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December 18, 2011

4^th Sunday in Advent – with alternate Gospel

Psalm Luke 1:46-55

Second Reading Romans 16:25-27

Gospel John 1:43-51 Jesus Calls Philip and Nathanael

 

“Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”

“Come and see.”

 

Last Sunday, we saw how Andrew and another follower of John the Baptizer began to follow Jesus when he invited them to “Come and see” – and we saw how Andrew immediately went and found his brother Simon Peter and told him, “We have found the Messiah!”

 

Now Jesus moves north from Judea to Galilee, his home country.

Jesus finds Philip of Bethsaida, Andrew and Peter’s hometown, and says to Philip, “Follow me.”

And he does.

Like many first century Jews, Philip was searching for the Messiah, the One anointed by God’s Holy Spirit.

When he was called, Philip recognized that Jesus is that Spirit-filled Messiah.

So Philip searches out a fellow Messiah-seeker named Nathanael, and says to him, “We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.”

Now Nathanael is in Galilee; Bethsaida is only about 30 miles from the small town of Nazareth, which itself is about 3 miles from the pagan Greek city of Sepphoris.

Galilee is provincial, far from the religious and cultural capital of Jerusalem.

Nathanael knows Nazareth, at least by reputation.

He knows it’s no Jerusalem.

So Nathanael’s prejudicial reaction makes sense: “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”

 

No one expected the Messiah to come from Galilee, much less from the hick town of Nazareth.

Philip does not argue with Nathanael; instead, he just invites him to “Come and see.”

Nathanael does come to see for himself.

He sees that Jesus already knows him, and has seen him.

Jesus knows that Nathanael is “truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!”

Jesus saw Nathanael under the fig tree when he was far away.

“Gathering figs” was a term Rabbis used for studying the Torah, God’s instructions in the first five books of the Bible.

Jesus seems to know all about Nathanael’s sincere search for God’s truth.

He sees into Nathanael’s heart.

He knows Nathanael.

And that changes Nathanael’s perspective completely.

He says to Jesus, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!”

 

Garrison Keillor tells an anecdote from his youth. It’s a story about the choosing-up of sides for sandlot baseball games. Here’s how it happened back then — and, how it happens still (at least, when kids today can manage to break away from those organized teams that seem to be everywhere).

There were two boys, as Garrison tells it: Daryl and David. They were always the captains, exercising their prerogative as though by divine right. First they would pick the popular boys, the natural athletes. Then it came time to deal with the rest:

 

“After the popular ones got picked, we stood in a bunch looking down at the dirt, waiting to see if our rating had changed.

They took their sweet time choosing us; we had plenty of time to study our shoes. Mine were Keds, black, though white ones were more popular. Mother said black wouldn’t show dirt ….

Nine boys to a side, four already chosen, 10 positions left, and the captains look us over.

They choose the popular ones fast (‘Brian!’ ‘Bill!’ ‘Duke!’ ‘John!’ ‘Bob!’ ‘Paul!’ ‘Jim!’ ‘Lance!’), and now the choice is hard because we’re all so much the same: not so hot — and then they are down to their last grudging choices, a slow kid for catcher and someone to stick out in right field where nobody hits it, except maybe two guys, and when they come to bat, the captain sends the poor right fielder to left, a long, ignominious walk.

They choose the last ones two at a time, ‘You and you,’ because it makes no difference, and the remaining kids, the scrubs, the excess, they deal for as handicaps (‘If I take him, then you gotta take him’).

Sometimes I go as high as sixth, usually lower. Just once I’d like Daryl to pick me first. ‘Him! I want him! The skinny kid with the glasses and the black shoes! You! Come on!’ But I’ve never been chosen with any enthusiasm.”[1]

 

Jesus has called each of us with enthusiasm, chosen each of us to follow him.

Sometimes we think of Jesus’ call to us like choosing sides on a sandlot.

We think, “Jesus doesn’t want to choose me.  What do I have to offer for the team?  I don’t have great skills, like Napoleon Dynamite, or status, or popularity, or education, or money.”

Barbara Brown Taylor says: “Sometimes I think that those spectacular call stories in the Bible do more harm than good. At the very least, I suppose, they are good reminders that the call of God tends to take you apart before it puts you back together again, but they also set the bar on divine calling so high that most people walk around feeling short.”[2]

 

The good news is that Jesus has chosen each of us with great enthusiasm.  We are first round draft picks.  None of us need feel short in God’s eyes.

Jesus’ disciples are not chosen for their stature, status, education, or wealth.

They are chosen by grace.

In fact, Nathanael’s name means “gift of God.”

 

You have also been chosen by grace.

Jesus calls to you in the power of the Holy Spirit, “Follow me.”

After Nathanael’s confessed his faith in Jesus his Rabbi, Jesus said, “Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these.  Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”

Jacob’s ladder connecting heaven and earth is alive and active, centered not in a place like Bethel, but on a person, on Jesus, the Son of Man, the Human One, the Word of God made flesh and pitching his tent among us through the power of the Holy Spirit.

That same Jesus chooses you and calls to you, “Follow me, and you will see things greater than you can imagine.”

In God’s good time, you will see the Advent, the coming of Christ to fulfill God’s promise of a new heaven and a new earth.

And you will see the inbreaking of God’s reign of justice and love into the world begun in Jesus’ birth and continuing now.

Amen.  Come Lord Jesus!