A Sermon Preached By

Rev. Peter W. Shidemantle

Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, January 15, 2006 

PEBBLE HILL PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

5299 Jamesville Rd., DeWitt, NY  13214

Phone:  315-446-0960     FAX:  446-0672

phillchu@twcny.rr.com     http://pebblehill.presbychurch.org

  "Come and see." This is the invitation that Jesus’ disciple Philip puts to his friend Nathanael (seems like he knew him), to see for himself who this Jesus was that Philip and others were so excited about. Nathanael was skeptical at first, because of where Jesus was from, Nazareth. It was an out of the way, nothing little town. Nothing good ever came from there, Nathanael said. If it hadn’t been where Jesus was from, it may well have been something else he would have found to be skeptical about. After all, Philip was making a gigantic claim about Jesus: ". . . him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote. . ." If it were true, this would have huge repercussions for his life – and maybe Nathanael, like most of us, would acknowledge a need and even desire for a word from on high, an experience of the presence of the living God – but at our own pace, in categories we can understand. A certain amount of skepticism is understandable. It offers a kind of protection, a sense of the upper hand, when we experience an encounter with the unknown, or what seems even inappropriate.

But Nathanael went with Philip. He went to "see." The text doesn’t tell us, but there had to be something in how Philip extended the invitation that was compelling for Nathanael. This was the pattern in those days among the followers of Jesus, and to this day it is true. There was an ever-widening circle of witness and faith. As we see it here, to witness is not to argue or coerce – it simply invites; "Come and see." It does not discredit doubt. It hears and acknowledges it and then invites, so "come and see."

There’s your evangelism program. Good programs help. Good worship and attractive facilities help. Good parking and accessibility help. But it comes from the invitation extended by those who have decided in their imperfect way to follow Jesus, to those, probably known to us – family member, friend, co-worker, neighbor – who see in us something genuine, someone who trusts enough in themselves and in their God to share a simple invitation: "come and see."

So Nathanael went to see, and what he found out right away is that it was he who was seen by Jesus. This is what any encounter with the living God does, of course. If we are allowed to come to it freely, not pressured or coerced, we find in ways that may be bewildering at first, that we are "known" already by God. "Behold, an Israelite in whom there is no deceit," Jesus said when he saw Nathanael coming. It threw him a bit off-balance, as it would us. "How do you know me?" "Who have you been talking to?" "Who’s been talking about me?" Jesus gives him a still puzzling answer, "I saw you sitting under the fig tree before Philip called you." These words elicit a truthful, strong response from him. He’s not a doubting inquirer now. He proclaims, "Rabbi, you are the king of Israel."

It’s a rather strange interchange. It’s not really apparent where Nathanael’s confession came from. "I saw you under the fig tree." So? I saw you at Wegman’s. There’s no telling what it is in our encounter with God that brings this sense of mutual recognition, the interchange of knowing and being known, of seeing and being seen. Nothing but an encounter with the divine can explain it. But it is that way. When we know ourselves as known by God, see ourselves as being seen by him, even if for the first time, it’s like we’ve always been known, been seen. At the conclusion of this meeting Jesus tells Nathanael that if he believes just because he saw him under the fig tree, just wait - ‘cause you ain’t seen nothing yet!

So there are two pieces to this brief scene: there is the inviting witness to Nathanael by Philip; then there is the life-changing meeting between Nathanael and Jesus. If we view this scene as in some sense a kind of pattern for the witness of the church to the world and the invitation to faith through the life of the church, which I think we can, then I think that we are at a time in the life of the church in our day to pay more attention to the invitation and maybe not worry so much about how we’re packaging the "product." Philip could trust that Jesus would be there and that he would come through when Nathanael came to see him. We need to trust, too, that Christ is present in ways he promised. When two or three are gathered in his name; when and where, as our Presbyterian forebears put it, the Word is rightly proclaimed and the sacraments are rightly administered; when prayers are offered in his name to the God of love; when mercy and compassion are extended to the least and the lost; when righteousness is lived and justice is sought. These are all evidence to the presence of the living God and his Christ, and they happen, oftentimes even in spite of us, as God’s people gather for worship, love and serve one another and our neighbors. There will always be, perhaps, a "better" or more effective way to worship, to teach and learn, to serve – and we will continue to work at these things. But we can always trust that the Lord is among us and that he goes with us into the world.

But what about our witness? There was a long time when the church didn’t have to worry about this very much. People were more inclined to come, and bring their kids. It was, in a way that is certainly not the case today, "something that you did." There are a lot more options today. People claim to be "spiritual," but not nearly as many claim affiliation with a religious body: "spiritual but not religious." A lot of people have done a lot of thinking and fretting about this. "What can we do," many church committees ask, "to make our church more attractive?" – or more brazenly, "to ‘get’ more members?"

There is no substitute for the most basic of Christian invitations, "Come and see." One disciple to one would-be disciple, or as someone has described it, one beggar leading another beggar where to find bread. Getting to that point of willing witness is, I would suggest, perhaps the greatest challenge the church, especially churches like ours, face today. It sounds simple, to say the words to another, "come and see," and in one sense it is. But we have to trust enough in the promise of Christ’s presence and the saving love of God, that we can say those words (or words like them) with apparent confidence and joy. That’s on each of us, not just on our church.

"Come and see!" No prior knowledge is assumed or commitment expected. No preconditions need be met. Just come and see. Walk around in it. Rub up against the rituals and the music of the worship, the language of the scriptures. Try on the new life, a piece at a time. Learn bit by bit what it means to be part of the community of faith, what it means that we gain life by losing it. Get to know Jesus, what he says and shows of God. We’re on the journey, too. There are no experts here. In a sense, we are all beginners.

It’s a word to us, too, isn’t it? No matter how long we’ve tried to live the life. We need to meet him too, to know ourselves as he knows us, again, especially if we are satisfied that we have come far enough in faith. Our walk with Christ may not take us where we want to go, but it will take us where we are wanted – until where we are wanted becomes where we want to go.

One thinks of Martin Luther King in this regard, as we honor his life and his witness over this weekend. He had known Christ through the life of the church his whole life, but the path of his discipleship was not always clear. One particular commitment with which he struggled was the commitment to non-violent change. In an essay describing his theological and intellectual journey he explained how he came to the brink of that commitment, but how he couldn’t think his way fully into it. Then he was thrown into the situation of being the spokesman for the Montgomery bus boycott in 1956. And through the experience of living and working, praying and singing together with others who were trying to break through the walls of that particular injustice in that particular time and place, the commitment came. About it he wrote: "Many issues I had not cleared up intellectually concerning non-violence were now resolved within the sphere of practical action." He had to walk around in it, try out that particular God-inspired strategy in that God-inspired movement. Many was the time when he wanted a more quiet life, to preach and to care for his people and spend time with his family. But the path he was called to, though it may not have been the one he would have chosen for himself, became the one he had no choice but to walk. In one of his sermons he said, "The end of life is not to be happy, nor to achieve pleasure and avoid pain, but to do the will of God, come what may."

I think I understand how Nathanael was skeptical at first. There are days and times when I wonder that if God is there, on the other side of the invitation I have known to come and see, then why doesn’t he do something to end the pain, to bring the peace, to prevent the suffering, to clarify all the confusion. And sometimes when, as the psalmist proposes, I consider the heavens, I wonder if this world our home is just a fluke in the cold darkness of impersonal space. But then I’ll take another step, or more often I’ll be pushed or pulled in another direction, and I find myself in the presence of One who invites me to come and see through eyes of faith, to step once again onto the path of grace, and the way that I would not otherwise know, the way I would not have chosen, becomes my chosen way, my life and my salvation.

"Come and see." It is both an invitation to us, and the invitation that we, wherever we presently are personally on the path of grace, are meant to share with others. This is our witness, even as it is our hope and salvation. Take up the invitation and share it – and let us trust his promise, that if we do, we will see much greater things, the things of God.

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