Lesson is John 1.35-51
In the name of Jesus. Amen.
Even though the church calendar is still celebrating the season of Christmas, with it being the second Sunday of Christmas, the world is done with Christmas. Christmas lights on houses are slowly being turned off, trees are coming down, decorations are being put away. At this point, the big box stores have probably been done with Christmas decorations for two months and are busily putting up 4th of July decorations. The world is done with Christmas.
And yet the church is still clinging to this Christmas season with all its might. The church wants one more Sunday of Christmas.
But why? What for? Why is this grip we have on Christmas so important?
I wonder if it isn't because the church knows something that the rest of the world doesn't. And that something is this: that Jesus Christ is something more than just a simple holiday party. God born in the flesh is something more than presents, and food, and even family. God born in the flesh, the reality we celebrate in Christmas, is beyond us and our holiday gatherings. There is something more tangible, more lasting, more solid that is beyond all of our celebrating and we're still clinging to it.
So just why is it so important that Jesus came in the flesh and why is it so important that we need two more Sundays after a Christmas Eve service to hear that message?
I think that the questions that we encounter in our Gospel lesson for today point to some reasons for our tight grip on Christmas and the reality of having God in the flesh.
The first question comes from Jesus. As he's cruising along on the road, he hears some footsteps shuffling along behind him. When he finally can't stand their silence anymore, Jesus spins around and he sees two of his cousin John's disciples following him on the road. "What are you looking for?" Jesus asks them. He knows they are looking for something. They are just following him silently on the road, walking behind him like a couple of children dragging their feet as they trudge through the store with their mother.
This first question, "What are you looking for?" points us to something significant: people knew that there was something important about Jesus. They just didn't know what it was. This guy Jesus was somebody special, but they really didn't yet know just how special he was. They really didn't know that he was God in flesh, God walking around in their neighborhood.
These disciples are seekers, spiritual wanderers looking for something to grip tight to, looking for something or someone to believe in. They know that there is something about Jesus that is special, but they're not quite sure what. They're really not quite sure what they are looking for. And so, Jesus simply offers them an invitation to come and see what he is all about.
Jesus doesn't launch into some long, drawn out explanation about how a person can get saved, Jesus doesn't ask them to turn over their lives to him. Instead, he offers a simple invitation: come and see. Come and see what you're missing out on. Come and see what real life looks like. Come and see what it means for God to be born in the flesh, to walk among God's people. Come and see God, living and laughing and loving alongside you. Come and see, Jesus says.
Now, the second question was Nathanael's. He'd heard about this strange Jesus guy from a man named Philip. When Philip told Nathanael that Jesus was one the prophets had talked about in the scriptures and that he was also the son of Joseph from the town of Nazareth, Nathanael asked, "Can anything good come out of that backwater, hick town of Nazareth?"
The first question was the question of a seeker. But this is a skeptics question, "Can anything good come from a town like that?" How could something special possibly come from Nazareth? How could anything good come from there? What has ever come from that place that is worth anything? I don't believe it, Nathanael would say, the Messiah could never come from a place like that.
Nathanael is a skeptic, a spiritual fact-checker, sorting out fact from fiction, truth from falsehood. He's like a filter for religious claims about the Messiah, keeping the riff raff from claiming to be the one they've all been waiting for. Skeptics are a gift, in many ways; they keep us from simply assuming or from taking things as the truth with out checking first.
Philip's reply to Nathanel is interesting. Rather than try to argue with him, rather than try to fight about how wrong he thinks it is to question the Messiah, Philip simply says, "Come and see."
"Can anything good come from Nazareth?"
"Well, rather than argue with you, come and see." Philip invites the skeptic to check it out for himself. Come and see if anything good really can come from Nazareth.
Seekers and skeptics. While each of them clearly doesn't fit well with our classic assumptions about who religious types are, they are nonetheless very important parts of the story of Christmas. God in the flesh, Jesus Christ, uses these seekers and skeptics to teach us that not all religious types have it all figured out.
These seekers and skeptics are not all that much different than today. Today, too, we have lots of seekers and skeptics. Perhaps you might consider yourself to be a person in one of these categories. After all, the minute any one of us thinks we have this whole God and Jesus thing figured out, God throws us a curve ball. God in the flesh is not something we can figure out, it's a mystery really.
The church clings to Christmas, to this reality and mystery of God in the flesh, because the world is still seeking and the world is still skeptical. Whether you are seeking or skeptical, why not come and see what Jesus is all about? Follow me on the journey; I'm not quite sure either, but gosh it sure is interesting!
In the name of Jesus. Amen.
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