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Second Sunday after Epiphany

John 1
43-44The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. There he met Philip, who was from Bethsaida, the hometown of Andrew and Peter. Jesus said to Philip, "Come with me."
45Philip then found Nathanael and said, "We have found the one that Moses and the Prophets [f] wrote about. He is Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth." 46Nathanael asked, "Can anything good come from Nazareth?"
Philip answered, "Come and see."
47When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said, "Here is a true descendant of our ancestor Israel. And he isn't deceitful." [g] 48"How do you know me?" Nathanael asked.
Jesus answered, "Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree."
49Nathanael said, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God and the King of Israel!"
50Jesus answered, "Did you believe me just because I said that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see something even greater. 51I tell you for certain that you will see heaven open and God's angels going up and coming down on the Son of Man."


I'm certain that every town has a rival. In Mount Albert, where I grew up, we didn't have much time for people from Brown Hill. I'm not sure why exactly, and no one could adequately explain it either. Truth be told, I don't recall that I ever asked for an explanation. Some things just are. We didn't have any issues with the good people from Zephyr, Sandford, Leaskdale, Cedar Valley, Holt, Sharon, Queensville, or even Egypt. There was something about Brown Hill though, and that's all I can say.

What about you? Any irrational geographic bias? I confessed mine, now it is your turn.

At some point, some smart marketing person figured out that if our favourite television programs were collected on DVD and offered for sale we may just fork over a few dollars (try $50) to watch a season in it's entirety. My lad, a lucky boy indeed, received "Corner Gas" on DVD. For those of you who don't know it, it is a runaway Canadian success.

At the end of season two, Fred, a young man who doesn't appear to do much aside from hang around, falls for a young woman from a nearby town. The difficulty is that the nearby town is an arch-rival, and whenever people say the name Wullerton (!) everyone must spit.

It appears that local rivalries are not new, nor are they any more rational than they were in the past.

***

The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. There he met Philip, who was from Bethsaida, the hometown of Andrew and Peter. Jesus said to Philip, "Come with me."
Philip then found Nathanael and said, "We have found the one that Moses and the Prophets wrote about. He is Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth." Nathanael asked, "Can anything good come from Nazareth?"
Philip answered, "Come and see."

To be fair to Nathanael, we could allow him to be a little skeptical after Philip's build-up: "We have found the one that Moses and the prophet's spoke about." It has an intentional "out of the blue" quality to it, part of John's effort to begin to bond with those of us who already know who this Jesus is.

It is literary device that John uses: first he set's out in his prologue the identity of Jesus (He was the Word, he was God and he was with God) and then he describes the ways in which people in the narrative come to discover who he is. We, however, are unique, in that we already know who he is, having been informed at the very beginning (it even begins "In the beginning") that this is the Christ come into the world.

And Nathanael, acting like any good Mount Albertite (it is no accident that we sound like a biblical tribe) or any good citizen of Dog River, is quick to say "Can anything good come from Nazareth? Prophet's and liberators, you see, do not come from small towns on the edge of nowhere. Moses came from the palace of Pharaoh, and while we know that he was placed there in a not-so-accidental way, it remains that he came from power. The prophet Samuel was a young miracle, the answer to a prayer dedicated to God and living in the inner sanctum of the temple. Even as a child, he was given permission to speak for God.

Prophet's and liberators have royal connections or live in the centre of God's house, they do not come from Nazareth or Brown Hill or Wullerton (spit!). Prophet's and liberators speak to power because they are intimately aware of the language of power, having been steeped in it at court or in the Holy of Holies, the most powerful place on earth. They are not carpenters or the sons of carperters.

Much of Christmas revolves around the unlikely choice of an infant. Much of the power of the incarnation comes from the knowledge that God would choose to enter human experience thought the most vulnerable means possible: the infant child of peasants on the very outside edge of the Empire. You couldn't find a less likely spot for the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

And perhaps naturally, the unlikeliness continues. Why not hail from some other town's rival, little Nazareth, where the popular alternative to spitting is to ask "can anything good come from Nazareth?"

***

The literary device only works if you believe John's prologue. You can only be drawn into the narrative and recognize yourself as an "insider" if you feel or know, or are convinced that Jesus is the pre-existent Word. The difficulty, of course, is that we find ourselves in various places, both as a collection of believers and even within ourselves.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of people. And the light shines in darkness; and the darkness cannot overcome it.

Nathanael will come to see this, through a small sign (Jesus understands him before they meet) but greater signs are coming in a Gospel made up of many signs. But what if we don't get a sign? Or what if that sign is fleeting or unclear? Or what if a single sign is all we ever get, and that sign must sustain us through all of life's challenges?

***

At one of the lowest points in my life I struggled for sleep and sleep would not come. I could feel within me a heart rate doubled through anxiety and the abiding sense that I was undone. My only recourse, so it seemed, was prayer. I prayed for a sense of calm and the blessing of sleep. It was not an elaborate or articulate prayer, simply the words of one with little else to do. A time later, in the dark, I felt a presence and received a message that said "everything will be alright." Immediately, and remarkably, my heart rate returned to normal and for a few brief moments I received calm: until, of course, I realized what had just happened to me. The elevated heart rate that followed was from exhilaration, and the mountain top experience that remains fleeting and isolated and utterly unique in my experience.

***

St. Paul said "we have this treasure in jars of clay." What he meant was that our experience of faith is fragile and given to brokenness. We are imperfect vessels in that we doubt ourselves and others, we miss the signs before us and we struggle to comprehend "revelation" in any form. We are reasoned and orderly people, accustomed to proof and certainty and the most likely explanation.

This is a challenge to faith, but this is the how these things are meant to be. "We see through a glass darkly," Paul also said, and we never lose sight that our sight is imperfect and limited and given to error.

What we are left with are comrades on a journey. We doubt with Thomas and dismiss with Nathanael and fail to truly hear with Samuel and yet God never stops trying. We are awash in signs of God's desire for our lives and Christ's abiding presence. I see it every Thursday when I negotiate the crowd downstairs at the food bank to get a cup of tea. I see Christ in the volunteers. I see Christ in the vulnerable. I see Christ and I see what Nathanael came to see and I see what Paul meant when he said "we have this treasure in jars of clay. We are surrounded, in fact. And Paul said more:

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. (NIV-UK)

©2006, Michael Jacob Kooiman

posted by michael jacob kooiman @ 7:00 AM