The Second Sunday after Epiphany --- 18 January 2015

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."

Nathanael said to him, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Philip said to him, "Come and see."

• At first glance, this appears to be a nasty statement about Jesus' hometown. I'm sure we've all heard similar things about somebody's hometown – little snide remarks about what is or isn't in the place.
• I once lived in a town where the main industry was a paper mill. The place employed a large number of people from the town and the surrounding area. Have you ever experienced the smell of a paper mill? Well, because of that smell, which hung around all day, every day, the town was referred to as “Stinky Grove.” It wasn't a bad place; it just smelled all the time and because of that it had a reputation.
• In Jesus' time, Nazareth in Galilee was a “hick town”, very much off the beaten path and far from the centre of power and culture. So Nathanael has a poor opinion of the place and of those who come from there. Philip doesn't try to change his mind. He just says “Come and see.”
• “Come and see.” It seems so simple; it almost the same as the invitation to try some new food - “Try it; you'll like it.” Yet, it is hardly like that at all. To be invited to “come and see” leaves everything up to the one invited. It does say something about the one inviting. In the context of Philip's invitation to Nathanael, we can see that Philip is not inviting Nathanael to come and see Philip, but in a very large way, Nathanael is being invited to find what Philip has found.
• Philip is very sure of what he has found: "We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote...” It appears that both Philip and Nathanael were of a mind to be faithful to the hopes and desires of the Jewish people – namely the promise of a Messiah. Philip was satisfied with what he had found when Jesus invited him to “Follow me.” So he invited Nathanael to find what he had found.
• This is one style of what is called evangelism, or how the Good News is spread. For many people, evangelism evokes visions of street preachers, fire and brimstone sermons, and confrontations. It is true that Jesus did confront people and call them to task for what they had done. He did preach in a way that might be called fire-and-brimstone in our day... as did all of the prophets. And it is true that Jesus did preach on the streets and fields and such places more than he did in the synagogue.
• Still the chosen style of evangelism for most of Jesus' followers was the personal invitation, the personal testimony, and the more gentle admonition to “Come and see.”
• Christians all have the mission to spread the Gospel, the Good News of Jesus. Not all of us have the gift of preaching sermons with stirring words that make the Gospel live as those who are there hear it. What all of us can do, no matter what our age or situation, is invite others to “come and see” what Jesus has done in our lives.
• There is no question that this takes courage. It takes willingness to reach out and to let another person in to our lives in such a way that they might see what our relationship with Jesus means to us and has been for us.
• We are all evangelists when you get right down to it. There are the four Gospels and we refer to the writers of those documents as the Evangelists. Yet those four Gospels are not all there is to say about how God has and does interact with the world. Each of us has a Gospel and is a Gospel. We usually don't write them down and they won't be included in the New Testament, but there surely is the Gospel according to Michael, and the Gospel according to Gertie, and the Gospel according to Frieda, and the Gospel according to Colin, and so many other names.
• We are molded, formed, and reinforced by the canonical Gospels, but our own experiences and understandings of how God has worked in our lives is a Gospel as well. And that is the one that we share when we invite another person to “come and see.”
• That is the invitation we've given to our children and to our grandchildren and to the friends around us. That is the invitation we send out in how we treat others, in how we live our lives, and in what we hold dear. We can tell how grace is in our lives
• Sisters and brothers, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is needed in our world today, and for that cause, we are all evangelists.
• I know of a church where these words are painted above the church door: “You are now entering the mission field.” Whether those words are printed there or not, it is true. The words of dismissal at the end of the worship service say the same thing: “Go in peace; serve the Lord.”
• We are all evangelists because we all can say “come and see.”