Second Epiphany, 2006: 

      An atheist complained to a Christian friend, “You God-believers all have your special holidays.  You Christians have Christmas and Easter.  Jewish folk celebrate Yom Kippur and Passover.  Muslims have Ramadan.  We atheist have no recognized national holidays.  It’s unfair discrimination.”

     The friend replied, “Why don’t you celebrate April 1^st?”

      Now, I suppose the fellow could have argued with his atheist friend and given him all the well-thought-out philosophical tenets and various proofs for the existence of God.  Perhaps he was smart enough to know that not many people are argued into the Christian faith.  As a matter of fact, more people avoid the Christian faith because of “in-your-face” arguing and “proof-texting” than come to it.  The only way to convince people of the validity of the claim made by Christians is to present them with Jesus the Christ.  We can do that much better by kind words and even kinder deeds.  On the whole it is true to say that it is not argumentative and philosophical preaching and teaching that has won people to the Christian faith.  It is the presentation of the story of the cross, lived by those convicted of its truth that converts people.

     The best argument is to say to people, “Come and see.”  For that to be most effective, we have to know this Jesus the Christ ourselves before we can invite others to come to him.  The old mountain philosopher was right when he said, “A feller can’t no more explain what he don’t know than he can come back from where he ain’t been.”

     The Gospel for this Sunday lays the groundwork for how effective evangelism is done.  It begins with a decision on the part of Jesus to go to Galilee.  Along the way he finds Philip and extends the call of discipleship, “Follow me.”  Philip follows, listens, learns, and is convinced that this is the chosen one of God.  Philip finds Nathaniel and witnesses to him that he has found the one about whom Moses and the law and the prophets had been writing; Jesus, son of Joseph, from Nazareth.

     Apparently Nazareth was seen in that culture and at that period in history much like modern-day Washington, DC.  Nazareth is the only town that gets its own one-liner in scripture.  Nathaniel responds to Philip’s information with, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”  Nazareth was in Galilee, of course.  Can’t you imagine the rumors that traveled around the region when word got out that a hometown boy was on the way? 

     I found this fictional dialogue in a sermon posted on the internet.

     “I heard he healed a man with leprosy.  My cousin from Capernaum told me.”

     “A spice merchant came through here last week.  He said that the rabbi was drawing huge crowds to hear him preach.”

     “Not the carpenter’s kid?”

     “Right!  Joseph’s boy.  You remember him.”

     “You mean James?”

     “No, Jesus, the oldest.  I hear he’s made it good as a healer and prophet.”

     “No way!”

     “Yes, way!  It’s all over Capernaum.”

     “I hear he’s coming home this Sabbath.  Maybe he’ll preach in the synagogue.  I think I’ll go hear him.”

     “So will I.  It beats watching paint dry in this burg.” 

     They probably ran out of bulletins early in the synagogue that Sabbath evening.  It was standing room only when he was handed the scroll of the prophet Isaiah.  We’ll talk more about that another time.

     Now, back to Nathaniel, who decides to accept Philip’s invitation to “come and see,” even with his doubts.  Jesus saw Nathaniel coming toward him and said, “Here is a genuine child of the covenant in whose heart there is no deceit.” 

     “Where did you get to know me,” Nathaniel asks?  Jesus simply said that he had seen him contemplating under the shade of a fig tree.  That carries a deeply symbolic meaning to the pious Jews of the day.  The fig tree was the symbol of peace that the pious Jew sought.  To be able to sit under one’s own fig tree and think and pray for the day when God would send the chosen one was a fervent desire.  Nathaniel felt that Jesus had seen into the very depths of his heart.  It was not so much that Jesus had seen him under the fig tree that surprised Nathaniel; it was the fact that Jesus had read the thoughts of his inmost heart.  Nathaniel may have said to himself, “Here is the man who understands my dreams.  Here is the man who knows my prayers.  Here is the man who has seen into my most intimate and secret longings and desires that I have never been able to put into words.  Here is the man who can translate the inarticulate sigh of my soul.  This must be the Son of God, God’s promised anointed one.”  Nathaniel decided to commit his life to this one who read and understood and satisfied his heart.  Discipleship always asks for and involves a decision.

     If we decide to become a follower of the one who sees each one of us under our own version of the fig tree, we will no longer be our own person.  We will become a Christ-person.  Life, from that moment on, will be based on following and not on our leading.  We will have footsteps to step into and not footprints to leave.  As we follow him certain things will be true in our lives.  What we find will no doubt depend on what we are looking for.  If we buy into the “health and wealth” description of discipleship, we may be sadly disappointed.  It we are expecting someone who will make our lives easier, we may equally be disillusioned.  He did not come to make life easier, but to make life great.  If we are looking for someone who will make us successful, we need to be sure that we use his definition of success and not our own or the one perverted by the world.  If we are looking for someone who will help us justify our prejudices and stereotypes and our pride in position, place, and prestige, we will find instead someone who demands that love be the measure of our relationships with all others.

     If, on the other hand, we are looking for a friend and companion, we will find none more faithful and true.  If we are humble enough to be looking for a teacher to help us learn the truly worthwhile lessons in life, we will find the greatest teacher in the history of the world.  If we are looking for someone to change our self-centered, guilt-ridden, wrong-headed lives, we will find a Savior.

     So, for what do you look this day?  “Come and see” the one that can take away the worry of celebrating on April 1^st and will provide whatever it is you seek.  Amen.