Avoiding judgment of people and places
01/06/2018
John 1:43-51 Jesus decided to go to Galilee, and he found
Philip. And Jesus said to him, "Follow me." Now Philip was from
Bethsaida, the town of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and told him,
"We have found the one about whom Moses wrote in the law, and also the
prophets, Jesus, son of Joseph, from Nazareth." But Nathanael said to him,
"Can anything good come from Nazareth?" Philip said to him,
"Come and see." Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of
him, "Here is a true child of Israel. There is no duplicity in him."
Nathanael said to him, "How do you know me?" Jesus answered and said
to him, "Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree."
Nathanael answered him, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King
of Israel." Jesus answered and said to him, "Do you believe because I
told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than
this." And he said to him, "Amen, amen, I say to you, you will see
the sky opened and the angels of God ascending and descending
on the Son of Man."
Boys and girls, welcome back from your Christmas vacations!
Did anyone go anywhere exciting for your vacation? I know some students who
went to Colorado because you sent me pictures of you skiing! Others went to
California and still others went to Florida or to New York! My favorite kind of
vacation is a stay-cation, especially when everyone else leaves! But did anyone
go out of the country on vacation, maybe to Mexico, or to Peru, or Argentina or
maybe even to Europe and Rome, “Catholic Headquarters”? These are all great
places to visit and see.
But did you ever think about taking a vacation to North
Korea and spending a few weeks there? No way! Or maybe spend a week
sight-seeing in Iraq or Afghanistan? That would be crazy! Have you ever wanted
to go fishing or snorkeling off the coast of Somalia? That would be very
dangerous because there are real pirates who could rob you. Now, I don’t really
recommend you go on vacation to these places, but do you know there are still
good and holy people who live in North Korea and in Iraq and in Afghanistan and
in Somalia? Sometimes, when we hear people talking very poorly about a place,
saying it’s very dangerous or poor or backwards, we think “Nothing good and no
one good can come from that place,” but there are still good and holy people in
all places on our planet.
In the gospel today, Nathaniel has a very poor opinion of
the town of Nazareth. Do you know who grew up and lived for thirty years in
Nazareth? Jesus did! But when Philip tells Nathaniel about Jesus from Nazareth,
how does Nathaniel react? He scoffs: “Can anything good come from Nazareth??”
It’s almost like he’s saying, “Can anything good come from North Korea??”
Nazareth had a bad reputation for being a backward, poor and dangerous place,
like some of the other places I mentioned earlier. But that’s precisely where
the Son of God grew up. We must always remember that there are good and holy
people everywhere in the world, even in dangerous places, so be careful saying,
“Can anything good come from there!?”
Boys and girls, here the funny thing: did you know that
people who don’t live in Fort Smith sometimes have a poor opinion about our
fair city? I know that’s hard to believe
but some people think we are poor and backward and dangerous. They ask like
Nathaniel, “Can anything good come from Fort Smith??” But we know better, don’t
we? We know that there are lots of good and holy people who live here, and we
try to be some of them! We live in the state of Arkansas, but there are some
people who don’t live here, who think, “Can anything good come from Arkansas??”
But we know there are good and holy people in the Natural State, too.
Boys and girls, we live in a wonderful world, on a planet
with spectacular places. No place on this planet is perfect, but there is also
no place on this plane that doesn’t have good and holy people living there,
even in Fort Smith!
Praised be Jesus Christ!
No comments:
Post a Comment