January 18, 2026 First Congregational Church UCC, Brimfield MA
Isaiah 49:1-7 I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”
John 1:29-42 The next day [John] saw Jesus coming toward him and declared, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’ I myself did not know him, but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel.” And John testified, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Chosen One.” The next day 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!” The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. 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.” They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. It was about four o’clock in the afternoon. One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first found his brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated Anointed). He brought Simon to Jesus, who looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas” (which is translated Peter).
“Love is the greatest force in the universe. It is the heasrtbeat of the moral cosmos. He who loves is a participant in the being of God.” Martin Luther King
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Behold the Lamb of God… It’s the earliest proclamation of Jesus Christ, naming him as the one who will sacrifice all to change the world for us. For sure, John’s followers heard exactly what he was saying. You’ve heard me say before that there were folks who followed John and folks who followed Jesus – there was something of a competition between the two camps. The story today is about a time when people came to John to ask who to follow – was it still John, or was Jesus even more important, closer to God.
John’s answer was “behold the Lamb of God”, the one who will be so transformed by love that he will change our world. It’s Jesus who shows us that love is not free, not easy, and sometimes can cost your life.
John often spoke of Jesus. In the very beginning, the prologue to John’s Gospel, he says, “No one has ever seen God. It is the only Son, himself God, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known. [1]
From that we learn that one of the things Jesus does is reflect to us God’s love, God’s essence. The way the theologians describe this is to say that God was incarnate in Jesus – Jesus was both a human being and also God. And Jesus is now a kind of model, a pattern for us, to help us do our best to live as he did. We are the only visible proof that God exists; people form their ideas of what God is, from seeing how we live and work, talk and act.
And that means reflecting God’s love in our lives.
I’m not telling you anything new. You know all this. Visitors get what kind of God we worship when they not only hear what I say, but experience how you welcome new people. If, in your interactions, you reflect Jesus’ accepting love, then they feel welcome. This happens every day in our lives.
It works the other way, too. I remember the story I heard years ago that the leader of the local Christian Men’s Fellowship was a man who maintained two families – told to me with contempt by a man who’d left not just the fellowship, but the church he belongs to, where that man was the Head Deacon. Everyone knew what was happening, and no one would do anything about it. The guy who told me the story was not the only person who walked away from church.
Think about how many people have left the Roman Catholic Church. Twenty-five years ago, almost a quarter of all Americans were Catholic; today it’s less than 20%. Every person in this room probably has friends and family who once were Catholic and some of us are part of the group that left that faith for this way of being Christian.
Turn it around: how many people have come to faith, joined a church (of any denomination) because they met someone who so radiated the extravagant welcome of Jesus Christ that they couldn’t not join. In a former church, for instance, a parishioner told me of her nephew, a Naval officer, who’d become a Mormon because he so appreciated the moral life of Mormon offiers. Or in another conversation a Marine sergeant told me how, when he’d been in combat, he’d been so affected by the faith/bravery of the Catholic chaplains that he became a Catholic. That, he said, was how he wanted to live.
When I first walked into a Congregational Church, Grace UCC, in Rutland, VT; the first two people I recognized were my very kind ophthalmologist and the woman who always greeted me with a smile at the grocery store when she was checking my groceries out. I knew right then that if these two people were representative of the folks in that church, it was a good place.
We are here to reflect God’s love, shown to us in Jesus Christ, to all the world.
Not a squishy, get everything you want, kind of love, indulgent, spoiled, but that love that helps us tell good from bad, name and recognize evil, celebrate the best among us.
Reflecting God’s love is not always easy, not always safe. Martin Luther King Jr was reflecting God’s love when he said “Love is the greatest force in the universe. It is the heartbeat of the moral cosmos. He who loves is a participant in the being of God.” And he tried to live that out.. leading the Birmingham Bus Boycott, supporting all kinds of non-violent actions against racism, in the South and the North. When he was murdered, he was in Memphis to bring light to the way that garbage workers were oppressed. Bringing light can be dangerous.
We’ve heard so much lately about what’s happening in our country these days. But just as those who came before us condemned the evil of fire hoses and police dogs attacking Black citizens who fought for equality… people, Christians, are naming evil and standing up against it in many places across our country. Not just liberal denominations like ours, but conservative Christians as well are troubled by what they see and hear. It’s our more conservative siblings who remind us that John the Baptist warned the tax collectors not to misuse their power, not to oppress people, that the Bible actually preaches against abusees of those who are poor, weak, or powerless.
In fact you’ll remember that Paul abused the church with the full participation of the law right up to the moment he met Jesus on the Road to Damascus, and realized how wrong he had been.
The events of the past weeks have shown us that sometimes standing up against evil, truly reflecting God’s love can be dangerous. New Hampshire Episcopal Bishop Rob Hirschfeld spoke out, and was quoted by WMUR, the NPR station in New Hampshire:
In Hirschfeld’s speech, he talks about past martyrs who have died for their cause. He said New Hampshire clergy members should get their affairs in order and their wills written as they defend the vulnerable.
“Now is no longer the time for statements, but for us with our bodies to stand between the powers of this world and the most vulnerable,” Hirschfeld said.
He told News 9 that his words reflected a consistent message he has shared: to live without fear and to know that God’s love is stronger than injustice or death. He said he has been surprised by the response to that message.
“But I think the context is everything, that we’re living in a different era now, and that is opening up our ears and our hearts to this message, which is both ancient and new,” he said.
Hirschfeld said he and other members of the clergy are not looking for violence, but he said these are times in which their job of working with the vulnerable comes at a risk.[2]
Most of the time, however, we’re not being called to lay our literal lives on the line, Most of the time, what we’re called to is more every-day, less exciting, more subtle: Wear a “I’m a gay ally” pin. Help someone stuck by the side of the road. Sit with someone who is mourning. Ignore that bully. Walk away from the conversation where folks are making fun of people of color, or queer people. Be the people that bring people to church because they want to be like you.
Show God, in all God’s glory, to the world around us.
Amen.
©2026, Virginia H. Child
[1] New Revised Standard Version: Updated Edition (Friendship Press, 2021), Jn 1:18.
[2] https://www.wmur.com/article/ice-shooting-nh-episcopal-bishop-speech-011226/69980984
To Believe is to Care. . . To Care is to Do 