Calvary Episcopal Church
Memphis, Tennessee
January 19, 2003
The Twenty-second Sunday After Pentecost

Often the Crazy Thing Becomes the Right Thing
The Rev. George S. Yandell

Gospel: John 1:43-51

Did you hear this week about the childless young couple that adopted five brothers--age two through twelve--who had been separated into three different foster care homes? After they adopted the five, they found out there was another brother, under two, who was also in foster care, and they adopted him too. The father was interviewed on national news Thursday with the six boys playing wildly in their new home. He said, "Our faith motivated us to offer the boys a family life together. Sometimes the crazy thing becomes the right thing." What a philosopher! And what delightful irony, the family's last name is "Landmark." This truly was a landmark, a crazy act of extravagant love.

Today we're introduced to a disciple of Jesus whose name is Nathanael--a man whose very name is suspect. It means in Hebrew "gift of El (God)". Nathanael is not recorded in any lists of disciples/apostles in the Gospels. Later church writings make Nathanael into Bartholomew, of whom there are records, and whose inclusion (with Nathanael's exclusion) in the list of apostles keeps the number at a tidy 12. So what do we know of Nathanael? He is only mentioned twice in the Bible-in our Gospel reading today, and in John 21:2.

Nathanael lived in Cana, about 12 miles from Jesus' hometown, but down on the plains of Galilee, not from up in the hills like Jesus. Nathanael has bought into the prevailing cultural stereotype that nothing good--let alone a Messiah--could come out of Nazareth. Yet when Nathanael meets Jesus, he sounds surprised and delighted to find an Israelite without an angle or an ax to grind or a trick up his sleeve to try to trip him up. Jesus sees in Nathanael what his name means- a gift from God.

Nathanael probably didn't care if he ever heard again that the Messiah was coming. He was a serious guy. Fancy had no appeal. His beat up old copy of the Torah was enough Moses talk for him. And here was Philip all full of himself again, sounding off about the Messiah being not a rabbi, nor a priest, nor even a bishop, but a carpenter from Nazareth--a place not known for even a favorite son getting ahead in the world, let alone the Messiah. So Nathaniel shrugged that off in a Jerusalem minute, at least until this Jesus, who'd probably overheard him, singled him out and nailed him for the observant, truthful Israelite he was and had always been. [Thanks to Lane Denson for these words and some that follow.]

This unique encounter between Jesus and a potential disciple offers instruction to us, I believe. It warns us our presumptions can blind us to the possibility of the new in ourselves and in our neighbors. Nathanael is a poster-child for a crazy change in our attitude toward God, the church and in our children. He stands for spontaneity, serendipity, and openness to be led to change--like the Landmark family.

Tom Ehrich writes of this meeting:

The miracle, if that is the right term, was that Jesus saw Nathanael as he was. He wasn't deterred by Nathanael's instant rejection of a stranger from Nazareth, but saw his heart and soul and knew that he could build something on him. His gift to Nathanael, in turn, was that same capacity to see reality. Not to hide, as so many do, behind locked doors and the costly protections of privilege, but out there in the open, seeing what God sees as "angels ascend and descend."

By the strange workings of God's economy, when someone sees reality clearly and compassionately today, someone else will benefit tomorrow. All of the institutions, formal and informal, which soften the blows of poverty and injustice were founded by people who saw reality and acted. While others were theorizing and planning, they did something. Like Dr. King, they dreamed, but also like Dr. King they marched into Woolworth's and demanded respect and service.
(from "ON A JOURNEY" email messages by Tom Ehrich, January 2003, oaj2000@earthlink.net)

Like the Landmarks, they had compassion and acted, crazy as it might be.

Ehrich notes:

In the battle between truth and lies, a shred of truth today can be a seed for tomorrow. So can a lie, of course. That is why doing the right thing matters, even if it seems hopelessly inadequate in the face of children who have no homes, moms with no partners, gainfully employed workers with no food or shelter, and addicts not escaping their pain.
(from "ON A JOURNEY" email messages by Tom Ehrich, January 2003, oaj2000@earthlink.net)

Doing the crazy thing can become the right thing. Taking the risk to know and care for a fellow pilgrim against stereotypes and cultural biases can open up the love of God in our daily places, and make holy the ground where God walks with us.

There's a postscript about Nathanael, one more mention of him before he fades into the identity of another. In the final part of John's gospel, Jesus has died, and been resurrected and appeared to some of the disciples. In this chapter Nathanael is present by the Sea of Galilee when Peter organizes a fishing expedition. Nathanael, Peter and five other disciples get into the boat, fish all night, and catch nothing. Just after daybreak, Jesus stands on the beach near them but they don't recognize him. He yells over to them, "You haven't caught any fish at all, have you?" Any of you fisherfolk here? Isn't that the most horrible thing to have to admit to anyone, much less a nosy stranger? Jesus then gives them instructions to cast their nets on the other side of the boat, again, as if they haven't been trying that all night. The net fills to breaking. They drag the net ashore, and find Jesus standing next to a charcoal fire, fish and bread already cooked, ready to share. Jesus invites them to have breakfast with him. Jesus offered them the fish and bread, much like he had the bread and wine at the last supper.

Sounds crazy again, doesn't it? Yet that is Nathanael's legacy for you and me. Jesus is present now, he blesses our work with promise of remarkable success, he surprises us and feeds us with heavenly food. Whether we receive renown or even honorable mention, like Nathanael we are in the presence of the risen Lord. Take, eat, and go forth to encounter Jesus everywhere you turn, and act in his name. Crazy? Yes. But often the crazy thing becomes the right thing.

Copyright 2003 Calvary Episcopal Church

Gospel: John 1:43-51
43 The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, "Follow me." 44Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. 45Philip 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." 46Nathanael said to him, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Philip said to him, "Come and see." 47When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said of him, "Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!" 48Nathanael asked him, "Where did you get to know me?" Jesus answered, "I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you." 49Nathanael replied,
"Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!" 50Jesus answered, "Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these." 51And 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." NRSV

(Return to Top)