Episcopal Church of the
Incarnation
The Second Sunday after the Epiphany (B)
1
Samuel 3.1-20 Psalm 139.1-5, 12-17 1 Corinthians 6.12-20 John 1.43-51
May the Lord be in my mind, on my lips, and in my heart, that
I may rightly and truly proclaim His holy Word. Amen.
Outline of a
Sermon Delivered Extemporaneously
1) “Follow me.” That’s what Jesus says to Philip in today’s
Gospel.
a) That’s the essence of what
Jesus says to each of us. Follow me.
i) He says, “Follow me” that
you may know me, and love me, and serve me, as I know and love and serve you.
b) Follow me. The encounter with a person.
i) And when we do follow our
Lord, how is this manifested?
(1) How, in the words of the
Collect, does “the radiance of Christ’s glory” shine in us, that the Lord “may
be known, worshiped, and obeyed to the ends of the earth ...”?
2) Follow me is what Jesus says
to Philip, and Philip goes and tells Nathanael about Jesus.
a) What was Nathanael doing
under the fig tree?
i) People sometimes ask this
because his first response sounds like that of a cynic: “Can anything good come out of
(1)
(a) It’s kind of like someone
rolling his eyes, and saying “Well, he is from [fill in the blank]”.
b) Does is matter what he was
doing?
i) Maybe he was asleep. Maybe he was up to something.
(1) It’s sometimes tempting to
preach that “God is watching”.
(2) And it would be easy to
combine this idea with the psalm, “you know my sitting down and my rising up”,
and with Paul’s message that “you were bought with a price” to preach hell fire
and damnation.
c) But what Nathanael was doing
is a distraction: it doesn’t matter.
i) What matters is his reaction
to Jesus.
(1) He answers Jesus’ call, and
proclaims Jesus by messianic titles before any of Jesus’ miracles.
(2) He’s met Jesus,
encountered Him, and it’s personal; it’s real.
3) It’s real to Nathanael, but
Jesus recognizes that Nathanael’s response is not one of faith.
a) It’s in response to proof,
to Jesus telling Nathanael where he was, under the fig tree.
b) But then Jesus continues,
and tells Nathanael that he will see greater things.
i) What He says is, in effect,
“Follow me and you will see heaven”.
4) It’s real to Nathanael. Jesus stands before him.
a) What about you? How does each of us encounter Jesus, that we
may follow Him?
i) How do we listen for God, so
that we can say, like the boy Samuel, “Speak, for your servant is listening”?
b) We do this first in how we
seek our Lord in His holy Word and in the sacraments, but we do this also as
members of a common Body, members of Christ.
i) And this involves being open
to each other, to each other in our differences, that we have a real encounter.
5) It’s easy to try to find
Jesus in how we would like Him to be just like us.
a) That’s why theologians who
deny Jesus’ miracles, who deny the virgin birth and the resurrection of the
body, attract a following.
i) Because a Jesus born like us, who lives like us, and who is raised only in the
spirit is one of us.
(1) We don’t have to
follow; we can just walk along.
b) That’s why fiction like The
Da Vinci Code is such a hit.
i) Because a married Jesus is
like us; He’s domesticated into our own worldview.
(1) We don’t have to follow; He
can be just our good neighbor.
c) Jesus is like us in that
He’s fully human. But, He’s also fully
divine.
i) And, while He lived like one
of us–except for sin–unlike anyone else who lived and died in the first
century, Jesus is here with us now, alive now.
6) The apostles are not with us
now, although they are in paradise. But
let’s take a look at the apostles to see a little better what it takes to
follow Jesus.
a) The apostles are those whom
Jesus called. He chose them out of the
world, and He commissioned them to do His work and the proclaim His Good News.
i) So, they must have been
pretty special, pretty extraordinary.
Right?
b) But look again.
i) Philip is called right after
Andrew and Peter. Andrew and Peter were
two fishermen: no more, no less.
(1) We consider them special,
but this is because when Jesus said “follow” they did.
(2) Peter is mentioned a lot in
the Gospels, although usually not in any complimentary fashion.
(3) Andrew is mentioned only as
the one who says in the wilderness that there’s a boy who has loaves and fish
(John 6.8).
(4) Philip is mentioned as one
who doesn’t understand who Jesus is, saying “[S]how us the Father, and we shall
be satisfied” (John 14.8).
(5) And Nathanael? He’s mentioned one more time, when the risen
Jesus appears (John 21.2).
c) The apostles, the disciples
chosen by Jesus were not in any way extraordinary or special.
i) But when they followed
Jesus then were they equipped to do extraordinary things.
(1) To testify and witness
despite persecution.
(2) To cast out demons.
(3) To take the Good News out
from
d) They were equipped, given
the gift of the Spirit to follow and to lead others to follow.
i) To lead others to say, with
Nathanael, “[Y]ou are the Son of God!”
7) All it takes for any of us
is to first choose to follow Jesus.
a) Once we make that choice God
will lead.
i) God will equip us to be His
disciples.
ii) He will arm us to struggle
to continue to follow, so that when we stumble and fall, we can again rise to
turn to Him.
(1) To say with Samuel, “Speak,
for your servant is listening,” and to say always “Lead on.”
In
the Name of the Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.