I’m excited this morning.  I am excited because three years ago I read a story that was wonderful and beautiful and spoke to heart of Christian faith and God.  I filed that story away in the back of my mind so that one day in the future when I am in church and preaching, I can tell that story.  This morning is that morning.  Three years ago I was reading a book by Anne Lamont called Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith, when I stumbled across this story.  Anne Lamont is not your typical Christian writer.  She is not even your typical Christian.  Hippie, mostly vegetarian from California with dreadlocks.  Nobody like that in these pews, but she has a terrific faith life which she writes about regularly.  The struggles of life seen through the eyes of vibrant storyteller.  This particular story began on her birthday.  Struggling with depression at growing another year older.  Struggling with the economy and war and the president.  Struggling with a hurting world, Anne Lamont is on the edge.  She is in the desert as she says.  She looks at a broken world and feeling overwhelmed and helpless.  She asks God to help her be helpful.  Knowing that the answer might not come immediately she takes a trip to the market to buy her birthday dinner.  She flirts with everybody in the store especially the old people and starts to lighten up.  When the checker finished ringing up her items, she looked at the receipt and notice, “Hey! You’ve won a ham.”  Anne pretended to be happy because of how happy the checker was to give it.  A bagger was then sent to recesses of the store to fetch the ham.  She had to wait.  And wait.  And wait.  She almost said just give the ham to the next family that comes through with food stamps, but she did not.  If God was giving her a ham, she would be crazy not accept it.  After all, maybe it was the ham of God, who takes away the sins of the world, she thought jokingly.  By this time she had waited 10 minutes for this ham which she was now calling by some not so pleasant names, if you catch my drift when finally the bagger appears with her ham.  She goes into the parking lot and as she is walking she smacks her cart into a slow moving rusted car.  As she begins to apologize, she notices that the women is an old friend.  They had gotten sober together many years before.  Her friend is now down on her luck and hesitantly asks for help.  It is then that Anne Lamont realizes what this day and this Ham of God was about.  She realizes again that prayers are answers.  I am constantly amazed by God.  I amazed how God is able to give us exactly what we need even if we could never have foreseen it.  This was a ham from God who could predict that.

           For the last few weeks we have been reading through Matthew.  I love Matthew.  I love his vision of Jesus Christ following in the Jewish tradition and fulfilling the scriptures, fulfilling God’s plan.  I also love those occasions when we travel over into the gospel of John like we do this morning.  Moments where we are reminded of the grandeur of the gospel message and Jesus Christ. Where we are reminded of the infinite implications of what Jesus Christ accomplished, that so many prayers are answered, and that God is able to give us what we need even when we do not know what that is.  The reading this morning reminds us not only of what Jesus Christ did but of what God did through Jesus Christ.  It calls to mind God’s larger plan for all of human history fulfilled in Jesus Christ.  It shows God’s active and continuing work in human history.  In Matthew last week, Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist as a sign of beginning in ministry and as a sign of forgiveness of sin as a celebration of a particular moment.  Our reading in John this morning adds another dimension.  It sees the story not just as a moment in time not just the answer to an individual prayer but as a step in the fulfillment of God’s larger plan as an answer to all prayers.  I am excited about this reading this morning because it shows that, it shows God actively answering prayers.  Jesus Christ the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.  What a wonderful statement.  I would be hard pressed to find a more hopeful statement in all the bible.  The lamb of God come to save us from our sins.  An example of God answering prayers and providing exactly what we needed.  And doing it a way that we could never imagine.

          Jesus’ as the lamb of God is an intersection of biblical themes.  The word John uses for lamb here is only used by him and only used in this context.  It is peculiar and new.  Animal sacrifice for sin was a ritual part of Jewish life and Temple worship, but lambs were not sacrificed then.  Bulls, goats, and sheep were according to Leviticus.  The Passover lamb was sacrificed, but not for sin.  So there is a little confusion here.  John could have just made a mistake about Jewish practice, but what I and other scholars think is much deeper here.  In the book of Isaiah, there is a character called the suffering servant.  He brings justice and peace to the world.  Not as a strong warrior or political leader, but as a suffering servant of God.  In Isaiah 53:7, it says “he was oppressed and afflicted like a lamb led to the slaughter.”  It is from there and the Passover lamb, from this intersection of biblical themes, that this idea of Jesus Christ as the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world arises.  Additionally, it is only by this type of sacrifice, the sacrifice of God’s only Son for the sins of the world, that sin can be overcome by all.  It is only by God entering into this human condition and living as one of us and then dying for us as a lamb that we can all be freed.  It is only by this, that the prayers of so many can be answered.  And that is what God so creatively provides.    

          We see this sense of fulfillment  and of God answering prayers in John the Baptist’s words, as well.  “After me comes a man who ranks before me” and “I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel.”  In the Greek the fulfillment theme is even more pronounced.  There is a unique verb tense that means that an action happened in the past with repercussions that are ongoing.  John the Baptist uses that kind of language throughout.  It describes the step he plays in God’s ongoing fulfillment of a larger plan.  He bares witness.  That is what he does.  Jesus is to be the lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world.  Later, as in our passage, there will be disciples who will follow Christ and also bare witness.  That is their part.  But all play a role and not just any role but the role God intended because God provides what is needed. God answers prayers.  God is active in human history.

          Now that goes for us too.  God was not just active back then and left us to our own devices since.  God is working in our lives as well.  Bring us here and answering the deepest longings of our souls.  Creatively working to bring about change and newness and growth.  And God does not do this arbitrarily.  All of us have been brought together in this place for a reason.  We have all been brought here as answers to each others prayers.  We are the hams for each other, if you will.  We are to be blessings.  And you see that.  You see that when we greet each other and pass the peace Christ.  You see that as we gather following the service.  You see that as we connect with one another over and over again throughout the week as pray together and learn together and struggle through life together.  We have also been brought here as the answer to a larger prayer for this church and from this community.  It is no accident that all of you with all your particular talents and graces have been brought together in this small church.  It is no accident that we have all been brought here now and to this community where it is now.  It is no accident because like John the Baptist and Jesus and those first disciples, we have been brought here to answer the prayers and heal the hurts and reach out to this community as a part of a fulfillment of God larger purpose.  I see that every time, every time I step out of my car and walk into this church.

          The work ahead of this church and this community is great.  It is like a great mountain that must be climbed the top of which is hidden in the clouds. We look up at it and wonder how can we get to the top, but I know we can.  I know we can with God.  I know God will provide what is needed because I look at my life and yours and I look at the bible and I see so many moments when God does.  Sometimes unusual and unexpected times.  “Ham of God” moments, but God does.  I urge you to work together for the future of this church.  To join committees and work in ministry together not just to revitalize and transform this church for us, but as a means of blessing to the community.  As the answer to prayers.  As the sign of God providing just what is needed.