John 1:43-51
43 The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee.
He found Philip and said to him, "Follow me." 44 Now Philip was from
Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. 45 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." 46 Nathanael said to him,
"Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Philip said to him,
"Come and see." 47 When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he
said of him, "Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!"
48 Nathanael asked him, "Where did you get to know me?" Jesus
answered, "I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you." 49
Nathanael replied, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of
Israel!" 50 Jesus answered, "Do you believe because I told you that I
saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these." 51
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."
"Follow me”…"Come and
see."
· Simple phrases, yet our lives are often made up of simple phrases
– “I promise.”, “I’ll do it.”, “I have an answer.”, “I love you.”
· Such phrases carry the strongest messages and convey deepest
meanings. To add modifiers and extra words might enhance the statement, but
might just as easily complicate and confuse things. In many cases, the simplest
answer is the best.
· For Christians, the phrase “Follow me” is the ground of
discipleship, the base on which everything else is built. Grace has been
offered to all of us and grace is always an invitation to go further. In many
ways and possibly in unexpected ways, we have heard that call. In fact, it
could easily come to us every day… and should. We are called to follow and that
call is constantly renewed.
· The other question, the one Nathanael puts to Philip about whether
or not anything good could come out of Nazareth, sounds a bit snide, but the
answer is grace-filled: “Come and see.” In a way,
Philip gives the only answer he can. There is no explanation for Jesus and only
the experience of Jesus will answer any question. The invitation to “Come
and see” sounds almost like an invitation to seek your own answers
in the experience you have. To encounter Jesus may not answer each and every
question, and that encounter may not answer our questions the way we’d like. It
may even cause new questions to arise. The only way to answer any of those
questions can be found in the continued experience of Jesus. This something we
work out in faith.
· We will all have different questions. We’re not all looking for
exactly the same thing. What we might find depends on what we might be looking
for. The experience of Jesus could well be different for everyone. The
invitation to follow may take different forms and might sound different to each
of us. Still the final result is meant to be following, or to use a more
“church-y” word, discipleship.
· One of the questions that comes up about discipleship would be
“Why are you Christian?” And there could be any number of answers to that. For
some, it could be cultural or because of family or because of a specific and
singular experience. For another person, it could be far more gradual. The
bigger question – the real question - is why do you remain Christian as
opposed to some other spiritual path? What is that keeps you a disciple of
Jesus Christ?
· It is the experience of Jesus Christ that keeps us there. Whether
in the Scriptures, the sacraments, or in church members, it is there that we
constantly encounter the Lord… even if we do not recognize him at first.
· From that encounter, we reflect, think, and come to some sort of
understanding of what is going on between ourselves and the Divine. This is
probably the simplest understanding of theology that we’ll find.
· I don’t think that it is theology that draws people. There is a
lot of interpretation possible there and very few people spend time comparing
theologies. It appears that the experience and how it meets us is primary. The
experience, whether single or repeated, whether arriving with lightening-like
clarity or gradually coming into focus, appears to be the point. Theology is
written from the experience as a way to explain or make sense of it. It is
written to relate “What happened then?” to “What’s happening now?” and “What’s
happening to me?” That’s what Samuel was doing in our first reading. A theology
that does not lead us back to the experience is troublesome. Good theology can
be as deep and thoughtful as Luther’s collected writings – all 42 volumes. And
good theology can be as deep and simple as “Jesus loves me; this I know/ for
the Bible tells me so.” Theology is always done from the inside since it
reflects and ponders the experience.
· The call “Follow me” continues for each of us.
The call to “come and see” is ours as well since in that we’ll see what
following means for our lives. In this way, a Christian cannot separate thought
and action. Interpreting the experience is engaging in theology, one way or
another. Living the experience is discipleship.
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