Trinity Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Sermons 

is much less familiar, I think,

than the one we will hear next Sunday,

which includes the famous "fishing for people" remark.

This one has a gem of its own,

though it probably requires a little background for most of us.

On the previous day,

Jesus has still been in the vicinity of John the Baptist,

somewhere near Bethsaida,

and two of John’s disciples decide to follow Jesus

after they hear John say about him,

"Look, here is the Lamb of God!"

One of those two is Andrew,

and he goes to get his brother Simon,

whom Jesus promptly re-names Peter.

At any rate,

our reading for today tells us that

"the next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee."

Which is a province, on the western side of the Sea of Galilee.

And on the way, presumably,

he sees Philip and calls to him to follow,

which Philip does,

and then Philip goes off and finds Nathanael.

Philip says to Nathanael the same sort of thing that Andrew said to Simon:

We’ve found the one.

"Him about whom Moses in the law

and also the prophets wrote,"

says Philip.

"Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth."

Whereupon Nathanael utters that wonderful line,

"Can anything good come out of Nazareth?"

Which is kind of like, if you’re from Dallas,

saying "Can anything good come out of Houston?"

Or maybe even more accurately,

since Nazareth apparently was thought of as a hick town,

perhaps saying "Can anything good come out of Waxahachie?"

Philip wisely doesn’t get into that argument.

He simply says "Come and see."

And to his credit, Nathanael does.

But what then happens as he and Philip are approaching Jesus?

The first words out of Jesus’ mouth are:

"Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!"

Where did that come from?!

Yes, apparently Jesus had seen Nathanael sitting under the fig tree

before Philip went over and invited him,

but he didn’t talk to him then …

I can only conclude that Jesus, somehow,

knew what Nathanael had said when Philip called to him.

Nathanael may have ended up with his foot in his mouth,

but he said what was on his mind.

No pulling punches,

no polite, "well, Philip, I’ll see if I can

maybe find some time to do that …"

just the stereotyped reaction to the name of

a small, agricultural village far from the lakeshore.

"Can anything good come out of Nazareth?"

Like if you were from Austin, asking

"Can anything good come out of College Station?"

So, Jesus somehow knows what we just saw:

Nathanael is a person who’s going to tell you what’s on his mind.

He is open to having his mind changed, to be sure.

It doesn’t take him long at all to decide that,

indeed, something very good has come out of Nazareth!

But it appears that, come Hades or high water,

you’re always going to know where you stand with Nathanael.

He’s not going to sugarcoat it for you.

He’s not going to tell you polite fictions

just in order to get along with everyone else.

Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.

One the one hand, we find that admirable.

At least, in the abstract.

But when it comes to the living out of everyday life,

can we imagine it without deceit?

Sometimes it is just polite fictions …

the kind of things we say to make life run more smoothly,

and it doesn’t matter that they aren’t 100% true.

Like …

"No! Honest! I didn’t forget your birthday!

I just couldn’t … find the right present, that’s all."

"Why no, sweetie, that dress doesn’t make you look fat."

"Thank you so much for

the delicious fruitcake you sent at Christmas."

You know. That sort of thing.

There’s the kind of deceit we tend to engage in

as children and young adults,

trying to evade rules that the adults made that seem unfair.

"Mom, I’ll be over at Sharon’s house studying."

"Of course his parents are going to be there to supervise the party."

"He followed me home, can I keep him?"

Those of us who teach hear lots of it:

"I ‘forgot’ my homework."

"Sure, I looked at that website,

but I swear to God those are my own words."

"We really have to leave class early

because we have football practice."

Sometimes, we are deceitful in work settings …

perhaps, to advance our own cause,

like padding a resume with things we didn’t really do,

or taking credit for someone else’s idea …

or sometimes, because a higher-up demands it of us.

I had an employer when I worked in a travel agency

who not only claimed that all of her children were employed there

in order to get free trips for them from time to time,

she also required different ones of us to forge their signatures

on the appropriate documents.

Some are hugely deceitful in work settings,

and end up going to prison for it,

or we are still hopeful that they will go to prison for it …

insider trading … market manipulation …

misappropriation of funds for personal use …

accounting sleight-of-hand … etc., etc.

To a certain extent, our entire economy runs on deceit.

Buy this product; it will restore your youthful appearance.

Really?

Even if it does address wrinkles,

will it erase the gray hairs –

or put back hair that’s long gone –

straighten the spine,

redistribute the weight,

and lift up what’s sagging?!

This box contains 25% more of the cereal you love!

Yes, but you forgot to mention

that it costs 35% more.

This car gets 45 miles to the gallon!

As long as you only drive downhill,

with a powerful tailwind.

We have to be made to believe

that we need newer, improved stuff

in order to keep the economy growing.

If we quit deceiving ourselves,

and stopped playing the game,

there would be a recession the likes of which

many of us have never seen.

At least, those of us who arrived after

the Depression of the 1930s.

Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised, then,

at the deceit we see at the highest levels.

Deliberately misleading a nation about

the reasons for starting a war.

Telling union members that the company is hurting,

and they must all take a pay cut …

but oh look, we found bonuses for the executives.

We know we promised you a pension, but …

well, we needed the money to set up shell corporations

and siphon it off for ourselves.

How rare it is to find a person

in whom there is no deceit.

Some are in a position to do more damage than others

by their deceitfulness …

but how rare it is, to find a person

in whom there is no deceit.

It’s even difficult in the life of the church,

where, you’d think, we would do our best to be truthful with one another.

But we are afraid, sometimes,

of what people will think if we tell the truth about ourselves.

Many of us have been taught that being "nice"

is always more important than being honest.

One of the most important abilities for us,

and especially for those who will be leaders in the church,

is to cultivate our ability to be truth-tellers.

To be people in whom there is no deceit.

One of the things that I love most about this congregation

is that it is a place where, at least for the most part,

people do not have to hide who they are.

Or who they have been in the past.

We aren’t perfect in that regard,

and all of us struggle with not being the best we can be …

Even so, we seem not to "punish" people for being truthful.

We get much more upset if

we think they’ve been hiding something from us!

Though Nathanael is not one of the more well-known disciples,

it seems to me that he is one we should emulate.

Open-minded,

willing to be changed by what we learn when we encounter Jesus …

but willing also to take the risk of being

a people in whom there is no deceit.

May God give us the courage. Amen.

© 2006 Julie Adkins (e-mail: DrJAdkins@trinitypresdallas.org)