A sermon preached at Kowloon Union Church on Sunday 17 January 2021. Second Sunday after Epiphany, by Dr. Muriel Orevillo-Montenegro. The scripture readings that day were 1 Samuel 3:1-10, 10-20; Psalm 139: 1-6, 13-18; John 1:43-51.
Introduction
Good morning! I hope you are all fine and warm enough on these cold days. Perhaps, some people are still thinking of new year’s resolutions of some kind? That they never fulfil as the year wears on. Today, Hong Kong and many countries around the world are still beset with the coronavirus. Some are rolling out vaccines. Some people have anxieties over their safety and effects. Then there is this news of a mutant virus emerging. In other parts of the globe, a leader who could not accept defeat instigated a riot, even as their people are dying of COVID-19 left and right! Politically and economically, people are distressed. In some countries like the Philippines and locally, people have seen their basic rights, especially their freedom of expression getting curtailed, their wings clipped. Led by a sexist and seemingly mentally sick president, the Philippine leaders are taking advantage of the pandemic to propose a constitution change to keep themselves in power. As these things are happening, people have also become frantic about what secure platform to use: Whatsapp? Signal? Inrupt? What? There seems to be hardly good news these days. All these and more make the people long for a world filled with compassion, as a new pattern for a new normal. These past days, I was drawn to listen to oldies but goldies, especially Burt Bacharach’s and Hal David’s prayer-like “What the World Needs Now is Love . . . No not just for some but for everyone.”
On this 2nd Sunday after the Epiphany, the lectionary gives us texts about God calling Samuel to be a prophet (1 Sam. 3:1-10, 10-20), of the Psalmist extolling God who knows us in and out, (Psalm 139: 1-6, 13-18), and the call of Philip and Nathanael in John 1:43-51. All these texts are pointing to love, implicitly and explicitly. But for today, I settled to focus on the Johannine text.
The Background: The Gospel according to John
Believed to be written by John the Beloved and some of his followers, scholars agree that he wrote this gospel in some place within the territories controlled by the Romans during the first century, probably Ephesus. John surely was aware of his and his readers’ geographical and political context: The Roman Empire. Scholars are contesting the date of its writing. Some scholars believe John wrote it before the Jewish Revolt against Rome in 66 C.E. Some said John wrote it towards the end for the first century. Whatever, the historical fact remains that the Romans dominated Jesus’ Palestine and that domination continued until the time of Emperor Constantine. John and his intended readers understood all the aspects and patterns of the Roman rule as their reality, including the political and military procedures, the curtailment of freedoms, etc. This is obvious in John 11:47-52. The writers’ aim here is to tell the readers of Hellenistic background about the meaning of Christ.
The text for today follows the prologue, the first 18 verses, that immediately tells us of the gospel’s emphasis: that of the incarnation. “In the beginning was the Word . . . and the Word became flesh and lived among us.” Then the writer tells us that John the Baptizer was in Bethany across the river Jordan, baptizing and witnessing about Jesus. The writer proceeds to say that “on the next day,” Jesus submitted to be baptized by in Jordan River. On the “next day,” John, presumably still in Bethany, was standing with two of his disciples when Jesus was coming toward them. The disciples left John and followed Jesus. One of the two, the writer said, was Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, who was from the city of Bethsaida. Bethsaida that is located at the northern edge of the Sea of Galilee, is around 58 kilometers to Nazareth.
Reading John 1:43-51
John 1:43 begins with the third “next day” in this chapter. “The next day, Jesus decided to go to Galilee.” Which part of Galilee? The writer does not tell us. However, the writer said that Jesus found Philip there, and called him saying: “Follow me.” Like Simon Peter, Philip was also from Bethsaida. While following Jesus, Philip saw Nathanael. Philip said to him, “We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.” Nathanael’s response to Philip is a sarcasm. “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip’s simple answer was: “Come and see.”
Note that Philip’s mention of the law and the prophets highlights the two important sections of the Hebrew Scriptures. Nathanael is from Cana (John 21:2). Cana is evidently the present-day Khirbet Qana, just 12.8 km from Nazareth, and 19.3 kms. from the Sea of Galilee. A New Testament scholar and archaeologist, Peter Richardson noted that Cana was the strategic headquarters for a time of Josephus, the commander of Jewish forces in Galilee during the Jewish Revolt.
Compared to Cana, Nazareth is set in a small basin surrounded by hills. In ancient times, it was remote and not accessible as it was out of the way. It is not significant. However, a British-Israeli archaeologist Yardenna Alexandre noted that a few years ago, she discovered bell-shaped pits under the Nazareth homes. She surmised that these underground pits served as storage and hiding places during the Jewish wars.
Reflection
Twenty-four years ago, Kim Carnes and Dave Ellingson wrote a song “Love Comes from the Most Unexpected Places.” It echoed in my mind, like a clue to answer Nathanael’s question. “Can anything good comes out of Nazareth?” Yes, because “Love Comes from the most unexpected places.” I am not inclined to give prescriptions here. But I invite you to join me in reflecting on Nathanael’s question still along the line of the epiphany. And I hope you will find the implicit exhortations in the discourses in the text.
First, Philip’s answer to Nathanael to “come and see” is an invitation to be open to a theological epiphany. Epiphania, in Greek, means “to show, to make known, or to reveal.” An epiphany is a moment when one suddenly feels that he or she understands, or suddenly become conscious of something that is particularly important. For a Jew like Nathanael, whose name means “God has given,” waiting for the messiah was of utmost importance in his faith. Most likely a conscientious Jew, Nathanael was remarkably familiar with the Hebrew Scriptures. Being told that the prophecies of the Hebrew Scriptures has come true in the person of Jesus, a son of Joseph the Carpenter, was like receiving a fake news! Nathanael was like saying, “Ow, come on. There is no reference in the Scriptures about the messiah coming from Nazareth. It is not the city of David. Nazareth is an obscure town. It has no messianic significance! No way!” And yet, he wanted to see for himself this guy. He joined Philip and walked towards Jesus. That act shows that Nathanael was open to think and re-examine his views and his faith. Can anything good come out of Nazareth really? Anselm’s classic statement, fides quaerens intellectum or faith seeking understanding is, for me, a fitting description of Nathanael’s experience. He was seeking an intelligible explanation of faith. Surely, the encounter between Jesus and Nathanael was deeply theological. My cousin seemed to have an aversion to the word “theology.” She said it is only for the academe. “Simple persons” like her prefers to hold on to faith. Oh, well. But I insist that a true disciple must be able to explain one’s faith intelligibly.
But it was not the case for Nathanael. He took the challenge to examine and understand his faith, even as he also accommodated the prejudices held by his townspeople against the people from Nazareth. At first, he was sceptical. Perhaps, he thought of Jesus was an impostor. Sometimes, we are like that. I, too, tend to be careless sometimes in making comments on what people say, especially with fake news proliferating in social media. Just like my cousin. I posted in my FB page a message congratulating a fellow James Cone-advisee at Union, Senator-elect Rev. Raphael Warnock for winning the elections in Georgia, U.S. A. Instead of asking who is Warnock, she commented: “The pastor who supports abortion. Tsk. Tsk. Tsk.” While Nathanael was sceptical, it was, I think an intelligent scepticism, as he interrogated his beliefs. It is good to question our faith so we will distinguish the genuine from the fake and flimsy. Lesslie Newbigin, a scholar on missions, said: “Scepticism is a legitimate starting point. . . But it cannot have the last word, or nothing new will be learned.” Epiphany transforms persons. In Nathanael’s case, he moved from being cynical as he accepted the challenge to “come and see.” Philip’s invitation to “come and see” is also addressed to us, to open not only our physical eyes, but also to open our souls to a spiritual awareness. Nathanael had a theological epiphany. He found the answer to his question from the most unexpected person – a son of Joseph the carpenter – coming from the most unexpected places.
Second, the story of Nathanael is a story of an epiphany of love. The song, “Love comes from the most unexpected places,” has a line that says: “And if love takes you in, take all the love that you can find.”
In the gospel according to John, there is no story of the magi visiting, the emissaries who fell in love with the baby Jesus and did not go back to King Herod to report what they found. Instead, the gospel has a story of Philip and Nathanael who had an epiphany experience of being found by love - God’s love, and they took all the love that they could find. Theirs is a story of epiphany of love in one who comes from the most unexpected place. The themes of love and life are the predominant themes in the gospel of John. “God so love the world. . . God first loved us. . . love one another. . .” Love is a powerful word, an action word, a verb.
This epiphany, this encounter with Jesus, was a wake-up call to Nathanael to open his eyes and abandon his prejudice. I think Jesus was also aware of how others looked down on Nazareth and its people. But in an affirming approach, Jesus recognized Nathanael as a “true” “Israelite in whom there is no deceit.” That was an allusion of the narrative on Jacob/Israel who deceived their father to steal Esau’s birth right. His further words, “I saw you under the fig tree,” invokes the Hebrew Scriptures’ view that the one who sits under the fig tree is a person who studies and meditates on the words of the sacred text, and thus, finds the shelter of the fig tree as a place of blessing, of peace and plenty.
Nathanael was impressed! Yes, something good comes out of Nazareth after all! As if enthralled with a celebrity standing before him, Nathanael blurted out praises for Jesus. He exclaimed: “OMG! Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel.” But this accolade of troublesome titles did not seem to flatter Jesus. He said, “Come on, Dude. Do you believe just because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you? You will see greater things than these.” Nathanael, I presume, was aware of the people’s situation in the empire. But one’s view can be obscured by where one stands. I think Jesus was persuading Nathanael to get out of the box of his religion and social class to see the horizon of situation. It was a challenge to see the meaning of God’s love for all people, not just for the Jews in Cana.
This was an epiphany experience, the moment when Nathanael suddenly felt that he understood, and became conscious of the importance of this encounter. This epiphany brings the promise of God’s love not only for the scattered Jewish converts but also to all people within and beyond the Roman empire. This love offers the hope of liberation from the sufferings that the people face under the Roman rule. This epiphany of love reminded Nathanael and to the gospel readers that God’s love seeks to transform people, and there is no turning back.
Third, finding love that comes from the unexpected place carries an ethical demand. It seeks a practical, workable answer from the one who finds that love. I was still a little girl when Martin Luther King, Jr. stood in Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C. in 1963 before a humongous audience, not of white rioters, of course. He stood deliver that “I have a dream speech” before a sea of people, people of color and solidarity groups of white people who dreamed and hoped that the “bank of justice is not bankrupt.” To many, it was an epiphany, a sign of hope.
Around that time, as a 9-year-old girl, I too, had a dream. Fascinated with the story of a musician-doctor who went to serve the people of Black Africans in Africa. (Of course, much later, with postcolonial lens, I have some criticisms of his works). Poverty was my reality, and I developed some sense of altruism. I wanted to be a missionary doctor, too, in Africa. But my father told me I need not go to Africa to be a missionary. Although I was active in church, my real epiphany experience did not happen in the church. I had it in the most unexpected places. I had it when I was in living with poor indigenous peoples in the mountains for some months and then, living with the poor in the slums. There, I encountered the embodiments of Jesus, of Christ. It did not tell me that love would come from the most unexpected places, in the seemingly God-forsaken areas. The church in those days was fascinated with “heaven” up there. The discourse was about me and my God, Jesus as my personal savior, my personal salvation. It was more into a feeling-good kind of charity works.
Jesus told Nathanael that he will “see greater things than these,” and furthermore, that he “will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.” Jesus alluded to Jacob wrestling with an angel that left him limping. Jesus told Nathanael that the divine breaks into our time and space. The divine makes us open our eyes to be found by love and to find that love. The divine breaking into our time and space makes us see the seemingly hopeless situation and yet not lose hope. It makes us ready to tell the truth that sets people free. Jesus was aware that telling the truth is a risky business, but a disciple must be ready for greater tasks, greater things. Bev Harrison, my social ethics professor, reminded us that in situations of injustices, one must harness anger in the work of love. Jesus told the disciples that the one who loves and believes in him will also do the works that he did “and, in fact, will do greater works than these.” (John 14:12) The task of a follower is to prove the truth of Jesus’ work of love, even that of harnessing anger in the work of love. It is not about converting people to our brand of Christianity. It is about embodying that love that Jesus as demonstrated to live out in his context.
Conclusion and Challenges
God is love. This love is found in the most unexpected places, unexpected people, unexpected events. God reveals the Godself to people through a vision, burning bush, still small voice, through dreams, through angels in human form, and through events in our lives. We only need to open our eyes and souls. We only need to re-examine our faith, our beliefs.
As individuals, have we led people to see God’s love even in the most unexpected ways and places? Were there instances that through us, people “came and saw . . . even greater things than these?” Has the church offered people reasons why they should “come and see?” In what ways have we helped people see God’s love and how we should live amid this turbulent world – spiritually, culturally, economically, and politically? Have we wondered how our faith in the divine - whom we called with many names, God, Yahweh, Allah, Brahman, Kabunian, Sophia – made impact on our lives, in the lives of nation’s leaders? Why is it that governance is not enthused with compassion, justice, and love? How can the church help people find or see God’s love in the unfolding events in this world? We should ask whether the church, and religions, have offered people “a coherent vision for life” and help them find love in the most unexpected places, and see hope “when difficult questions and problems of life arise.” We should join with that preacher who wondered whether the church in general, has just simply offered “a mixture of entertainment, pop psychology, and superficial spirituality but leaves people empty.”
Today, we are in the segment of human story, when the world indeed, needs so much love. Not just for some but for everyone! We need to discern this love coming from the most unexpected places. But like Philip and Nathanael, you, and I, we - are also called to be the embodiment of that love that comes from the most unexpected place. I would like to end with these words of wisdom that comes with the Yogi tea bag from a friend that says: Live with love and compassion to remove the pain of the world. 🕊
# posted by Kowloon Union Church : Sunday, January 17, 2021
