Look At My Face

Sermon 2 Epiphany B-Jan. 15, 2012
O Lord, we pray, speak in this place, in the calming of our minds and in the longing of our hearts, by the words of my lips and in the thoughts that we form. Speak, O Lord, for your servants listen. Amen.
John 1:43-51The 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."

Last week we didn’t have a sermon at the 10:30 service because we heard the story of “The Other Wiseman”. But at the 8am I told a story about a book written a year ago. A year ago this month a part-time actress, Elise Ballard, published a book entitled, “Epiphany: True Stories of Sudden Insight to Inspire, Encourage and Transform”. Ballard went around and interviewed 50 well known people and asked them if they had ever had an epiphany, “a moment of great sudden revelation; an intuitive grasp of reality through something usually simple and striking; an illuminating discovery, realization or disclosure”.
Ballard discovered that everyone of them had had an epiphany-and easily remembered it. And afterwards every single person changed their life, they all went home by a different way as the magi did. There was one more thing she learned. “After people began to take action on their epiphanies, circumstances [in their lives] seemed to fall into place so that they could take the next steps.”
Every story that you will hear in Epiphany season in church will be about someone who encountered Jesus and went home by a different way, in other words, they went away changed, they became different people. When did you meet someone and become someone else? When was your epiphany? How were you different afterwards? Think about the wise men, the magi, astrologers from the east who follow a star-and leave precious gifts in a barn. They have their “sudden intuitive leap of understanding” and their lives are never the same.”
This is the 2nd Sunday after the Epiphany, and today we hear a story from the Gospel of John about Jesus calling Philip, and Philip inviting Nathaniel: “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."
Every time I hear the story of Philip inviting Nathaniel I think about an episode from the West Wing. Josh Lyman is a professional political operative. He goes around hiring out to whatever candidate will pay him. But he yearns for a chance to back someone who is a good person, someone who is better than the rest. Josh wants to work for someone who is worth his life. He goes to visit his old friend, Sam Seaborn. Sam says, “who are you working for now, Hoynes? He’s going to win the nomination isn’t he? “ Then he look at Josh and says, “is Hoynes the real deal?” Josh starts hemming and hawing, because he knows that Hoynes isn’t. So Josh tells Sam that he’s going on to New Hampshire to see a little known candidate, Jed Bartlett. Josh says to Sam “do you want me to come back and tell you if Bartlett is the real deal? And Sam says, “you won’t have to tell me, you have a terrible poker face.” In the next episode Sam, the lawyer, is in a multi-billion dollar conference with a client when Josh pounds on the window outside the conference. Same looks up, and all Josh does is this (points to his face which is smiling). That’s how Josh recruited Sam to work for this no name candidate running for president-he let him see his face and it was obvious that Bartlett was the real deal.
Philip says to Nathaniel, “come and see.” And he just as easily could have done this (pointed at his face and smiled). It means, I have found the one-this is the real deal.
One pastor I read about instead of preaching a sermon after reading this gospel had everyone in the congregation sit in small groups and talk about what kind of toothpaste they used. The week after that he had them talk about the car they drove, the next week the team they rooted for. And finally after several weeks of talking in small groups about their lives, he had them talk about their faith and what they thought of Jesus. The point is, he wanted to get them comfortable talking about what they thought, and how they felt about things in their lives before they got to the big one-talking about their faith.
Today we heard the shortest sermon in the gospels-“Come and see.” It’s the story of someone who had an epiphany, “a moment of great sudden revelation; an intuitive grasp of reality through something usually simple and striking; an illuminating discovery, realization or disclosure”.-and it’s the story of that epiphany changing their lives.
That’s our calling as Christians-to be so filled with conviction, and grace that all we have to say to someone is, “look at my face” and God will do the rest.