https://youtu.be/mT2lvOAVOT4
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.”
The Sermon
For the next couple of weeks, the old testament and gospel readings are about calling. About God calling people to do something in different ways.
In today’s Old Testament reading God calls out audibly to Samuel. Samuel worked for the high priest in the temple, a man named Eli. At first Samuel thinks that it is Eli calling out to him, but it is God.
God isn’t shy in the Old Testament. He talks out loud to several people – Moses, Nebuchadnezzar, everyone at Jesus’ baptism, Samuel, Abraham, Peter, John, Paul… He doesn’t seem to do it much anymore. At least, we don’t think so. When people start saying they’ve been hearing God speak to them in an audible voice, we tend to look at them funny.
I do think however, that God does still speak to us. I believe it because he has spoken to me. A few times, actually, saying the same thing every time. “This is what I want for you”.
The first time I was pretty young. Sitting in church while Father Vogel talked about vocation. About how the Catholic church needed more young priests. He did this every year, it seemed like and for many years I felt like he was talking directly to me, and I could hear that voice “This is what I want for you”. And I would mentally put my fingers in my ears and go LALALALALA to block it out. I didn’t want to be a priest. I wanted to be a rock star. So, as soon as I could I ran away from the church, much like Jonah ran away from what God wanted from him. But, (spoiler alert) we’ll get into that next week.
The last time I heard this voice was December 13, 2005. I was at an ordination ceremony at Holy Spirit Church in Houston. I sat way in the back because I kind of had to be there when I heard the voice again “this is what I want for you”.
This time the conversation was longer because instead of ignoring him, I argued with him. I even wrote it down afterwards in the back cover of the bulletin – and I still have it.
ME: I’m not worthy (this is me being humble)
God: I’ll make you worthy
ME: I don’t want to (this is me being honest)
GOD: This is why I created you
ME: I’m no good
GOD: No one is good
ME: I can’t
GOD: I AM
And that was the end of the argument. It still took me a while to get around to doing anything about it, but here I am. It doesn’t pay to argue with God. Like, literally, I don’t get paid for this.
The second type of calling is one that we see in the gospels a lot. Jesus goes up to Philip and just says “follow me” and Philip kind of goes, “OK” and takes off with Jesus.
Its kind of weird, and I’m assuming that the writers of the gospels probably figured that those who were reading this would know exactly WHY these guys would just drop everything and just follow him, but 2000 years later, it sounds strange to us.
The explanation I’ve heard that makes the most sense to me it that Jesus was regarded as a rabbi (we hear people calling him that many times in the Gospels) and in those days many people wanted desperately to be a disciple of a rabbi and if they weren’t good enough to do that, they went into the family business, so when Jesus called those guys who were doing their family business he was telling them they WERE good enough and they were excited to be chosen.
But, I haven’t seen a lot of support for that argument, so who knows.
Nathaniel’s reaction is an interesting one. “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” You can hear it’s echoes in the news this week, can’t you? “Nazareth? Can anything good come from that sh—“ - You know what – I can’t say it. My mom is here, for crying out loud. I can’t repeat something that the President said here in church this morning. This is what we’ve come to. Anyway, its not so much that Nazareth was such a terrible place, Nathaniel was from Cana, which is a small town close to Nazareth.
If your high school had a football team, you might know how he felt. In my hometown they would say PRINCETON? Can anything good come from Princeton? Here in Denison it would be Sherman. In Springfield it would be Shelbyville.
At any rate, when Nathaniel does meet Jesus, Jesus compliments him and Nathaniel responds with “how do you even know me?” and Jesus tells him he saw him under the fig tree. Now, we don’t know what was going on there under the fig tree, its not a part of the story here, but whatever it was, it sure convinced Nathaniel that Jesus was the real deal.
It brings to mind our psalm from today:
“Lord, you have searched me out and known me;
you know my sitting down and my rising up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.
You trace my journeys and my resting-places
and are acquainted with all my ways.
Indeed, there is not a word on my lips, *
but you, O Lord, know it altogether.
It is a reminder, that though Jesus was a human, and fully human, that he was also fully God and knew Nathaniel from the moment he was conceived until this moment. Yet, he still chose him.
That is the humbling thing of being called by God, he knows us thoroughly and yet he still loves us and still trusts us. My question to you today is “what is God calling you to do?” Is there anything you feel like God is calling you to do? Are you arguing with him about it or making excuses? The truest thing I may have said that day to God was “I’m not worthy” and he didn’t care. He knows us inside and out and takes us as we are. And that, my friends is good news.
In the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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