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January 18, 2015 at Advent Lutheran Church in Cedarburg, Wisconsin. Second Sunday after Epiphany. John 1:43-51. John 1:43-51. Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Or for that matter Bethlehem?
Question: Can someone tell me the name of the radio program that I am quoting from?
She: You used to be so considerate. Since you got married to me you haven't got any sympathy at all.
He: I have, too. I've got everybody's sympathy.
She: Believe me, there's better fish in the ocean than the one I caught.
He: There's better bait, too.
She: I don't see how you can go to bed without kissing me good night.
He: I can do it.
She: You'd better say you're sorry for that, John.
He: Okay, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
She: You are not.
He: I am too. I'm the sorriest man that was ever born.
That was a typical Bickersons exchangeas portrayed by Don Ameche and Frances Langford, embellished of course but containing some grains of truth I am sure.
Today’s Gospel lesson is all about human nature,human behavior and human judgments that are often made without complete information.
It has to do with several things I have learned over the years. One of them is the saying that you are all no doubt familiar with;
“Familiarity breeds contempt.”
I used to believe that but today I have my doubts as to its validity. Certainly it seems to be true at least some of the time. It certainly is true in the Gospel lesson today and is behind the question asked by Nathanael;
“Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”
A companion piece might be what we find in Mark 6.3:
“Is not this the carpenter, the son of Maryand brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?’ And they took offenceat him.” Certainly sounds contemptuous!
I think all three of these sayings or idioms betray another possibility. Perhaps familiarity does not really breed contempt, but rather some individual event or trait found in the person you are familiar with triggers that emotion in you. So really, familiarity in and of itself is simply a vehicle in getting to know someone intimately.
Both good and bad. Both accomplishments and failures. Both compelling attractive traits as well as the disappointments that are normal enough in all of us no matter who we are.
So I have grown to understand that perhaps it is really a lack of understanding or vision that causes us to make these snap judgments about people because all the information all the information may not have been available when we made those judgments.
I would further submit that the question;
“Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Betrays more about the person asking the question than it does about Nazareth. No doubt we all have our pre-determined prejudices for that is how all of the “isms” that plague humankind are formed.
On this Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Sunday we may well remember that we are still not finished with creating a truly non racist society and equal society. And we are just beginning to understand the same sex marriage issues that are the newest challenge to our generation’s long prejudices.
Long before Dr. King received the Nobel Peace Prize many people were asking;
“Can anything good come out of the deeply segregated deep South, most especially a Negro Baptist minister?”
And yet the monumental changes that took place because of the non-violent movement that Dr. King started and remained with until his assassination in 1968 quite literally changed race relations to the good as a result of his passion for justice. And we are certainly not finished yet.
People may well have said of him;
“Isn’t this Michael King, son of Albert King the Baptist preacher who like his father before him adopted the name Martin Luther in honor of that German reformer?”
And yet as time has passed and information shared the entire situation changed dramatically. It was good to revisit that tumultuous time as Aina and I saw the movie Selma. It portrays what I believe to be true and others have said before mainly that there really are no great people, only ordinary people who do great things.
Yup, he was just another ordinary Negro Baptist preacher from rural Georgia, but it appears that God had another plan. And once we learned more of the story our attitudes and judgments changed as knowledge increased.
These things don’t change easily, but change they must.
This is another very telling question in this text. Nathanael is surprised that Jesus knows who he is so he asks;
“Where did you get to know me”and implicit in his question is the answer to how we can find a way to get past the deceit and lack of information that is at the heart of all isms. Jesus, upon seeing Nathanael says of him;
“Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.” What does that mean? Perhaps what happened last week here at Advent.
Last Wednesday morning Cheri Hesse and I spent part of the morning receiving people and gifts to our ministry here and at one point Cheri said;
“I really wish there was some way we could share the incredible grace that this office is the very hub of every single day.”
What Cheri was talking about was how not long ago a woman whom we had never met before walked in and handed her a check for $2,000.00 for Mr. Bob’s. That same day a man walked in with a bag of hats and gloves saying that he and his wife had asked their children to give these things to them as their Christmas gift so they could hand it over to Mr. Bob’s because they have everything they need. He also gave Cheri a check for $500.00. To be used for supplies for Mr. Bob.
On Wednesday another woman from Grafton whom we did not know came in with a bag of gloves, scarves and warm hats that she and her daughter had somehow collected from Land’s End. It was really sweet how she somewhat shy in her presence saw me and asked;
“I don’t know if I am in the right place but I’m looking for Father Bob’s or Pastor Bob’s collection for the homeless, do you know…”and before she could finish I interrupted her with;
“You must mean Mr. Bob’s, right? Come and meet the CEO,” as I ushered her into the office to meet Cheri.
With that she broke into a big smile and handed over a bag of the goodies I mentioned. Meanwhile John Knuth, God bless him, showed up with his van and in the back of the van were three cases of institutional size sweet corn, green beans and peas for feeding the folks at Bread of Healing at Cross Church.
The morning actually began rather early when around 7:30AM I heard the door open and close and found John Arcuri emptying the Mr. Bob’s bin which was as usual spilling over the top from donations. Les Feiler does this weekly dropping off goodies from Family Sharing and emptying Mr. Bob’s bin!
This excitement really centers on something else that happened Wednesday morning. Lou Hansen stopped in to comment on my interpretation of Baptism from last Sunday’s sermon and how he appreciate some of the insights and also how he experiences the grace that happens when we greet each other outside before church and also in passing the peace.
Lutherans do not have a long history of loosening up during worship. As I’ve said to you before in evangelical circles we Northern European Lutherans are often known as the “Chosen Frozen,”rather than the “Appointed Anointed,” that you will find in churches that pull out all the worship stops and the passing of the peace takes as much time as the liturgy and sermon.
I have noticed that a few brave souls here at Advent leave their pews to greet others in the sanctuary. Don’t be afraid to do that, no one will take your seat, I promise! Let’s see how it feels to loosen up a bit…let’s try it today, let’s move around when we pass the peace and see how it feels, and be sure to share the peace with someone you have never greeted before because I believe familiarity in the faith community breeds not contempt but Grace! AMEN.
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