Epiphany 2 Year B January 15, 2006

Do you see what I see?

A Sermon based upon 1 Corinthians 6:12-20 and John 1: 43-51

In the name of Jesus; amen.

I am a visual learner. This means that in order for me to really learn how to do something I have to be shown how to do it.

If I read it in a book there have to be pictures for me to understand how to do it.

If you want to give me directions to get somewhere don’t tell me write them down and draw a map. Even better… take me there once yourself and I’ll be able to get there later.

I have to see it in order to get it.

When I was a child one of my grandmothers taught me how to crochet. Years ago, on a whim, I decided to pick it back up again as a hobby. So I bought a book on how to crochet. I couldn’t understand the descriptions, but I could follow the pictures.

A few years ago I replaced and rebuilt a toilet all by myself because I could follow the pictures in the Time Life Do-It-Yourself book.

If you show me how to do something there is a good chance I can do it.

I am a visual learner, but if you really want me to be able to do something well: show me how to do it then let me try while you talk me through it, show me what I did wrong, then let me do it.

A dear friend got married several years ago at another friend’s house. Somehow I was recruited to help make 50,000 white bows and the men’s boutonnières for the ceremony at about 1:00am the night before. Michael had me watch him make a bow then I tried and he critiqued me as I did it.

It was that late night that taught me that if I want to really know how to do something I have to see it done then try it myself with someone there to show me what I’m doing right and what I’m doing wrong.

Most people are visual learners. This means that in order to learn we need to see it being done and then we need to be watched as we try it ourselves.

There are things I can figure out on my own, even things I can do well by making up the directions… but I had to be shown how to make my mother’s fudge before I could make real fudge. I had to be shown how to tie my shoes, pump my own gas, read a map, turn on a computer and then use it before I could do those things.

I am a visual learner. But not everything that I have been shown has taught me good things. In ninth grade my friend Erica showed me how to French inhale a cigarette. Not everything I’ve been shown, by others, has been for the best for me.

I have learned some pretty awful things by what I’ve been shown, by seeing what others do and then following their example. It’s made me careful as to what I show others.

Jesus had decided to go to Galilee and there he met up with Philip and invited him to become a disciple. Now this made some impression on Philip and so Philip found his friend Nathanael and told him about Jesus. But Nathanael was skeptical: “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”

And Philip’s response: “Come and see.”

Nathanael was a visual learner too. Philip had knowledge; important, useful knowledge and the only way he could teach his friend was to show him. Philip could have just decided to let Nathanael figure it out on his own, but instead he made an invitation to teach Nathanael.

And because Philip showed him Jesus, Nathanael was able to see, in Jesus’ own words, “greater things than these.”

It stands to reason that if we can learn by being shown that we can teach others by showing them.

This means two things to me: First, that we make the invitation to come and see. If we know something, something as important and life-changing as God’s love then we should make certain to invite others to be witnesses to it. Information like we have isn’t supposed to remain secret it’s supposed to be shared so that others know it too.

And this is knowledge that is taught by what is shown. All the theological books in the world can’t teach a person about God’s amazing grace the way it can be taught through the actions of coming in contact with God’s people.

And that’s the second thing. As God’s people we should show others the best of ourselves. And that doesn’t mean that we should fake it when we aren’t feeling our best or that we can’t make mistakes. But that it’s important to do things that are good and to do them not so we get praised for doing them, but so others can see good and want to learn how to do good too.

It means that people learn about God’s love for them from how we show love to others and how we present ourselves.

St Paul writes about how we should use our bodies in the second lesson today. Until now I couldn’t see the connection between that reading and the Gospel. But it is there.

How we use the bodies that God gave us also shows others what it means to be loved by God. Paul focuses on fornication, having sex with lots of people. But how we use the gifts that God has given us in our own selves goes beyond who we sleep with. It’s also about how often we put ourselves down on our knees and pray. It’s about how we put ourselves physically in other people’s lives through the time we spend with them and the time we give to them.

Other people see this. They see what we show them and what we show them should be about God’s love and God’s grace.

We don’t need to convert people, or judge others, or tell them what they should do. This isn’t the way to show others God.

Showing others God is living a life that is focused on God and God’s desires for us and doing that will be an example for others.

And then it means living with them as they struggle to figure it out.

Invite others to come and see and then give them something to see: that’s God’s love through Christ is a blessing and a miracle and a vision of great things.

Amen.