Do any of you know Nathanael?
Nathanael is a man of pronounced opinions. A man whose enthusiasms can be overwhelming, and whose contempt is equally strong.
One fine day Philip finds Nathanael with some good news: “That Messiah we’ve all been waiting for - he’s here! He’s Jesus from Nazareth.”
Hmph. Can anything good come out of Nazareth?
Nathanael thinks of Nazareth the way Broadway producers think of Peoria: limited, provincial, boring.
Jesus from Nazareth? Nathanael’s eyes roll.
But somehow, when Philip says, “Come, you will see…” Nathanael comes. Comes with his low expectations and strong opinions geared up and ready, and he’s baffled by the way Jesus greets him,
“Aha! A faithful man with no deceit!”
Well, it’s true Nathanael hasn’t been hiding his opinions, but that’s still not the greeting you might expect.
And when Jesus explains this sweeping personality assessment with the information that he’d seen Nathanael sitting under a fig tree…
Well, I’m still scratching my head, and so are a lot of biblical scholars, but Nathanael’s instantly converted: “You are the Son of God! The King! You’re him!!”
Nathanael goes from eye-rolling skeptic to devout convert in nothing flat. He’s found God. Never mind that problem with Nazareth, now.
He’s not alone.
There are plenty of people in the world who’ve found God, or Jesus, because of a momentary encounter, an unexpected sense of being known, and valued.
After all, being known - not just recognized, but really known - is rare enough, and when the person who knows you sees you as valuable, praiseworthy, as Jesus does with Nathanael….? Well, that’s truly powerful.
So there are plenty of people who have found their way to the church because the right thing happened in the right place at the right time.
One visit - the right brief encounter with the pastor, the eagerness of the child handing you a worship booklet, a moment with the person in the next pew - that meets the right needs, affirms the right things in someone’s life - and the next thing you know you’re a regular.
Or on the Vestry.
Wouldn't it be nice for us - for you and me, here at Calvary this morning - if that happened every time someone walked through our doors? Wouldn't it be easier to issue Philip’s invitation to, “Come and see,” if that powerful encounter were guaranteed?
I know how hard it can be to issue that invitation about church. I’ve known that every time I’ve asked you or invited you or pushed you to bring your friends to church.
And known it every time I’ve asked you to volunteer for some responsibility here, to take on a piece of Calvary’s ministry.
The invitation to “come and see” - whether it’s to church or to a new ministry - may not get issued, or accepted, because, well, it’s not that exciting, it’s not what we need right now, I don’t know how to do it, or I’m not getting much out of it.
And there are a lot of people we might invite who are justified in asking, “Can anything good come out of the church??”
Really. Christians look a lot like Nazareth, these days, to people who aren’t from here.
Still, sometimes, when we’re all really lucky, we do get Nathanael’s encounter with Jesus. The invitation to church, or the new ministry, is easy. It resonates; it lifts your spirit and reveals God.
Alleluia! Wonderful things happen.
And in the midst of that wonder, Jesus laughs a little, and says,
“You believe because of that? That little thing? I’m telling you, you ought to see what else is in store.”
Because really, these are little things, these happy encounters, and it’s barely the tip of the iceberg of what God has in mind.
Jesus did not come for the affirmation that converts Nathanael.
He didn’t come to help us find meaning in life, to fulfill our needs,
or to give us a boost through the week.
So if you are here for that, stop coming.
If that’s what would make it easy to invite your friends here, don’t bring them.
I mean it.
It’s not that those things won’t happen in church.
We do some of that quite well at Calvary, and the food isn’t bad either.
But Jesus says we have to be about much more than that.
In his rush to fulfillment, Nathanael misses what Jesus is here to do: to reveal the depth and breadth of the connection between God and us, to transform the relationship between God and the world.
If we’re here for - or want to be able to invite people to - predictable fulfillment and satisfaction; if we need a great youth ministry, compelling programs, world-class sermons [or exciting music], that sort of thing, to make the invitation compelling,
then Jesus is shaking his head at us just like he did Nathanael.
You think this is about that? About guidance, or comfort, or success?
I’m telling you, you’re aiming too low.
For Jesus, it’s about the greater things.
The real reason to come to church, the only reason to invite people to church, is to find out what Jesus is going to transform in us.
To find out how Jesus is going to break you open to God.
As a friend of mine told me recently: in Christianity, there’s no bench.
There’s no skybox, either. No bleachers.
There is only the playing field, and you’re on the team.
Or there’s no game.
So we don’t get to come to God or to church to watch, to receive, to be entertained, cheered up, or to be fed. It might happen, but it can’t be why we’re here.
We can’t invite people for any of that, either. We have to invite people because we want to find out what Jesus will do with them.
We have to be willing to be not Nathanael, but Samuel, in today’s story, woken up in the middle of the night, when he thought he was still in training camp, to find himself already in the game. Required to carry God’s Word to Eli - to family and friends - and then to the rest of the world, until the world is broken open to God.
Or to be more like Paul. Paul, who is shocked by the discovery that Jesus has something for him to do, and that it’s going to take the rest of his life - and goes ahead and does it, inviting everyone else along with him, even though it seems his whole ministry is prison and storm and internal church fights that never seem to end. (And in which - as you may have noticed this morning, the fighting language is definitely not G-rated.)
I do want you to have that wonderful encounter with Christ that converted Nathanael.
But Jesus wants to be sure that we don’t stop there, content to be affirmed by God.
I’m telling you - he says to Nathanael, and to you and me - I’m telling you to see greater things.
To see, and perhaps become, the bridge between earth and heaven.
It’s great to be enthused about Jesus,
but even being elated by Jesus is aiming too low.
You will see the world transformed, Jesus promises, the world broken open to God and heaven,
but only if we keep looking for more.
Amen.
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