One Episcopal priest says this about the purpose of church: The church exists, he says, “to put us desperate people in the staggering presence of God who can save us.” ¹

Us desperate people. To look at us, few of us appear desperate. Especially not on Sunday morning when we have put on coat and tie and worn our best shoes.

The same clergyman who calls us desperate people describes meeting a well-heeled, silver-haired parishioner named Garth who’d done well for himself as an art dealer. When Garth had some surgery, the priest tentatively called, not sure Garth wouldn’t sniff at an offer of care. To the priest’s surprise, Garth asked for a visit and for communion. During the visit, Garth disclosed that he was a recovering alcoholic and that reading the psalms and going to church were the two things that had saved his life years before. The priest would never have guessed that this man who had known financial success and famous people had also known desperation. The truth was, Garth — his outer appearance notwithstanding, — was not much different from the desperate disciples way back when. The disciples’ search for who-knows-what had driven them into the wilderness with John the Baptist. When they first get a look at Jesus, they ask where he’s staying. When you get down to it, that’s what Garth in his convalescence had wanted to know, too: he’d wanted communion with Jesus, time in the staggering presence of God. He knew that was the only thing that had saved him in the past and the only thing that would get him through now. And maybe communion is what we’re looking for, too, even if we do our best to cover up the fact that we have need of anything.

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In 1987, the Irish rock band U2, voiced the spiritual longings of us desperate people in their song titled, I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For. In the song, the narrator has looked for fulfillment in adventure, romance, temptation, even dogmatic religiosity, only to discover that none of those things is it. That the song rose to number one on the billboards indicates its lyrics struck close to home for many.

U2’s subject matter certainly was not original. They summed up in rock music what artists and thinkers have been saying for centuries and what we — even if we try to keep it a secret — know to be true; we are desperately looking for something. But like the disciples, we have a hard time saying what it is.

Back in the 5th century, Saint Augustine named it. Like the narrator of the U2 song, Augustine spent his youth pursuing wine, women, and song. In fact, he’s known for penning the prayer, Make me virtuous, O Lord, but not yet. Augustine knew what it was to live a life of pleasure, and yet long for more. In the opening of his autobiography, a maturing Augustine reflecting on his youth writes that is God — that staggering presence — for which we desperately search, though often misguidedly. The adult Augustine is then able to make this prayer: “Thou has made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in thee.” ²

Only the One who has made our hearts can satisfy them, Augustine’s reasoning goes. When Jesus walks past Andrew and Simon, there is a glimmer of recognition. They see in Jesus the light that in their darkness they’ve been stumbling toward. They glimpse the One who made their hearts. They also see in Jesus potential for their own lives — what it would look like if they were as filled with God as he. At last week’s 8 o’clock service, David Booth Beers shared with us the people in his life in whom he’s seen the divine light. I myself have encountered a handful of such people. In my experience, when I meet one of these people, I long to be around them. I hope to glean from them whatever it is they have found and for which I am still looking. One of these God-filled persons is a woman I knew in Connecticut. It was her practice to wake every morning, go for a long walk and then spend an hour with God through meditation or yoga. The time she spent with God was evident. What had arisen from her prayer life was a serene detachment which I would share in for as long as she and I were in the same room. For that reason, it doesn’t surprise me that when the disciples saw Jesus, they wanted to see where he was staying and just be with him. And maybe the life they saw in him would rub off on them.

New Testament Greek uses the word meno interchangeably to indicate our English words, remain and stay. Meno — stay, remain, abide — is employed five times in this short story of Jesus’ first public appearance. Clearly, this is no drive-through spirituality that Jesus offers. What he’s offering is relationship, and like any relationship, it takes time to cultivate. Generally speaking, few of us do this well. Perhaps it’s our desperation that drives us to frantically, frenetically flit from one spiritual path to another as we search to find what we’re looking for. We bore easily. We get lazy. I include myself in both of those categories. A sermon I heard by the retired bishop of New York addressed this issue. He compared spirituality — our relationship to God — to climbing a mountain. There are many paths up that mountain, he said, referring to the variety of faith traditions. Relationship with Jesus Christ is certainly one of them. The important thing, he said, is that we choose one path and pursue it whole-heartedly. Not to say that one faith tradition cannot enrich or inform another, but we’ll remain in the foothills if we forever switch back and forth from path to path.

This might be too hard for us — staying with spiritual disciplines, seeking communion with God on a regular basis, except that it’s not a one-way street. Our God wants communion with us just as much as we want it with God. When the disciples ask Jesus where he’s staying, he shows them after all. And the three spend a leisurely afternoon together. With God, it is this way. God goes out to find us desperate people. That was, after all, the cause of our celebration just a few weeks ago.

A searching person today could find Jesus in many places, and certainly 4700 Whitehaven Parkway would be among them. He is revealed through the reading of scripture, the Sunday School classes, the breaking of bread, and in each and every one of you. Indeed, Jesus becomes more real when we stay with other people who are also looking for him.

But if you’re like most folks, then at one time or another, you’ve probably asked yourself whether these are the people for you. Maybe you’ve wondered if, at another church, you could better find what it is you’re looking for. If you were to go, Lord knows you’d have a big selection of other churches in Northwest D.C. And if you stay, well, you will likely encounter disappointment or frustration at some point. But stay long enough, and you are guaranteed to encounter, as well, that staggering presence of God.

Amen.