Sermon: January 25, 2026
Reading: Isaiah 9:1-4 / Psalm 27:1, 5-13 / 1 Corinthians 1:10-18 / John 1:29-42
Last week, in the Gospel of John, Jesus asks a searching question: “What are you looking for?” When the disciples ask where he is staying—where he abides—Jesus doesn’t explain. He invites: “Come and see.”
In today’s Gospel, we see what happens when that invitation is taken seriously—when God’s light breaks into places long accustomed to darkness.
That darkness is not abstract. Darkness looks like dehumanizing others. It looks like treating communities as threats, as problems to be managed rather than neighbors to be loved.
At the heart of this darkness is a truth Scripture will not let us forget: every human being is created in the image of God. Not some people. Not only the respectable or powerful. Every person bears God’s image and dignity.
To deny that dignity is not just a social failure; it is a theological one—a failure of our baptismal promise to seek and serve Christ in all people.
Into that darkness, the Gospel still dares to proclaim hope.
That hope has a name: Jesus Christ. His light does not shine through power or force, but through compassion, mercy, and love.
Jesus calls ordinary people, fishermen with families and responsibilities, and instead of saying “Come and see,” he says, “Follow me.” They leave their nets and step into a new way of life. To “fish for people” is not about control, but about living in such a way that others are drawn into God’s life and hope.
Jesus’ call to “Follow me” still comes to us. He also calls us to repent, to turn away from the normalization of fear and dehumanization promoted by divisive rhetoric spoken by those in positions of power. Repentance means refusing to let fear, politics, or power have the final word, and turning again toward the love of God that restores dignity rather than erases it, and gives hope rather than fear, despair, or division.
We are a people of hope. We are a people who have seen a great light. And that light is Jesus Christ, shining through those willing to follow his way of love, mercy, and peace.
