John’s Gospel invites us to imagine finding Jesus in revelatory moments, those unexpected moments. And when you experience these epiphanies how does it affect your identity, your sense of being “you”? In this specific Epiphany, the Christmas story and the ones that come thereafter, we listen to God entering into our world, no longer satisfied just to be with us but now has to be one of us. I think when that happens, we change too. Our humanity changes. Suddenly, who we see ourselves to be can be no longer remain the same because we have seen God in who we are. That just has to change the perception of ourselves and others.
Epiphany cannot be all one sided. It can’t just be “oh look, Jesus, cool. Wow.” You then have to ask, so what? Not only to ponder how this affect your notions of who God is but also for the sake of who you are as one who answers the call, “follow me.” We can’t dare assume that we are unchanged by what we witness. Sometimes the change is monumental. Sometimes incremental. Either way, something will happen. Something new is being born in you.
This text also tells how we are to share this Good News, these gifts of vision, these Epiphanies. The Christian faith is passed from person to person. That’s how it started with Jesus, and that’s how it’s been for 2,000-plus years. What was it about Jesus that caused people to believe in him and follow him with no evidence? We don’t know. There was something about him that drew people to him. Had Philip and Nathanael known him before? Had Philip heard about him from Andrew and Peter, since they lived in the same town? The text doesn’t say. It only says that Philip followed Jesus straightaway, then told Nathanael that “we” had found the one promised in the Old Testament. Was the “we” Philip spoke of other people who were following Jesus? We don’t know. When Nathanael expressed skepticism about anything good coming out of Jesus’ hometown of Nazareth, Philip simply says, “Come and see for yourself.” When Jesus tells Nathanael that he saw him already Nathanael is so impressed that he impetuously calls him the “Son of God”.
What was there about Jesus to have this kind of effect on people? The New Testament gives us a slight hint. The Sermon on the Mount in Matthew concludes with the observation, “for he taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes,” a phrase repeated in the other gospels (Matthew 7:29, also Mark 1:22, Luke 4:32,36, John 5:27 and others). Without doubt there was something about Jesus that drew people to him. When British biblical scholar J.B. Phillips translated the Gospels, he was struck by the personality of Jesus and how he drew others to himself. He concluded that there must have been something extraordinary about his person that affected those with whom he came into contact.
Read the Gospels and note the profound effect Jesus has when he meets people: the Canaanite woman (Matthew 15:21-28), the blind man at Bethsaida (Mark 8:22-26), the Roman centurion (Luke 7:1-10), the woman at the Pharisee’s home (Luke 7:36-50), Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1-10), the woman at the well (John 4), the sick man at the Bethesda pool (John 5:1-9), the thief crucified next to Jesus (Luke 23:40-43), and the centurion at the foot of the cross (Mark 15:39, Luke 23:47) — to name only a few. People meet Jesus, and they are changed. Whatever their deepest need was, Jesus meets it. Then they tell others what happened. And that’s how it has worked ever since. One person says to another, “I follow Jesus and invite you to do so too.” Later on, as the church grows, parents bring their infant children to Jesus in baptism and then bring them up to follow him. It’s always person-to-person.
An Ethiopian eunuch is puzzled by a passage in the Old Testament, and Philip “proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus” (Acts 8:35). Peter went to the household of the Roman centurion Cornelius and told them about Jesus, and “while Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word” (Acts 19:44), which was the breakthrough of the Christian faith to the Gentile world. The spread of the Christian church across the world is the person-to-person story of the thousands of people who fanned out across the globe to tell the story about Jesus and what Jesus had done for them. People become Christians because they have seen what the Christian faith has done for those whom they know. The saying passed down from the early years of the church still rings true: “See those Christians, how they love one another.”
“Come and see”. The words are both simple and warm, issuing an invitation not only to see something, but also to join a community. To come along and be part of something. Come and see. These words, this invitation, form the heart not simply of this opening scene but much of John’s Gospel. John’s story is structured around encounters with Jesus. Again and again, from these early disciples, to the Pharisee named Nicodemus, to the Samaritan women at the well, to the man born blind, to Peter and Pilate and eventually Thomas, characters throughout John’s Gospel are encountered by Jesus. And so across the pages of John’s Gospel there are women and men, Jews and Gentiles, rich and poor, powerful and vulnerable, people of all shapes and sizes and varieties that Jesus meets. And to each one, in one way or another, he says the same thing: come and see. Come and see God do a new thing. Come and see as your future opens up in front of you. Come and see the grace of God made manifest and accessible and available to all.
We are called not to cram our faith down another’s throat or question their eternal destiny or threaten them with hellfire, but instead simply to offer an invitation to come and see what God is still doing in and through Jesus and the community of disciples who have chosen to follow him. You probably know as well as I do that the key factor influencing persons to attend a church for the first time is a personal invitation. It’s not the size or reputation of the church; it’s not the beautiful or simple building; it’s not the service times, style of worship, or quality of the music; it’s not the preaching of the minister. All those things have value, but the number one reason people give for coming to a church for the first time is that someone invited them personally. Just as Philip said to Nathaniel, that is, someone said to them, “Come and see.” Which means that the future of the church depends greatly on ordinary, everyday Christians summoning the courage to invite someone to come and see what they have found in the community of the faithful that is their congregation.
Of course, this assumes a) that our people actually have found something that is important to them at church and b) that they are able to name and share that. What is your favorite thing about the life we share in this faith community? Would you be willing to invite someone you know to come and see and share this aspect of our congregational life that you enjoy?
I return to a theme you have heard from me many, many, times in these last eight years, your witness, the words you authentically choose to describe this community, your faith, your discipleship, will have more impact on how others choose to think of Jesus, think of Christianity, of faith, of church, of this church, than anything I say or do, any social media campaign, any strategic plan, anything… That is why my sermons, faith studies, programs, blogs, are about my walk with faith, your walk with faith, our walk with faith, not mere words, no platitudes, no piety. Nostalgia does not work. Certainty does not work (for most). But when people see something real, something that feel and sounds truthful, life-giving, lovemaking, they will lean in, take an extra look, kick the tires, and maybe…join in.
Are you willing to say, with humility, “come and see”? Are you willing to be a witness to what you have found? Are you willing to listen, as Jesus did, to what others need, to what others have to share? Are you willing to include them, as you were included, in a body where all parts are valued, heard, and given voice in worship, in programming, in mission?
The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.”
Are we willing to ask people to join us, where we have found life?
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.”
Are we willing to others who share with us, where they have found life?
Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.”
Can we get beyond stereotypes, prejudices, judgements based on our privilege, and truly listen, hear, witness, the voices of God in our community? Are we willing to “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!”
We know integrity, humility, those who walk the talk, don’t we?
Nathanael asked him, “Where did you get to know me?” Jesus answered, “I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.”
Do we see those around us? Do we really see them? Jesus did, does.
Nathanael replied, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! Jesus answered, “Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these.”
The United Church of Christ has as it’s mission statement, God is still speaking. If we truly believe that God is present, now, we need to be watching and witnessing. Amen.
