John 1:43-51
It happened this past October during a plenary session at GodBlogCon, the first-ever gathering of Christian bloggers from around the country, held in the Los Angeles area. We were gathered to hear two fine pastor-theologians (Tod Bolsinger and Mark D. Roberts) and a professor of Philosophy (John Mark Reynolds) as they were interviewed about blogging by an author and syndicated radio host, Hugh Hewitt.
I was just settling into my seat with the other 100-or-so participants when the Hewitt announced that after he had posed his questions and the panelists had responded, he also wanted three specific attendees to give extemporaneous responses to what we were about to hear. He gave the first two names, people whose writing had impressed me. But I could hardly believe the last name he gave: Mark Daniels. When I heard it, all my old stage fright came back! I was terrified, honored, stymied, and gratified all at the same time. And this was just because he said my name!
Hearing our names pronounced by others can have different effects at different times, of course. When I didn't know the answer to a question in class, I hated it when the teacher called my name.
Dale Carnegie, the author of How to Win Friends and Influence People, was fond of saying that there is no word that sounds sweeter to us than that of our name spoken by someone we trust or revere. Most of the time, when my wife calls me by name, for example, it’s wonderful! The person I most want to be with and please, whose opinion matters to me most, calls me by name and in that one syllable resides everything we’ve shared with each other for the past thirty-one years and all the assurance of her love. That’s an awesome thing!
The Bible says that God knows us intimately. He has a supernatural knowledge of all that goes on within us and of everything that happens to us.
More than that, God cares about what happens to us. He cares so much that He became one of us in the person of Jesus Christ. Then He died and rose for us so that He could make an intimate and personal connection with us and could call us individually to turn from sin and live with Him forever.
In today’s Bible lesson, a man named Philip goes to a friend named Nathanael and says, “We’ve found the Messiah, the One Who comes to save us from sin and death. It’s a guy named Jesus, son of Joseph the carpenter, from Nazareth.”
Nathanael is skeptical. "Can any good thing come from that piddlin’ town?" he asks. Philip doesn’t argue with Nathanael. He just tells him, “Come and see.”
Nathanael takes Philip up on this invitation and as he approaches Jesus, Nathanael gets a surprise. “Look here,” Jesus says, “here is an Israelite without a phony bone in his body!”
Nathanael had never set eyes on Jesus before. So, his question of Jesus is natural: “Where did you get to know me?” “I saw you talking with Phil under the fig tree,” Jesus tells him, implying, of course, an observation that Nathanael was honest enough to express his skepticism to his friend.
Jesus knows all about you, too. He knows your name. The part of the Baptismal service I love the most comes when, with the water and the power of God’s Word, I get to say, “Mackenzie Jane, or, Benjamin Malcolm, today you are baptized in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. You have been sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked with the cross of Christ forever.” When God says your name, even in times when he may be displeased with something you've done, it’s always with the deepest love and compassion.
But God’s call to you by name is only the beginning of the story. In the movie, Deep End of the Ocean, Michelle Pfeiffer and Treat Williams play the parents of a child who goes missing. Unbeknownst to them, the boy, Ben, was kidnapped and adopted by a family that lives a short distance from them. This is discovered and confirmed years later. When it is, Ben leaves the man he’d always known as his father to live with his biological family. Things don’t go well and though it breaks their hearts, Ben’s “real” parents decide to let him go back to his adoptive father.
But then one night, the parents are awakened by the sounds of Ben and his older brother, Vincent, playing basketball out in the driveway. After realizing that this group of people was his family, Ben had a decision to make. He had to decide whether to take them up on their offer and live with them for good.
When Jesus calls us into relationship with Him, we have a similar decision we must make. We must decide Who this person Who knows all about us, yet wants to be with us anyway, really is.
Nathanael made his decision right away. “Rabbi,” he told Jesus, “You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!”
Two questions you must ask yourself when you see Jesus: Is Jesus your God and King? And if so, how does that show up in your life on Monday through Saturday? (Those are two questions I ask myself all the time!)
Now, when Nathanael confessed who he believed Jesus was--the Son of God, a Semitic phrase that means the exact manifestation of God among us, He must have done it with some excitement. But Jesus tells him, in effect, “Nate, man, you ain't seen nothing yet!” Jesus says:
...Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these...Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.Nathanael would have automatically thought of the account in the book of Genesis about something that happened to an ancient founding father--patriarch--of the Jewish faith, a man named Jacob. Jacob had a vision one night at a place called Bethel, a name that means house of God. In this vision, he saw angels and if you believe the scholars I consulted with this past week, Jacob sensed himself ascending and descending stairs or a ramp between heaven and earth. Jesus tells Nathanael that if he’ll stick faithfully to Jesus, Nathanael and you and I and all who follow Christ will see Jesus Himself connecting heaven and earth, God and us.
A few weeks ago, in response to a question during our Saturday GoDeep worship service, I remembered a true story told by Billy Graham in one of his books. An elderly Chinese man was told by a Christian missionary about Jesus. The elderly man was moved to tears and told the missionary, “All my life I knew He was there, but I never knew His Name.” At that moment, that missionary saw heaven and earth come together. He saw Christ come to a man who desperately yearned to know the God Who made him and died and rose to give him life.
God wants us to experience that too! The God Who knows you by name wants you to be part of doing His work in the world. He wants you to be like Philip who lovingly told his friend about Jesus and invited Nathanael to, “Come and see” just how wonderful Jesus is!
On the bulletin boards in the lobby, there are sign-up sheets for our congregational outreach activities.
I have leaflets that you can take into your neighborhoods that invite people to worship with us on either Saturday or Sunday.
You can choose to invite your nonchurchgoing co-workers to worship with us.
There are so many ways you and I can invite others to “Come and see” and so, watch heaven and earth come together.
You see, part of what Jesus was telling Nathanael with His “you ain’t seen nothing yet” statement is that we believers in Christ will see God do great things when we get involved with our faith.
Medical students don’t go into surgical theaters or halls where post-mortems are performed with the idea that they’re going to spend the rest of their lives observing others practice medicine. No, it’s their intent to become practitioners themselves.
Tragically, sadly, churches around the world are filled with what I’ve labeled before as “spectator Christians.” They willingly watch other people do the work of the Church, listen to stories about others’ faithfulness, plop some money into the offering basket or plate, and then motor home to watch football on the tube.
How many of you remember the band Devo? Some of you may be familiar with the work of one of their members in later years: He's the creators of the music for the Rugrats cartoon show. Devo, a group originally from Akron, Ohio, deliberately cultivated a weird image, sort of like Franz Ferdinand today. Once I saw them at a signing party and a fan asked, “Is it true you were potato farmers in Ohio?” One of the members replied, “No, we were potato observers in Ohio.” (I guess a potator observer would be the ultimate definition of a couch potato!)
There’s not much to being a potato observer. There’s not much to being a church observer either. In Christ’s Church, we need fewer observers and more doers. And it isn’t so much that the Church needs us to be doers. It’s that we need to be doers in order to become all that the Savior Who calls us means for us to become! When we give Christ to others, our faith in Him grows.
If you believe that through Jesus Christ, God has called you His own and if you believe that Jesus is the Son of God, then today--this moment--ask God to help you be a part of His work in the world. Play your part in sharing Christ and eternity with others!
Don’t put it off until some day. Volunteer for a ministry when you’re asked...and believe me, you will be asked!
And make it your priority this week to invite a non-churchgoing friend to worship with us, to come and see for themselves how Jesus Christ lives in and among ordinary people like us and is calling all His children to be with Him by name, here and now.
[The topic of this message was inspired by the outstanding work of the staff at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Burnsville, Minnesota and ChangingChurch.]
[The movie, Deep End of the Ocean, has some foul language in it. The music of Franz Ferdinand reminds me a lot of Duran Duran and disco, not my cup of tea. Their lyrics can be downright gross. With these forewarnings, I give a thumbs-up to the movie and a thumbs-down Franz Ferdinand. Of course, media criticism isn't my day job.]
4 comments:
"What Do You Do When Christ Calls You By Name?"
You do a De Niro impression from Taxi Driver and say: "Are you talking to me?"
ITS:
That's funny!
Mark
Tragically, sadly, churches around the world are filled with what I’ve labeled before as “spectator Christians.” They willingly watch other people do the work of the Church, listen to stories about others’ faithfulness, plop some money into the offering basket or plate, and then motor home to watch football on the tube.
Interesting you should write this during this time period, when I've been working on the funeral luncheon etc. for the funeral of a retired clergyman.
There's been ongoing frustration in my church because the ladies who have been doing the important work surrounding the funerals of our brothers and sisters in Christ are now mostly well into their 60s, at least, with most in their '70s and '80s.
There's been almost no luck, and really no success, in getting younger people--even in their '50s, much in their 40s or below, to pitch in.
Part of this has to do with far more women being in the work force now (and, of course, this is not a gender-specific ministry, but as a pastor, you don't need me to tell you the reality). And certainly employers aren't very open to taking off work, with little notice, for this type of activity (they're not always so generous with time off to even attend a funeral, unless for very immediate family).
There really is an attitude component, however, and a quite large one. Even those women or men "at home" largely don't volunteer, or even "volunteer" (meaning, if asked, even plaintively). Maybe it's because the men aren't used to that mindset, and the women know better than to announce their availability.
We did set up for the reception/lunch on Sunday; in that case we had enough help--but still too much reliance on the older among us. How can it be that almost no one in my generation can easily carve out an hour at 4 p.m on a Sunday afternoon?
Today was even tougher (as far as the younger generation) --which after all was a holiday. One contemporary, a good friend, rushed over after a conference call and did yeoman's work of busing tables and helping to clean up. She has an extremely busy and demanding job, but then, she's a rather exceptional person in all ways.
This is not kvetch, Mark--really, it isn't. We were fine. But this doesn't bode well for the future. Who do people think are going to do this type of work for their parents--and for themselves, come to that? There seems to be so much expectation toward the church as institution, but not so much directed to the people who are supposed to constitute the church as reality.
Anyway, as part of the shake out of all this, planning for funeral luncheons and coordinating and implementing the events themselves, including building up a new core of volunteers (!) is now going to fall under my area of activities coordination (rather diverse already). So I expect I'll be getting a lot more experience as time goes on. (And even more people will trying to avoid me for fear that I'm going to ask them to do something--kidding, but only partially. I'm Sunday School superintendent, too, so you can imagine ... .
Anyway, if you find the "secret" to getting more to pitch in, please do share.
Reader:
There is so much that's important in your post! But I haven't the time to respond tonight. I will try to do so within the next few days.
Suffice it to say for now that I don't think there's a "silver bullet." And I'm far from an expert, having run into some of the same issues you mention.
God bless!
Mark
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