From the Daily Office Saturday Feb. 20; John 1:43-51
John 1:43-51 (NRSV)
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.”
We encounter Christ and respond to those encounters in so many different ways. In the Gospel of John just prior to today’s reading Andrew and another of John’s disciples first heard about Jesus from John the Baptist, who declared “Look, here is the Lamb of God.” They followed him and when they asked him where he was staying, he responded “Come and see.” After following Jesus to his home and spending the day with him, Andrew realized that Jesus was the Messiah. He then found his brother Simon and told him the news. It is possible that Simon himself at first resisted the invitation of Jesus. He was probably the only married disciple and would have to leave his wife for long periods of time. In today’s reading Jesus found Philip himself and Philip immediately followed, apparently needing no explanation or convincing. Yet, Nathanael was skeptical and needed to be convinced. First he doubts that Philip’s witness could be true: how could “anything good come out of Nazareth?”, and then asks Jesus himself “Where did you get to know me?” A little bit like the “doubting Thomas” we will see later. Perhaps the different responses of the disciples are because they—as do we—enter into those encounters with different expectations, different life experiences, and with different levels of faith. And also with different ideas about what exactly this Jesus the Christ is. Look at the many different Christological titles given to Jesus in the first chapter of John alone: Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, Son of God, Rabbi (translated as teacher), Messiah (translated Anointed), Him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, son of Joseph of Nazareth, King of Israel, Son of God. Perhaps in using these many names for Jesus, the Fourth Gospelist is telling us that the disciples see different things in Jesus, perhaps because they come to him with different needs and expectations. One needs fulfillment of scripture; one needs a Messiah; one needs a teacher; one needs a king like David to right the wrongs of the oppressive Romans. They begin their journeys with Jesus with different understandings of exactly who he is. It is not until later that they will understand. Of course we as readers of the Prologue to the Fourth Gospel know something that the disciples did not, that the Fourth Gospelist has already told us that Jesus is God incarnated, the Word made flesh, with God from the very beginning.
Scripture is full of descriptions of encounters with God. God appears to Moses as a burning bush. Jacob encounters God in a wrestling match. The Samaritan woman, ostracized from her own people and an outcast full of fear and resentment and insecurity, encounters Jesus while drawing water at a well. Cleopas and another follower of Jesus encounter the risen Christ while walking on the road to Emmaus following the crucifixion, and don’t even recognize him until he breaks bread with them later that evening.
God appears to us too in a myriad of ways. The encounter may be through the words of scripture. We encounter God in the sacraments, in community, in the eyes of a loved one and in the eyes of one who feels unloved. Mother Teresa saw Christ in the eyes of everyone, including and perhaps especially in the poor and the sick she served. Celtic spirituality emphasizes that we encounter God both in creation and in Holy Scripture. For the Celts there are two books of revelation, the Book of Creation and Holy Scripture. Christ is in the heart of all created things, and we can encounter God there. Scripture itself speaks to this. From Psalm 19: “The heavens are telling the glory of God, and the firmament proclaims the handiwork.” One way of intentionally entering into this presence of God is through contemplative prayer practices, the hope being that once encountering God there we will see the world through the eyes of Christ. This can lead to contemplative living, our actions reflecting our sense of God’s presence in the present moment of all that we do. Father Richard Rohr in his book The Universal Christ stresses that faith is about learning to recognize the Creator’s presence all around us and in everyone we meet. The hope and the possibility are that these encounters will lead to our own transformation into what Christ is calling us to be, to love God, one another, and all of creation.
One implication about this understanding of Christ is that it expands any preconceived notions about who Christ is. Christ becomes much bigger than what we can understand. It cautions us to not limit Jesus the Christ to preconceived categories or expectations, but rather to keep our eyes open for surprising encounters with God. It is unlikely that those original disciples understood Jesus this way, but as they followed him they ultimately got at least a glimpse of the truth, and with it an enlightened understanding. Their lives were transformed by their encounters with Christ.
Rev. Bob Donnell
“Prayer of Blessing” by John Philip Newell in Praying with the Earth
May the angels of night glisten for us this day.
May the sparks of God’s beauty dance in the eyes of those we love.
May the universe be on fire with Presence for us this day.
May the new sun’s rising grace us with gratitude.
Let earth’s greenness shine and its waters breathe with Spirit.
Let heaven’s winds stir the soil of our soul and fresh awakenings within us.
May the mighty angels of light glisten in all things this day.
May they summon us to reverence, may they call us to life. Amen.
