Freeville/Homer Avenue UMC's - Second Sunday after the Epiphany of the Lord - 01/18/15 Sermon - “Can anything from Nazareth be good?”

Sunday 01/18/15 Freeville/Homer Ave UMC’s

Sermon Title: “Can anything from Nazareth be good?”           

Old Testament Lesson: Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18

                                            

New Testament Scripture Lesson: 1 Corinthians 6:12-20

Gospel Lesson: John 1:43-51                   

          Welcome again, my friends, my brothers and sisters, on this Second Sunday after the Epiphany of the Lord. In this season of our church calendar, we find ourselves this morning two weeks after the Sunday that we celebrated the Epiphany of the three-wise men or magi seeing that Bethlehem Star in the sky. In seeing this Bethlehem star, it caused these three-wise men or magi to visit the Christ-Child, and in visiting him, they brought him gifts of Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh.

This Sunday is also Human Relations Day, which is a Sunday in our United Methodist Church calendar that we are asked consider those persons who are in are dire poverty, oppression, or are dire straits in general in their lives. In this being one of the six special giving Sundays in our church calendar, if you feel called to give to this Special Sunday, please make your checks out to the Upper New York UMC or mark your funds as such, and then just indicate on your checks or funds that they are for “Human Relations Day.” Once again, these fund will go to aid in purposes, such as that.

          So this Church season of post or after the event of the Epiphany of the Lord, will continue then, until Sunday, February 15^th, which is Transfiguration Sunday. Three days after this, we will start the season of Lent, on Wednesday February 18^th, which is Ash Wednesday.

          This morning though, were are in the season after the Epiphany of the Lord. On this day specifically, in our gospel reading from the gospel of John, Jesus is early enough into his earthly ministry that he is still calling one by one, his hand-picked twelve disciples.

This morning in fact, Jesus’ choses his fifth and sixth disciples, of his chosen twelve apostles, Philip and Nathanael. On this day, Jesus says to Philip, “Follow me.” Philip as it turns out, was from the same town that the two fisherman Peter and Andrew were from. This town is the town of Bethsaida, which is along the Sea of Galilee. 

          As you can imagine, when Philip met Jesus, he was quite excited, overwhelmed, and awestruck in being called to follow him, as Philip knew that Jesus was the Messiah, the savior. In fact, Philip shortly after this, then goes and tells his friend Nathanael, who we think might have been the disciple named Bartholomew, what happened.  

Yet this morning, Nathanael is not too thrilled to hear about the Messiah that Philip tells him about. Nathanael is possibly arrogant, rude, and snobby towards Philip about this man named Jesus of Nazareth. In fact, Nathanael says to Philip, “Can anything from Nazareth be good?”

The question is though, is why would Nathanael respond to his friend Philip so harshly, just for telling him that the Messiah was from Nazareth? The answer is this that Nazareth at this time was often seen as a poor and a bad place to live. Many people from other towns and cities near Nazareth looked down on Nazareth as less than, as beneath them, and as inferior to them. For Nazareth was the slum. It was a place of people of little wealth, and people of little education. These were simple folk, who didn’t put on airs, didn’t have huge houses, and were just basic, simple, “salt of the earth” people.  

So imagine that, the savior of the world has called you to follow him, you, and then you go and tell you friend Nathanael about this. Your friend Nathanael then says, but he’s from Nazareth, and that’s a dumpy and no good town. How could the Messiah come from such an awful place Nathanael says? He says, Philip don’t waste time with this Jesus, because nothing good has ever come out Nazareth.

Imagine this, the savior of the world is at first rejected by Nathanael, because he, the savior of the world, Jesus Christ, wasn’t good enough. Nathanael immediately judged him then, without even knowing him, and before even meeting him, simply because of where he was from. Have we ever judged someone we have never met yet, or have just seen for the first time in this way?

Further what towns around here are the Nazareth’s to us? Do we really think that a city like Ithaca for example, is better than this place? Do we really think that all the people of Ithaca for example, are smarter, are more important, and are greater than us? Or, are people just people?

Imagine if a friend of yours was excited for you to meet one of their new friends, and you said of this new friend that you had never met, “well there from Freeville,” “there from Cortland,” and nothing good comes from there.

I think that so often that when people visit churches like this, they could in their own minds be people from their own Nazareth’s. Maybe they have walked in to visit our church, and when they do, they are wondering if you will treat them the way Nathanael reacted to meeting Jesus of Nazareth this morning. “Can anything from Nazareth be good?”

Sometimes the Nazareth’s of this world, are also much more than just where we are from though, sometimes it is the jobs that we have, or our educational level, or our wealth, or our possessions, or our family names, and or etc. Just what are the Nazareth’s or the “lesser-thans” in our world to you? Who or what kind of people then, do we say in response to meeting them, “Can anything from Nazareth be good?”

Yet instead of Philip getting angry with Nathanael over this statement, Philip just says to him “Come and See.” “Come and see” the Lord of life himself. “Come and see” the living God, and be changed forever by him. Nathanael decided briefly then, that some people are better than other people.

Well what does our Psalm 139 reading from this morning say about some people being better than other people? Well Psalm 139:13-14 says, “For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.  I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well (Ps. 139:13-14, NRSV).”

The Apostle Paul tells us in his Epistle or letter to the church in Corinth from this morning, that “God has raised the Lord and will raise us through his power. Don’t you know that your bodies are parts of Christ (1 Cor. 6:14-15a, NRSV)?” I am also aware that our reading from the Apostle Paul to the church in Corinth for this morning, also address sexual immorality, but since there is so much I could cover on that topic, I will discuss these things in another sermon.

So, Psalm 139 says God “knit me together in my mother’s womb.” It says that “I am fearfully and wonderfully made,” and the Apostle Paul in his letter to the church in Corinth for this morning, tells us that through Christ we are all raised to new life, and are a part of him. He does indeed mention sexual immorality, but Nathanael knew nothing of Jesus yet, on this topic, or any topic. Yet Nathanael already judged Jesus though, and said, “Can anything from Nazareth be good?”

So how does the story in the gospel narrative from John from this morning end, after Philip tells Nathanael, “Come and see?”

Well despite Nathanael’s pre-rejection of Jesus, when Jesus sees Nathanael walking towards him, he says, “Here is genuine Israelite in whom there is no deceit.” After Christ says this to Nathanael, Nathanael then says to Jesus, “How do you know me?” Jesus then answered, “Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree.” You see, before Philip even told Nathanael about Christ, Christ saw him sitting under a fig tree, and had great love for him.

After this, Nathaniel, who we think might have been referred to as the Apostle Bartholomew, said, “Rabbi, you are God’s son. You are the king of Israel.” Quite an improvement really I would say, from telling Philip, “Can anything from Nazareth be good?”

Jesus then says to Nathanael, “Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these! I assure you that you will see heaven open and God’s angels going up to heaven and down to earth on the Human One.”

So in this New Year, in this season after the Epiphany of the Lord, let us humble ourselves, and let us realize that we are all “fearfully and wonderfully made” by God. Let us realize that no one is better than another. This means in this place, in this sacred building, on this consecrated and holy ground, that all of God’s children are welcome. All of God’s children should be loved, appreciated, and valued. We are all welcomed to repent of our sins, and to come together as the unified body of Jesus Christ.

For as Christ himself said in Mark 12:29-31, “Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these (Mk. 12:29-31, NRSV).”

So Jesus says, love God, and love our neighbors. To me, this means loving everyone, all people, anyone who enters this place, or in general, as everything that is good can come from Nazareth. As the Lord of life himself grew up in Nazareth.

I would like to share a story with you this morning in closing. This story is called, “A Party for a Prostitute,” and this is a true story from a great minister called the Rev. Tony Campolo. Here is how it goes:

“It was one of the most extraordinary birthday parties ever held. No it wasn’t in a plush ballroom of a grand hotel. No there weren’t famous celebrities, nor anyone rich or powerful. It was held at 3:00 am in a small seedy cafe in Honolulu, the guest of honor was a prostitute, the fellow guests were prostitutes, and the man who threw it was a Christian minister!”

“The idea came to Christian minister Tony Campolo very early one morning as he sat in the cafe. He was drinking coffee at the counter, when a group of prostitutes walked in and took up the stools around him. One of the girls, Agnes, lamented the fact that not only was it her birthday tomorrow, but that she’d never had a birthday party.”

“Tony thought it would be a great idea to surprise Agnes with a birthday party. Learning from the cafe owner, a guy named Harry, that the girls came in every morning around 3:30 am, Tony agreed with him to set the place up for a party. Word somehow got out on the street, so that by 3:15 am the next morning the place was packed with prostitutes, the cafe owner and his wife, and Tony.”

“When Agnes walked in she saw streamers, balloons, Harry holding a birthday cake, and everyone screaming out “Happy Birthday!” Agnes was overwhelmed. The tears poured down her face as the crowd sang Happy Birthday. When Harry called on her to cut the cake she paused. She’d never had a birthday cake and wondered if she could take it home to show her mother. When Agnes left there was a stunned silence. Tony did what a Christian minister should. He led Harry, Harry’s wife and a roomful of prostitutes in a prayer for Agnes.”

“It was a birthday party rarely seen in Honolulu – thrown by a Christian minister for a 39 year old prostitute who had never had anyone go out of their way to do something like this and who expected nothing in return. Indeed, so surprising was this turn of events that the cafe owner found it hard to believe there were churches that would do this sort of thing, but if there were then that’s the sort of church he’d be prepared to join.”

Who knows my brothers and sisters, maybe Agnes from this story, was from Nazareth? Yet God doesn’t make any junk, and our responses and our treatment of all people, will be reflective in the life, the vitality, and the growth of this congregation.

So let us be of good cheer, for we are all sinners redeemed by God’s grace, and the living Christ beckons us to make more disciples, and to change more lives, so that no one who comes in this place, will ever be made to feel like “Can anything from Nazareth be good?”

Let us this day, this week, and always, love everyone radically, as Christ so loved all and so loves us still. Amen.