Sometimes we can name what we’re searching for: a word, a phrase, a sign, an object.
Other times, we are searching for something less defined or known, but nonetheless, very specific. Ethan Canin’s novel A Doubter’s Almanac tells the life story of Milo Andret, a fictional mid-20th century mathematician whose work was proving complex conjectures that hadn’t been solved. Similarly, but based on historical events, the movie Hidden Figures tells the story of several brilliant, black women who worked with NASA’s Mercury 7 program during the era that put Alan Shepard and John Glenn into space; they were engineers, programmers and mathematicians seeking solutions that didn’t yet exist.
But there is a third kind of quest that is even more ambiguous:
when we are searching for trust or meaning or purpose.
Another way to translate Jesus’ question is “What do you hope to find?” or even, “What do you long for?”
Most of us don’t long for our car keys, or even for the name of that forgotten acquaintance.
I think we may long for answers to unanswerable questions or cures to life-limiting illnesses, but,
like world peace and an end to violent conflicts in our divisive world, those things may remain beyond our individual reach.
So, while we lift those genuine longings to God in our prayers,
what do we really need, or hope or long for, that might be found in meeting Jesus
and experiencing God’s presence in our lives, here and now?
Is it silence in a noisy world that strives to persuade you that it knows what you really need? The number of advertisements we are exposed to through televised and digital media has increased exponentially in our lifetimes. Marketers promise we will be healthier, smarter, better-looking and safer if we just make the “right” choice.
“What are you seeking?”
Is it a place of belonging in a world that, more than fifty years after Dr. King preached in Washington, D.C., still labels people first by something other than the content of their character? Whether it’s for race, gender, sexual orientation, level of education, gender identity, or even the bumper sticker on your car or the yard sign on your lawn; we are masters of putting people in boxes or categories, and discarding or discrediting them.
“What are you seeking?”
Is it a community centered on relationships, in a world where, tacitly at least, we have been taught that asking for help, or expressing concern for someone else’s welfare, risks “bothering someone” or “imposing” on them? Are we seeking relationships where we can have difficult, caring conversations in a world where we find it easier to walk away isolated and alone rather than tell someone, “You hurt me” or “I’m mad.”
“What are you seeking?”
Maybe, as my seminary preaching professor David Lose writes, it is “a chance to serve and be connected to others in a world that encourages putting yourself first.”[i] The very best antidote I can take for a bad day is to go visit someone, listening to their story, and focusing on them. It gets me out of my own head, and my own worries or anxieties.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus invites the disciples, and us, to “come and see” how a life of discipleship might provide us with what we are seeking.
Belonging, relationship and service are three dimensions of this life of discipleship that we begin in our own baptisms.
Discipleship defines our lives as
who we are as God’s children, where we are given all that Christ has as he takes on all that is ours;
as brothers and sisters in Christ, where, created for relationship, we learn how to live life together;
and in the world where we are called to imitate his Son,
the incarnation of God in the flesh,
divine love with skin on it.
As we each discern what it is we come here seeking,
and what our deepest longing or hope is in this world,
may we “come and see” how living as disciples of Jesus might reveal a deeper understanding of the God who loves us.
Let us pray…
Holy God,
Send your Holy Spirit upon us to open our eyes and hearts to you and your love and grace that we would discover what we are seeking in a life of discipleship. Assure us that because You created us, we have a place in your family; give us courage to risk building relationships with others; and inspire us to service, for the sake of the world that you love.
Amen.
[i] “A Question, Invitation and Promise”, In the Meantime. Dr. David Lose. http://www.davidlose.net/
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