Sermon by Father Wojtek Kuzma
Sunday January 18, 2026
The Second Sunday after the Epiphany
Have you ever wondered why the same experience given to two different kinds of people can produce totally different effects? The same experience and yet different outcomes. I wonder about that in our daily lives. This can be true. I know I I’ve heard people counselors often tell me that if you have a child or you can have two children of an alcoholic and one drinks because he’s a child of an alcoholic and the other one never touches it because he’s a child of an alcoholic. See, the same experience can produce two totally different outcomes. Why is that? Because and I asked that question on purpose because we see the same thing in an encounter with Jesus.
Many people encountered Jesus. Some of them became disciples and some of them became his enemies. The same person, the same experience, different outcomes. What is it that is essential for us to have the right outcome in our experiences in life? Proper
outcome. What is the proper attitude we see in those who encountered Jesus and were changed for the better? They actually decided to become followers and not enemies. Decided to be listeners and not questioners. I would like to propose two things from
the gospel today which is so beautiful. The Gospel of John, my favorite. Doesn’t have to be your favorite, but it’s my favorite because it just says everything exactly as it is. You don’t have to think about it too much. In the Gospel of John, the whole story begins
in heaven. Whereas the other synoptic gospels begin on earth and they kind of the synoptic gospel Matthew, Mark and Luke. Those are the gospels where you begin with a little baby born and then slowly you have to figure out or with the help of the writers who is this baby, why are there miracles? And slowly the divinity of Jesus, the power of Jesus, the salvation of Jesus is revealed. Not with John.
John was the kind of guy who said everything right at the beginning. You know, the kind of people that you don’t always want at your Christmas gatherings. They tell you exactly what they think right away. That was John. John begins with Jesus in heaven. He
says, “In the beginning was the word and the word was God. The word was with God.
That word was Jesus. And he came and became one of us. And we rejected him. And even though we rejected him, those who accepted him, he gave power to become children of God. That’s the first few verses of the first chapter of the. Gospel of John. the whole gospel, the whole message, the whole Bible in a few verses right at the beginning. And so John begins here with today’s gospel.
In today’s gospel, we’re right at the end of the first chapter of the Gospel of John. And already there’s a declaration about who Jesus is by John the Baptist. John the Baptist points to Jesus and uses cold language, which to the people of the day was not cold
language. They knew exactly what it meant, but to us it is. Here is the lamb of God. Everybody knew what that meant. The lamb of God prophesied as the future Messiah will be the lamb that will be sacrificed for the sins of the people. John says, “Here is
the lamb of God.” And if you don’t know what that means, John continues and
says, “Here is the son of God.”
The son of God. The disciples of John begin to follow Jesus. They said, “Okay, John, we’re done with you. We want the Son of God. We want the Messiah.” And what does John do? John rejoices. He says, “My business is no longer viable. I’ve done my part.
I am happy to pass on my disciples to Jesus.” Now, here’s what I want to focus on.
The encounter with Jesus, the first words we hear in the Gospel of John from Jesus. Let’s look at those. You know, my favorite Bibles for some reason are Bibles that are called red Bibles. The ones where the words of Jesus are written in red in the Gospels. Everything else is in black because you can actually skip over and just say, “I just want to see what Jesus said and you can just read the red letters. So, let’s read the red letters.”
First, the disciples start following Jesus. They don’t say anything. You just start following him, walking after him, observing him. Notice that Jesus is the one who makes the first attempt at speaking with these disciples. It is Jesus who speaks first. But only after he sees that someone is following him. They follow him. Jesus turns around and says, “What are you looking for? What do you want? Or if you want to go deeper, what do you seek? What do you desire? Now imagine that. Imagine that the first
encounter between people and God in the person of Jesus has nothing to do with what God wants, but everything to do with what people
want.
Our encounter with God begins with God wanting us to consider our desire. What is it you want? Now, seriously, think about that. If God were to show up face to face right now, stand before you and say to you, “What do you want? What do you want me to do for you? What do you want from me?” Would you have a quick answer? Would you have an honest answer? Because in many ways, we want things that we’re not always proud of. Isn’t that true? I want more money. Nothing wrong with that. I’ll tell you a little secret. Most people want more money. You’re not alone. Okay? I want more time. I want more health. I want more peace. There are all kinds of things we want. There’s nothing wrong with that. But what’s behind all of that? I love working with first principles. This is the wannabe engineer in me. Engineers love to work with the good ones. Love to work with first principles. And the way you do that is by asking follow-up questions. So you
say, “Okay, what do you want? I want money. Okay. Once you get your money, what then? Well, then I’ll buy a big house. Good. Once you get your big house, what then? Well, then I’ll retire early. Good. Once you retire early, what then? What’s next? What’s next? What’s next? What is this supposed what? In other words, what’s at the basis of your desire for money, for the house, for peace, for retirement, for stability? What is at the basis of all of this? What is it that we really want? What’s hiding behind those surface desires? And the greatest line I’ve heard that’s attributed to an English poet is this one. He said, “The man who knocks on the door of a brothel is looking for God.”
Even behind our sinful desires and imperfect desires is really a desire for God. Because only God can satisfy. We may not even be aware that we are looking for God. But in everything that is good and everything that is in our hearts and everything we desire, ultimately we are looking for God, the source of all good.
Jesus says, “What are you looking for?” to those disciples. He wants them to really look within and examine their desires. Examine what is their life all about. And I think in many ways my prayer life, my encounter with God has to begin with this kind of a self-examination. What is my life all about? What is it that I actually want? What is it that I want to leave behind when my time here is done? How do I want to leave? You know, before I was well, before I came here some years ago, I spent a few years working
at a hospice, a beautiful job as a chaplain. My job was to sit with people who were dying. It was a hard job but it was a really sobering job. In other words, it helped me to become aware of what’s really important in life.
I remember one individual I was sitting with him and he was showing me all kinds
of beautiful things that he was able to accomplish in life. He had a beautiful
house that he was able to design himself and had it built. He knew I was into motorcycle. So he showed me his pride and joy motorcycle that he bought many years ago and restored. He showed me all these things. And I said to him, “You have done well
in this life. These are beautiful things.” And he looked at me and he said, “Father,
I’ll make you a trade. I’ll give you everything I have if you give me your health. He died a week later. He knew he was going to. How everything comes into perspective
at those moments. What is it that I want? What is it that I desire? What is it that I treasure? Am I truly continually searching for
God? And if I am, Jesus says the next thing to the disciples who say where are you staying? In other words, they are saying we are looking for God. We are looking for you. We want to know more about you. And Jesus says come, come and see. Come and see.
To me, what that means is that no one can teach you about God, or at least not enough. In order to really find God in your life, you have to come and see, spend time
with him, reach out to him, be aware of God’s presence in your daily life, in moments of joy and in the moments of sorrow, in all kinds of circumstances.
Keep coming back. keep coming and seeing in many ways. You know, now in our Bible
study, which has begun, by the way, on Wednesdays, you can come in person or watch online.
Our first one this past was on the prophet Isaiah. We’re going through all the prophets. Do you know what the job of a prophet was? To tell you that you have messed up.
The job of a prophet was to be the most unpopular person at the party. Everyone disliked hearing that they messed up and that need they need to turn back to God over and over and over again. Turn back to the Lord. Only he can save you. Only he can help you. And that’s what we’re studying in the with the prophets. Jeremiah is next this coming Wednesday. Hope you can join us. But in many ways we have to continually come back to God. Why? Because we are immersed in a world that in many ways is
pulling us away from faith, from God, from virtues, from morals, from decency. So what we’re doing now here today hopefully when we come to church when we
encounter people when we celebrate the sacraments when we hear the word of God we are responding to Jesus who says come and see come and experience come and see
for yourself that only I can give you what your heart truly desires.
And I hope that with those disciples, we will also do the same. We will look deep within and examine our conscience and say, “What is it that I really live for? What is it that I truly desire? And how can I find God? How can I continue to seek him out so that I may
experience his fullness of joy in Jesus name.”
Amen.