Sermon preached at the Sung Eucharist on the Second Sunday of Epiphany 2026

Last weekend, I visited the Royal Academy and an exhibition by the American artist Kerry James Marshall (an artist I did not know). Marshall is known for drawing inspiration from the classical compositions and training that underpin traditional Western art, and allowing it to influence his strong contemporary images of the lives and legacies of black people, families and communities in the United States.

Amidst a large and impressive collection of work, I found myself standing for some considerable time in front of just one piece, and indeed drawn back to spend more time with it before I left. The painting and collage, is called ‘The Wanderer’. It is a stylised and highly symbolic work. It was initially attractive for being both unfamiliar and enigmatic - making you work hard to engage with it and understand what it was all about.

On the face of it, two figures in a boat... one wearing a garland of flowers. The other obscured by the sail – his identity or presence, hidden. [To my impression] the classical influence of Western art revealed itself in the single tall mast of the ship - a cross beam at the top – suggesting a cross – a skull at the bottom of the canvas, beneath the waves, a nod to the skull of Adam, and the recalling of original sin – the blood of Abel...  the position of the woman wearing the garland of flowers was reminiscent of Mary in relation to the cross (here the mast). Not weeping, but here, looking out, accompanying and witnessing this voyage.

The description, which I read after spending some time with the painting, told me The Wanderer is the name of an infamous slave ship that carried hundreds of young men from Africa to America in the 1850s...the woman wearing a garland is a depiction of a goddess of the indigenous religion of those being transported... patron of the sea and, rather shockingly and soberingly, of the family.

The familiar pattern of composition within an unfamiliar story became a powerful hook and short hand that invited contemplation of great suffering and sorrowing, and a sense of history, identity and community.

An image of confidence, and truth faced, 
an image that invites us to look closer... and to look deeper... 
and not to walk away unchallenged, unchanged or unmoved.

Still affected by this encounter - later in the week, I went to the National Gallery – on a mission to spend time with a familiar image (to me) of St John the Baptist.. by Hans Memling – a 15th century artist of the Northern Renaissance. The Baptist is in our readings today – so a time of prayerful meditation was my plan. 

As I moved around the gallery (a building which, frankly, can give the Labyrinth at Knossos a run for its money at times), I passed from room-to-room looking for this particular image of the Baptist... I found instead - the nativity, the circumcision, the crucifixion, the presentation, the resurrection…

there didn’t seem to be a course you could walk where you wouldn’t get into this jumble - this ‘time shift’ - if you will, where we see Jesus as a baby, then nailed to a cross, then his dead body brought down, then his glorious body rising, and then (just as we are leaving) we see him Once more as an infant in bands of cloth - being presented to Simeon…. it is enough to make you punch-drunk.

In these 40 days of Christmas (running from 25th December until Candlemas)- our scripture readings really don’t help us find our feet either – grouped as they are to theme rather than timeline... 

The birth and circumcision of Christ runs in ‘real time’ – the whole eight days -  then after the visit of the Magi, we have a quantum leap into the adult life of Jesus – his baptism and his first disciples... 

And to make this journey we have shuffled through the Evangelists too... beginning at the beginning of everything with John; to the intimacy of the manger with Luke, on to the worship of the Magi with Matthew; and now back to John... and having spent some time today with his first disciples -  in two weeks’ time he shall be a baby again!

What we learn is that in this period - the Epiphany season we need to hold the recognition of the fulfilment of prophesy in two timelines – both the adult Jesus and the child. 

Having made the leap...  In our gospel reading today, John the Baptist sees Jesus coming towards him and declares, ‘Here is the LAMB of GOD who takes away the sins of the world’

John performs his role as WITNESS to the revelation of God in Christ... the anointing with the Holy Spirit... and his TESTIMONY that he has seen it descend upon him and remain with him.

‘Look, here is the Lamb of God.’ Wonderful. Neither the Baptist, nor the Evangelist actually explain what this means – they leave it there as an enigmatic and bold statement. And the words are so familiar to us from their repetition at the Eucharist that we may not pay them as much heed as we ought, either.

Tradition and scripture point us to the temple sacrifice, where one lamb, morning and evening was slayed morning and evening (thankfully now we just have morning and evening prayer); the Passover Lamb – the real significance – the sacrifice and Jesus going to the cross; and then the suffering servant of Isaiah who bears our sins - ‘like a lamb led to the slaughter’, the prophet Isaiah tells us. Not one or the other – a gathering together - restoring us to God and bringing us under his protection.

Distinct points of reference in scripture – each with a claim of relevance and interest in our understanding of who Jesus is... – bringing the traditions of Temple worship, covenant promise, and prophetic hope together...

Three strands woven into one image – one image - the Lamb of God.

St John the Evangelist is focussed on revealing the significance of Jesus – (theophany and theology) - the Incarnate Word; the prophetic lamb who bears our suffering and sin; who draws people to himself; who performs signs; who “speaks the words of God [and] gives the spirit without measure.”

The Baptist and the Evangelist are clear...   Jesus is GOD WITH US.
The Baptist and the Evangelist are clear... but what of us? 
What are we looking for....?  and what do we find?

What the Kerry James Marshall picture showed me is the need to make time to look closer and deeper... and to SEE the meaning in the words and images given to us... a combination of contemplation and interpretation. To approach the familiar with all the tools of approaching the unfamiliar.

Back in the gallery, as I moved through rooms of these familiar images and scenes – I realised they were catching my attention in different ways... and despite having set out to find a particular image of the Baptist – I was drawn to a halt at a disarmingly and deceptively simple rendition of the Nativity... LIGHT radiating from the Christ child – LIGHT illuminating the darkest night. And under my breath, I muttered... “I am not done with Christmas yet”.

In these same rooms, there are numerous representations of the Baptist – the forerunner.... by a variety of artists (Crivelli, Schiavone, Costa, Murillo...)  John as an adult, a child, a baby – but in almost every one of these - he bears a simple scroll of text Ecce Agnus Dei – Behold the Lamb of God. It is there wherever you look.

In scripture and in art, it would seem that even when he is the subject, the Baptist is leading us to look at Christ – to see him – in every stage of his revelation and in every part of our lives. And, in so doing, to contemplate what it is we are looking for - and what we find.

Our own perspective and the events of our own lives in any given season or age – will guide us to seek and perceive as through a particular lens... but Christ is in all. He is in the stable, the wedding, the bedside, the temple, the wilderness, the garden, the conception and the cross. He is God with us in all the chapters, challenges and disruption of our lives ; and all our life is, to him, a unity – for he knows us before we were formed. And it is before him we shall stand, face-to-face, and be received – God willing.

Look...  look and see the Lamb of God who bears the sins of the world.

The Baptist invites us to look closer... and to look deeper... not simply to see and hear the familiar proclamation once more, but, like his first disciple -  having answered the invitation to spend some time with the Lord, not to then walk away unchallenged, unchanged or unmoved.

The one who was at the beginning, is now, and is with us – in the darkness and in the light.