The Second Sunday of Epiphany, 17th January 2021 - Online
Last week’s talk, if you remember it, might have been subtitled, “Can anything good come out of Crosby?” - which is my home town; and please substitute here the name of the place you come from: “Can anything good come out of there?” For that talk was about the deep wells from which we can draw to sustain and affirm ourselves, particularly through testing times - the deep resources of all that has been given us by family and community and our faith through all the years of our lives. When we’re feeling alone or adrift we have all these riches to draw on: all we need is a little gentle prayerful self-discipline to reach down to recover them. And to remember that of course, plenty of good can come - has come - from that deep place where we have been formed.
Today’s gospel reading invites us to think a little more about the faith aspect of this. In it, first Jesus found Philip and said to him, ‘Follow me.’ And then Philip found his friend Nathanael, told him excitedly about this Jesus, Joseph’s son from Nazareth, and when the cynical Nathanael asked, ‘Can anything good come out of Nazareth?’ Philip replied, saying, ‘Come and see.’
‘Follow me’, says Jesus. ‘Come and see’, say his followers to their friends. That’s the way the Christian faith grows. And, if you look deep into the well of your own faith you may be able to identify who it was who first invited you to ‘Come and see’; and you may be able to recall a moment or moments in your life when you heard Jesus saying ‘Follow me’.
For those of us who were brought up in the Christian way the ‘Come and see’ probably came early in our lives, via parents or grandparents, ministers or Sunday School teachers - people who told us the stories and taught us the songs which showed us who Jesus is, who helped us form a picture of him in our mind’s eye and an impression of his character in our hearts. And maybe the ‘Follow me’ came at the time you were prepared for Confirmation, or perhaps you had a direct call from God during a mission or a special service; or it might have been at a more private moment, perhaps a prayerful moment, a moment of clarity and illumination in your life - that Jesus was inviting you to follow him and you were ready to respond. Others might say, I’ve never had a direct call like that, but every week in worship when I am sent out in Christ’s name ‘to love and serve the Lord’ - I go and try my best to do that.
For many of us, following Jesus starts with a sense of our own imperfection, and a need to turn to him for help to make a better person of ourselves. It may be that we see in him the one who can direct us in a more worthy and fulfilling path through life. And over time we gain a heightened understanding, through experience, that following Jesus means accepting the high standards he demands of us - requiring our humility in putting God and others first; calling on us to be self-sacrificial in relegating our strong urges for status, comfort and security to follow a way which may lead us downwards in status, into uncomfortable places with no guarantee of security. Following Jesus means unlearning our dependence on the things that money, education and influence can buy to make space for us to develop a purer, simpler trust in his providence.
Following Jesus is challenging. The philosopher Julian Baggini in his recently published book called ‘The Godless Gospel’ looks into Jesus’ teachings from an atheist’s point of view and discovers, in his words,
a belief system which goes against the gentle image of Jesus as an advocate of homely moral truths that we can all warmly and easily embrace. Much of his teaching is discomforting, and quite a bit is objectionable…. The moral philosophy of Jesus is often challenging and radical, for believers and infidels alike. [1]
If it’s so hard, being a follower of Jesus, and by the standards of the shallow and materialistic culture around us, quite unattractive-sounding too, then what on earth are we inviting people to open their eyes to when we tell them, ‘Come and see’?
Is it that in Jesus the challenge to put the poorest and powerless first teaches us how to become compassionate? [2]
Is it that in putting God and others first - humbling ourselves, in Jesus’ words - we become less judgemental, more forgiving people, more aware of our dependence on others, and open to the truth that ‘We only come alive in healthy relationships because we feel each other’s brokenness’? [3]
Is it that when we embrace Jesus’ challenge to commit to what is good and true, turning our backs on what is pleasant and easy, we understand that we have discovered treasure in a field, the pearl of great price?
Is it that when we follow the one who challenges us to reach high, higher than we can ever actually reach, we learn how to exercise in our moral life in the way which sports people and artists exercise in their specialisms? Like them we know that perfection is unattainable, but it’s about being aspirational people, about cultivating a seriousness of intent, resolved to work towards becoming the best people we can be.
When we invite others to ‘Come and see’ Jesus, this is to show them one who strengthens our character as we take his example and his teachings into our hearts and practice, shaking us out of any complacency into lives lived intentionally for the betterment of ourselves and the world around us.
‘Follow me’, says Jesus, and we thank God for the gift this has been to us in the past and is now. ‘Come and see’, say his followers to their friends, and we ask God to help us open other people’s hearts to this encounter and experience. That’s the way the Christian faith grows.
Notes
[1] Julian Baggini, The Godless Gospel: Was Jesus a Great Moral Teacher?, p.10.
[2] The ‘Is it that…?” section is my rewrite of Baggini, The Godless Gospel, p.169-171.
[3] Elizabeth Oldfield quoted in Baggini, The Godless Gospel, p.169.
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