cancer free for years. Never had a treatment. They just prayed a lot. And then they bore witness to me - “Look, Paul! It’s the Lamb of God!” - and even I saw a God who heals, maybe even just like that, in answer to a prayer.

“Look, it’s the Lamb of God,” who takes away the sin of refusing to hear someone else’s trust in God, who takes away what hurts and destroys, even if the religious professionals don’t think that that it works that way.

And yes, I, like all of us, have seen and known so many so many who have not received that miracle. But so many of them just kept on saying, “Look, Paul: There’s the Lamb of God.” They helped me see Jesus, even when death was drawing near.

I’ve seen it. And maybe like John, I’ve just got to say it. “There’s the Lamb of God,” who stayed with those who were hurting and afraid. There’s the Lamb of God, who just wouldn’t give up or stay away.

I think that you’ve seen something too, and that you might sometimes just stand up with John and say, “Look, there’s the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” Maybe it’s this simple: When you’ve seen love between people… “Look, there’s the Lamb of God, who brings people together instead of driving them apart.” When you have experienced kindness, or when someone has listened to you…”Look, it’s the Lamb of God, who listens and who gives me a voice!” Sometimes it might be bigger, and you see someone who speaks out against injustice and doesn’t back down. ”Look, it’s the Lamb of God,” who takes away the sin that tries to hurt and destroy. “Look, it’s the Lamb of God,” who gives courage to speak and even resist.

Maybe that’s all we have and all we need – just some simple call to bear witness to what we have seen. It’s not loud or fancy. We just look around, and we see love, or we see people coming together, or we see kindness or patience or courage or persistence or even the teeniest glimmer of justice or just a small taste of peace…and we have seen right then, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world…who takes away whatever hurts and divides.

We will need to hear this throughout our lives, and we will. We’ll say it too, and maybe even act like it’s true. And it is. Maybe we’ll especially need to hear it and speak it and act it in these days when tyranny seems so near and we’re not sure where it’s all going. “There’s the Lamb of God,” who takes away what divides and hurts and destroys; whatever separates us from one another and from God.

We don’t really know where everything is going. Sometimes it’s like life is all built on a mystery. Someone said, “Look, it’s the Lamb of God!” And we’ve said, “Where are you? Where are you staying?” And the Lamb of God has said, “Come and see.”

So we’ve come along to see, and even on a cross, we’ve seen the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, and we’ve seen the Lamb of God, who will never turn away from the suffering that so many know and from the death that we will all know. And outside the tomb on a spring morning the power of sin and death are broken, and the risen Jesus has said, “Who are you looking for?”, and we say, “There is the Lamb of God”.

And that’s enough. We will see all along the way.