"Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
be acceptable to you, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer."
Psalm 139:1-6
To the leader. Of David. A Psalm.
Psalm 139:13-18
John 1:43-51
The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, "Follow me." 44Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. 45Philip found Nathanael and said to him, "We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth." 46Nathanael said to him, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Philip said to him, "Come and see." 47When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said of him, "Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!" 48Nathanael asked him, "Where did you get to know me?" Jesus answered, "I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you." 49Nathanael replied, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!" 50Jesus answered, "Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these." 51And he said to him, "Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man."
INTRODUCTION:
Did you hear about the preschooler who came home from their first time at Sunday School. Mom wanted to know how things had gone and what the little girl thought about the experience. Mom was hoping that the little girl liked it and would want to continue going. So, Mom asked., "How was it?"
The little girl replied, "Oh, it was fine and it was fun. But I think my teacher was Jesus' grandma!"
Mom looked surprised and asked, "Why do you say that?"
And the little girl replied, "Because she kept showing us pictures of the baby Jesus. And He's all she talked about."
This morning we read about a guy who was almost as excited about telling his friend about Jesus as that Sunday School teacher was. This morning we meet Philip. Philip was from the same hometown and Andrew and Peter, Bethsaida. It was a fishing village on the North East side of the Sea of Galilee, next door to Capernaum.
Philip, somehow, had heard about Jesus. Tradition says that he was a fisherman just like Peter, Andrew, James and John. He may have even been a part of the same fishing company that all of these brothers and cousins were a part of. Or maybe Andrew told him about Jesus. There was something about Philip that Jesus liked, so one day Jesus went to Philip and said, "Follow me." And he did.
Now comes the exciting part. According John, no sooner than he was called, Philip took off to tell a friend about Jesus.
We don't know what the relationship between Philip and Nathanael was. We don't know what Nathanael did for a living. These two might have been cousins; they might have worked side by side in the fishing business. Or maybe there were just boyhood friends who had become best friends. We don't know. But we do know that Philip thought enough of Nathanael to tell him the best news that he had ever heard, they had found the Messiah.
As you read you find that Nathanael's reaction was less than enthusiastic when he found out Jesus was from Nazareth. "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" That ranks right up there with other famous last words, doesn't it.
Like: "I'm just glad it'll be Clark Gable who's falling on his face and not Gary Cooper." That's what Gary Cooper said on his decision not to take the leading role in "Gone with the Wind."
"We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out." Decca Recording Company, rejecting the Beatles, 1962.
It's a good thing Philip was persistent. He told Nathanael, "Come and see." Nathanael did and was never the same. He met Jesus and because of Jesus' knowledge of Nathanael before they ever met, Nathanael was impressed and ready to sign on.
I can almost hear Jesus laughing as he turns to Nathanael and says, "You believe because I told you I saw you under a fig tree? Well, you ain't seen nothin' yet." And boy, was that ever an understatement.
Just like Nathanael, we were told by someone else to, "Come and see." And when we did "Come and see," we found that there was something worth sticking around for. Because when we took the time to "Come and see," we also heard the same words Nathanael heard, "You ain't seen nothin' yet."
Just like Philip, Nathanael and all the other disciples, Jesus calls each of us to follow Him. Last week we talked about what baptism does for us. This week we need to talk about what to do with our baptism. And the answer is simple follow Jesus. But we have to follow with an attitude like Philip and Nathanael, an attitude of openness so that we can see and hear God's message for us. We have to have Open Eyes, Open Ears, an Open Minds and most important of all, an Open Mouth.
I. OPEN EYES:
A. We have to have Open Eyes. We have to look at the world through God's eyes and not the eyes of our own stereotypes or our prejudices. We have to move those aside. We have to take off the blinders of class-ism, racism, sexism and every other kind of ism in the world. We have to look at the world and at one another through the eyes of a loving God who created us all to be different. Not only that but sent His only Son to save this world that is divided by these things and make us one with Him and one with each other, in and through Him. But the only way we can do it is if we look at the world and each with the open eyes of faith and grace.
B. The comedian Gallagher of Sledge-O-Matic fame. Used to talk about looking at the world around us with "New Eyes." In essence, that's what we're called to do with our Baptism. It washed away the filth of our sin but it also should have washed away the blinders of our prejudices.
I remember reading about a time when the Red Cross was gathering supplies, medicine, clothing, food and the like for the suffering people of Biafra. Inside one of the boxes that showed up at the collection depot one day was a letter. It said, "We have recently been converted and because of our conversion we want to try to help. We won't ever need these again. Can you use them for something?" Inside the box were several Ku Klux Klan sheets. The sheets were cut into strips and eventually used to bandage the wounds of black people in Africa.
I can't think of anything more dramatic, can you. Those sheets were transformed from symbols of hatred to bandages of love. Jesus was right: "You ain't seen nothin' yet."
II. OPEN EARS:
A. We also need to have Open Ears. We have to listen to God. We have to listen to Christ. Philip, Nathanael, Peter, Andrew, James and John all could have ignored the Call of Christ. At any point in their travels with Jesus, they could have done like so many others and turned away. They weren't forced to follow. They did it of their own volition because when they listened with Open Ears, they heard more than merely words and teachings. When they listened with Open Ears they heard the Voice of God.
B. Part of being faithful is spending time in prayer. But I need to remind everybody that prayer is more than simply running off at the mouth in holy language. Prayer involves listening, too, And there's no telling what will happen when we simply listen.
There's a wonderful story about jazz legend Ella Fitzgerald. It was amateur night at the Harlem Opera House (now the Apollo Theater) in New York. A skinny sixteen-year-old girl timidly walked onto the stage. The emcee bellowed, "And now, ladies and gentlemen, our next contestant is Miss Ella Fitzgerald, who is going to dance for us. . . Hold it, hold it. Now what's your problem, honey?. . . Correction, folks. Miss Fitzgerald's changed her mind. She's not gonna dance; she's gonna sing!"
Ella Fitzgerald gave three encores that night and won first prize. But at the outset, she had intended to dance. But something inside her told her to do something else. She listened. She had Open Ears. And she proved that Jesus is right: "You ain't seen nothin' yet."
III. OPEN MIND:
A. You have to have an Open Mind, too. I have a friend who just loves the United Methodist Church. You see he came out of a background of fundamentalist churches that told him exactly what to think and believe. He loves the way Scripture and Scholarship are combined (or "knowledge and vital piety" as Wesley said) in the United Methodist Church. My friend says he likes the Methodist Church because, "You don't have to check your brain at the door when you come in."
B. I agree. Because you have to have an open mind to be a follower of Jesus. Otherwise you'll be like the guy I read about years ago who overheard a conversation about God between two believers. He rudely interrupted and told them he didn't believe in their God and could they keep it down. So, they engaged him in conversation about God and he said, "Yeah, I tried your God one time. I asked his help once when I was stuck in the desert. Dying in the glaring sun, I cried out for God's help." The other men said, "Well, something must have happened. You're here now."
This guy said, "Not really. Some crazy Indian came along and saved me."
Somebody once said: "A coincidence is a small miracle where God prefers to remain anonymous."
If you keep an Open Mind, you just might see the little miracles rather than the coincidences of life. If you keep an Open Mind you'll understand that Jesus is right: "You ain't seen nothin' yet."
IV. OPEN MOUTH:
A. And finally you have to have an Open Mouth. This is the most important of them all. You see, we're not just called to Look and Listen. We're called to Open our Mouths and tell others the Good News of Christ Jesus. We're called to bear witness.
We celebrate a lot of different things in the Church. We celebrate communion. We celebrate our faith. We celebrate birthdays, anniversaries and milestones in life. We usually celebrate by telling someone about it so they that can share in our good news or our good fortune.
We're so excited we can't keep it to ourselves. We want to share it with someone else. We're sort of like the woman who won a considerable amount of money in a contest. She was so excited she was shaking. And she was so excited she couldn't remember anybody's number. So she dialed the operator and said, "I just won $100,000. Get me anybody."
She had good news to share. And I guess you could call this form of celebration as Tell-abration. Go ahead, groan. But that's what it is. It's Good News that is so Good you have to Tell somebody or you'll bust. That's Tell-abration.
B. And that's the kind of excitement we're supposed to have about our faith. We do it with so many other things in life. We Tell-abrate almost everything and tell others, just like Philip did, "Come and See for yourself." We tell them Come and See: This Beautiful rainbow. This Good movie. This Funny vignette or moment with kids, grandkids, do, whatever. We tell others, "You've just gotta see this."
The same is true of the Good News of Jesus. Called to invite others. We're called to Tell-abrate our faith through faithfully sharing what God has done in our lives and in our Church. So take time Open Your Mouth and Tell-abrate your faith by sharing what Christ is doing in your life.
Tell-abrate your faith. Open your Mouth and invite others to "Come and see." When you do, Jesus will say, "You ain't seen nothin' yet."
CONCLUSION:
The truth is, "We haven't seen anything yet." God is still working miracles in our lives everyday. God is still answering prayer and using us in wonderful ways and in ways we may never know. What we need to do is simply be faithful. We're called to be like Philip. We're called to tell others "Come and see." Just like Philip, Nathanael and all the other disciples, each of us is called d to follow Jesus. We're called to have Open Eyes, Open Ears, Open Minds and most important of all, an Open Mouth to Tell-abrate and share the Good News of Jesus our Savior.
And when we do, you can bet, "You ain't seen nothin' yet."
This is the Word of the Lord for this day.
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Bibliography
1. The Pastor's Story File (Platteville, Colorado: Saratoga Press), MAY 98
2. Sid Collins, The Life and Times of Ella Fitzgerald (London: Elm Tree Books, 1986), p. 2
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Other References Consulted