Sermon preached by Fr. Tom
at St. Thomas, Plymouth
January 18, 2015
Second Sunday after Epiphany
1 Samuel 3:1-20
Psalm 139:1-5, 12-17
1 Corinthians 6:12-20
John 1:43-51
“May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be an acceptable offering in your sight, Oh Lord, my strength and my redeemer.”
This is the kind of Sunday where priests dare each other to preach on one topic or another. I talked to a mentor not too long ago, and he said he was preaching on the call of Samuel. Susan is preaching on the call of Nathanael. Somehow, Paul’s writings on fornication don’t exactly appeal.
Today’s reading from Samuel has one of my favorite lines from this book. “As Samuel grew up, the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground.” Teachers are keenly aware of words falling to the ground. You have some lesson that just goes flat and are a little envious of Samuel.
Today’s reading from Samuel and the Gospel reading both deal with the subject of call. God calls Samuel and Phillip. Phillip goes and invites Nathanael. Nathanael responds to his invitation by asking if anything good had ever come out of Nazareth. This is just a classic Eeyore comment, and you folks probably know people like this. You will have bought a new car or something, and you are excited about it. You tell your friend, and he responds, “I would not drive a Ford on a bet.” It throws a little cold water on you.
Philip could have responded in lots of ways. He decided to respond with the invitation, “Come and see.”
Since Nathanael couldn’t provoke Philip to fight, he decided to do what Philip suggested. Nathanael went to see what all the excitement was about.
From there, the story moves quickly, and it is full of references that bear some explaining. When Jesus saw Nathanael, he said, “Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!” That seems like an odd thing to say. Is it a compliment or a slam on the people of Israel? To understand what Jesus was talking about, it would help to be a first-century Jew.
The background for Jesus’ statement goes back to the book of Genesis. Jacob and Esau were brothers, but Jacob and Esau were also rivals. Esau was the older of the two and is described as a hairy man. Jacob was younger and is described as a smooth man. In fact, Jacob was the kind of smooth where you wanted to be keeping a firm grasp on your wallet.
As the older brother, Esau had two advantages over Jacob. He had his birthright and his father’s blessing. The birthright gave Esau the right to twice the inheritance that Jacob would receive when their father died. This is that “double portion” that you hear mentioned in the Hebrew Scriptures. The father’s blessing was special too. Every son wants his father’s blessing, but in the day of Jacob and Esau, the father’s blessing could also confer an additional inheritance.
Jacob managed to catch Esau at just the right moment. Esau was hungry and Jacob had cooked some lentils. Jacob persuaded Esau to trade his birthright for those lentils. But then Jacob went after their father’s blessing too. You know the story with the sheepskins on the arms.
When Esau returned, he asked Isaac for his blessing, but Isaac said, “Your brother came deceitfully, and he has taken away your blessing.” That’s the verse that would have come to mind when Jesus said of Nathanael, “Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!” Jesus was saying, “Nathanael, you are a good man. You are honest. You tell the truth. You aren’t deceitful like that trickster Jacob.”
That was a good assessment, and Nathanael knew it. Nathanael was a good, and honest and spoke the truth. But how did Jesus know that? Nathanael asked Jesus, “Where did you get to know me?” Jesus answered, “I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.”
The Gospel of John often portrays Jesus as having God-like knowledge and God-like wisdom. Jesus had never met Nathanael, but Jesus knew what kind of man Nathanael was. Jesus also knew where Nathanael had been and what he had been doing. That was God-given knowledge, and it was the kind of vision that Old Testament prophets had enjoyed.
Nathanael, sensing the God-given quality of Jesus’ vision, replied, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” This, too, was God-given insight. Philip had told Nathanael that they had found the one for whom they had been waiting. They had found the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth. Now Nathanael knows that Philip was right. He had thought that nothing good could come from Nazareth, but now he is happy to have been proven wrong.
Jesus then told Nathanael that he hadn’t seen anything yet. Jesus said, “Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these.” Jesus went on to say, “Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”
That sounds pretty mysterious to our 21st century ears, but it wouldn’t have sounded mysterious to Nathanael. Jesus was referring back to our friend Jacob. This was the same smooth guy who had conned Esau out of his birthright and cheated him out of his blessing.
For some reason, known only to God, God chose Jacob, Mr. Smooth, to be the father of God’s chosen people. God made that decision known to Jacob in a dream, where Jacob saw angels ascending and descending on a ladder that reached into heaven. This ladder connected heaven and earth. It was the channel through which angels brought blessings from heaven to earth.
Now Jesus is telling Nathanael that HE is the new ladder. He is the new channel of blessing. He told Nathanael, “Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”
Is there anything in this odd story for us? Is there anything here that we need to remember? I think so.
I really like what Philip did when he told Nathanael about Jesus and Nathanael rained on his parade. Do you remember how Philip responded? He said simply: “Come and see.”
“Come and see!” It worked. Nathanael came and saw. “Come and see.” That was an effective approach then, and it’s an effective approach today.
I read a book recommended to me by a Culver alum. It was Linked by Barabasi at Notre Dame. This book deals with degrees of separation and the ways in which we are connected to each other. He talks about nodes in a network. In many disciplines there are people who serve as nodes. They have lots of connections and serve to connect people who would not normally talk to each other. In the math world, Paul Erdos was a node. He wrote thousands of papers and collaborated with thousands of people.
St. Paul was a node as well. You look at the connections he made in his travels and evangelism. Had it not been for someone like St. Paul, the church would have grown in a different way and probably a lot more slowly.
I know the Bishop has talked about people who serve as nodes in area churches. He asked at a meeting once at St. Thomas when I was Sr. Warden for everyone to go around the table and say how it was that they started to attend St. Thomas. So what brought you to the Lord, and what made you start attending here? People come because they are invited. They are often invited by the same person. There are people who have a “come and see” ministry. There are also people who have an “Eeyore” ministry. They are always saying “It will just fall off again anyway.” I want you to be a congregation with a “come and see” ministry.
There is a lot of research out there about church growth. Depending on who you are reading, 70 – 90 % of all people go to church because they have been invited by a friend or family member. We have friends and neighbors and coworkers who need Christ. They don’t want to argue with us. They don’t want us to put them on the spot. But they might be open to an invitation to “Come and see.”
This really is the idea I want to leave you with today. The church started small and with disciples being invited one at a time. These disciples invited friends and family. Andrew brought his brother Peter. Philip brought his friend Nathanael.
This church can grow the same way.
I have said these words in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen