January 18, 2009:  CALLED AND SO-CALLED
John 1:43-51; 1 Samuel 3:1-20; Psalm 139:1-10, 12-14
Eileen Parfrey  -  Springwater Presbyterian Church.

 

            Once when I was young and considerably more foolish, I made a sarcastic comment about a co-worker, only to discover that very person just around the corner.  Not spying or eavesdropping, just happening to be coming down the hall.  She heard, and I wanted to die of embarrassment.  Living in a small town, you probably learned long ago not to be catty about others because of the likelihood of your victim or their best friend or cousin on the other side of the restaurant booth. Or around the corner.  Or in the next room.  Or as your conversation partner.  But you can at least imagine my pain.  Perhaps that is how Nathanael felt when Jesus explained why he had called him, “an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!” or “guile,” as the King James would have it.
            You remember Israel and guile.  The nation was named Israel for the patriarch Jacob who was re-named Israel after wrestling all night with the angel of the Lord.  Jacob was notorious for his guile and downright trickery.  If an Israelite named “God gives” (which is what Nathanael means) says something catty that Jesus interprets as lacking in guile, that’s confusing.  But this story is about more than even supernaturally overhearing a snide remark.  Let’s read the text again while I unpack it.
The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee.  He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.”  Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.  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.” Philip (who has learned of Jesus directly from the source, not from a third-person source, tells his friend, not literally that he has found “Messiah,” but about the fulfillment of the law and prophets.
            Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”  Philip said to him, “Come and see.”  Nathanael’s cattiness is based on the “Messiah’s” wrong credentials.  “Come and see” is non-coercive witness.
            When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said of him, “Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!”  Nathanael asked him, “Where did you get to know me?”  Jesus answered, “I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.” Incredulous, Nathanael wonders about Jesus’ supernatural powers, that his comment was heard, but Jesus didn’t blow his cover.  The specificity of the fig tree serves Jesus (I heard) as well as John (alludes to Micah 4:4, “they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees,” the description of the Messianic kingdom.
            Nathanael replied, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God!  You are the King of Israel”  These Messianic titles are more grandiose than Philip’s revelation to him.
            Jesus answered, “Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree?  You will see greater things than these.”  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!”  Promises are made to a plural “you,” meant to include us.  Jesus has Nathanael represent all of Israel (fig tree and allusions to the story of Jacob’s ladder).  This allusion also means Jesus is the place of God’s revelation.
            Whew!  This is a loaded story, but from Nathanael’s point of view, this is a story about being recognized but not having it held against you.  I don’t always like being recognized.  By the time I left Madison 9 years ago, my recognition level was higher than I liked.  Too many years of being the only woman in construction or the first female whatever.  Too many years as the spokesperson for a development/ construction company doing high profile projects.  When people recognized me they had expectations about my identity and position which were not often right.
            My friend, Rodger Nishioka, tells a story about recognition that happened when he was organizing a huge youth retreat for the denomination.  Another adult leader asked when the altar calls were going to happen.  Rodger politely explained that the keynoters hadn’t planned that as part of worship, and besides Presbyterians don’t have altars in their sanctuaries, so technically an altar call couldn’t happen.  Did Rodger have a problem with altar calls, the man asked.  No, he didn’t have a problem, but he would prefer to call it “an invitation to discipleship.”  His questioner persisted.  “But how will we know how the kids stand in relation to Jesus Christ?”  Rodger explained that an altar call could feel coercive, and he suggested that leaders would know how their kids stood with Christ by getting to know them.  By recognizing them, the way Jesus recognizes us.  One by one.
            I had an experience once of recognizing someone I’d never met before.  My aunt, who was active in the para-church youth organization, Young Life, asked me to pray for the leader of the club at my old high school in Minneapolis.  This young man was estranged from his family because of his work with Young Life.  They were non-believers, and didn’t just object to his decision, they were actively hostile.  Besides, my old high school (also Jesse Ventura’s alma mater) was a difficult assignment.  I prayed for this man through the school year, only to learn that we’d be at the same camp for a week in the summer.  The first night there I recognized him.  I’d never seen his picture, but I recognized him because I’d been praying for him. 
            How do we recognize Jesus?  Nathanael’s first response to Jesus can seem to come out of a competition between rival towns or classism or one-upmanship.  But there was at least some truth for Nathanael in what Philip told him.  It’s just that what he recognized didn’t quite fit his pre-conceived notions.  You know the law and prophets are being fulfilled because requirements are being fulfilled.  Nazareth is not one of them.  You can’t recognize someone third-hand.  Until Nathanael took his questions and doubts directly to Jesus, until he accepted Philip’s invitation to “come and see,” his snarky comment, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” is along the lines of a Beavers fan idly wondering in early November, “Are there any good players for the Ducks?” or a Mac user evaluating a PC’s operating system. 
            For this gospel writer, there is no neutral place to receive Jesus’ revelation.  Discipleship is not a theological head trip that postpones life and action.  Philip acts on his call by inviting his friend.  There is no coercion or arguing or convincing.  When Nathanael sneers, he just says, “Come and see.”  Nathanael has got doubts, but he goes along with Philip.  He’s concerned about credentials.  But he goes.  Maybe there was something so genuine about Philip that he couldn’t resist.  When Nathanael arrives, when he receives the information he needs, his understanding exceeds Philip’s story.  He gets it for himself.  Maybe it was because Jesus recognized Nathanael and revealed that.  The result for Nathanael was that he had to confess for himself who Jesus is.  The promises Nathanael receives, to “see greater things than these” and “the heavens opened and the angels ascending and descending” are not parlor tricks and supernatural visions.  The explanation is theological, but the reality is relationship.  Knowing Jesus yourself.  Knowing yourself.
            I can never decide if it’s good news to be known and recognized by God.  The words of Psalm 139 are certainly intimate, but they’re almost invasive.  “Where can I go from your spirit?”  It’s like you can run but you can’t hide.  “Even before a word is on my tongue you know it completely.”  Where is the privacy, the self actualization?  What Jesus promises Nathanael and us (because it’s a plural “you” to whom these are promised) is the experience of knowing him and being known.  “Come and see!”   Jean Vanier, who founded the L’Arche communities, says that everything we say and do is really the question, “Do you love me?”  We can’t recognize God’s hand in our lives until we first understand that, long before we came to understanding, God first recognized us.  God is always saying “YES!” to our question, “Do you love me?”  Receive that gift.  Experience the Christ.  Come and see.

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