Sermon preached by Rev. Margie Quinn on Sunday, January 18, 2026
I don't care how many times I have been to St. Thomas West, the hospital right over here. Every single time I walk into that building, I don't know where I'm supposed to go. I don't know where I parked. I don't know which entrance I walked into. I don't know the maze of hallways and how I'm supposed to find you in room 128. And so I always end up going to the desk and saying, “Hey, I'm trying to get to room 128.”
And sometimes the people behind the desk say, “Walk down that hallway. Take a left at the surgery doors. You're going to see room 400. Take a right. You follow that hallway for a while. There's a water fountain. Take a right. And then you're going to take a left at the bathroom.”
And then there are people who stand up and they come around the desk and they say, “Come and see. Let me show you.”
The same thing is true when I go to grocery stores. I was making Mediterranean bowls this week and I wanted to have falafel, and I went to Kroger and I searched that whole dang store and I couldn't find falafel. So I went up to an employee and said, “Do you have any falafel?” And he said, “What is that?” And I don't really know how to describe it. I was like, there are these little balls that have like mush. I don't know.
And instead of saying it's on—well, he didn't even know—but let's assume he did. Instead of saying it's on aisle 12, he came with me and looked for it with me. And you know, we didn't find any at Kroger, but I have a feeling that had we, he would have stayed with me as we searched diligently to find falafel.
There are people who are describers and there are people who are showers. I can't describe to you the sunset at Love Circle, but come and see it. I can't describe to you the queso at Satco, but you need to come and see it. I can't describe to you the way Abby sings jazz at Rudy's. You have to come and see her for yourself.
And in our passage this morning, we meet John the Baptist, who is not just a describer, he's a shower. You know John the Baptist. He's the one who was a voice crying out in the wilderness, this crazy-looking dude who wore camel hair and ate locusts and honey, who said, “It's going to be kind of hard to explain. There's one who came before me. I'm not even lowly enough or worthy enough to untie the sandals from his feet.” He's trying to describe Jesus. He's not gatekeeping the Son of God. He is—and don't be scared—evangelizing about him.
And so he's testifying about Jesus. He says, “Y’all listen up. I saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove onto this man, and I am testifying that he's the Lamb of God. He takes away the sin of the world. He's the Son of God.” Some people might have given him blank looks, but some people in hearing his description gave him attention. And all of a sudden, Jesus’s cousin, the great pointer to the light, started attracting some disciples himself. And they began following him around.
“Look, here is the Lamb of God.” He sees Jesus and that's what he says. He's showing them to Jesus. And as Jesus walks by, as Olivia read, he just says, “Look, that's the Lamb of God.” He shows them the way and then they follow the way—the way and the light, as we say.
And Jesus, kind of turning around, maybe sees this crew following him and he says, “What are you looking for? What are you seeking? What do you want?” And they say, “Rabbi,” like they already know who he is. At this point in our Gospel, Jesus hasn't done anything to warrant people following him. We haven't gotten to the wedding at Cana. We haven't had any healings, any miracles. We haven't heard any sermons in the temple. And yet they recognize him as their teacher and their rabbi. What is it about him?
And he says, “What are you looking for?” And they say, “We just want to know where you're staying.” The Greek translation for “staying” here is “abiding.” We just want to know where you abide and whom you abide with. That's all we're wondering.
And Jesus doesn't respond, “You get on 440 and then you hop on I-65 toward Huntsville.” He says, “Come and see. Come and see. I can't really describe to you what I'm up to. But what if you just come and see? What if you come and see where I'm abiding, the one in whom I'm abiding with, the love that I'm spreading, the justice I'm seeking. Just come and see.”
And guess what happens? It's like one of those good books that you pass around in your friend group or like the Amy Poehler podcast you've probably sent around at this point. It becomes contagious. It becomes contagious.
Andrew the fisherman, who had heard John the Baptist testifying—he followed John and then he followed Jesus—and he went and got his brother Simon and he said, “We found the Messiah. We found the anointed one.” And he doesn't just stop at describing him, but he brings Simon to Jesus. So he's not only showing, he's then inviting.
The guys in our passage today, they do describe the one we follow. Did you catch how many adjectives and descriptors there were for our Savior this morning? We have Lamb of God, Son of God, Rabbi, Messiah. But they don't stop there. And church, we cannot stop there either.
It might feel really simple to describe this place. It might feel really easy to sit behind that reception desk and say, “We have an amazing choir. We have very meaningful and joyful worship. We have great ministries like Room in the Inn and Community Grants.” And it may feel like enough to tell those stories or show pictures from Trunk or Treat or our Pride parade. You feel like you've done your due diligence by describing what goes on here, by describing the one in whom we follow. You might talk about your Sunday school class or the book study and relay funny moments from the youth fundraiser. But we are not John the Describers. We are John the Inviters.
It takes time to show people how to get to the falafel. It takes time, and it's sometimes inconvenient, to continue to welcome people who visit here or who are out there. What is going on in the life of this church takes time. But I believe that John, Jesus—they don't want us to stop at using descriptors for the one we follow. They want us to beckon our hand out and say, “Just come and see. Just come and see.”
And I don't know about you—it's even outside of my comfort zone. And I am a minister. I have become a little bit self-effacing about what I do and the community that I serve because I don't want to pressure anyone. I don't want to pressure people who have been harmed by the church, who have religious trauma. I don't want to force anyone to come and see what's going on here. And yet, it's contagious, right? The music we hear on Sundays, the ministry that goes on downstairs on Thursday nights, the grants that we offer people—nonprofits and grassroots organizations doing the work of justice and fairness—the conversations that you have in Sunday school where you're really chewing on Scripture, the kids that make you laugh in children's Sunday school. There's something contagious happening here.
And I don't want to scare people off by evangelizing to them, but I want people to come and see. And that's how I feel convicted. That's my job in this new year: to be bold and unafraid of saying we're a different kind of Christian in this world. And if you are feeling heartbroken by the church or lost or scarred, just come and see. Just come and see.
Being a Christian is not about what I'm doing. It's about the one in whom I follow, who first invited me. And I wonder who first invited you. Can you call them by name? Was it a friend or a grandmother? Was it a camp counselor or a fellow student? Who was your great inviter?
I don't think it's about me. I think it's about the one who first invited me. I think it's about asking where Jesus abides and following him there and then inviting others—like Andrew—inviting others to hop on the train and follow along as well.
And y’all don't take my word for it. The proof is in the pudding, because right after this passage, right after this passage, Jesus calls Philip and Nathaniel and he says, “Follow me.” That's all he says. Just “Follow me.” And pretty quickly Nathaniel asks Philip—anybody remember this?—he says, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Can anything good really happen on Harding Pike? Can anything good happen in Nashville, Tennessee? Can anything good happen right on this little street?” And Philip says, “Just come and see.” That's what he says, church: “Just come and see.”
In John 4, after Jesus meets with the Samaritan woman at the well, the woman runs back to the city. And what does she say? Say it with me: “Come and see.” That's exactly what she says. She says it to the whole city. Scripture says—and listen to the next verse right after she says it—“The people left the city and they were on their way to him.” Not missing a beat, they followed.
If you believe that Jesus is up to something in your life—something compelling and contagious, something indescribable sometimes—then it is not enough to just call him your Lord and Savior, your teacher and your friend, your Messiah and God enfleshed. It's not enough. It's not enough to describe the influence that he has on your life. You’ve got to walk people to aisle 12. You’ve got to take them out to lunch at Satco. You’ve got to drive up Love Circle and watch the sunset with them. You’ve got to bring them down to Room in the Inn. You’ve got to take them to choir rehearsal on Tuesday nights. You’ve got to bring them to worship here—even if you're sitting directly into the sun.
That's what we're called to do. Because some people can't find the directions. They need us to help them locate what's going on.
After Mary finds Jesus in the garden, after he's resurrected—remember this—she immediately says, “Teacher,” just like John and the disciples do today. Teacher. And I love this so much. Jesus says, “Don't cling to me. You can't gatekeep me. I'm not your secret. I'm not just for you.” He says, “Go and tell folks what you've seen.” And our very first preacher in the Gospel runs down the hill and tells people, “I've seen the Lord.”
Jesus is not just for you and me to cling to. He is for us to show and invite, to usher people in, to talk about the effect that he's had on your life—the ways that he has transformed and changed your heart, galvanized you, and loved you so unconditionally with grace upon grace that you can't help but sprint after him when he says, “Follow me.”
So, are you just going to describe him? Are you just going to describe this community that follows him? Or, like the one that we follow, are you going to invite people to come and see like John the Baptist and Andrew? Like the Samaritan woman and, yes, Mary.
Can you say it with me one time? Come and see. Yeah. Three words. And then you can let people make the decision for themselves. Maybe they don't come. There were a lot of people who didn't follow Jesus. And maybe they do. Maybe they do.
I don't think we're in the business of telling, church. There's a lot of talk going on these days. I think we're in the business of showing, of inviting. So, I don't know about you, I'm going to try to show up and invite others to see that there is something good that comes out of Nazareth. There is someone good who comes out of there, and he is up to something radical and loving and groundbreaking and amazing in our lives. Is he not? So just come and see.
Amen.