Some thirty years ago I accompanied a friend to her family’s home for a large gathering. There were multiple generations of kin in the room and most of the conversation focused on the community itself, changes happening, interesting characters doing interesting things, and local gossip. As the only one in the room not related to anyone I felt the need to join in, say something relevant and interesting. So I ventured, “I met someone the other day from here.” Suddenly the conversation stopped and all eyes shifted to me. I continued, “I was at a funeral and one of the funeral staff is from here, his name is XXXXXXXXXX. Does that name ring a bell?” As I finished my sentence I could see faces sour, eyes squint in anger, and in unison they replied, “He is not from here, he is from XXXXXXXXX.” You need to understand that these two communities are side by side, and if you were driving through the major road that connected them to the city you could blink in one community and find yourself in the next. They were/are that close. They weren’t done. “How could you mistake him for someone from our community, no one in our area is like that, we are not like them at all.”
If we are being honest we must admit to hearing some version of this conversation about some other community. I grew up in this city, not very far from this church, and I heard these kind of conversations. I won’t share what communities others were speaking about but the clear message was, “We know what they’re like and we want nothing to do with them.” Case closed.
Most of us know the Christmas story from the voice of Luke, Joseph and Mary had to travel to Bethlehem in accord with the census and when they arrived in the city of David they could find no room in the inn. Thus we hear of a divine birth in a manger. But the upbringing, the formation, the hometown for this Messiah was Nazareth. Throughout the Gospels Jesus is frequently referred to as Jesus of Nazareth. And that reference was not meant to be flattering. Thus in our lectionary Gospel text this morning we hear Nathanial ask, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”
I did some reading about Nazareth. It didn’t take long, because we don’t know much at all about Nazareth in Jesus’ day. Nazareth is barely, if ever, mentioned in first century documents outside of Scripture. Scholarship suggests that Nazareth was a small community of anywhere between 500 and 2000 people. Even the HarperCollins Bible Dictionary describes Nazareth as, quote, “an insignificant agricultural village.” Most of the commentaries I read this week suggest that Nazareth was even more than a small speck of a town in the middle of nowhere. They suggest Nazareth was something of a laughingstock, the butt of jokes, those who admitted they were from this place were the subjects of intense ridicule.
I believe this reference to Jesus was intentionally included by the various scribes of the time because it demonstrated something about the character of God and the mission of Jesus. Namely this connection to Nazareth, like the birthplace for Jesus in Luke (the manger) symbolize the kind of God we worship, the discipleship offered by Jesus. If we are to understand our God, connect to our God, serve our God, embody the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, then we need to be aware that when God appears in our midst it is almost always where we look least, among those think are least and lost. Indeed Scripture often records stories with endings we would never predict; a man in a ditch assisted only by the hated Samaritan, the wayward son welcomed home with a party by his heartbroken father while the “good son” looks on with resentment, a woman with a sick child who dares contradict and challenge Jesus held up as a model of faith, and the source of most of Christian scripture, a man whom once tortured, jailed and killed Christians, Saul who later would become Paul.
My friends here is what I believe to my core. Most of the sacred gems of wisdom I have had the great blessing to hear with my own ears have come from the most unlikely sources. I just wish I had learned this most important lesson earlier in my life. My heart aches with the knowledge that at many times in my life I missed this wisdom because like Nathaniel I dismissed the vessel of the wisdom before the words were spoken, the action carried out. Too often I allowed the stereotypes, the myths, the downright ignorant way we talk about “others” to shape my own impressions of those who stood in front of me. I still do that, I am human after all. But thanks to writers like Jean Vanier and Anne Lamott, who chronicle persons whom our world would label as broken and suspect, I have learned to see with different eyes.
It is no wonder that Saul’s conversion story focuses on his lack of vision, his loss of sight and his new found awareness. When Saul’s eyes are open and he sees more clearly what God is revealing his whole identity shifts as well. And in our story today Nathaniel is about to discover that something beautiful and wonderful did come out of Nazareth. Jesus came out of Nazareth. Nazareth can still offer Jesus to the world. Nathaniel asked Philip, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” And do you remember what Philip said? “Come and see.” To a world and a church that wonders, sometimes skeptically, sometimes hopefully, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” we hope to say, “Come and see.”
Only a short while ago I was sitting with a circle of friends engaged in conversation. I heard something coming from another conversation not far away, something about joy. I was drawn to find out what had been said. I looked up and recognized the one who had spoken of joy, he was a man with little resources, a man I saw walking the streets of Halifax and Dartmouth on a daily basis. I shouted out, “What was this I hear about joy?” A friend of mine who had heard the original statement repeated it back to me, “Don’t delay your joy.” I had read versions of this mantra over the years, “Don’t delay your happiness” and “Don’t postpone your happiness.” The statement itself was not original and this man was not passing it on as such. But effect came with the knowledge that this man had seen a lot of disappointment and tasted a lot of hurt. Yet he had come to this understanding and was sharing it with us. It really hit home for me. I spent the rest of the week sitting with it and with how this man had said it, with quiet confidence and deep humility.
“Come and see.” Amen.