Come and see

John 1: 43-51, NT page 92 The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip 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.” Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said of him, “Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!” Nathanael asked him, “Where did you get to know me?” Jesus answered, “I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.” Nathanael replied, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” Jesus answered, “Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these.” And 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.” Sermon Getting to know people can be a dangerous business, as human beings can be judgmental. Maybe it’s some more than others, but you all probably have a single issue, an observable trait or bad habit, and when you see it in another person just that one thing can send a brother or sister down the ladder of your estimation. Politics is one thing that can do it, dental hygiene is another. People notice these things and they make judgments about your personal character based on who you voted for or the state of your teeth. The kind of car you drive might say a lot about who you are and what you care about too, and I’m always thinking about what kind of assumptions people make about me based on the contents of our grocery cart. It’s not fair but it’s true. You go in Kroger and maybe it’s even before you get home to unload your groceries and already you’re reporting to someone that so and so had ice cream in her shopping cart – but I wished her good luck on her diet anyway – and I was standing there minding my own business, but can you believe who’s children were running down the store aisles like wild heathens, and do you know what she looks like without make-up? You have to be careful, because you’re being watched. You have to be careful about what you wear, how you talk, what you buy, because most people are trying to figure out who you are and to figure you out sometimes they’re judging you by just one little thing. Henry Ford was like that. According to legend it didn’t matter how well the interview went if, when you sat down to eat you salted the food on your plate before tasting it. If you did he’d give up on you based on that one little thing alone. Job interviews are hard. You can be smart, test well, dress appropriately, but if your handshake communicates cold dead fish rather than firm and confident don’t be surprised if you never get a call back. It’s just one small thing, but there are plenty who spend considerable time attempting to overcome the stigma attached to one small thing. A friend of mine went to school in New York State. His roommate asked him where he was from and after Will said Tennessee the new roommate asked him if he owned a pair of shoes. The North looks down their nose at the South a little bit. But the South’s not innocent. Atlanta looks down on Nashville. Nashville looks down on Columbia, and you don’t have to listen too closely to realize that there are plenty in Columbia who look down their nose on Mt. Pleasant. I imagine that Mt. Pleasant looks down on someone too, I just don’t know who that is. I go to the Mt. Pleasant Grill every once in a while. It’s a very nice place to eat. I’ve seen the breath taking stained glass windows in the Mt. Pleasant Presbyterian Church as well, but phosphate mining dried up they say, and the former Phosphate Capital of the World is working to re-invent itself, though it’s hard to overcome assumptions about a place once these assumption have had time to really settle in. Philip 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.” Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Nazareth was a village of 200-400 people at the time of Jesus. It wasn’t much of anything at the time and it had been that way for as long as anyone could remember. Not once is the place mentioned in the Bible up until this encounter. Stigma was attached to it, and while Jesus didn’t seem to mind there are plenty of others who are not so firmly rooted. For them, while it sounds innocent enough, the simple question: “Where are you from?” can inspire a little anxiety. They get rid of their accents, don’t talk much about the folks back home. There’s a little Mexican Grocery Store on Carmack next to Shoney’s and if you go in there asking where everybody came from they might think you work for the Immigration. We judge people by one thing or another, but history has a way of making fools out of the ones who place too much importance on just one aspect of a person. Tomorrow is a day established in honor of a man who walked towards the day when all men would be judged not by the color of their skin by the strength of their character, and as he walked towards such a time there were plenty who stood at the gate of justice on horseback, with clubs wrapped in barbwire in their hands, ready to stop a group of people, ready to unleash violence upon them because of just one observable trait. “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Surely not the world responds. So, while “he was in the world, and the world came into being through him… the world did not know him.” However, fortunately for Nathanael, Philip responds to his question by saying, “Come and see.” That’s the missing piece for a lot of us and a lot of others too. Plenty assume they already know everything they need to know. Any new information matters little compared to the one small thing – and while the foundations of prejudice shake, while many freely admit that history will call the preconceived notions that still divide our world foolish, so many who are not here this morning stay at home because of one small aspect of the Church – one small thing that stands in the way of their relationship with Jesus. Too many are left imagining that he’s just as judgmental as some of his followers are. That inviting him into their home ensures that he’ll look through their medicine cabinet while they’re not looking and will come out with a stern look on his face, but when Nathanael went to find out for himself he encountered a savior who knew Nathanael had been sleeping under the fig tree, and he called him, “an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!” Can anything good come out of Nazareth? It’s a question that we all ask in one way or another, but I want you to know that he’s seen me sleeping under the fig tree too, and he’s seen more than that even. For any who would judge based on one frailty or one weakness, look at me and take your pick, but I tell you, this Jesus who saw me sleeping under the fig tree has told me that if I’m to be judged by one thing and one thing only than that one thing will be his grace. It’s all over the place. Christians are judgmental, hypocrites, self-righteous, but what right have we to be when we claim to follow one who loves us despite our faults, who claims us despite our failure, who embraces us despite our sin? Hear the world asking, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Tell them, “yes, so much good that he saw me sleeping under the fig tree, he has searched me and known me, and still he knocks at my door.”