Sermon: An Invitation

John 1:43-51

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 Nathaneal 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 the heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man."

"Good Morning, Saints!"

Yep, Good Morning.

Are you a bit unsure of how to react to such a greeting? Saints? Are you a little or even more than a little uncomfortable with it?

If so, that's okay. I'm a bit uncomfortable too. When we're uncomfortable, there's often something for us to explore within ourselves, or perhaps, there's something to explore within our community.

"Good Morning, Saints!" This is how my seminary colleagues and I were greeted every day at the beginning of each class that Dr. Andy Dearman taught.1 In seminary, I took his class on the Intro to the Old Testament, and I had him for Hebrew as well - a language which was quite a gift to us, but which also felt a bit like seminary hazing at the time!

"Good Morning, Saints!" This is how he greeted us every day.

Saints. . . Well, what sort of images come to mind? I suppose we could think about a professional football team, but more much likely, we find ourselves thinking of people who are really, really holy. We might think of particular people who have been canonized as saints in the Roman Catholic Tradition: Saint Paul, Saint Theresa of Avila, Saint Augustine. . . Or maybe we have a strong reaction within ourselves to any sort of greeting that would call us saints because we associate the ethos of such a phrase with people who think they're really quite incredible, people who seem to exude a "holier-than-thou" attitude in just about everything they do. And that's not who we want to be.

So why voice such a greeting at all?

Well, whether you like the word 'saint' or not, a greeting like that one tells us something true about ourselves - that even in our confusion, or need, or imperfection, we are truly named and claimed by God as human beings who are called together to be the people of God - people who have worth and value and a high calling.

So "Good Morning, Saints!" Or "Holy Community of God!" or "Ministers Gifted By God!" Good Morning, "Beloved People Who Are Called to Serve!" or "Priesthood of All Believers!" or "Ministers of Reconciliation!" Good Morning, "Disciples and Friends and Partners of God!"

Good Morning. You are collectively a holy and beloved people, called into the gifts of God and into the purposes of God. Good Morning to you.

Who knows what Philip was thinking about himself or about the world around him on the day he heard some holy words from Jesus. "Follow me," Jesus said to him. Whatever Philip was thinking, feeling, or perceiving, those words turned his world upside down. In that call, Philip was more valuable than he he probably knew he was, and he was being called into a community that was more valuable than he could have imagined at the time.

I like a quote that is attributed to D. T. Niles: "Christianity is one beggar telling another beggar where he found bread."2 There's something so true about that. We are simple people - sometimes, spiritually impoverished people - and we're looking to God for sustenance. When we receive it, we can tell others where to find some bread.

But we're not just impoverished. We've been fed here. We've been given a feast in the love of God and in the service of God. So many of us have experienced that feast in a particular way around the table of this church. I'm grateful for the ways that God has been present here among us over a long stretch of history in this city.

Like us, Philip was spiritually impoverished and valuable beyond his comprehension.

Even after hearing the call from Jesus, Philip couldn't fully understand what was ahead of him. But he had met and experienced Jesus. And that was enough of an experience to make a shift already. When he found Nathanael, he shared where to find bread: "We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth." Well, Nathanael - like us sometimes - was suspicious: "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" he asks.

I find it interesting that Philip didn't start theologizing. "Why, yes, Nathaniel, something good can come out of Nazareth! God is great and holy, after all, but as I've learned through my Liberation Theology textbooks, God has a preferential option for the poor. And by the way, through the Incarnation, God - who is Totally Other - seeks to be one of us in humanity, even perhaps as humanity is found in Nazareth."

Philip didn't do that.

He also didn't pull out his Bible and start flipping to and fro between passages to prove his point. Now clearly, Philip valued the scriptures: "We have found him about whom Moses in the law and the prophets wrote," he said. In his day, Philip wouldn't have had the scriptures in his back pocket. But Philip seemed to recognize that the scriptures are a holy witness to Christ rather than a proof-texting tool. These scriptures point to the Christ. Let's go experience the Christ!

"Come and see." That's what Philip says to skeptical Nathanael. "Come and see," for yourself. Philip issues a simple but life-changing invitation. He invites Nathanael to Jesus, and that changes everything.

And so here we are. It's another typical Sunday, and so many of us are doing what we typically do on Sundays. But maybe we need our routine shaken up just a little because we have the opportunity to remember again that Jesus is among us when we are gathered together. "For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them," Jesus said.

We're spiritually impoverished in so many ways, but we're also saints - not because we're holy somehow on our own, but because we've been sanctified in ways we can't even understand. And so today, on a routine Sunday, we have the opportunity to be reminded of who we are and Whose we are.

So from this place - from this routine Sunday, I voice the the opportunity for us to be invited and for us to have the opportunity to do some inviting-ing. "Come and see." It's a simple invitation that keeps our words few and yet points to the One who is beyond words. It's an invitation that points to the the One who is called the Word - Jesus, the Word made human who changes our lives, the Word who is somehow gathered here when we are together.

We can experience him. We can "come and see." We can have our lives changed.

We can also invite others to join us. We can voice "Come and see," in a myriad of ways. We can invite others to find some bread here. We can invite others into life-change.

We can practice evangelism. Oh. . . the E word. . . . Now nothing kills a sermon like mentioning the E word! Evangelism - now that's a scary word for us if there ever was one! And that's understandable. . . There are messages of evangelism floating around out there that do make us really uncomfortable. Many for good reason.

Here's one message of evangelism that gets under our skin. Now, of course, no one says it exactly like this, but this is the feel of it: "We have it all together, and we have all the answers. You need us. Come join us!"

Oh brother. . . In that kind of invitation, we're really pointing to ourselves. I heard a sermon once in which a pastor mentioned that she had heard the message of evangelism so differently at a conference. 3 What if we reversed the typical invitation? "We don't have it all together, and we don't have all the answers. Yet we believe God is present here. And we believe God is present in you. We need you. We invite you to bring all that you are to this place. Come and see. And we invite you to be gathered with us in such a way that Christ is somehow miraculously present among us - yes, in a different way, now that you're here. We need you. Come and see."

Doesn't that change things?

It's 2012. And these days, as I walk through the hallways of this church or have conversations with you, I get the sense that we feel called to a new sense of energy and purpose. We don't have it all figured out, and we don't have all the answers. But we sense that God is moving among us and calling us to dream in new ways.

Sometimes when a new year rolls around, I find myself thinking, "How long can we stretch this sense of newness?" In other words, "How long can we be aware and cognizant of the fact that we're in a given year - that it's 2012 - and that the year has particular gifts and challenges for us?" I don't have the answer to that, but I invite us to receive this year as a gift - in all its opportunities, energy, moments for dreaming, and in all its challenges.

It's 2012. Let's find bread together this year. Let's be ourselves and invite others to join us in discovering what 2012 could mean for us.

Let's "Come and See." Amen.

-Renee Roederer, Director of Evangelism and Young Adult Ministries, and the Community at Pasadena Presbyterian Church

1 Dr. Andy Dearman taught for many years at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. He is now the Academic Dean at the Houston Campus of Fuller Theological Seminary.

2 This quote is found in many places on the internet, but I cannot find its original source.

3 Pastor Judy Skaggs told this story in a sermon at University Presbyterian Church in Austin, Texas after attending a conference on evangelism.