Tuesday 26 August 2008

24 AUGUST 2008 ST BARTHOLOMEW / NATHANAEL. Genesis 28 : 10 – 17 John 1 : 43 – 51 ROBERT.

Today is the Feast of St Bartholomew – sadly remembered over the past 400 years only for the terrible massacre in 1572 of Protestants in Paris and the French provincial cities, when some 5,000 Protestant Huguenots were slaughtered in their homes and in the streets, by French Roman Catholics, apparently on the orders of the Queen Dowager, Catherine de Medici.

Perhaps it is chiefly remembered for this because we actually know nothing about Bartholomew, who is named in the New Testament as an Apostle but not mentioned thereafter – EXCEPT that tradition tells us that he is the same person who features in John’s Gospel under the name Nathanael. I won’t go into the reasons for this, but it explains why – on St Bartholomew’s Day – we have a Gospel Reading which features Nathanael, and this is a chance to look at a very unusual and interesting passage of John’s Gospel – and one I have never preached about before – so here’s my chance!

I think you will agree that it’s quite a curious interchange between Jesus and Nathanael and actually worth a closer look. And it’s worth a closer look because the author of this Gospel never gives you information just for the sake of giving you information. There’s always more behind it and you are meant to look beyond the surface and at the deeper significance.

There are a number of crucial differences between John and the other three Gospels. One is that each incident is described as a ‘sign’ which leads beyond itself. Great examples would be the healing of the man born blind. John devotes the whole of chapter 9 (where the other writers would have described the incident in a few verses), and whereas it is no doubt a wonderful miracle, the point John wants us to understand is that we are all naturally spiritually blind - until Jesus gives us sight, and then we can recognise him for who he is. Similarly, the raising of Lazarus is meant to tell us that Jesus is the one who can bring life out of death for each one or us. Or the feeding of the 5,000 tells us how, as in today’s service, Jesus can be for us the Bread of Life. So we are meant to look beyond the surface if we are to get John’s message.

So we can be sure that Jesus’ meeting with Nathanael is not taking up space in John’s Gospel just for our interest. There is something important here that John wants us to understand. What can it be?

Let’s begin by noticing that the call of the disciples in this Gospel is very different from the way it is described in the other three. In Matthew, Mark and Luke, Jesus calls them from their place of work and asks them to follow him. The key is that a disciple is a ‘follower’ of Jesus, and obviously, by implication, their message is that we, too, should become followers of Jesus. Jesus is quoted as saying, for example, that whoever does not take up his cross and follow him is not worthy of him.

In John it is different. The key to being a disciple is that they recognise him for who he really is – the Messiah, the Christ, the One whom the prophets foretold.

Earlier in this chapter, John the Baptist has said at Jesus’ baptism “I have seen and testify that this is the Son of God”. And the next day, he sees Jesus passing and cries out: “Look, the Lamb of God”. Now, obviously, hundred and hundreds of people saw Jesus passing by or otherwise during the course of his ministry. Most saw simply a man – perhaps a very special and gifted and holy man – but only a few saw the reality, that this was the Son of God.

Among them is Andrew who rushes off to find his brother Simon and says: “We have found the Messiah”. (1:41). The next is Philip (1:45) who finds Nathanael and says: “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law and about whom the prophets also wrote – Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”

Nathanael is more than sceptical at first, but when he sets eyes on Jesus, he too is gifted with spiritual recognition and proclaims (1:49): “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel.”

So, for John, the key to being a disciple (whether then or now) is whether you recognise Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, as did John the Baptist, Andrew, Philip and Nathanael.

And John is implicitly posing the question to us: What does it mean to recognise Jesus as the Son of God? It certainly means more than saying the words in the Creed – anyone can do that. It is a recognition that comes from within and at root it is a gift from God. It is a recognition that goes far beyond what most people see – the man teaching and performing miracles, or for us, the man whom we read about in the pages of the New Testament.

The verb ‘to find’ is used several times in this passage. Andrew finds Simon; Philip finds Nathanael. We use that word sometimes about God or Jesus. We sometimes say that a person has found God. But we don’t mean it in the normal sense, because God is not lost. God is here constantly, but we don’t recognise him – we don’t see him – or understand his presence. It needs that spark of recognition that is a gift. We talk about a person finding Jesus, but Jesus is with us always – he doesn’t need to be found. He needs to be recognised, and that is a gift.

We cannot argue ourselves or anyone else into the Kingdom of God, but we can pray for that gift – that gift of recognition that Nathanael was blessed with. We can pray for it for ourselves – and we can pray for that gift of recognition for other people. And the phrase that John uses in this chapter is “Come and see”. Jesus says it to two disciples in 1:39. They ask significantly, in effect, where do you live? And Jesus says – as he says to us – come and see where I live! Philip’s reply to Nathanael’s sceptical “Can anything good come out of Nazareth” is not to argue with him, but simply to say: “Come and see!”.

This is how evangelism works best. If someone is sceptical about Jesus, ideally we invite them to Church and say: “Come and see for yourself! Find out if you recognise Jesus and find him as your Lord and Saviour.”

The problem, of course, is that the Church has to fit the description. It has to be a place where Jesus is worshipped and made so real and relevant, that he can be recognised. We have to think and pray very hard about that – as does every Church everywhere, all the time. Can we fit the bill?

Let me read you a short extract from a commentary on this passage where the writer is talking about how a church moves forward into the future. He writes: “When I was serving a 100 year old congregation (like us), a mission congregation started up less than 2 miles away (like, say, the Beacon). Within 5 years they had grown larger than us and completed a building programme. A major difference between us was that the ‘mission church’ was looking ahead to the greater things God was going to do with their congregation. The ‘established church’ tended to look to the past at the good things God had already done. Even when members of the ‘established church’ were asked “are the best years for this church ahead or behind you”, and they answered ‘ahead’, that wasn’t the way they talked or acted about their future. It is hard to move into the future when you are looking backwards. And you can’t invite someone to be part of the past. You can invite them to be part of your future.” Now I do believe that we are now looking to the future in a very positive way, but you can see the danger with a church with a long tradition. When we invite people like these disciples to ‘Come and see’ we must be inviting them to be part of our future, not our past.

At the end of this reading from John Chapter 1, Jesus refers back to the Old Testament, and the passage he has in mind is the one we read as our first reading today. Jacob has a dream where heaven is opened and God is (as it were), recognised, and there is a ladder with angels ascending and descending. Now that door in heaven is open once again because God’s Son has come down to be among us – and, as John says in the opening passage of his Gospel – we can “behold his glory, glory as of the one and only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

We shall be exploring over the coming months this theme of how can we create an environment in which Jesus can be seen and recognised in his glory. Too often our problem is that we are too busy, too pre-occupied, too diverted even to look properly, let alone see through the surface and recognise Jesus.

Now Jesus sees potential in Nathanael because he sees him sitting under a fig tree. This seems very strange to us, because we don’t know our Old Testament, and hence miss John’s symbolism. In Micah and Zechariah, for example, to sit under a fig tree is to be in a place of peace, a place of contemplation, meditation, essentially a place of ‘space’(Hebrew- Shalom). How often we talk about our need for a’ bit of space’ – meaning a time and place free from stress and distraction and busyness. John places Nathanael in a place of focused peace of mind. Hence John is telling us that it is not surprising that, when confronted with Jesus, he instantly recognises him for what he is – the Son of God.

We are in too much of a hurry to understand who Jesus is, and what is his will for our lives and for our church. We need ‘space’ and time and peace. When the various plans for St Michael’s are presented to us all on 3rd October, if we’re not careful we will immediately start to discuss, compare, debate, come to conclusions. I suggest that what we shall need most is silence and space, to give us time – perhaps a good length of time – when we can be still, and wait and pray, until we hear the heavenly still small voice telling us what to do.

So Nathanael turns out to be quite an influential role model. Because he occupies a place of peace and space, he recognises Jesus as the Son of God. That is God’s gift to him as it can be to us. Because he recognises Jesus for who he is, he is naturally a disciple – a Christian – someone who has seen Jesus. And once you have seen Jesus for who he is, you have seen God, and your life will never be the same again.

He can speak to us down the ages to where we find ourselves today, because – as John explicitly tells us (20:31) - “These things are written - (John has written this chapter) - that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, you may have life in his name.”


DISCUSSION

1. When you read this passage from John Chapter one, what strikes you about the encounter between Jesus and Nathanael? Do you think it has relevance to you now?

2. When you read about Jesus in the Gospels, have you ever had that special moment of recognition that the Son of God is present with you as you read?

3. Do you manage to find the ‘space’ to think and pray through issues, and hear the voice of Jesus giving you guidance?

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