"Come out of Nazareth"-Sermon for Epiphany 2, John 1:43-51
I have mentioned before that in the Spring of 1997 I was invited to be part of a film crew commissioned by the Archbishop of Canterbury, at the time a man named George Cary, to film a documentary video on the 14 Stations of the Cross. Which is often also called the Via Delarosa…or Way of Sorrow. These stations follow Jesus’ final earthly journey, as marked in scripture, from the Praetorium which is where Pilate judged Jesus and condemned him to death to Golgotha, which means Place of the Skull, were Jesus was crucified. The documentary was to be a Lenten educational resource for congregations to be shared across the Anglican Communion. And, just to be clear, my role was not as the film maker, director, or anything else particularly glorified…but to be the grunt of the group…to lug heavy film equipment between shots through the busy byways and alleys of Jerusalem’s Old City. And, really where I am going with all of this is, after the filming was complete, I stayed on for a few a week or so with a dear friend of mine who was studying in Israel/Palestine to do some sightseeing which included a trip north to Galilee and, specifically, to Nazareth. Here’s a picture of a much younger me and my friend Samy atop a hill overlooking Nazareth.
And, what struck me most about Nazareth was that compared to the cities I visited before arriving there…Israeli cities like Tel Aviv, Western Jerusalem, and Haifa…it was a little worse for the wear…a little run down and dilapidated. Those other cities felt very European, clean and well-ordered with modern amenities and excellent transit and architecturally interesting skyscrapers. Whereas, Nazareth simply was…not any of that…poverty abounded, buildings lacked attention and garbage littered the streets. There was no high street with fancy boutiques and shopping centers. It felt like a second-class sort of town…down on its luck…the sort of place you might want to move on from as soon as life allowed…on to bigger and better things…certainly not a center of culture or commerce. And I think there were and are political and racial reasons for this…for the vast majority of the people who live there…though Israeli…are of Palestinian dissent…they are Arabs…not Jews. And inequality between Arabs and Jews, though all Israeli citizens, is just as present in the Nation of Israel as racial inequality is present in our own nation. Nazareth is, to borrow an old expression, on the other side of the tracks…or if we want to bring that closer to home…on the other side of the Interstate.
And having named that, I share my experience of Nazareth in the context of Nathanael’s comment about Nazareth in this morning’s Gospel reading. Perhaps you recall, when Nathanael learns from Philip that Jesus is from Nazareth, a man who Philip claims is God’s long-awaited Messiah who will bring God’s kingdom of love and justice to our world, Nathanael’s very first response…his very first comment…before even seeing Jesus with his own eyes or hearing a single word from Jesus’ mouth…is not excitement or interest…but, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”. Ouch…apparently Nazareth was not that well thought of even in Jesus’ day…at least in Nathanael’s estimation. And, I don’t know what that story is entirely about…what that reputation and Nathanael’s visceral response was rooted in…way back in those ancient of days…political division or racial or religious bias or urban/rural tension or something altogether different. But certainly, Nathanael had strong feelings…and not positive ones...about Nazareth and by extension those who lived there.
Now to give Nathanael some credit, after a brief encounter with Jesus…laying his own eyes on him and hearing Jesus speak some words of truth into his life, Nathanael’s heart is stirred…in the spirit of James Taylor…perhaps it’s something in the way Jesus moves…or holds himself or an aura of holiness that surrounds him or a glimmer in his eye or the way he speaks to Nathanael’s character…but Nathanael quickly comes around…declaring to Jesus, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!”. And like Philip who first connects Nathanael to Jesus, Nathanael becomes one of Jesus’ disciples…one of Jesus’ closest friends and partners in ministry.
But…but I don’t want to forget that initial reaction…those words of judgement that Jesus had to overcome to win, if you will, Nathanael’s affection. For I think Nathanael’s initial negative reaction to Jesus based on the town from which he hales, though perhaps disheartening, is entirely human and is a serious stumbling block for many, if not, all of us. For, I believe we too often pre-judge others based on all sorts of assumptions…where they’re from, what company they keep, how and where they were educated, what language they speak, the color of their skin, their religious tradition, who they love, their legal history, whose campaign signs are in their yard, and the list that informs our bias feels almost limitless.
I remember an experience I had in a previous community with one of my parishioners who told me they had heard stories about my father…not Nathanael but Nathan which was my father’s name and whose story I told in part two Sundays ago…what a wild and crazy person he had been…how much he drank…how he left my brother and me when we were young…and then said something to me like it’s surprising that I had done so well considering who he was…and then I could tell by the look in their eye that they were wondering how far the apple had really fallen from the tree. The comments stung…set off in me what Dr. Brene Brown calls a shame storm of epic proportions. It made me question myself…wondering if I was capable of overcoming my family history. A wall went up between me and that person and the possibility for intimacy and connection between us was diminished. Our judgement of others always has consequences.
Now, none of us can entirely escape the judgement of others, and I am the first to admit that it is hard not to judge. I fail at it constantly. But I think it’s worth working on…judging less…and opening ourselves up to others without assumptions more. For when we close ourselves off from others based on what we think to be true about them…more times than not…as I experienced in the story I just told…we are both diminished. It becomes harder to hear each other, learn from each other, receive the blessing that I believe we almost always intend for each other.
I have said before and continue to believe that our salvation is all wrapped up in each other. Salvation on this side of the grave…salvation in the sense of shalom…of wholeness and peace and healing and meaning making and giving and receiving love. So, why would we allow our judgments based purely on assumptions or associations allow us to insert a stumbling block between us and another person from the outset…interrupting the possibility of a new relationship. That seems to me, at the very least, to be self-defeating…for almost everything that I have come to know about God’s ways…God’s forgiveness…God’s wisdom…God’s never-ending love for me has come through relationships with other people…as God’s love…God’s Spirit has moved from their life into mine…and then from my life back into theirs. And I have had these God infused moments of connection that have made my life worth living with people I expected to find God alive and active in and those that I did not…whether that was a result of just being strangers or because I pre-judged them wrongly…that we then, by the grace of God and with great intention, prayer, empathy, and patience, had to overcome.
I am grateful for that sort of grace, the God inspired chances that people have given me to overcome my wrongheaded and sometimes downright mean assumptions and judgements about them. Maybe that even created a connection with a special sort of depth in the relationship that emerged after we got past the judgment…but still I say again I think it’s worth working on…judging less…opening ourselves up to others without assumptions more…especially those who are very different from us…those who look, love, live, and believe differently than we do. I think those sorts of relationships provide maybe the richest sort of soil to grow more and more into the very person God created us to be. It is our relationships, again, that God uses to most completely shape us…and nothing can derail relationship quite like judgement…for can anyone really stand as their authentic selves before another if one feels judged. So, judge less…be open more.
And there is, at least, one other lesson here left to glean, which is about the judgement we direct toward ourselves. Though Jesus is indeed divine, I imagine it did not take some supernatural mind reading power to know what Nathanael thought of him based solely on his hometown…the judgment was likely written all over his face. Jesus likely well knew what some people, including Nathanael, thought of those who came from Nazareth. Yet, Jesus did not allow Nathanael’s assumptions about him to have the last word. He did not allow Nathanael’s judgment to define him. Instead, Jesus sets the judgement aside and engages with him. In fact, Jesus’s first words to Nathanael are kind words…a compliment.
Likewise, I think it is worth working on not allowing our past, our history, our mistakes, where and who we come from, whatever false judgments and wrongheaded assumptions might exist in the minds of others…to define us. Instead, I hope that we might choose to engage others with our heads held high and, like Jesus, with kindness…finding strength to stand as our authentic selves before others in the full assurance of our beloved-ness and beauty. For we are God’s own beloved…created in the very image of the Maker of heaven and earth…capable and breathtakingly beautiful. And I want you to hear me say you are both…capable and breathtakingly beautiful. Just as I believe we should judge others less…open ourselves up to others without assumptions more…we should extend the same sort of grace to ourselves. For we are too often our own harshest critics. We, indeed, have a gift to bring to others, whether they recognize that or not, so, like Jesus, engage, don’t let judgment win, choose connection…reach out…with kindness and grace.
Nothing derails relationship…and nothing diminishes our own self-image…more than our own judgement. So…judge less…be open more. Pay attention to the language directed toward yourself and others that floats around in your head…especially when negative. Speak kindness to yourself and others…don’t be afraid to compliment yourself and others. Extend compassion and grace to yourself and others. When you stand before others…when you stand before yourself in the mirror…remember…you are looking at holiness…God’s own beloved…Jesus’ own sister or brother…a human, created in God’s own image, both supremely capable and breathtakingly beautiful. Amen.