Follow Me!

The Holy Gospel According to St. John the 1^st Chapter

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.” 

(You may also want to reference the other readings for today, 1 Samuel 3:1-20 and 1 Corinthians 6:12-20, since I use them all in this sermon.)

These lessons are all about God calling us and all the “stuff” that can, and does get in the way of us being able to hear.  The first lesson starts with the story of a priest whose sight is growing dim.  In the Bible, going blind is never ONLY a physical thing.  Going or being blind is always a reference to a person’s faith as well.  Eli was loosing his faith.  It had been a long time since Eli had heard God.  Things were quiet... comfortable... predictable... which I’ll be the first to admit is really nice... EXCEPT that it was slowly draining away his ability to hear God.  His faithful attention span was draining away... so slowly though, that he didn’t even realize what was happening.

We all like “comfortable”.  I’ve got my favorite comfortable spot on the couch at home.  We all like church to be comfortable too and it’s more comfortable when things are predictable.  It’s more comfortable when some joker isn’t monkeying around with the seats!  That was Eli.  He didn’t mean to ignore God’s call.  He had just grown comfortable.  Things had become predictable.  He had developed a passive resistance to hearing that God was trying to do a new thing and he didn’t even realize it.  He didn’t shut out the light of his faith in some once-and-for-all dramatic move... the light of his faith just grew dim, just a tiny bit more every day... just like the light in the Temple.  His faith was fading like his eyesight was fading. 

The second lesson is always great for some shock value because it talks about fornication and prostitutes.  Paul, of course, isn’t talking about LITERAL fornication or LITERAL prostitution.  He’s using some VERY graphic images to shock the church in Corinth, which was a church in deep conflict, into actually paying attention for a change!  The “Body” Paul’s talking about is the Body of Christ, their church, their congregation in the city of Corinth.  Paul is telling the members of that congregation that when they attack one another, spread hate, tell lies, plot, scheme and manipulate other members to get what they want, it is a sin against their body... the Body of Christ... their Church... their congregation... and it’s as unpleasant to God as what happens in a dark alley with someone picked up off the street.  Subtlety was not one of Paul’s gifts.  

He was trying to shock them into remembering that their church really isn’t “their church” at all!  It is God’s church... a temple of the Holy Spirit and he was trying to get them to start acting like it!  Unlike Eli, who was unknowingly and passively resisting God’s call, the church in Corinth was actively rebelling against God’s call.  This was Paul’s graphic wake up call to that congregation in Corinth and every church there ever was or ever will be.  He was telling them, when you do those hateful things, you aren’t just attacking a person you think is wrong (which is bad enough) but you're also desecrating the Temple of the Holy Spirit, you are violating the Body of Christ; didn’t you know that?

Finally, there’s Philip and Nathaniel and the Gospel lesson for today.  On the positive side these two do recognize Jesus!  On the negative side though, they simply couldn’t see that Jesus was infinitely more than what they expected the Messiah to be.  Philip insists that Jesus fit the mold that he had always expected the Messiah to fit.  He calls Jesus “The One Moses and the prophets talked about” which is true, but he also calls Jesus the son of Joseph and tells Nathaniel that Jesus is from Nazareth which shows he’s only able to see the tip of the iceberg.  The whole truth is that Jesus isn’t just a would-be secular king, but Jesus is really God’s Son!  Jesus is the Light who created all things.  Jesus is the One who became flesh and dwelt among us.  Jesus isn’t just some guy who will do the expected Messiah job of forming an army, kicking the Romans out and becoming the King... Jesus is 'God with us' in a whole new way!  Philip didn’t get that.  Philip couldn’t get that.  His sight was blurred by his own expectations.  Nathaniel had preconceived expectations too.  He expected the Messiah to be a miracle worker and Jesus was that for sure.  After all, Jesus saw Nathaniel under the fig tree.  Not with his eyes but in a vision and that totally fit Nathaniel’s ideas about what the Messiah would be like.  But Nathaniel couldn’t see that Jesus was so very much more than what he expected.  Neither of them could see that.

Eli had trouble hearing God’s call because he had become comfortable and stuck; so stuck he couldn’t tell when God wanted him to move.  The Corinthians actively rebelled against God’s call, fighting among themselves; fighting for control, fighting for power, plotting, scheming, calling names and spreading hate.  Nathaniel and Philip couldn’t see that God was literally standing there with them because their minds had already limited what God could or would do among them.  In all three of these lessons, folks were having trouble for one reason or another in really... REALLY hearing what God was trying to tell them.  But these lessons aren’t all doom and gloom... there’s some Good News!

The Good News is that God used them anyway.  Every last complacent, unmoving, power hungry, rumor mongering, short sighted one of them.  God kept calling and eventually Eli got up and did something new.  The church in Corinth never got better and eventually fell apart, but Paul’s letters to them continue to speak to other churches and many of them HAVE listened and changed and thrived.  And, in spite of the fact that neither Philip nor Nathaniel completely understood who Jesus really was or what Jesus was all about, and in spite of their preconceived notions that constantly got in the way, Jesus called them to be his disciples anyway.  

Every one of them was called by God, just like us.  Every one of them were flawed and broken, just like us.  Every one of them had trouble seeing and hearing, for one reason or another, the new thing God was trying to do among them, just like us.  All of them were lost and yet found.  Broken yet still called.  Blind but led forward.  May we learn from them.  May we open our ears and our eyes beyond what is comfortable or expected.  May we open our hearts and our minds and our souls to God speaking a new Word to us.  May we gladly receive the gifts of infinite love, unlimited grace, courage and strength which God has given us there in those Baptismal waters so that we might better follow God’s call for us together as the Body of Christ and invite others to “Come and See”.  Amen.