John 1:43-51
“Check It Out!”
By: Rev. Ken Sauer, Pastor of Grace United Methodist Church, Soddy Daisy, TN www.graceumcsd.org
John Mellencamp has a song on his album, Lonesome Jubilee, which I think speaks to the human condition pretty well.
The song is called: Check It Out.
Listen as I read some of the lyrics:
“Check it out
Goin’ to work on Monday
Check it out
Got yourself a family
Check it out
All utility bills have been paid
You can’t tell your best buddy that you love him
So check it out
Where does our time go
Check it out
Got a brand new house in escrow
Check it out
Sleepin’ with your back to
Your loved one
This is all we’ve learned about happiness
Check it out
Forgot to say hello to my neighbors
Check it out
Sometimes I question my own behavior
Check it out
Talkin’ about the girls we’ve
Seen on the sly
Just to tell our souls we’re
Still the young lions
So check it out…
…this is all that we’ve learned about living
This is all that we’ve learned about living”
Can you relate to some of these lyrics?
Do you suppose any of your friends, family and neighbors can relate?
“Check it Out”
I think the first disciples, so many years ago, if they were sitting here today, could relate.
“This is all we’ve learned
About happiness…
…This is all we’ve learned about living”
These first disciples of Jesus that we meet in our Gospel Lesson for today were followers of John the Baptist before becoming Jesus’ companions.
They had been baptized by John for the remission of sins…
…but was that all there was?
Was that all they were to learn about living?
…about happiness?
Sure they had repented.
And John had given some awesome sermons.
He’d even said that he—himself was not the Messiah…
…He’d said that he was making straight the way for the Messiah.
He’d said that this Messiah, would come after him, and that John would not even be worthy to untie this Messiah’s sandals.
“Whatever that means.”
But still.
What is the meaning of this life?
I get up and go to work.
I come home to the wife and kids.
I even have a few adulterous affairs on the side…
…but I am not fulfilled.
This life I live is kind of a drag.
I get up the next day and it’s the same thing all over again.
Is this living?
It this happiness?
There must be more to it than this.
I don’t even know my own neighbors, and they don’t seem too eager to get to know me.
I get drunk sometimes to ease the boredom…
…but it only leaves me with a headache the next day.
I’ve repented but my life hasn’t really changed.
Sounds a lot like our world does it not?
This is how many of us go through our days, weeks, years, lives.
Until, until…
Jesus had found Peter and Andrew.
John the Baptist had pointed Jesus out to them: “Look the Lamb of God,” John had said.
The next day, they picked up Philip along the way.
And then Philip ran and found his friend Nathanael.
When he found him, he proclaimed: “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”
Nathanael was unimpressed.
“Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” he asked.
Ha.
What a snub.
Have you ever been really excited about something—a new find—and you expect everyone you tell to be just as excited as yourself?
It’s a downer when they aren’t.
When I had my initial “born again” experience, I was so excited!!!
I wrote all my friends, I called my parents.
People not so much excited for me…
…they were a bit worried.
They thought I’d joined a cult.
Anyhow, Nathanael’s response reflected conventional wisdom: “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”
This is like saying: “What can you expect from those people!”
And this is often the world’s response when someone invites them to come and meet Jesus at Church.
“Can anything good come out of that church? What can you expect from those people?”
In the 21st Century, the Church has gotten a bad reputation.
Never before, in America, have we seen so many people who are out right hostile toward the church.
They read about the scandals and become justifiably disgusted.
They hear the proclamations from some of the television evangelists and either laugh or turn the channel.
They listen to the political pundits using the Church in order to get their candidate elected and they become angry.
Grace is often the last thing that comes to mind when folks think of the church.
Salvation?
What is that?
They witness Christians behaving much like the Pharisees and other religious rulers of Jesus’ day and they say: “Can anything good come out of the Church?”
There lies the problem and there lies the solution as well!
Because this Church is being called to stand out as a community which lives up to its name—Grace!
I have heard so many stories from people who have been basically run out of churches.
They’ve been judged by the length of their hair.
They’ve been told either verbally or non-verbally that they “do not dress the part.”
I remember, soon after I my “born again” experience I visited a United Methodist Church with my teenage long hair and my teenage way of dressing.
I wore the best looking clothes I had at the time.
A decent button-down shirt, tucked into a pair of jeans.
It was Communion Sunday, and I went up and kneeled at the Chancel rails.
On my way back to my seat, I noticed a few negative looks from some in the congregation.
I didn’t know why they were looking at me with disapproving gaze, until I got home and turned around looking at my backside in the mirror.
My jeans had no pockets; they were a pair that I had ripped the pockets off.
“That must have been it,” I thought.
I never went back to that church again.
Around that time, I remember doing some street evangelism with a friend of mine.
We stopped and were speaking with a homeless man who had been drinking.
He had a big gash on his forehead from where someone had thrown a bottle at him.
He told us that before he went off to fight in the Vietnam War he had planned to become a Methodist Minister.
“You can still do that,” I said in my excitement.
“Oh, no I couldn’t,” he replied.
“Well, why don’t you go back to church?” I asked.
“They wouldn’t want me there,” he said.
I couldn’t imagine that.
So I protested.
“No,” he replied sadly, “I’m just a homeless drunk. They wouldn’t want me around. They wouldn’t want me around their kids. I wouldn’t fit in.”
Yes.
You and I.
We.
Grace United Methodist Church—we are called to live up to our name!
The folks in our community see our cards and doorhangers…
…perhaps we invite them verbally…
…but many of them are thinking, “Yeah, I’ve heard it all before, ‘What can I expect from those people? Can anything good come out of that church?’”
Nathanael scoffed at what Philip had to say.
So Philip followed it up with, “Come and see.”
Or “Check it out.”
“Check it out for yourself!”
And so Nathanael did ‘Check it Out’.
And when he did ‘Check it Out’ he met Jesus the Christ, face to face, and he became one of Jesus’ disciples, followers, companions, friends.
And his life was never to be the same again!
And the same thing happens today, when folks are come face to face with the REAL JESUS.
THE SAVIOR OF THE WORLD!
Discipleship is never based merely on hearsay.
We are to speak of Jesus, perhaps arousing curiosity or even doubts in those to whom we bear witness; but the work of conviction and the ultimate call to discipleship is for others what it is for us as well—namely a new reality that comes from a genuine personal encounter with Jesus Christ!!!
The mission of this church and every church of Jesus Christ is to make disciples or followers of Jesus Christ.
We are to ask folks to “Come and See” or “Check out Jesus” within the life of this congregation.
When they get here, do they believe and, with Nathanael, declare: “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King…”?
In John Mellencamp’s song, he sings: “Sleepin’ with your back to your loved one, This is all that we’ve learned about happiness…
…Talkin’ about the girls that we’ve seen on the sly…This is all that we’ve learned about living….”
But even in that song, Mr. Mellencamp holds out hope:
“Maybe someday…
…future generations
Ridin’ on the highways that we built
Maybe they’ll have a better understanding
Check it out
Hope they’ll have a better understanding”
You and I are called to tell the world to “Check it out!”
Come meet the Savior!
Come and find that life and happiness are not just about having a brand new house in escrow.
Check it out!
Come and find a place where you can tell your best buddy that you love him.
Check it out!
There is a God.
Grace does exist.
There is a lot to learn about happiness!
There is a lot to learn about living!
Check it Out!!!
