"It Matters Whose Voice You Listen To"

THE SECOND SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY

Year A

January 19, 2014

John 1:29-42

Pastor David Tryggestad

Concordia Evangelical Lutheran Church

Duluth, Minnesota

This past New Year’s Eve, a pair of young mountain climbers died while attempting to climb Argentina’s Mount Aconcagua, the highest peak in the Western hemisphere. Jarod VonRueden, from Clyman, Wisconsin, was 22, and his climbing partner Frank Keenan, from Pennsylvania, was 28. Both were experienced.

VonRueden had been an active climber. He had reached the summit of Alaska’s Mount McKinley this past summer. His partner, Keenan, was also experienced, having climbed Washington’s Mount Rainier twice. Both men had scaled mountains in Ecuador.

A third climber was also climbing with the pair who died. Evidently, VonReuden and Keenan decided to change the route. The third climber was not comfortable with the decision and turned back. The third climber survived.

This story broke around the time of the Festival of the Epiphany of Our Lord, when we heard the story of the Magi following the star that first led them to Jerusalem and King Herod. We recall that Herod instructed the Magi to come back to Jerusalem after learning the exact location of the Child so that he, too, could go and worship him. When they found the Child, an angel of God warned the Magi not to return to Herod, but rather to return home by another road.

It matters whose voice you listen to.

The third climber survived Mount Aconcagua because he did not listen to the voices of the other two.

The Magi refused to listen to the voice of Herod and returned home by another road.

It matters whose voice you listen to.

A young man I had not seen before in the sauna at the YMCA this past Friday said that he had been an alcoholic and that he’d given up drinking forever. I asked if he had been through AA. His answered shocked all of us. “No. I don’t need AA. I killed my friend who was riding behind me on my bike while I was intoxicated. That’s all the reason I needed to stop drinking forever.”

Evidently, his friend had listened to this young man’s voice, assuring him that he was OK to drive. Maybe his friend had been drinking, also.

It matters whose voice you listen to.

I thought of a conversation with another young man in the sauna about a week prior, though he was older, around 30. He was wearing a tattoo of a large cross directly over his heart. I asked him about it, and he said, “This has saved my life.” Turns out that he, too, was an alcoholic. With the help of AA, and turning his life over to God, his life has turned around. He said, “I’ve never been happier.”

It matters whose voice you listen to.

John the baptizer sees Jesus coming toward him, and John declares, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” The next day, two of John’s own disciples are with him and Jesus walks by, and John announces, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!”

John’s disciples follow Jesus. When they inquire where Jesus is staying, Jesus says, “Come and see.” And they follow him and stay with him.

It matters whose voice you listen to.

I had another conversation in the sauna the same day I met the man with the tattoo. This man is a sculptor. Turns out he was the sculptor of the life-size bronze sculpture of the last surviving Tuskegee Airman from Minnesota, Joseph Gomer, which stands at the Duluth Airport. You may recall that the Tuskegee Airmen were African-American fighter pilots who protected American bombers during WWII and whose heroism is credited with speeding the cause of integration in the military.

On the success of the bronze sculpture of Gomer, this sculptor has been commissioned to do another sculpture, this one of a POW. One of the stipulations is that the figure look like a prisoner, not a war hero. The authenticity of a prisoner is that he look like one.

I thought of that story in relation to our Gospel for today. “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”

Jesus’ authenticity, his credibility, his credentials, as the Son of God are ironically in being, at the same time, the Lamb of God—the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, the Lamb who was slain. Recall that when Jesus appears to his frightened and bewildered disciples huddling behind closed doors the evening of his resurrection, he shows them his hands and his side. He shows them his wounds. Jesus’ authenticity, his credibility, his credentials, as the Son of God are ironically in being, at the same time, the Lamb of God, the Lamb who was slain. Jesus is the one who suffers for the sake of the world he so desperately loves.

It matters whose voice you listen to.

Listen to Jesus. You can trust his voice. You can trust his invitation to “Come and see.”

Thanks be to God!