Today I get to introduce you to my high school youth pastor.
Yes, I went to church as a teenager, as many of you know,
and there was someone that had to put up with me.
He was paid.
Payed!
Paid to put up with me.
No, no, no.
It was in the resume.
You shall be paid to put up with children like Greg Hampton.
Yes.
Reverend Michael Ammenauer has been a pastor for three plus decades.
He spent seven of those years at First United Presbyterian, the church that I grew up at,
that I spent from three and a half to eighteen at, and then when I moved back, he had moved on,
and so had all of the young people, and so I ended up trying out other churches after that.
And then when I planted this church, I knew at a certain point that I wanted to be reconnected to
people that were from my roots, and I asked Mike if he would be one of my spiritual overseers and
one of the spiritual guides for our church, and he very graciously said yes.
And so we talk on the phone regularly.
I went out to visit him in Woodland, California, a few years ago when I was on sabbatical.
He's been the pastor at Woodland Presbyterian Church for the last four years,
and he's been married to his lovely wife, Jennifer, for how many?
Twenty-nine?
Thirty-two.
Thirty-two years.
Almost thirty-two.
Thirty-two years.
Very, very good.
And one of the roles of an overseer is to come out occasionally and visit this church,
and so he's very graciously now come out twice.
The first time that he came out, some of you may remember,
it was the first Sunday that Illinois locked down for COVID.
And so he flew out so that he could preach to an empty room
and preach to you via this camera online, and so it was just really ironic to us that he had left—well,
he was at a church in Texas then, and he left Texas to get here to preach to me and Jen,
and I think Chris Britton was in the room, and so it was just absolutely hilarious.
So I really love that we have a full room, and I know that at the end of today that we'll have full
hearts after we hear a word from the book of John by Reverend Michael Omenar.
Will you please welcome him?
Well, since I am an overseer, are there any complaints or concerns that you have?
Yes, hands up.
Yes, I see the hands.
Yes, I can greet you after the service so that I can take those down with me to our committee.
It is a pleasure to be here.
When Greg invited me out four years ago, he told me that he had a church in Texas,
and he said, you know, I'm going to be there.
When Greg invited me out four years ago, he told me that he had a church.
So when I got here, I was expecting to see people, and it was a room with three other people.
It felt like I was back at seminary preaching for the committee that I had to preach for to
see if I was going to be good enough to be a pastor.
Very, very ironic to be there that day.
But we are, Jennifer and I are glad to be back.
We lived here, as Greg said, for about seven years.
And it is one of the few places that when we left, we wept.
We wept on the plane.
We had two little kids at the time.
And as we were flying, our children, two years old and nine months,
didn't cry the whole plane flight.
She and I wept the whole time.
We were wondering who were the parents and who were the children on the plane.
But so it is good to be back.
Before we look at this text, would you join me in a moment of prayer?
Gracious and abundant God, thank you for this beautiful day.
Thank you for this precious time to be together with family and friends and to celebrate your
goodness, to celebrate your mercy.
And to be here with brothers and sisters in Christ is always empowering, always reminding
us that in you, the wind is always at our back.
So, Lord, as we look at a few of these verses from this section in John's Gospel, may you
open not only our eyes and our ears, but more importantly, will you open our hearts and
flood in your truth and your grace and your mercy today.
May you speak to us in more than just the words I share.
May we feel your presence and may we respond as people that you've called us to be.
In your name we pray.
Amen.
Now, normally I would stare at the screen and have this scripture memorized, but I've
been on vacation, so I don't do well trying to memorize scripture on vacation very well.
So if you don't mind, I'm going to read a portion of the whole section that Greg and
your church is going through.
It'll be John chapter 1, verses 29 through 42.
You follow along on your phone.
I know there's Bibles on the table.
Or you could just listen to the melodic sound of my voice, whatever you are inspired to
do.
Hear now God's word to us.
The next day, John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, look, the Lamb of God who takes
away the sin of the world.
This is the one who, when I said, a man comes after me, a man has surpassed me because he
was before me.
I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was so that he
might be revealed to Israel.
Then John gave this witness or this testimony.
I saw the Holy Spirit coming down from heaven as a dove and remain on him.
And I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me
the man on whom the Spirit remains is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.
I have seen and I testify, I witness that this is God's chosen one.
The next day, John was there again with two of his disciples and he saw Jesus passing
by and said again, look, the Lamb of God.
The Lamb of God. And when the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus.
And turning around, Jesus saw them and asked, what do you want?
They said, Rabbi, which means teacher, where are you staying?
Come, he replied, and you will see.
So they went and saw where he was staying and they spent that day with him.
It was about four in the afternoon.
Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had
now was following Jesus.
And the first thing Andrew did was to go and find his brother Simon and tell him,
we have found the Messiah, that is the Christ, and he brought him to Jesus.
And then Jesus looked at him and said, you are Simon, son of John.
You will be called Cephas, which when translated is Peter.
This is the wonderful word of God.
Amen.
The story is told of a man who was in a park and he was on his hands and knees looking for
his wallet.
And so he was crawling around in the park and looking for his lost wallet.
And about five minutes into this search, another man came up to him and asked him,
what are you looking for?
And the first man said, oh, my wallet.
The second man, after a few minutes of helping him look, said, well, where did you lose it?
And the first man said, over there.
And he said, well, why are you looking for it over here?
Well, because the light's better over here.
That's the question I want us to think about today is what are you looking for?
What are you searching for?
Now, the beginning of the summer months, some of I know you have just finished school.
Maybe school has another week.
Where I come from, I think this is the final week of school.
But we're nearing the official start of summer.
Summer does not start on Memorial Day weekend, contrary to what Hallmark will tell you.
Summer officially starts June 21st, but it really ends when or it starts when school
has ended.
So we're about to start summer.
And summer is one of the few times of the year where many people start over again.
Right?
There's new routines.
You don't have to get up, I don't think, as early as you did, say, in February and March.
You're starting maybe a new job.
June 1st is a time when many people are starting a new job.
It's a new season.
Maybe you are one of the gifted people that gets to go to summer school this month.
Yeah, I did that a few times.
Oh, yeah.
But summer can be a time when you reevaluate what you are looking for.
So I ask the question, what are you looking for today?
What were you looking for a week ago?
What were you looking for a year ago?
Four years ago, right when COVID started.
What were you looking 10 years ago?
What were you looking for 20 years?
Had you been looking at the summer?
What were you looking for 20 years?
Has it changed over time?
What you were looking for in 2004, are you still looking for that in 2024?
And if it hasn't changed, why not?
It's not a bad thing.
Maybe it hasn't changed.
I don't know.
But to ask that question is to begin to think about how might I reorient my life.
Now, Jesus asks that question.
Now, it might not seem that way, but He does.
What are you looking for?
Because that question has the power to reorient our lives and maybe even begin to change the
world around us.
Now, the answer to that question, I won't ask you to shout out your answer, but I want
you to shout out your answer.
But the answer to that question will reveal more about yourself, more about your life,
more about your relationships and the world more than the things that you are looking
for.
Do you understand what I mean by that?
The answer to that question might reveal more about who you are than what's going on in
the world around you.
That could be a good thing, and that could be a not so good thing.
It's a diagnostic question because whatever you're looking for can and does set the direction
for your life.
It asks something of us.
It helps us to maybe reevaluate our life, our direction, our heart.
So how would you, quietly in your own heart, how would you answer that question?
What are you looking for?
Jesus asks two followers that very question.
One of them is Andrew, the other one we don't know, but if we had to make an educated guess,
we would assume that it's the gospel writer John.
Could be.
It may not be.
Scholars are all over the map on that.
It really doesn't matter, but for argument's sake, let's just say it's John, okay?
So Andrew and John are asked this question, what are you looking for?
Jesus actually says, what do you want?
Now that seems like an odd question, doesn't it?
Because these are the actual first words that are recorded of Jesus speaking in the gospel
of John.
You don't hear anything else.
Jesus hasn't talked about how he's come to redeem and how he's come to save and heal
and do all these.
His first words are, what do you want?
Yeah, striking, isn't it?
What do you want?
What are you looking for?
Shouldn't Jesus, I mean, if I was writing the gospel, nobody's asked me, but I'm waiting,
but if I was writing the gospel, I probably would have had Jesus saying, yo, how's it
going?
Do you want to come on a walk with me?
I would have had that kind of, what's up?
What's going on?
Not, why are you following me?
Why are you stalking me?
Yeah, leave me alone even better.
But he says, what are you looking for?
Stranger still is the response the two disciples give to him.
What are you looking for?
And they go, where are you staying?
Now I was raised, I'm a little older than most of you.
I was raised in a generation that if some adult asks you a question, you do not respond
to them with another question.
That is rude, okay?
I could only imagine had I done that once to another adult.
I can only imagine what would have been the response.
Why are you following me?
What do you want?
Where are you staying?
Like, is this conversation even happening?
You know, maybe they're asking, hey, Jesus, what Airbnb are you staying at?
The question that Jennifer and I got when we first landed here in the Quad Cities this
weekend is where are you staying?
And what if I were to say to them, well, what's your favorite hotel in Moline?
That's not a proper response, right?
You would tell them where you are staying.
Now John the Baptist has clearly stated twice in the text that I read that Jesus, this is
the Lamb of God.
John knows who or what he is looking for.
He already knows, but his followers, John's followers don't yet know who Jesus is.
They just wanted to follow Jesus.
They just wanted to follow him to his man cave.
They wanted to see where does this guy really live?
And notice again, this strange conversation, Jesus doesn't give them a direct answer.
Someone asked me, where are you staying this weekend?
We tell them we're staying at Stony Creek Lodge.
Is that what it's called?
Stony Creek?
Okay, Stony Creek over Moline.
We give them the address, we give them the name of the hotel.
Jesus doesn't do that.
He doesn't tell them where.
He says, yeah, follow me.
Come and you will see.
Come and see.
You see, Jesus is asking them in a unique kind of way that if you really want to know
what this life is about, come and see.
He wants to make sure they're following him for the right reasons.
You know, perhaps Andrew and John are looking for some military hero who's going to conquer
the evil Roman Empire and ride in on a white stallion, kind of like the Lone Ranger from
many generations ago.
Maybe they were just simply searching for a miracle worker who could heal them or others
that they know.
Maybe they were just looking for a teacher who would explain everything that they had
to do to earn righteousness in the eyes of God.
But of course, Jesus came for a whole lot more, thank God, than just those things.
So Jesus says, come and you will see.
He invites these very first witnesses to join him in a journey.
Now it might initially look like he's just inviting them over to the man cave that he's
got there.
But really it's an invitation to come and see not only where Jesus is staying, but also
where he is going.
It's also an invitation to see what Jesus is going to be saying and what Jesus is going
to be doing in the coming days.
He's inviting them to come and see and join in this adventure.
Jennifer and I are blessed with three now adult children, all three college graduates.
There is a time when we were living in a little town called Folsom.
Down the street, there were some neighborhood kids playing in a large pile of leaves.
I enjoy trees.
I just don't like them in my yard because they're a lot of work.
Sometimes I'm fearful they're going to fall over.
That's another story.
So they're playing in this giant pile of leaves down the street.
We have to go somewhere, so we walk down the street three or four hours down to go get
them, to bring them back to our house.
As we're... It's a Saturday afternoon.
As we're trying to say goodbye and thank the neighbors for letting them play in their giant
mess pile of leaves that they're going to have to rake up again, and I'm not jealous
of that.
Our oldest son, Jonathan, at the time is eight, something like that, and he turns to the kids
as he's saying goodbye to them and says, you guys should come to our church because we
got donuts.
Yeah.
We got donuts.
The next day, this family shows up at church.
It took a while, but eventually they joined the church and they pointed back to the very
first invitation from an eight-year-old boy who said, you should come and see our church.
We have donuts.
Now, that doesn't always work for those of us who are diabetic.
That will not be a huge, important invitation, but for others that could be.
Come and see.
And isn't that what Jesus says to you and I as well?
Come and you will see.
Come and see.
You won't see it all.
You won't even see all of it right away.
In fact, what will happen if you've followed Jesus for any time longer than about five
minutes, you will know that you will begin to have more and more and more questions.
There are so many questions.
The thing I've discovered in this journey with Jesus is that faith doesn't take away
the mystery of life.
It doesn't.
What it does is it opens our eyes and it opens our hearts and our ears.
It opens us up to the whole mystery of life.
In fact, the great mystery and wonder of this God-created world becomes that much bigger
when we enter into a faith with Jesus Christ.
Jesus says, come and see that following Jesus begins a journey into a life that is filled
with grace and mercy and the love of God.
That's always right there.
It's always right here, right in front of us, sometimes even right under our noses.
Or as somebody said, it hides in plain sight sometimes.
Come and see and you will find what you have been looking for.
Now, the reason I read this very long section was to point out this, is that in these 13,
14 verses that I read, there are five different Greek words to describe seeing.
In English, we have one, to see.
But in Greek, they have at least five and John uses all five in this section.
Now I am the product, my mother's best friend was an AP English teacher at my high school.
I did not take AP English.
I don't think she would have allowed me, this teacher, to take it with her because my mother
was her best friend.
So I know that she is yelling in my ear, make sure you tell the folks this, that there were
all these different ways of saying to see.
But in English, we only say to see.
And so the gospel writer uses all five of these as a way so that we might grasp that
seeing Jesus is a big deal.
We can see Jesus is all that He came to do and all that He came to be, to see from these
different angles and these different perspectives.
And it gives so much weight to the response of Jesus' question to come and see.
Because if you want to come and see the Word made flesh, then come and see Jesus.
If you want to know what love is like, come and see Jesus.
If you want to experience God's glory, if you want to be filled with the bread that
never perishes, if you want to be quenched of your thirst with living water, if you want
to abide in a love that you have never experienced before, come and see Jesus.
And if you want to go out into the world, because it's not just about coming inside
and having our holy huddle, as important as that is.
But if you want to go out into the world and offer that to others, you know, donuts, come
and see Jesus.
Do you seek healing?
Do you seek wholeness?
Come and see.
Are you looking for forgiveness?
If you are hoping for reconciliation, come and see.
Are you looking for justice and for change?
Are you seeking out justice for others and hope and help and encouragement for others?
Then come and see.
Now, I've known Greg for almost 32 years.
He is a lot different today than he was as a teenager.
Thank God we all are, right?
So I've been following his life and his ministry ever since you graduated high school, not
stockingly, but I'm aware.
I'm aware of what you do.
And I love the story of how this community of faith comes together.
In fact, I've told Greg many times when I grow up, I want to be a pastor just like him.
So everything I'm learning today has a great deal.
I am so privileged to be a part of Greg's faith journey.
I take tremendous pride, spiritual pride, knowing that I had a hand in helping Greg
be where he is today.
And he's had a lot of hands, a lot stronger hands than mine for sure.
But I love the story of this community of faith, celebrating your 10-year anniversary
this last year.
Do you know the story?
Are you familiar with that?
How God brought together this community of faith to be a gathering place for people not
just in Rock Island, but throughout the Quad Cities and even beyond?
You are a church that speaks to the community of Rock Island and the Quad Cities and greater
surrounding areas.
In your way, you too are saying, come and see.
Come and see.
Come and see Jesus.
Come and help us live out our love of God.
Come and help us seek out our welcoming of all people from every vantage point and direction
in life.
Come and see.
And it won't be easy.
It won't.
Greg will tell you.
The staff will tell you.
Some of you could tell me, it hasn't been easy, has it?
It hasn't been, what do we say, roses, puppy dogs, and lollipops.
I know it hasn't.
And not just in the life of your church, but in your own individual lives.
This has been a rough journey.
There have been trials.
There have been tragedies.
There have been misunderstandings.
There's been hurt.
There are all sorts.
You all could name those.
But you still gather together as disciples of Jesus Christ.
And I know that that's not easy.
And I know that there are some days when you gather here that you'd rather not be here.
I'm not going to ask you to raise your hands, by the way.
Because when I was a teenager, our pastor would ask, anyone feel like they don't want
to be here?
My hand, he goes, we sat third row on the piano side, so my hand always went up.
I didn't want to be there.
But do you know what I've learned over these 40 years since that time?
Is that even when I didn't want to be here, there was someone else who did.
There was someone else who went out of their way to welcome me, to shake my hand, to smile,
to hand me a donut.
It's probably why I'm diabetic.
Welcome me, say glad you're here.
There are days as a pastor I don't always want to be in the pulpit.
But there's always somebody there.
Always.
It's not always the same person, but it's always somebody.
That's why the church gathers together.
That is why being a community of one doesn't work real well to follow Jesus.
Hermits really struggle following Jesus.
Do you know why?
It's because of this.
Every time on those days when I don't feel like being there, every time I go home, always
say, I'm glad I was there.
I didn't feel like it, but I am so glad because it was people just like you.
And I know you're nodding your head so you've had that same experience.
Maybe you've been the one to be encouraged, and I can tell that there are some of you
who are really the strong encouragers.
And you serve together.
That's exciting.
Meaning to widen the table so that others might come and be a part of that.
That.
That is what God has called you to do, and I am excited to see how you continue to do
that.
It is awesome.
As you are a holy people here, you don't just gather here, but you gather in other places
in this community.
That's a big deal.
Don't stop doing that.
Don't just gather here, but gather in those other places in the community, seeking to
invite others to come and to see.
So may we all respond to Jesus' question, not with another question.
May we all respond to Jesus' question, what are you looking for by following the one who
calls us to imitate Him and to help others to come and see.
There are others who would like to come and see, but are for some reason are having a
difficult time.
May we be the ones to help encourage them.
May we go to them more than they come here.
That's a hard thing to do, I know.
Come and see, Jesus says, as we go out into the world and take on others' burdens, as
we seek to relieve suffering, as we go out and feed those who are hungry and thirsty
and not just for food and water.
And here's the other thing.
May we stand with others who are different.
Here's the other side of that coin.
Not just stand with others who are different, but to let them stand with us.
Let them help us.
And really, you can't have one without the other.
So we stand with those who are different and let them stand with us and help us.
There is no more appropriate response.
No more appropriate calling in life, despite what commencement speakers will tell you.
There is nothing more worthy than to be a witness for Jesus Christ.
Period.
Would you pray with me, please?
Gracious God, I thank you for this community of faith that continues to widen the table
and invite so many others to sit and to have fellowship and to connect with each other
and more importantly, to connect with you.
Lord, thank you for the ministry that you give to each of us to come and see and to
bring others with us.
Help us to do that, oh God.
Thank you to work in the hearts and minds of this incredible community of faith with
its pastors, with its staff, with its ministry leaders, with all of those who make up the
house.
Lord, may you continue to be the wind in their sails and take them to places that they've
never dreamed of.
Thank you, oh God, for this privilege to be with your people, your children, and your
church.
In your name we pray.
Amen.
We all just thank Mike for his message.