Worship on 1/15/2012

 

Called To Do What?”

John 1:43-51

 

Last year, I found what I thought would be a perfect gift for the woman of my dreams – a frog that turned into a handsome prince when doused in water (the symbol of a kiss).  In my humility, I was certain that this would serve as a reminder of the prince she had found.  This was based on a fairy tale, of course.

 

I guess we all like fairy tales.  They cheer us up when we remember that the princess kisses a frog and gets a handsome young prince for her troubles- because we remember all the frogs we have kissed and got nothing in return.  And what about the ugly duckling who turns into a beautiful swan.  We all harbor that hope, don’t we – that we might yet grow toward our beautiful potential.

 

We like fairy tales because they are stories of  “transformations” and this is pretty much like what the calling of the disciples is all about – ordinary people becoming much more than ordinary. When John is writing his gospel, do you think he thought his readers might attempt to identify with the characters of what has been called “the greatest story ever told”?  Certainly not all of them!  We probably see little in John the Baptist that reminds us of ourselves.  And who among us sees himself as one of those lawyers sent out from the Temple crowd in Jerusalem to get the dirt of the “wild man in the wilderness”?  However, maybe we could identify with the young man named Nathaniel.  And, if we did, maybe we could get a hint of what happens to somebody when they meet Jesus.

 

When the story of Nathaniel unfolds before us, our first glimpse of the man is as a cynic.  Philip comes rushing up to him to announce that he and his friends have found the Messiah, the one foretold in prophecy – and he is from Nazareth, the son of Joseph.  Nathaniel hardly looks up from his book, but you can almost see the sneer on his face when he asks, “Indeed!  Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” 

 

That just isn’t fair!  Nowhere in the Old Testament is Nazareth even mentioned.  The reliable historian of the First Century – a man named Josephus doesn’t even mention Nazareth.  Admittedly, it was not the crossroads of the universe, but it was home to Jesus and his family. Later, in the Gospel, we learn that Nathaniel was from Cana – just up the hill from Nazareth.  His response hints to a rivalry between towns, even a prejudice. Nathaniel was, at least, a cynic, and because of him, Nazareth gets a bad name.

 

But, as a cynic, Nathaniel could be the patron saint to a lot of us these days. We have to admit that there is more than a little of the cynic in some of us these days.  The true Cynic, a man named Diogenes, was known for carrying around a lantern, even in daylight, claiming that he was looking for an honest man.  Woe be unto him if it was an election year when he was searching! We can understand his cynicism; we look upon the world with at least a little of the cynicism with which Nathaniel spoke and are quick to say, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth or Washington or any of a hundred others places or events we might  name.”

 

How do you deal with a cynic?  Andrew would still be arguing his case if he had chosen to debate with Nathaniel. Instead, he said, “Come and see for yourself.”   And what a difference that visit made!  We have seen Nathaniel as a cynic, but Jesus saw him as “a man without guile”.

 

What an interesting word – “guile”.  Originally, it was associated with witchcraft and sorcery, but it later evolved as a word meaning “to mask or to be untrue, to pretend.” It is the word from which our word “decoy” comes. A decoy is a false presentation of a real object.  Jesus says of Nathaniel, “Behold, an Israelite in whom there is no guile.”  That’s a pretty high compliment.  Nathaniel was absolutely honest, through and through!  But Nathaniel, still a little doubtful, has a question:  “How do you know me!”  And Jesus responds, “I saw you sitting under the fig tree.”   I’m sure we are all thinking, “Well, that explain it!”

 

A fig tree is normally about fifteen feet high and has a span of about twenty five feet.  It is shaped somewhat like an umbrella and furnished the perfect place for an Israelite to sit and meditate and study and search his mind and soul for the presence of God.  It was a far better place than in his typical one room house.  And so, when a man was seen reading and praying under the fig tree, it was the traditional and even symbolic image of a man looking for God’s presence or searching for a hint about the coming of God’s promised Messiah. 

 

Nathaniel comprehends this as Jesus having read his mind and heart, and he immediately responds with a statement of faith – “Rabbi, Son of God, King of Israel!”  Now that’s a far cry from “Can anything good come out of Nazareth”! 

 

Let’s stop here for a minute and consider what is happening.  Nathaniel is a good man, contemplating life under a fig tree, studying the scriptures perhaps, but certainly meditating about God’s purposes.  Andrew breaks in just at the right moment, and bids him come and see for himself.

 

The verb “see” that is used here is a little stronger than just a glance:  it is more like “staring” at something, closely examining something that has a fascination for us.  And this is what Nathaniel does.  He sees Jesus in a way that fits the promise of his studies.  If John is expecting those who read his gospel to choose a character to emulate, this is the time to climb on board the Nathaniel express!  We need to look at the Jesus that John is trying to reveal with much more than a casual glance.  We need to examine Jesus as the one who will open heaven and earth to us.

 

Whoa!  Where did that thought come from?  Jesus tells Nathaniel that he will see greater things than a simple reading of his heart and mind”: he will see “angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”   Nathaniel, as a good Bible reading Jew, would have recognized this allusion to an Old Testament story – the one in which Jacob had a dream about angels doing that very thing – going up and down the ladder to heaven.  It was at that very moment that Jacob decided that God was in that place, with him.  Jesus is saying to Nathaniel, “Come with me and I’ll show you what happens when God is with you, when heaven and earth meet together.”  You see, that what really happened ‘way back then:  in Jesus, heaven and earth met.  It’s what we say in the Lord’s prayer, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”.  When heaven and earth meet, a lot of things change;

 

in Cana, the very next day, water turned into wine

at a wedding feast,

 

later, a little boy’s lunch turns into a feast for five

thousand people,

 

a tomb in Bethany gives up Lazarus,

 

a blood stained cross becomes the symbol

of death’s defeat.

 

 And Nathaniel would have indeed been privileged to watch all this when he followed Jesus.

 

As we started this morning, we talked about fairy tales being stories of transformation, just as becoming a disciple is a story of transforming lives.

 

 The princess wanted a true love and a frog

 becomes a handsome prince;

 

 the ugly duckling who wanted to become beautiful

 is indeed transformed into a beautiful swan.  

 

Nathaniel longs for the Messiah, and behold,

his wish becomes reality.

 

Don’t overlook the role of Philip:  he made an important discovery just moments before and rushed to tell Nathaniel.  That’s what we are supposed to do – find and pass it on.  Someone has written that some of us are candles and some of us are mirrors.  The purpose of the mirror is to reflect the light that it has found.  When Jesus says “I am the light of the world” our only true and honest response ought to be, “I am the mirror who passes that light along.”   This is how the Word has kept alive these many centuries – by ordinary people who have been transformed.