Between the Lines: Epiphany 2: January 15, 2012

Text: John 1:43-51

John again was standing with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!” When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, “What are you looking for?” They said to him, “Rabbi” (which translated means Teacher), “Where are you staying?” He said to them, “Come and see.”

Wonder how this story from John might reflect part of your own story. Who first told you something about Jesus? Parents, Sunday School teacher, minister, or even seminary professor? What do you recall them saying to you? What was it that led you to follow after Jesus? Had Jesus turned to you as he does to the two disciples and asked “What are you looking for?” what might you have answered? As a child, teenager, young adult? What are you looking for today as you follow Jesus? Hoping to find, discover, learn, become what? How has Jesus told you to “Come and see”? Where has following Jesus led you to go? What have you seen? John speaks of Jesus as “the lamb of God.” From where you have been and with what you have seem how do you now describe Jesus? How did you follow him today? Where did you find him staying? What did you see?

- Bill Dols

BibleWorkbench: Epiphany 3: January 23, 2011

Text: Matthew 4:12-23

Now when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. . . From that time Jesus began to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” Matthew clearly links the death of John to the beginnings of Jesus’ public ministry. What do you imagine John’s death represents for Jesus? What kind of relationship might they have? What might Jesus have lost with John’s death?

What do you know in your own life or the life of someone around you of how the death of a friend, a mentor, a spouse, a family member might open up a new direction, a new endeavor, a new way of living? What is lost in that death? What is gained?

- Andy Kille