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Witness Series:
What UM Mean … John
1:43-51 25th
Sunday after Pentecost, Year A A sermon preached at First UMC De Queen/Gillham
on November 2, 2008 by the Revd David S Williams In the past few
weeks we have been engaged in a series of sermons seeking to understand what
United Methodists mean by the life of discipleship and how that relates to
our vows of membership: to be loyal to the church through our prayers,
presence, gifts, service and witness. Today, we are concluding this series of
sermons as we reflect on the fifth vow: witness. What do United Methodists
mean by witness? I believe this
incredible story from John’s gospel may illumine some of what we mean when we
think of our vow of witness. John’s gospel
begins with a string of witnesses pointing to Jesus, revealing who Jesus is.
This revelation, of course, is not
obvious to everyone. If it were, there would be no need for “witnesses” – no
need for someone to invite us to the life of Christ. The first witness is John the Baptist. The
location is the Did you ever
watch the Tonight Show with Johnny
Carson? Right before he appeared, you heard the announcer say, “Here’s
Johnny!” That’s who John is – he is
the announcer letting us know who
the main star of the show is and that the show has now begun. Following
John’s testimony of Jesus, the second
witnesses come on the scene. This time they are John’s disciples, those who
have been following after John’s ministry for some time. After John’s
testimony they begin to follow Jesus. The circle of
witnesses widens as Andrew goes and tells his brother that they “have indeed, found the Messiah” and
he introduces Simon to Jesus. Later Philip receives an invitation to
discipleship from Jesus. Then Philip finds Nathanael and tells him, that
indeed, they have found the One, “whom
Moses and the prophets point and his name is Jesus the Nazarene.” You might
recall in the early 90’s that this word from Philip was about like saying, “I
want to introduce you to the new up and coming President of the Amused
Nathanael remarks, “You’ve got to be
kidding me; you and I both know that nothing good can come from a place like At this point
in the story we can all identify with Nathanael. Whether by tradition,
reputation, or personal experience, we arrive at similar conclusions. We
might anticipate greatness arising from the front lawns of the carefully
manicured ‘burbs, but not the city
streets of poverty, or the marginalized neighborhoods of rural Nathanael has a
point. I find it
interesting that Philip doesn’t argue with Nathanael over his prejudice, but
neither does he reinforce it. Rather he responds with a chuckle under his
voice, “See for yourself. If you insist
on judging, judge on the basis of personal knowledge and experience. Come and
see Jesus for yourself.” With this
invitation to “come and see,”
Philip is extending the same invitation Jesus offered the other
disciples. “Come and see” is the
Gospel of John’s equivalent to Jesus’ invitation in the other gospels:
“Follow me.” It is an invitation to discipleship. “And what is
most interesting about this particular invitation – “Come and see” – is the
order of the words. When I used to think of discipleship, I often thought
that we must believe in Jesus and
know who he is (see) before we can follow (come). But here the
order is reversed. First we follow Jesus along the path of
discipleship and then along the way we come more fully to believe and
understand who Jesus is” (C. Campbell, “Second Sunday after Epiphany Year A,”
in Roger E. Van Harn, ed., The
Lectionary Commentary, The Third Readings: The Gospels [Grand Rapids: W.
B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2001], 484). Nathanael is
being invited to follow after Philip, to discover Jesus for himself. He
doesn’t know Jesus yet. It takes time to understand fully the greatness of
this man from the town of He knows Philip
and believes in Philip but he is skeptical of what Philip has said about
Jesus. My mother used to say to me in response to mischief, “If your friend
tells you to jump off the Unsure of this unbelievable testimony about a guy
he’s never met, Nathanael, trusts his friend but not his word. Philip has dangled the bait. And Nathanael swallows
the invitation hook-line-and-sinker. And he goes to see for himself. And what
Nathanael discovers is Jesus has this perceptive insight about him. The bible
calls it wisdom. Jesus, throughout
the gospel of John, speaks words of wisdom and insight into the lives of
people, they struggle to understand and comprehend this insight, this light,
but the light forever changes who they are in the story, simply because they
have encountered the light. It happens in
the story of Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman, the woman caught in the act
of adultery and the blind man who receives his sight. An encounter with Jesus
is an enlightening experience. You
either leave beginning to walk toward the
light or you leave his presence in
the dark. Scholars
enlighten us about this encounter with Nathanael and Jesus. Nathanael is not mentioned among the chosen twelve.
Who, then, is Nathanael? Jesus perceives Nathanael to be an “Israelite in whom there is no deceit.”
Nathanael,
according NT scholars, then, is the character in the story that embodies
those within John’s community that have converted to Christianity from
Judaism. He represents those who have encountered Christ and over time, come
to believe that he, indeed, is Messiah. Echoing the OT
story of Jacob, the one who slept under a fig tree, had a dream of the
heavens opened and a mysterious ladder join heaven and earth and angles
descend and ascend the ladder, became a dream that would change the course of
his life and future. Jacob, the
deceiver, would later become Nathanael is Nobodies from Jesus is the one who now joins heaven and
earth, Jesus embodies God’s presence, he is the new Bethel, Jesus is the ‘gate of heaven’ bridging the gap from
our communities to heaven, giving us a dream of greater things for our lives
and our children’s futures, bridging broken relationships, healing painful
pasts, and transforming our dim sight into eyes of deep faith. God is
everywhere calling us to greater things, to touch the places of pain in
people’s lives, and shatter prejudices that keep us separated from one another,
by inviting others to follow, to “come and see” for themselves; to reveal, what God, in Christ has done
in our lives is for them too. That
invitation “to come and see” seems to be a really good definition of what it
means to witness, if you ask me. When I first
became a Christian, I was taught early on that I needed to look for
opportunities to share my faith with others and introduce them to Jesus
Christ. Christ had
indeed, begun a transforming work in my life and I wanted to share my faith
with others. I had a new lease on life and I wanted others to experience the
grace and love of God too. The problem came when no one else felt the same
way I did about my faith. What was I to do? Was it my fault they didn’t think
the same way I did about Jesus? Compound that
reality with the fact that I was also told if I didn’t share my faith and
they died and went to hell then their blood would be on my hands. (This was
the way my preacher interpreted a passage from the OT book of Ezekiel chapter
33). A positive affirmation of
sharing Christ – giving witness or testimony to what he had done for me – was
turned into a negative notion
motivated by fear and guilt. Can you imagine
how that kind of guilt could give someone a “messianic complex” – the feeling
that it is your responsibility to save everyone you meet? Please, hear me
out, as a witness of the gospel, we have a responsibility to share our faith
with others, not out of unwarranted fear, rather because the “love of Christ
compels us.” We should be motivated
by what we know to be true – that the light of God shines in the face of
Jesus Christ in the midst of a darkened world and he is the one who make a
saving difference in our lives. We should be
motivated by what we know to be true – “For God so loved the world that he
gave his only begotten Son so that whoever believes in him should not perish
but have everlasting life.” We are invited
to simply share what we know to be true and invite them “to come and see” for
themselves what we have experienced to be true even though our faith may be
scandalous to a skeptic – like Nathaniel. And the best
way to do that is through our personal story
– through our testimony, and through our life.
Those are the two best tools in our Christian arsenal: an authentic Christian
life and an authentic story that is our own. We give witness when we share God’s word and show God’s love. We give witness
when we invest our lives in other
s’ who may not know the Christ and then through our investment look for
opportunities to invite them into a
relationship with Jesus Christ. Invest
and Invite: that is what we are called to do and that is what these
disciples of John did. When was the
last time you shared some good news with someone else about what God was
doing in your life? Do you have some friends that are wrestling with
questions of faith or are unsure of their faith in Christ or indifferent
about such questions or issues? We need to learn how to befriend others who
do not know Christ and give them room to struggle and respond to the grace of
God. We also need to learn how to share our faith with others by investing our lives and inviting them to join us in the
journey. God is the one who does the saving, not us. Two weeks ago,
I was privileged to attend the funeral of Charles’ aunt Dorothy. The pastor
talked about how her life was a life-giving witness of God’s goodness and
grace. She was a quiet servant, not very vocal about her witness. However,
her witness profoundly affected others because of the things she did, not the things she said. One of the
things she did was begin a Sunday School class for persons with special
needs. She provided a hospitable place for them to come to know Jesus. And
for that her church has learned how to accept people who have special needs,
and not be afraid of them. That, my friends, is an endearing witness to the
power of the gospel. And in that way her way of witnessing to her faith was
similar to what St. Francis Assisi said: “Preach the gospel at all times, use
words if necessary.” When others
look at you do they see the light of Christ shining brightly – light is
contagious, light is attractive – when people are in the dark the light is a
compelling force to help them find their way home. Do they see that light in
you? This little light of mine I’m going to
let it shine … I want to
invite you to begin to consider ways that you might be able to be a witness
to your faith in Christ in this world in word
and deed, by sharing God’s word and showing
God’s love. That is what United Methodists mean by witness. It is when we invest
in others and invite them into the
life of Christ. Our faith
should be ever-deepening and growing. Nathanael did not come to the conclusion of who Jesus was overnight. His was a journey of faith that began by a fig tree in When God calls
your name through the likes of your friends, you might respond, “You’ve got
to be kidding ….” That’s fine. Disbelief is an opportunity to discover what
you question, what you doubt, what you may not yet know to be true. “Come and See.”
Venture forth with other companions whose different journeys can be a
transforming experience for you. Welcome the invitation as an opportunity to
follow and to grow deeper in your faith in Jesus Christ. And in following, in
the journey with friends, seeing is
believing that God, in Christ, will do even greater things than these. In the name of
the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. |
