Sunday 18 January 2009 Epiphany 2, John 1:45-51, Bruce

Epiphany is the time when we remember the revealing or manifestation of Christ’s glory. We have seen this in the adoration by the wise men, in his baptism, and this week we see it in the encounter that Jesus has with Nathanael. This is our third visit to this text recently. Robert preached about Nathanael, who is also known as Bartholomew, on 24 August last year, and I have printed off copies of his sermon on yellow paper as it repays careful study. This passage also cropped up on St Michael’s day last September, I think because of the reference to angels.

Nathanael is not impressed at first. We have had the big build up. In the beginning was the Word ….. He came to his own, but his own received him not. John the Baptiser has recognised him as the Lamb of God, principally through what happened when he baptised Jesus. Andrew has met Jesus and introduced his brother Peter to him. Jesus has found Philip and invited him to “Follow me”. Philip has found Nathanael and breathlessly announced: “We have found him! The one Moses wrote about! The one foretold in the writings of the prophets! And his name is ….. Jesus, the local carpenter, and he’s from Nazareth.” After that big build up, it’s like saying the next president is revealed as the local handyman, who lives in Mytchett.

So Nathanael’s first response is a bit of a put down. He’s a bit prickly. Philip, you have got to be joking. Pull the other one. Nobody significant can come from that tiny hamlet (Nazareth, not Mytchett!). World saviours do not turn up on our doorstep. But Jesus wins him round.

Jesus has seen Nathanael under the fig tree, in a place of contemplation; is that what impressed him? Or was Nathanael meditating on the story of his famous forebear? He comments that Nathanael is a true Israelite, one in whom there is no guile or cunning, nothing Jacob-like.

There is something here about the Old Testament character called Jacob, who has his name changed to Israel (just as Peter has had done to him a few verses before). You may be familiar with an advert for an insurance company that tells us that Richard Starkey became Ringo Star, Walter Willis became Bruce Willis, Vincent Damon Furnier changed his name to Alice Cooper, Eleanor Gow became Elle McPherson. The name Jacob implies a tricky customer, a Ulysses, someone who will cheat you. He spent his life looking for a blessing. After he cheated his brother, he had to flee for his life, and it was then that he had the dream of seeing a ladder up to heaven and angels ascending and descending. Later he wrestles with an angel through the night, and clings to him as the dawn approaches; the angel wounds him, but also gives him the new name Israel, which means “God Wrestler”.

All of this is alluded to in the brief words that John reports to us of the conversation between Jesus and Nathanael. The whole gospel is about those who believe in Jesus, and those who choose not to. After a shaky start, Nathanael has become a believer. He can recognise God at work, present in this man in front of him, Jesus. He has had an epiphany.

Look for God in the ordinary. This is a recurrent theme in John. It comes up again when Jesus compares himself to the supernatural food that fed the children of Israel when Moses was leading them through the wilderness, the Manna. His hearers say “How can he call himself the bread that came down from heaven? We know his father and his grandparents. He is one of us.” (John 6:42). This, however, is the point. We believe in the Incarnation, that the fullness of God inhabited an ordinary, human body.

I make again the distinction between a true encounter with God, and the religious practices that we engage in to help that to happen. We are sometimes tempted to dismiss aspects of every day life and church life as the mundane, the ordinary, completely separate from anything spiritual. We wrestle with matters of organisation and finance almost as if they were on a different world. And yet we can perhaps glimpse the presence of God, through the corner of an eye, in moments of weakness and sickness, in problems of making ends meet, in worrying about how to make and keep this building fit for purpose. Look for God in the ordinary.

And look for God in his word. If, as it seems likely, Nathanael was meditating on the story of Jacob/Israel from the book of Genesis, then he was led to an amazing encounter with the living God, though Jesus. This is not automatic. Later, we read that Jesus castigates some of the Jewish rulers because they diligently search the scriptures but refuse to come to Jesus to receive life. It is good for us to know what the bible says; we need also to deliberately look to submit our lives to what we believe God is telling us through the bible. This is something we can do individually, and something we can also do together. Hence the mixed approaches in the programme: 40 Days of Relationship, individual study, hearing the sermons together and joining a group.

The whole of John’s gospel is about the epiphany, as the glory of Jesus is gradually revealed. The book goes into chapter 2 with the story of water changed to wine at Cana. We have focussed today on the encounter that Nathanael had with Jesus. Jesus promises him that he will see heaven opened and the angels ascending and descending. Look for God in the ordinary and in his word. Look for him also in praise and worship as we lift our hearts and voices together.

Discussion Starters
1. Nathanael was surprised that the promised messiah was so local. What has been the most surprising thing that has happened to you or that you have learned in your Christian life so far?
2. Nathanael was thinking about the story of Jacob/Israel. What bible story has been most significant for you, and why?
3. “You shall see angels …” What help would you most appreciate with your life of prayer and worship? Are there ways that your group can help you?