14 Jan SUNDAY, JANUARY 14, 2024
One decision followed up by action reveals purpose.
Since every word of the Bible was intentionally chosen, it’s worth picking apart each verse for content. For instance, speaking of making an intentional choice, the very first gospel verse read, “Jesus decided to go to Galilee.” Going from Nazareth to Bethsaida where Andrew, Peter and Phillip were from was about like taking a trip from Harrisburg to Perry County. Jesus would have gone north about twenty five miles then followed the upper coastline of the Sea of Galilee instead of the Susquehanna, all without traveling over the Clarks Ferry Bridge.
Like us, Jesus decided one day that it was time to go and do. To go and do what Jesus may have considered the first or next step in God’s elaborate plan. His decisive actions help us to realize that what we choose to go and do on any given day does make a difference.
And, even if we think we don’t have much choice regarding where we go or what we do, we do always have choices. Perhaps not all the same choices, but we each can choose where to go or what to do next even if it seems as though we’re becoming more and more reliant on asking others to go and do for us or paying for some other delivery service.
Second, Jesus finds Phillip. It doesn’t say that Jesus set out to accomplish finding Phillip in the first place, but it also doesn’t say that Jesus just happened to bump into him. Jesus found Phillip and doing so afforded Jesus an opportunity to say to Phillip, “Follow me.” One decision followed up by action reveals purpose. One decision followed up by action leads to more action or at least makes doing the next thing possible.
So what have we learned so far? That going and doing holds meaning and purpose. Why do I choose to name those two particular things? Because meaning and purpose make life worth living. Patients in the hospital and all of you always teach me that life must hold meaning and purpose.
Even when one seems totally incapable of going or doing in the usual way or ways in which they went and did in the past, each person must find meaning and purpose everyday. Having meaning and purpose are two vital expressions of being alive. They direct our value systems, morals, even our definition of spiritual existence and worthwhile spiritual pursuit. So what is it that gives your life, and therefore you directly, meaning and purpose?
I, for one, want to be appreciated as having something special to offer, to be valued for who I am, loved and somewhat needed. I say somewhat because I enjoy facilitating more than doing for others. I like to see people able to do for themselves, to act with confidence, to go and be who God uniquely intended them to be, to find their own meaning and purpose.
Hannah brings Samuel to Eli, from Hulberts Story of the Bible published by The John Winston Company, 1932
Samuel’s mother Hannah, desperately sought meaning and purpose through motherhood, but it just wasn’t happening for her and her husband. So she came to the temple and prayed. There she made a deal with God that if she bore a son, she would give him to be raised in the temple at a certain age so that God would help Samuel find meaning and purpose for his life under Eli’s mentorship. Eli had seen Hannah praying and heard her crying. In the temple, Samuel would discover meaning and purpose for himself by learning, looking, and listening for further guidance and instruction.
That’s what Jesus offers to us and to other disciples whom he chooses: the opportunity to see him and learn, to hear him and be guided, to listen and be instructed, as Samuel was.
Look, listen, and learn.
In the case of Samuel, Phillip, Nathanael, Andrew, Peter, and sometimes us, too, doing all those things: seeing, learning, listening, being guided and instructed in new ways often involves change and change is never easy and rarely welcomed. As human beings, we prefer what we know, even if what we know is limiting or not that great.
We also see in today’s readings that compared to Samuel, adults like Eli and his sons, don’t always do as they should. Like Nathanael, we can be rather skeptical. We aren’t always eager or willing participants. Rarely do we welcome or seek to have our ways of doing altered or our perceptions challenged. Covid proved that in spades. More than ever, people resist being told what to do or having limits placed upon them.
Remember: John’s gospel is not a collection of external historical facts, it’s a collection of spiritual truths with the intention of defining the meaning of Jesus’ arrival on earth and of showing without a doubt, his divine purpose. Everyone’s life holds meaning and purpose, but if we don’t discover what they are time and time again as circumstances require change, we become adrift and succumb to forces of nature.
The gospel or good news is this: We are never forced to only submit and succumb. We are continually invited to find meaning and purpose through Jesus of Nazareth, one who was and is, no ordinary rabbi, that is, leader or teacher.
Jesus is God in the flesh, who knows you like nobody else. As the psalmist wrote, “Lord, you have searched me out and known me. You know my sitting down, my rising up and thoughts from afar. You trace our journeys and resting places such that you are acquainted with all our ways.”
That’s why today’s gospel message suggests that Jesus has access to supernatural knowledge. He saw Nathanael under the fig tree and knew who he was before ever being introduced. As the psalmist wrote, “For you yourself created our inmost parts and knit us together in our mother’s wombs”
Even now, each of us must declare this, “My body is not hidden from you, while I was being made in secret and woven in the depths of the earth, your eyes beheld and do still behold my limbs, all of them were written in your book; my days fashioned even before they came to be.”
The more I witness the end of life and all medical attempts to deny death, the more I see that each person’s days are fashioned even before they come to be. The more I listen to people’s life stories and watch their common struggles, the more I see Jesus calling each by name from start to finish, continuously recognizing individuals for who they are, understanding where they each desire to go, and knowing what each hopes to do.
As he did with each of his disciples that he called back in the day, Jesus still helps each of us find meaning and purpose. He seeks us out whether we’re looking for him or not, whether we appreciate him showing up or not, regardless of whether our friends vouch for him, regardless of whether we ’re ready to be approached and called, identified and known supernaturally by him or not.
When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said of him, “Here is truly one in whom there’s no deceit!” Indeed, there was not a thought in the mind nor word on Nathanael’s lips that the Lord did not know altogether.
Shall we, like Nathanael, then ask Jesus, “Where did you get to know me/” Shall we, like Nathanael, doubt Jesus’ call upon our lives or his divine intention of our life’s meaning and purpose? May you also hear this, “Jesus, as the Lord God encompasses you, behind and before.”
One of my favorite Christian songs by Leeland, sung by All Sons and Daughters has this refrain, “Above and below me, before and behind; in every eye that sees me, Christ be all around me.” It talks about Christ being all around us as we rise and wake, as we wait and listen, as we go and do, and rest. The lyrics ask for the hand of God to be our defense, to give us strength and bring us peace. It concludes by saying, “Your life, your death, your blood was shed, for every moment, every moment.”
As the psalmists said, “His hand lays upon you. I know, such knowledge is too wonderful and so high we cannot attain it.” Nathanael could have been the one to say, “How deep I find your | thoughts, O God! How great is the sum of them!” Instead, because our reading is from the gospel of John, Nathanael replies, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God, the King of Israel!”
In today’s gospel reading, Jesus challenges us not to believe in him based on the past or because of what we already know, but Jesus challenges us to believe because Jesus himself will show us more. There is much more, Jesus says, that you have yet to experience. “Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.” If only I had eyes to see what was going on that night. In my spirit, it seemed pretty clear that the woman whose life was passing and in its final moments she saw heaven opened and angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son and Man reaching down into the ICU to meet her, to be there for her children and grandchildren, to act on her behalf through doctors, nurses and me. Some of us were there to preserve her life, others like me were present to help preserve the life of her loved ones, those left behind when her number of days were full and complete.
In the Christian faith, people have meaning and value even before they come into existence. The task of life for us is the same as that of any disciple: Come discover your worth in the way that Jesus already knows you to be.
Let us pray. We realize that many things are lawful, but not beneficial. We are prone to be dominated by our own thinking and desires. You are God’s temple and have created us by the power of your Holy Spirit. Bought with great price, by grace, may we glorify you, discover and realize the blessed meanings and divine purposes for our lives. According to your presence and provisions, your Word and call, may we, with gratitude, dedication, readiness and willing participation aim toward all that you would have us be, to go and do, as you would lead and guide us. In your holy name we pray. Amen.