Sunday 25 January 2009

Two very different takes on call and response… and that in itself is helpful, since it reminds us that none of us is identical to anybody else and our own faith journeys are just that – our own.  In the Harborne House Group on Tuesday, we listened as three members of the group recounted their own stories… and I know that the conclusion of the group would tie in with my comment a sentence ago.  The story of the call of Nathaniel in John’s Gospel is typically Johannine:  we are thinking about the process of coming to belief and discipleship, and about recognising God at work in Christ. Thoughtfulness, questions, the removal of potential barriers … all have their place.  Mark’s telling of the equivalent story is very different, but he consciously brings an urgency into the ministry of Jesus.  This urgency marked the Early Church, since begin with they thought that the end was very near and that the return of Jesus was imminent.  A sense of urgency needs to be reflected in the work of the churches today, but equally, we need acknowledge the significance of questions pondered with integrity, we need to think more carefully about the contemporary implications of the process of coming to belief and discipleship.

In John, Jesus clearly sees Nathaniel as someone in whom God is at work already; the same, of course, might be said of Philip.  Nathaniel is not mentioned in any other gospel, though is someone identified with the Bartholomew of Matthew, Mark and Luke.  It doesn’t matter: there is no authoritative list of the twelve, and the number of people cited as disciples in the gospels is well above a dozen.  The number itself is largely symbolic.  Jesus calls Nathaniel to follow him and promises that he will see even greater things.  Nathaniel represents the faithful people of God, seemingly looking forward in expectation, and needing to be summoned to action… nothing of the abruptness of the new beginnings which characterise the other gospels.  John being John, of course, the story comes with intrigue and questions: what is Nathaniel doing sitting under a fig tree?  Why does he ask, ‘Can any good come out of Nazareth?’

Earlier in the gospel, we have been told that two of John the Baptist’s disciples followed Jesus; a few weeks ago, I noted that tension between the followers of John and the followers of Jesus is an unbroken thread in the gospels, and this is one of the reasons why.  One of these was Andrew, who recruited his brother Simon to become a disciple of Jesus… no doubt you recall sermons which applauded Andrew as the one who brought others to Christ.  It is possible – likely, even – that both Philip and Nathaniel were also John’s disciples, because they came from the same city as Andrew and Peter.  There was a connection between these men.

Nathaniel wonders whether any good can come out of Nazareth because, seemingly, it was a place of no account.  It is genuinely surprising that Joseph made his home there after the return from Egypt… and early Christian writers struggled with this.  It is never mentioned outside of the New Testament until the third century AD in the writings of the Jewish rabbis.  The name appears nowhere in the OT.  It was a place of absolute obscurity.  Now… this helps and encourages us, as we think of the God of unexpected places and unexpected people, but it was a problem for Nathaniel.  If Jesus was supposed to be the one foretold in Scripture, it seemed to Nathaniel that his place of origin would be a town with more to commend it than Nazareth.

Interestingly, Philip doesn’t defend Jesus or his claims; famously, he says, ‘Come and see’.  He disarms Nathaniel’s defences and perks his interest.  Nathaniel’s curiosity gets the better of him and he lets Philip lead him to this Jesus.  ‘Come with me and see’, is a much more powerful invitation than saying, ‘Go and see for yourself’.

This experiential approach to faith is clearly still relevant.  People can be put off by the expectation that they will believe, or that they will be expected to give assent to a creedal statement.  To be invited to try something out is a much more gentle and open approach.  It allows people to journey at their own speed… and this is a far more supportive approach than that employed by some ministers of yore, when they approached every 14 year-old with the comment, ‘Don’t you think that it is about time that you became a church member?’  An aim of Christian education is to begin with experience – Nathaniel’s friendship with Philip – to move through experience – Philip inviting Nathaniel to, ‘come and see’ – to a new experience – Philip’s encounter with Jesus.  The Christian faith is not about isolated encounters, neatly packaged question-and-response, everything to do with A done and dusted so that you can move on tidily to B.  It is organic, growing, sometimes very untidy; it leaves room, it respects questions, it acknowledges uncertainties, it exalts in anything that moves an individual forward.

Jesus likes what is happening here.  He exclaims, ‘Look – an Israelite without guile, without a hidden agenda’.  At the Jordan, with John the Baptist, it had been quite evident that some had come to learn, and others to scoff.  Some wanted to grow closer to God and some, candidly, came to find fault.  Nathaniel sitting under his tree – and, according to Zechariah 3.10, one of the signs of the kingdom will be people sitting under their fig tree, in peace - he had been wondering about the right way to go, not about how to ridicule the ministry of the teacher.  Jesus sees him and looks directly at the core his character.  In rabbinic literature the fig tree also symbolises the place where one studies the Torah.  Nathaniel seeks truth.  He is without guile because he has left of the study of the Scriptures to come and see if their fulfilment has actually arrived.  It is a great pity that we don’t encounter Nathaniel again – I think that he must have been one of the more interesting disciples.

Yet… there are other factors in call and response.  We cannot ignore completely the rather more familiar verses in Mark’s gospel: here, Jesus calls the first disciples to follow and the call is to repentance.  Mark’s account of the call of the disciples is actually quite interesting, because it makes clear that Jesus focuses not on himself but on the good news of the kingdom.  He announces that the kingdom of God has come near, then he calls on all to repent.  The kingdom is understood as a community of those who turn from their old ways and seek to know God rather than worldly values.  Jesus’ starting point here is this need to shake off the past, and for God’s forgiveness: it is this admission which opens us to God’s kingdom.  Mark is absolutely clear on this, for his highly condensed gospel opens with Jesus’ call to repentance following immediately on that of the Baptiser.  It is after this that he calls and the fishermen follow.  The object of faith is not Jesus himself, but his message.  This Gospel seems to reflect the pre-Easter situation accurately in that Jesus does not refer to himself explicitly as the focus of the belief of others.  A Call to a Kingdom, not the adulation of a person… a perspective that continues to be controversial; yet most are agreed that the Christ who said, ‘Follow me’, issued primarily a call to right living, not to an overly defined doctrinal statement.  To those who have responded, Jesus is far more likely to say, ‘Do this’, than ‘Believe this’.