“Come and See”
Sunday,
January 18, 2015
First
Congregational United Church of Christ – Sermon by Rev. Caela Simmons Wood
As you might imagine, our household is a pretty
active place. With two kids under the age of five, something is always being
built…out of blocks, Legos, old cardboard boxes, rubber bands – you name it.
Many times each day, David and I hear small voices say to us, “Mama! Daddy!
Come and see! Come and see what we made!”
“Come and see.” Three short words that open up an
entire world. They are an invitation, not just to look at something but to be
in relationship. The words are offered from one person to another as a gift.
“Come and see this thing that is important to me. I want to show you this part
of me because I care about you and I want to deepen our relationship.”
When someone you care about says, “Come and see,”
you go and see. Oh, maybe you don’t care so much about whatever it is you’re
going to see, but you go because you care about the person. If it’s important
to them, it’s important to you. So you stop what you’re doing and GO and SEE.
Last weekend about 12 of us went to see the movie
Selma. It was absolutely masterful and if you haven’t seen it yet, I highly
recommend that you GO and SEE it (see what I did there?).
So much of the civil rights movement was about
inviting people to come and see. When the organizers in Montgomery decided that
the time was ripe for Rosa Parks to be arrested and begin the boycott, they
invited the rest of the nation – “Come and see,” they said. “See what we live
with here in Alabama. Come and see,” they said. “See our strength, our
determination as we walk to work, to school, day-in and day-out for 385 days.”
Just stop for a moment and think about that – walking or sharing a ride with
friends everywhere you go for 385 days. “Come and see,” they said. And white
people all over this nation began to open their eyes.
Seven years later, in 1963, Dr. King gathered with
other leaders in Birmingham, Alabama. The city was nicknamed “Bombingham”
because there were over 50 unsolved race-related bombings. “Unsolved” because
none of the white officials made any attempt to investigate. “Come and see,” they said from
Birmingham. “See what we live with. See the footage on the nightly news as we
are kicked, spat at, screamed at for sitting at a lunch counter. See us on the
front page of your newspapers as those who have promised to serve and protect
turn hoses and dogs on our children. Come and see.” And white people all over
this nation began to open their eyes….and their hearts, just a little bit.
Two years after that, the setting was different but
the invitation was the same. This time it was in Selma, Alabama. The issue at
hand was the right to vote. Although almost half of the population there was
black, there were only a handful of registered black voters in the county. The
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee had been there for several years,
teaching nonviolent tactics, preparing the way for a massive action. King and
others from the Southern Christian Leadership Organization showed up in early
1965 to see if the time was right.
There is a scene in the movie Selma where Dr. King talks with student leaders John Lewis and
James Forman. They are giving him a hard time because the SCLC had failed so
miserably in their recent campaign in Albany, GA. King explains that nonviolent
resistance means doing things perfectly for a long time and relying on the
powers that be to mess up….so that people can see how bad thing are. The
sheriff in Albany, Laurie Pritchett, never messed up. This was different, King
explained, than Bull Connor in Birmingham, who made a fool out of himself
daily. King asks the student leaders, “What I need to know is this: is Jim
Clark a Laurie Pritchett? Or is he a Bull Connor?”
They believe Jim Clark is like Bull Connor – that
he is likely to overreact, to make things exceedingly difficult for the
protestors. And so the people of Selma say to the nation, “Come and see.” The
cameras descend as the marchers prepare to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge on
March 7. And the troopers are there with clubs, and tear gas, and horses. They
brutally attack the peaceful protesters. The white people of the U.S. gather
around their TVs in their living rooms. And they see. And they are horrified.
And when Dr. King issues the invitation to clergy around the nation, “Come and
see. Come and march. Come and stand with us,” people of every race and creed
respond.
It took three tries, but on March 21st
thousands began the march from Selma to the state capitol of Montgomery. And a
week later, the entire nation watched as Dr. King spoke from the steps of the
Alabama capitol, proclaiming, “We ain’t gonna let nobody turn us around!”
Come and see. Come and see what we live with. Come
and see our lives. Come, see, understand, care, do more, do better, pay
attention.
These three little words – come and see – are at
the heart of the Jesus story we heard from the Gospel of John this morning. The
story of Jesus did not spread though billboards or glossy mailers or on the
nightly news. The story of what Jesus of Nazareth was doing spread in a
timeless way – one person to one person, one invitation at a time. I think it’s
telling that Philip says so little to Nathanael about this Jesus. He could have
told stories, given a treatise about who he thought Jesus was and what he
thought Jesus was going that was new and special.
But he doesn’t do any of that. He says, quite
simply, “Come and see.”
It’s an invitation that opens up a whole new world.
It’s an invitation that begins a relationship. It’s ancient and it’s simple and
it’s real and it still rings true today. Come and see.
This is how Christianity has always been passed on.
Person-to-person. A simple invitation. I think “come and see” is so much more
effective than, “Have you been saved?” or
“Do you believe in Jesus as your Lord and Savior?”
“Come and see” is an invitation to experience for
yourself. To make up your own mind. Dr. King and the other leaders in the
nonviolent resistance movement knew the power of making up one’s own mind. They
advocated for legislation because they knew laws could curb evil behavior until
hearts and minds began to be transformed. And they used nonviolent methods
because they knew the surest way to convince white folks of the evils of racism
was to invite them to come and see – and make up their own minds.
And all of this makes me wonder – how often do we
invite people to “come and see”? How often do we talk about Jesus or God or our
congregation and just say to a friend, “Come and see”?
I’m guessing not all that often. But I also know
that an abiding truth of our faith is this: Christianity is passed from person
to person. Always has been – always will be. People rarely wake up one day and
say, “You know what? I need to go to church today. I’m going to try that one on
the corner or look one up online.” I mean, yes, sometimes that happens. But
more often what happens is that someone they know, someone they care about
says, “Come and see. Come and see what this means to me. Come and see this
Jesus who has saved me. Come and see this congregation that sustains and
supports and challenges me along my journey. Come and see.”
Jesus said to Philip, “Follow me!” and he did. And
all of us here have done that, too, in one way or another. We may all be in
different stages on the journey, but we are all looking to Jesus in some way.
Philip found his friend Nathanael and said, “Look! We’ve found him! The one
we’ve been waiting for is here!” Nathanael was skeptical, “That guy from Nazareth?
That backwater town?” And rather than try to explain it all or convince him,
Philip issues that simple invitation, “Come and see.”
Who do you know that might need an invitation that
would change their life? Or maybe you’re the one who needs to remember that you
are still invited to have your life transformed.
The invitation is still there for all of us, all
these millennia later. Come and see. Experience this Jesus – a nobody from
nowhere who has come to turn the world upside down, to let the oppressed go
free, to proclaim freedom for those who are imprisoned and recovery of sight to
those who cannot see.
It was good news then and it’s good news now. We
are all invited to follow and we are all urged to invite our friends.
