On the Unspoken Invitation
January 18, 2026
Rev. Traceymay Kalvaitis
Psalm 40:1-4
I waited patiently for the LORD; he inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the desolate pit, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the LORD. Happy are those who make the LORD their trust, who do not turn to the proud, who do not go astray after false gods.
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).
*** Today’s sermon is titled On the Unspoken Invitation.
What strikes me about this story we are offered today is how two disciples, who upon simply seeing Jesus, decide to follow him. Jesus did not say anything, he did not give any sign or perform any miracle, and yet they turn and leave their former teacher, John the Baptizer, and follow Jesus. What was it about him? I like to imagine.
In preparation for writing this sermon, I was contemplating what a mystery it is as to why we are drawn towards certain things and towards certain people. I looked around my office at the various things I have loved enough to place them on my shelves. As I let my eyes travel over each one, in an effort to settle on one single item that might give me some deeper understanding, I remembered choosing one painting, in particular. A Friend’s mother had died in the small hours of morning and I was called to come to the house and prepare the body. In her late 90’s at the time of her death, this woman was well known for her artwork. I was invited to choose a painting from her studio and of all the incredibly beautiful pieces, there was one that, as soon as my eyes rested on it, excited my interest more than all the rest. Was it the colors, the composition, or both? I can not say, exactly.
The painting features a winged figure kneeling on one knee, with one arm extended, hand gently grasping the stalk of a tall, slender plant. I took the painting off of the shelf and noticed, I believe for the first time, that the artist had signed the back, titled the painting, and included where it was painted. The words read, “Annunciation Angel, Gabriel. Lucca, Italy. Dawn Randall.” I couldn’t remember exactly when Dawn had died so I looked up the date and it was the 16th of January; I am writing this sermon on January 15th.
Who can say what inspired Dawn Randall to paint this figure with these specific colors? She sensed something and she brought it to life. I like to think that those early disciples sensed something in Jesus, too. I like to think they sensed something worthy of giving over their lives, in service, in devotion.
In 1959, Martin Luther King, Jr. was asked to describe how he was led to give over his life, in service to God. These are his words, as recorded in the Stanford Archives:
My call to the ministry was neither dramatic nor spectacular. It came neither by some miraculous vision nor by some blinding light experience on the road of life. Moreover, it did not come as a sudden realization. Rather, it was a response to an inner urge that gradually came upon me. This urge expressed itself in a desire to serve God and humanity, and the feeling that my talent and my commitment could best be expressed through the ministry. At first I planned to be a physician; then I turned my attention in the direction of law. But as I passed through the preparation stages of these two professions, I still felt within that undying urge to serve God and humanity through the ministry. During my senior year in college, I finally decided to accept the challenge to enter the ministry. I came to see that God had placed a responsibility upon my shoulders and the more I tried to escape it the more frustrated I would become. A few months after preaching my first sermon I entered theological seminary. This, in brief, is an account of my call and pilgrimage to the ministry.
We know that from the pulpit, from the streets, and from a jail cell, Martin Luther King, Jr., a fourth-generation Baptist preacher, preached the good news of the Gospel, with its message of liberation meant for all people. The embodiment of that message of liberation, the deliverer of that message of liberation, is our teacher, Jesus of Nazareth.
Jesus’s cousin, John, called Jesus “the lamb of God.” I have sung this phrase in hymns and I have seen countless images of Jesus portrayed as holding a lamb, but I have never really understood what it means. I learned a great deal this week from local theologian Matthew Myers Bolton. Much of the following reflects his scholarship:
The title “lamb of God” has often been assumed to represent the sacrifice of Jesus’s life on the cross. This is one way to find meaning and there are others. In Jesus’s time, sacrificial animals were bulls, goats, and adult sheep, not lambs. A lamb would more likely be connected to the story of the Israelites who were held in slavery in the land of Egypt. When a plague moved through the land, the Jewish people were instructed to put lamb’s blood on their doorposts as a sign of protection. According to the book of Exodus, all households with the lamb’s blood were protected; the danger past over them, hence the name of the Jewish Passover, a yearly celebration of God’s protection and liberation. So, as John refers to Jesus as the “lamb of God,” those who heard his words would “recognize the lamb as a ritual remembrance of the Exodus story in which a lamb’s blood protected the ancient Israelites from death, thereby making possible their liberation from Egyptian enslavement (Ex 12:1-13). As a name for Jesus, then, ‘the Lamb of God’ is… about liberation from sin and its restrictive, oppressive, death-dealing dimensions.”
Let’s continue to look closely at the wording John uses. John identifies Jesus as “the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” “The word John uses for ‘takes away’ in this passage is illuminating: airo means ‘to raise, to lift up, to take away, to remove.’ It’s the same word used in John 20 (‘the stone had been removed [airo] from the tomb’) and in John 11 (‘the Romans will come and destroy [airo] both our holy place and our nation’) (John 11:48; 20:1). So yes, Jesus comes to ‘take away [airo] the sin of the world,’ in the sense of rolling it out of the way, destroying it, abolishing it — or ‘lifting’ it in the sense of ending or annulling it, as in ‘lifting a ban.’
With this new understanding, then, John the Baptizer’s message becomes clearer: Just as the
Passover lamb protects and liberates, so does Jesus — follow him!
“Jesus comes to ‘take away the sin of the world’ — in the same way a liberator comes to ‘take away’ the shackles of captivity. Accordingly, John poetically links Jesus to the Exodus narrative, calling him not the Goat of God or the Bull of God — but rather the Lamb of God, the new Passover lamb. Indeed, Jesus is eventually crucified on the day before the Sabbath during Passover week, the day Passover lambs were slaughtered (John 19:14). In this way, the “Lamb of God” idea frames John’s gospel, like bookends.”
In closing, let’s take with us this reminder that our teacher, Jesus of Nazareth, “the lamb of God who comes to take away the sins of the world” came to free us from the separation from God that we call “sin.” Jesus came to free us from the many manifestations that separation from God leads to, like violence, racism, oppression, the unjust and inhumane treatment of human beings, and the destruction of creation (our environment). Jesus asked, “What are you looking for?” “Come and follow me.” His invitation to us now comes in ways unspoken; his invitation comes through our hearts and minds. His invitation bids us to wholeness, to community, to health and to justice for all. I pray we answer. I pray we act. So be it. Amen.
*https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/my-call-ministry
Pastoral Prayer
In the stillness of winter, Lord, turn our hearts and minds to your presence. Help us to travel through our days slowly and with great care, paying close attention to how we are and where we are. Make us ever mindful of ways we can share your love, with a kind word,
a smile, a note or a phone call. For all those who are ailing, Lord, we pray for their comfort. For all who are without, may they find the resources they need. For those facing death, we pray for peace. All these things I ask in the name of Jesus Christ. May his love guide us forever and always. Amen.
Benediction I leave you with these words from Martin Luther King, Jr., from his sermon, preached in Montgomery, Alabama on November 6th, 1956:
“I still believe that standing up for the truth of God is the greatest thing in the world. This is the end of life. The end of life is not to be happy. The end of life is not to achieve pleasure and avoid pain. The end of life is to do the will of God, come what may. I think I have discovered the highest good. It is love. This principle stands at the center of the cosmos. As John says, ‘God is love.’ He who loves is a participant in the being of God.”