AU United Methodist Community

Rev. Mark Schaefer
Kay Spiritual Life Center
January 15, 2012
John 1:43-51

John 1:43-51 ¶ The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.” Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said of him, “Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!” Nathanael asked him, “Where did you get to know me?” Jesus answered, “I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.” Nathanael replied, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” Jesus answered, “Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these.” And he said to him, “Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”

I. BEGINNING

Imagine you were offered an all expenses paid trip to anywhere in the world.  The perfect getaway vacation to anywhere you’d like to go.  Where would you go?  Rome? London? Paris?  Cairo?  The Greek Isles?  Maybe Rio de Janeiro.  There are all kinds of fascinating places that we could go.

But you know what you never hear people say?  “Let’s take a trip to Nazareth.”

Image courtesy wordle.net

People plan all kinds of trips to all kinds of places around the world, but even when they plan to go to those places of antiquity they go to Rome, Athens, Jerusalem, or Cairo.  Christian pilgrims make trips to Jerusalem to walk the paths that Jesus tread and to see the sites that form the framework of the Gospel story.  But when they do, they’re much more likely to go to Jerusalem or Bethlehem to see the Church of the Holy Sepulchre or the Church of the Nativity.  If they’re on one of those Christian Holy Land tours, they might take a side trip to the Jordan river or to the Sea of Galilee.  But you never hear anyone really talk about Nazareth.  It’s not a bad town—it’s the largest city in Galilee and possesses a sizeable Christian Arab population.  Is there something wrong with us that we’re not more excited to see Jesus’ hometown?  That is doesn’t show up on top of the list of exciting places to see?

Well, to be fair, we wouldn’t be the first ones.  It doesn’t seem that many people in Jesus’ day were that interested in going to Nazareth.  The Gospel of Matthew tells us that Joseph and Mary moved there upon return to the land of Israel after the death of King Herod.  The very next mention it gets in Matthew’s Gospel is of Jesus leaving Nazareth to make his home in Capernaum.  Not even Jesus, it seems, wanted to hang out in Nazareth.  Mark’s gospel tells of the first time Jesus goes home after being in ministry and it does not go well for him in the synagogue in Nazareth.

And then we have this interesting passage from John’s gospel.  Jesus has just called Philip to be his disciple.  Philip, in turn, goes to get Nathanael:

Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.” Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”

That’s an interesting reaction.  “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”  Later when Nathanael is approaching Jesus, Jesus remarks, “Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!”  That is–here is someone who won’t lie to you.  And so, given that Nathanael is presented as an honest and forthright person, his judgment as to Nazareth’s worthiness is interesting.  Because if Nathanael is being honest, then Nazareth is not a place you’d expect anything good to come from.

Now, it’s not that Nazareth was a small town.  It appears that Nazareth was not a good town.  So, when Philip comes to Nathanael to tell him that they’ve found the messiah and he’s from Nazareth, Nathanael can hardly believe it.

We don’t know what reputation Nazareth had.  But given Jesus’ experience in the synagogue there, and that the usual appraisal in the gospels is somewhat negative, we can guess.  Perhaps it was a mean, cruel town.  The kind of town that would have felt comfortable saying mean things about the young unmarried woman who showed up pregnant.  Perhaps they might have even been willing to stone such a woman.  Perhaps it was a ‘wretched hive of scum and villainy’ in which travelers ‘must be cautious’.  Whatever the reason, it seems to have had a negative reputation; and thus Nathanael’s surprise.

Philip’s response is even more surprising.  Note what Philip does not say.  He does not defend Nazareth by saying, “It’s not so bad! There are some really nice parts and some decent restaurants.”  This is the kind of thing that people who are from old rust-belt towns have become accustomed to doing when questioned about their home towns.  Nor does Philip attempt to defend Jesus by saying, “Well, he lives in Nazareth now, but he was born in Bethlehem, so it’s okay.” No, all that Philip says is “Come and see”.

Were Jesus to have been born in this day and age, I wonder where he’d have to be from to elicit that kind of reaction?  Where are the unexpected, God-forsaken places that we least expect to find God present?  (Don’t worry those of you from New Jersey, I’m not going to take any cheap shots here.)

Perhaps it wouldn’t be from a particular place.  After all it’s probably not the town of Nazareth that was the problem.  It was probably the people.  So, among whom would Jesus have to dwell today to merit such scorn?   “We have found the messiah, Jesus, son of Joseph, of the ______”  What would fill in that blank such that the average persons reaction would be one of derision?  I suppose Congress is the obvious answer.  But what beyond that?

Drug dealers? Sex workers? Investment bankers? Welfare cheats?  Militant atheists?  Al Qaeda operatives?  The Burmese Junta?  Westboro Baptist Church? — I confess, I’m having a hard time topping that one.

But whatever we come up with to fill in that blank in order to produce that reaction, that’s the reaction that Nathanael has to hearing that Jesus is from Nazareth.  Nothing good can come from it.  Certainly not the messiah.  There is irony and paradox at work in this text and all that Philip can say by way of answer is “come and see”.

I want to come back to that thought experiment.  It was a year ago this past week that our campus was visited by four protesters from Westboro Baptist Church—a church known for its intolerance and spewing hatred, particularly at military funerals.  I was so very proud of the response this community made. We were committed to presenting another face of God than that which Westboro was presenting.  Instead of a face of hatred and narrowness, we sought to present a face of a loving and accepting God.  This university, likewise, sought to respond not by demonizing the protestors or shouting them down with words of hate, but to respond with messages of love.  We here were committed to the idea that we should act in such a way that people would see in us an expression of God and of God’s grace. To that end, on that cold winter day, we served a lot of hot chocolate, and even offered some hot chocolate to the Westboro protesters.

But what if someone had told us that they had met the messiah and he was among the Westboro folks?  Can anything good come from Westboro Baptist Church?  Now, I’d have a really hard time myself saying yes to that; let’s not pretend I’m any holier just because I have the robes on.  But that would be a hard thing to imagine.

And yet: isn’t that how God seems to like to work?  Isn’t that Jesus’ M.O.?  The religious leaders invite him over to dinner or something and he’s busy hanging out with prostitutes and tax collectors.  He’s talking with Samaritan women and Roman centurions and all kinds of people that the rest of them find disreputable, scandalous.  And yet, that’s where Jesus was.  Right there.  Can anything good come from a Samaritan?  Or a Roman?  Come and see.

This should shape our attitude as a church to our work for justice.  A generation or more ago they might have asked, ‘Can anything good come from Selma?  Or Montgomery?  Or the Jim Crow South?’  It was Dr. King who was the one who said, “Come and see.”

But here’s where it really hits home for us.  We sometimes become so convinced of our own wretchedness that we cannot imagine that God can do anything with us.  Or that Christ could possibly dwell with us.

Christ can’t possibly dwell in me—I have so much doubt about my faith.

Christ can’t possibly dwell in me —I’ve slept around a lot and haven’t been responsible with myself.

Christ can’t possibly dwell in me —I have too many emotional or mental issues and God is far away.

Christ can’t possibly dwell in me —I’ve hurt so many people and caused too much pain to those I love.

Christ can’t possibly dwell in me —I drink too much, I smoke too much, I buy things I don’t need and don’t give enough to the poor and needy.

Christ can’t possibly dwell in me—I am so broken. So very, very broken and the worst part is that no one even knows how broken I am.

Christ can’t possibly dwell in me—I feel so alone and bereft of hope.

No, where the problem really lies is in the Nazareths we see in ourselves.  Those disreputable, god-forsaken, meritless places we imagine nothing good can come from.

And yet, the Gospel tells us that it is precisely in those places where Jesus dwells.  Not only among the reputable and glorious Romes, not only in the cultured, educated Athenses, nor the pious, holy Jerusalems, but in the small, disreputable, shady, sketchy, broken Nazareths.  This is where Christ comes to us—in those places.

And if Christ can dwell in us, then we can participate in Christ.  We, too, can bear Christ into the world as his dwelling place, broken, disreputable though we may be.

II. END

We begin a new year together.  A time of resolutions and recommitments.  A time for fresh starts.  There may be many in this place who have long looked inside and only seen a god-forsaken, disreputable place.  Perhaps many who have wondered what good can come from someone like them. Whether Jesus can really dwell in them, whether they can accomplish anything good for him.

But the answer to that question remains the same as it has long been: Can anything good come from Nazareth?  Come and see.