Preaching text: Psalm 139:14, John 1:43-51
“Can anything good come of Nazareth?” Ah, Nathaniel, so predictably human, so utterly snobbish. I’ve dealt with your kind all my life.
Yeah, remember, I was born and grew up in the great state of West Virginia. I’ve heard it all. Yes, we have televisions. No, we’re not a part of Virginia, we are our own state. Yes, I know what shoes are. Yes, I do have more than one tooth. No, I am not married to my sister. I’ve heard them all, all sorts of often mean-spirited jokes about how I should somehow be some sort of inbred backwards barbarian because of where I grew up. Nathaniel, from our Gospel lesson today, would no doubt join the chorus of that so-called humor. It fits his personality. I can also think of someone else who'd jump in, a certain occupant of the White House.
How can anyone speak ill of such a beautiful place? For 11 years, I woke up to this.
Of course, they're not alone. We humans are kind of a sad lot. We’re always trying to prove our own worth. And all too often we do that by trying to tear down other people. And we do it all over the place. Thank God I’m not...finish this sentence however you like. Politically, thank God I’m not a wingnut or a libtard. Nationally, thank God I’m American and not from some "shithole country." Economically, thank God I’m rich and not poor. Pop culturally, thank God I love Star Trek instead of Doctor Who or Harry Potter. Sports, go Eagles and to heck with the Ravens and their fans. We do all over the place, regarding ourselves and things we are and the things we love and the things we are passionate about as innately superior to something else. And we all do it in some way or another.
But here’s the funny thing, the God we come here each Sunday to worship LOVES to tweak our preconceptions about ourselves and other people. Jesus himself is a perfect example. God chooses as part of his grand plan to save the universe to incarnate as a human being. But sort of human being? One high and mighty, of noble birth, rich and powerful? No, he’s born of a family of poor artisans in a backwater of the Roman Empire. His birthplace is a stable and his first crib a feeding troth. His hometown another backwater village in another backwater province. He, by all accounts, should be a nobody and he’s the savior of the world.
This is precisely why Nathaniel reacts the way he does. “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” It’s nowhere, a place of no value. And I’m sure he’s not alone. Although the Gospels don’t detail this, I’m sure more than one of Jesus’ detractors questioned his authority and legitimacy due to his origins.
But they should no better. They all should. Who does God pick to be his judges? Nobodies. Who does he pick to be his prophets? Nobodies. Heck, even King David, the greatest of all rulers over the Chosen People is the least of his brothers, so much so that when the prophet Samuel asks Jesse to gather his sons, he doesn’t even bother to call in David. Surely, the least is also the least worthy of whatever purpose the prophet has. Not so.
And he hasn’t stopped. Who is Peter or James or John, the greatest of the disciples? Nobodies. Who is Paul, who wrote most of the New Testament? He’s even more than a nobody, he’s a villain. The enemy who seeks to destroy the infant Church. What on Earth is God doing here?
Surprising us, just like he always does. As God says to Samuel when he’s anointing David. “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
Samuel himself should also have known better. He too was once a nobody, yet God called him to service as we see in our first lesson today. This is God’s MO, his mode of operation, throughout history. Old Testament, New Testament, and even today, he continues to call the least likely to be those that change the world.
It is likely not entirely coincidental that we have this passage and this message on the Sunday before we remember the life and work of Martin Luther King Jr and the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Who were the greatest activists and leaders of that movement? Nobodies. Even beyond the fact that people of color were considered “less than” by many of us white folks back then, they were not even great among their own. Rosa Parks was a “domestic worker.” MLK was just a preacher. And yet God used them to change this nation for the better.
That’s because what the world values little, God values beyond price. Human nature divides into the worthy and unworthy. God cares nothing for such distinctions. Our psalm today contains one of my favorite phrases about humankind, about how God “fearfully and wonderfully made” each one of us. We are precious to him, a treasure beyond all value and worth.
And not only does he adore us beyond words. He has such confidence in our abilities. It was no coincidence that Peter, Paul, David, Samuel, Martin, Rosa, and all these others were called to the tasks he gave them. He knew, far better than even they did, what they were capable of. He knew what they could do if motivated. They could and they did change the world. They made a difference for everyone.
God calls each of us too. Some to grand world-changing schemes, others to smaller more intimate purposes. Only God and ourselves really know what we’re to do in life. I can’t answer for you, only myself, what our purpose in life is to be. But I do know one thing, whatever it is, God didn’t call you to it by accident. He knows you can do and do it very very well. He loves you. He trusts you. Go change the world. For one or for all, no matter where we’re from or what labels the world has put on us, it’s what God is calling you and me to do. Amen.
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