Sermon for January 15, 2012
The two lessons for today contain a LOT of action and a lot of LOVE. Within nine verses in the first chapter of John’s gospel, Jesus falls in love with Philip; Philip sprints over to Nathanael to tell him the news; Nathanael falls for Jesus and vice versa; and before we know it there is talk of spiritual visions, with angels bridging the gap between earth and heaven. Oh, I know that Bible scholars give this passage the thoroughly theological title: The Calling of the Disciples. But I call it Love At First Sight. Jesus said, “Come and See.” And they did. They only had eyes for Jesus.
Likewise, Heidi Neumark’s description of her accidental congregation on the city corner where people come to buy beer, but end up begging for the sign of the cross in ashes? These are a bunch of fools in love if I ever saw any! The first little group falls to its knees on the corner, and then they rush away to bring their friends. They recognize in the mark of ashes something so real, so true, so profound that it speaks and they listen. This is not saccharine religion. This is not spiritual junk food. This is the real deal, the ultimate pronouncement: You are dust. And to dust you shall return.
I will tell you another story of love and the calling of disciples. Rev. Cynthia Weems tells in a recent Christian Centurypiece about her first few weeks in a city pastorate in the urban core of a midwestern city. In order to do a favor for a friend, she agreed to serve as translator for the family of Victor, an 11-year old neighborhood bad boy who was convicted of shooting another kid in the leg with a BB gun.
The pastor translated the verdict as the judge gave Victor the maximum punishment for his crime at his age. He was sentenced to 25 hours of community service, plus four jury duties at Youth Court. It was agreed that his first community service hours would be given at Rev. Weems’ church. And so it was that Victor showed up and began cleaning a dusty, cluttered, unused youth room on the third floor of the church. It was hot, messy work … “not a particularly congenial setting,” as Rev. Weems writes, “for someone trying to maintain his carefully moussed, rigidly spiked hair!”
But Victor put in his hours. Then, after finishing up with the youth room, he reluctantly agreed to fulfill the rest of his sentence helping with Vacation Bible School. For that part of his punishment, however, Victor felt the need of backup. He dragged along three friends (who probably owed hima favor). Javier, Pedro and Fernando joined Victor and VBS was off and running. Sometime during that week of Bible stories, VBS songs and children’s craft projects, it was the friend named Pedro who came up to Rev. Weems and said, “Pastor, you know those community service hours that Victor has? How can I get some of those?”
I’m sure you can see where this true story is going. Victor, Pedro, Javier and Fernando soon formed the core of the youth group which used that third floor room in the weeks and years that followed. They had gained access to a building they thought had been closed to them. It might not be angels going up and down between heaven and earth, but it was as close as we will possibly ever come to that lovely image in this life: young pre-teen boys with spiked hair in urban America, traveling up and down the church stairs of their problematic city neighborhood.
Love at first sight … sitting under a fig tree minding your own business, or hanging out on the street corner waiting to buy a beer. Love in being known, and being invited to something real by a friend … whether the friend is Philip the star struck disciple, or Victor the convicted BB gun shooter. Love in having someone tell you the truth about dust to dust and ashes to ashes … and maybe hearing you question whether anything good can come from your neck of the woods … and then giving you the surprise which happens when someone looks in your eyes and sees your truest heart … the one we all have buried somewhere … the one which has no deceit (or guile) within it.
These love stories all have to do, of course, with the movement of God. They also have to do with being recognized, known, and invited. Jesus, Philip and Nathanael see one another and somehow lay claim upon each other as one teacher, two disciples, and three friends caught up in God Doing Somethingin their lives.
It’s a story of Pastor Neumark going the second mile to offer a holy rite to her church member who has a job to keep … and discovering a congregation which already existed, but which just hadn’t wanted (probably for some very good reasons) to walk inside the church. Theyneeded the church to come outonto their corner and be there on the corner for them. And by going out to that corner, Neumark not only delivered the desired truth telling ministry of the church, she also allowed the members of that outdoor congregation to discover each other in a whole new way.
And ditto with Victor and his friends. Can you imagine how the friendship of those four 11 year olds became transformed when their way of being together changed from street corner hanging and BB gun shooting … to making little VBS baskets for Moses to nestle in as he rested among the bulrush plants of the Nile … or cute, fuzzy little cotton ball sheep for Jesus to watch over, as the Good Shepherd who watches his flock??? Rev. Weems hadn’t seen it coming. She had gone to court as translator. What she came home with, was a kid who needed to do his time. She also came home with an unexpected front row seat to watch God call some new disciples.
The lesson for today from John shows Jesus calling people in LOVE. Jesus invites Philip and Nathanael to “Come and See.” He doesn’t say at this point, “Come and work.” He isn’t ready yet to say, “Take up your cross.” He isn’t even at the point of saying, “Follow me and I will make you learn to gather people as a fisherman catches fish.”
Nope, at this point it’s just, “Come.” It’s just “See.” It is pure charmwhich has Jesus look at a guy sitting under a tree, and then overhear this stranger disparage Jesus’ hometown of Nazareth. (Cananything good come from there? Or from the street corner beer drinkers? Or from the 11-year-old BB shooters???). Then Jesus shamelessly flatters this cynic who insults him and expects less than nothing from him. “Here is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!” Here is someone who is telling the truth about his questions and his disillusionment and yes, his prejudice. Most importantly, Jesus hears Nathanael express just how little he expects ever to see God’s promise fulfilled.
For that, of course, is what Philip told his friend Nathanael he had just witnessed: Philip told Nathanael that he had met the one who fulfilled the promise God had made through Moses and the prophets. It’s also what the street corner congregation told their friends when they scooped them up and gathered them together to receive ashes on their foreheads. And it’s what Victor told Javier, Fernando and Pedro when he said, “You guys gotta come and help me do this Vacation Bible School thing.”
My friends in Christ, I don’t know how long it’s been since you were a fool for love. Especially when it comes to falling in love with God, and coming under the charm offensive of Jesus … well, it can happen when we least expect it. When it does happen, it might seem innocuous and unlikely … as if suddenly you are recognized somehow, as you go about your life, simply doing what you do. All Nathanael was doing was sitting under a tree.
It’s also possible you could fall in love because you hear a truth spoken in words which simply stun you with their truthfulness. You might hear Jesus say, “The maker of peace is a child of God.” Or, “I have come to search and find the ones who feel lost.” (And since you feel lost, you listen.) You might remember how he said, “Let the children, the outcast, the sick and the sinful come to me … for I am here to bless, welcome, heal and forgive the ones who need me.” Or you might come across something he said so long ago and yet the truth of it makes all the difference in the world today: “You have heard it said, ‘love your neighbor and hate your enemy,’ but I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”
Or maybe you’re more in the Victor, Pedro, Javier and Fernando category. Maybe you’re doing some community service for reasons of your own … and you find out it’s worth inviting some friends to help you. And then you find out you love doing the work, and there is more than enough to do.
These are just a few little portraits of what you and I look like when we say Yes to Christ. We look like these folks and we look just like ourselves. There is something that calls to us and we know we have to say yes. We might have stars in our eyes, or skepticism in our hearts, or court-ordered hours to work off, or a smudge on our forehead which means we know we won’t live forever. But I hope there is at least a little spark in each one of us here today … which knows what it means to fall in love at first sight with God. The reason that little spark within us is there, is that God has fallen in love with us from the very beginning.
On this weekend of Martin Luther King Jr’s birthday, there is every reason to remember the way God call us in love. God calls us to go outside as Dr. King did; to burst through the walls of the church to see the needs of our community and our land and our world. Martin Luther King Jr. literally staked his life on the most radical of Jesus’ teachings: the ones about loving our enemies, trusting in God to help you speak the truth, and turning the other cheek instead of hitting back. The “outside church” of Martin Luther King Jr came to include people of many faiths and no faith; this church transformed the worn out theologies of his day; this outside church showed what can happen when people are full of love, refuse to give up, speak on behalf of the poor and the hated and the cause of peace in a time of war.
What can happen is that it can get dangerous. What can also happen is that we fall in love with God and God’s project. Both things happened to Martin Luther King. Both things could happen to you and me if we aren’t careful.
May we be a little less careful.
Let the people say, “Amen.”