Year B
Second Sunday after
the Epiphany
January 18, 2015
Cross~Wind
Title: Living Out Loud by Living worthy Lives
Introduction
We are continuing
with a theme here that focuses on how we can live out loud for the Lord. I am
suggesting that we can do so in some simple and direct ways at a time when our
culture becomes increasingly complex and ambiguous. We will have two scripture
readings today.
With this first reading, I recall a
saying by comedian George Carlin to the effect that honest may be the best
policy, but it is important to remember that apparently, by elimination,
dishonesty is the second-best policy. Most have learned to be wary of people.
We have learned to be crafty, because so many people seem to require that of us.
Going deeper with
John 1:43-51
In the opening chapters of this Gospel, several people say yes to
following Jesus. Throughout this Gospel, people will make a decision regarding
Jesus. For us as readers, we are to make a decision as well. In this first chapter,
John will find various ways to identify who Jesus is and bring home the
importance of making a decision regarding following Jesus. John identifies
Jesus as the Word made flesh. The remainder of this first chapter, then,
describes how his initial followers identified Jesus. John the Baptist, in two
elegantly sculpted scenes, asserts his own subordination to Jesus, identifies
Jesus as the “pre-existent” (v. 30) “Lamb of God” (v. 29), on whom the Spirit
descended and who will baptize with the Spirit (v. 32-33), and sends two of his
disciples to follow Jesus (v. 37). One
of them, Andrew, then tells his brother Simon that he has “found” Jesus, whom
Andrew identifies as “Rabbi” (v. 38) and “Messiah” (v. 41).
“43
The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee.
He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” 44 Now Philip was from
Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.” Interestingly, Bethsaida was a heavily
Gentile city. “45 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.’ 46 Nathanael
said to him, ‘Can anything good come out of Nazareth?’ Philip said to him,
‘Come and see.’” Jesus is the one who found Philip, of course. Perhaps he
means that eventually, he had to discover who Jesus was, but the initiative was
with Jesus. Philip has identified Jesus as the one whom the Law and the
Prophets witness. He has discovered who Jesus is, and he wants to share his
discovery with his friend. However, here will be one of the issues in this
story. Nathanael will latch onto the historical fact of Jesus being from
Nazareth. Will he hold to this position? Will he move toward the position of
Philip? Is Jesus really simply from Nazareth?” We learn from 21:2 that
Nathanael is from Cana, so he might see here a bit of hometown rivalry. He
might have become a cynic concerning the prospects for a charismatic figure from Galilee. After all, Judas
the Galilean had already provoked one ruinous rebellion (Acts 5:37; Josephus
Antiquities XX.5.2). In any case, note that Philip invited Nathanael to come
and see. He did not engage Nathanael in an extended debate. “47 When Jesus saw Nathanael coming
toward him, he said of him, ‘Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no
deceit!” The knowledge of Jesus in John arises out of his intimate union with
his heavenly Father. Here, Jesus perceives an important quality. He had this
quality before he followed Jesus. He had no deceit. Some translations will say
he had no guile. I will talk with you about that in a few moments. “48 Nathanael asked him, “Where
did you get to know me?” The assumption of Nathanael is that he received
this knowledge from some prior acquaintance. However, “Jesus answered, “I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.”
49 Nathanael replied, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the
King of Israel!” It might look like only Philip and Nathanael were
involved, but John lets us know that even here, Jesus takes the initiative in
inviting Nathanael. Nathanael has made the most important discovery of his
life. Addressing him as rabbi, he recognizes Jesus as Son of God, a title for
kings in II Samuel 7:14 and
Psalm 2:7, and King of Israel. “50 Jesus
answered, ‘Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree?
You will see greater things than these.’ 51 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.’” Jesus promises that
Nathanael will see far greater things. The Jewish perspective was that the son
of Man would come with the angels at the end of time.
Nathanael, a model
for one who has “no guile”
I have been wrestling with the depth of the public divide in America
today. Something bothers me, and it shows up on both sides of the political
aisle. I saw it as a television new show had a graph of the immediate response
of people who identified themselves as either liberal or conservative. They
listened to the same speaker, in this case, the leader of Israel, Benjamin Netanayhu,
Barack Obama, and John Kerry. In each case, the divide was huge, as the graphs
of favorable and unfavorable responses went in opposite directions. They did so
immediately.
However, such a reaction is the
result of people who have thought through the issues, have come to differing
conclusions, and respond instinctively. Yet, as with all things human,
reactions that appear immediate and instinctive are the result of reflection on
experiences and readings. To put it another way, one embeds oneself in a
certain way of thinking. One becomes increasingly inflexible and rigid. This
explains why it is rare for a person to come to a point of admission that one
has been thinking wrongly. We have enough pride in what has led us to think and
believe certain ways that it becomes almost impossible to change.
The danger is that one may actually
be thinking wrongly. One may need to make a change.
Nathanael embodies the ordinary person who, in spite of warts and all,
still has that basic, irreducible trait of exposing his heart, no matter how
defective, to the truth. He does not run away nor hide from it.
He is truly a man with no guile, no deceit, no pretensions, no need for
covering. An antonym for guile is one used in Genesis 3:1 to describe the
serpent as crafty. Except for the normal need for discretion and modesty, he is
completely transparent. What you see is what you get.
More, he is willing and eager to know the truth, and to make the
necessary changes and adjustments that such truth would require of him. He is
humble enough to accept things as they are, never bending them to make the
pieces fit his own ideas.
That is why you immediately feel good every time you meet such persons.
They always exude such welcome and wholesome aura about themselves in spite of
their imperfections. They contribute in making society more at peace and in
harmony.
Children are such persons, though their being guileless is due to their
innocence and lack of exposure to the world. When you see such quality in a
person who is already exposed to the world, then you really feel good.
President John Adams wrote to his sons of such matters.
Have
you considered the meaning of the word "worthy"? Weigh it well ... I
had rather you should be worthy possessors of one thousand pounds honestly
acquired by your own labor and industry, than of ten millions by banks and
tricks. I should rather you be worthy shoemakers than secretaries of states or
treasury acquired by libels in newspapers. I had rather you should be worthy
makers of brooms and baskets than unworthy presidents of the United States
procured by intrigue, factious slander and corruption.[1]
Nathanael is one we need to remember today for his simplicity of heart
and sincerity. His story shows that before we look for the truth, it is God first,
Truth himself, who looks for us.
Once we find it, let us earnestly engage ourselves to it, never playing
around with it to serve our self-interest, but rather conforming ourselves
steadily to its requirements.
Otherwise, we will get our just deserts. Let us remember St. Paul’s
warning:
“Because they receive not the love of the
truth that they might be saved, God therefore shall send them the operation of
error, to believe lying.” (II Thessalonians 2:10)
The danger of the path on which many
Americans are upon is that failure to be open to the truth the other person may
have, they will embed themselves further in error.
Going deeper with I
Corinthians 6:12-20
Paul offers a slightly different perspective on living such a worthy
life. His concern in context is that we are not engage in sexual immorality.
Yet, in this passage, he is lifting a basic principle that if we are to lead
worthy lives, we need to honor our bodies.
12 “All things are lawful for me,” is a statement that might have been
something said to the church when Paul visited them. However, taking it out of
context, some thought they could visit the temple prostitutes and remain
married and Christians. In contrast, Paul says, but not all things are beneficial. “All things are lawful for me,” but
I will not be dominated by anything. His concern is that sexual desire will
dominate, forgetting that some things are so valuable that we must set aside
sexual desire. Here is his example. 13
“Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food,” and God will
destroy both one and the other. The body is meant not for fornication but for
the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14 And God raised the Lord and
will also raise us by his power. 15 Do you not know that your bodies
are members of Christ? Should I therefore take the members of Christ and make
them members of a prostitute? Never! 16 Do you not know that whoever
is united to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For it is said, “The two
shall be one flesh.” The point appears to be that some in Corinth wanted to
regard physical sex relations as something morally neutral and sexual
intercourse with prostitutes as something quite simple, on par with the
satisfaction of other physical needs.[2]
Casual sex is an offense against the human community and against the body of
Christ. Then, Paul brings home the point. 17
But anyone united to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. 18 Shun
fornication! Every sin that a person commits is outside the body; but the
fornicator sins against the body itself. 19 Or do you not know that
your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God,
and that you are not your own? 20 For you were bought with a price;
therefore glorify God in your body. This seems to make a distinction
between the exalted Lord and the Spirit, ruling out full identity.[3]
The power of the Spirit incorporates Christians into the body of Christ.[4] In Hebrew anthropology, the spirit and the body are one
entity. Therefore, if God is to raise us bodily, before transforming us into
spiritual beings, God naturally has expectations for how we use our earthly
bodies while in this life. God intends us to use our bodies in ways that please
the Lord, not in the random and potentially damaging ways. God has
effected a change in ownership of the body. The final
rationale for considering what you do with your body to be of importance to God
is Paul's analogy of the body as a temple. Just as the Spirit of God, while
incapable of being confined to any one earthly place, took up
residence in the temple in Jerusalem, so God's image, and Christ's Holy Spirit,
reside within each human body. Just because the human soul will one day leave
its earthly body does not make the "temple" that once contained it
any less holy. A great price was paid to make this unity between God and
humanity a real one. Therefore, one should take this unity seriously and use
one's body only to glorify God. Collectively, they are Christ's
body, Christs' physical presence in the world. This limits
their freedom. They are not free to do as they please because of their
relationship to Christ and one another.
Your body as the
Temple of the Holy Spirit
The Bible is not silent about sexual matters.
Have we allowed sex to become a kind
of a god to us? In many ways, yes.
Today, sex is at the
heart of our entertainment and advertisement industries. It is used to sell
everything from breakfast cereal to school backpacks, and sexually provocative
images, artists and clothing are marketed to children as young as age 6. Even
little kids now receive literally thousands of messages a year about sex ... on
television, in magazines, on billboards, in pop music. Unfortunately, for
advertisers, new research shows that when a television or print ad uses sex to
promote its product, people remember the sex, but forget the product!
If sex has become our ultimate
concern - one that completely permeates
our entertainment, advertising, health and fashion industries - then it has
become, in a sense, our god.
This is an important word for our time. Avoid immorality. We have
nearly forgotten the idea that the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.
You do not belong to yourselves but to God. What a profound thought. I
am here for a purpose. What does it mean that we are here to glorify God? Does
it not mean working to make this human venture a success? Does not Jesus make
it clear that we must do this in the real world, using what we have been given
in order to accomplish what God seems to want us to do? If so, the more I abuse
or misuse my body, the less I am able to fulfill my calling in life. Any
immorality on my part hurts not only me but the people who love me and everyone
with whom I come in contact.
The advice that we receive in Genesis 2, from Jesus, and from Paul, is
well-known. Two people; one flesh.
We come to love not by finding the perfect
person, but by learning to see an imperfect person perfectly.[5]
Conclusion
To live out loud for the Lord can be
just that simple. Live without deceit. Respect your body as the temple of the
Holy Spirit. We live in a complex and ambiguous culture. Sometimes, it can help
to simplify and clarify with the way you lead your life.
[1]
--John Adams, in a letter to his sons, quoted by David McCullough, John Adams
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001), 608-09.
[2] Church Dogmatics III.4 [54.1] 135.
[3]
Pannenberg, Systematic Theology, Volume
1, 269.
[4]
Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume
2, 451.
[5] --Sam
Keen, To Love and Be Loved (Bantam, 1999).
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