from 14Jan from John1
My prayer today is that we might have both the courage of Philip and the enthusiasm of Nathaniel and that perhaps we might catch a glimpse of what Jesus sees in you/me, or indeed catch a glimpse of those angels ascending and descending.
Jesus finds Philip.
We often preach about the importance of you needing to find Jesus. But again and again the metaphors – lost sheep, lost coin, show that God does the finding.
Perhaps with the Prodigal son, we might argue about that. And likewise perhaps with Nathaniel.
But start off by reflecting over your own journey to faith. I suppose I would say I was the one who chose to follow Jesus, but now that I’m a bit older I would look back and see that actually to a large extent Jesus had already found me.
Jesus finds Philip and says ‘Follow me’
Have you ever wondered why Philip does? Tucked into this invitation is an understanding that Jesus believes that Philip can do what Jesus is calling him to do. Jesus believes in Philip even before Philip believes in Jesus.
Its good to remember that Jesus calls you to Follow Him- and by that He means that He sees qualities in you that maybe you don’t see. Jesus is saying that He believes in you. That you can do this. You can follow the call to follow Jesus.
Philip finds his friend Nathanael and says You have to come and meet this Jesus. I pray that you and I might have that sort of joy and faith and courage that we might feel able to invite folk to Church, to a Home Group.
I love that Philip doesn’t know all the answers. Nathaniel’s response is pretty negative. Nazareth? Can anything good come from Nazareth?
Philip doesn’t know how to reply to that. He just says ‘Come and see!’. Its okay to not know the answers.
Nathaniel’s response: Can anything good come from Nazareth? This is our first picture of Nathaniel. But it is not Jesus’ first picture. Our first glimpse of Nathaniel is negative, dispiriting. How do you invite him to Church when his reaction is – The preacher comes from where? Some small irrelevant town? No one impressive has ever come from there.
So our first impression is negative. That’s not going to be easy to over come. But note that Jesus doesn’t pick up on it. He doesn’t say ‘I hear you’re a bit prejudicial against people like me’. He sees a deeper truth in Nathaniel. Here’s a man in whom there is no guile, there is no deceit.
Pray that we might have that power to not be swayed by negative responses when people say “Religion starts wars” or “Religion is a crutch, is against Science”, and so on. Its exhausting. But Jesus sees through all that to see that Nathaniel is a man of faith, who longs to see Salvation, a life of meaning and purpose, and connection.
And it might be that this year we will find ourselves having to come to terms with our own prejudices. Invariably we can’t see them. They are blind spots. Someone points them out to me, to you, and we dismiss them and say ‘No that’s rubbish,’ or ‘I was only joking’ or something like that but at some point or other we need to have a quiet word with ourselves, to come to God in prayer and ask for help to face our prejudices.
I remember telling a good Christian, 60 year old, back in 1980s that his racist jokes weren’t funny. He dismissed it and laughed it off. But about a month later I noticed that he’d stopped. Maybe this year we will discover a prejudice or two and maybe God will help us over come them.
Nathaniel has an encounter with Jesus. Jesus doesn’t really say much – I saw you while you were still under the fig tree. Perhaps Jesus is being literal – that he had actually seen Nathaniel sitting under a tree. Perhaps he’s being spiritual and that somehow with His divine eye He knew that Nathaniel had earlier that day being actually sitting under a tree. Perhaps Jesus is meaning it in a sort of spiritual sense – the sitting under your own fig-tree is one of the symbols in the OT for peace, for God’s shalom, and so Jesus sees in Nathaniel someone who is praying for, longing for God’s Kingdom to come.
But the encounter is enough to get Nathaniel questioning everything. How do you know me?
I’ve had people come to me and thank me for the sermon because somehow I was speaking directly to that person. I haven’t the heart to say I wasn’t, I was trying to preach to everyone, but I am aware that that God does take what we saw and make it resonate with all those with open ears, open hearts.
This encounter has given Nathaniel enough to respond in faith. Lots of people came out of our Christmas services saying ‘Wow that was amazing, I could really feel the magic’, and I wanted to say ‘That was Jesus magic, not just glitter magic, it was Jesus’. For Nathaniel, for some people, that’s enough, and they have already started to put all that they knew together. They’ve signed up for an Alpha or started praying and reading their bible. They have made a step of faith and commitment.
Nathaniel goes from dismissively saying ‘Can anything good come from Nazareth’ to ‘Rabbi, you are the Son of God, you are the King of Israel’. Nathaniel’s joy and faith has lit up with excitement. As they used to say in 1950’s films – By Jove, I think he’s got it!
And the promise Nathaniel, to those who have made those first steps of faith is that they will see so much more. You will see heaven open and angels ascending and descending. Wow.
This encounter with Jesus is never very far from us. This season we call Epiphany happens for a few weeks but in truth it happens throughout the year. It happens when you have this encounter with God, perhaps in worship, in a hymn, in a prayer, in the quiet of Church, in a coffee with a friend, in receiving a blessing, the sacrament, and for a moment you have engaged with this Jesus Magic, and your faith has been quickened.
May you find you have the courage of Philip to say to a friend ‘Come and see’. May you receive the exuberance of Nathaniel in response to an encounter with Jesus – in worship, in the sacrament, in the Church family.
And May you grow in your faith with Jesus as you see how much Jesus believes in you, calls you to Follow Him, and may you too catch glimpses of Angels, ascending and descending. Amen.