January 17, 2021
Hope Lutheran Church
Rev. Mary Erickson
John 1:43-51
Led to the Lord
Friends, may grace and peace be yours in abundance in the knowledge of God and Christ Jesus our Lord.
“One lighted torch serves to light another.” Swiss Theologian Frederick Godet used this image to describe how we come to faith in our Lord. One person passes along the light of faith to another. One soul sparked by faith spreads the flame to others.
This Sunday and next Sunday we hear the stories of Jesus calling his disciples. Jesus bids Philip to follow him. We discover that there’s a connection between Philip with Andrew and Peter; all three of them hail from the city of Bethsaida.
In the verses just previous to our reading, Peter and Andrew started to follow Jesus. Andrew had been a follower of John the Baptist. But one day, John saw Jesus. He pointed at him and said, “Look! It’s the Lamb of God!” Andrew took after Jesus. And after talking with Jesus, Andrew got his brother, Peter. “We’ve found the Messiah!” he tells him. He brings Peter to see Jesus.
So all of this happens just before our reading. One lighted torch serves to light another. John the Baptist points to Jesus, and Andrew follows. Andrew finds his brother, and then Peter follows.
Today, Jesus finds Philip, another Bethsaida boy. He follows, too. And then one lighted torch lights another. Philip finds his friend Nathanael. “We’ve found him whom Moses and the prophets wrote! It’s Jesus from Nazareth!”
Now, Nathanael hails from the city of Cana. Cana is located less than 5 miles from Nazareth. So Nathanael knows Nazareth very well. And he’s not impressed by this news. “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”
Philip doesn’t argue with Nathanael. He simply says, “Come and see.” His actions are illuminating to us. Few people, if any, have come to faith in Christ through argumentation and proofs.
I spent the summer of 1983 in Ames, Iowa. It was the summer before I started seminary, and I was staying with my old roommate from college who was in graduate school at Iowa State University.
Late one afternoon, I was waiting for Linda to finish her work in the chemistry lab. It was a beautiful day on campus, and I waited under a majestic oak tree on the main quad. It was a quiet time of day, and there weren’t many people roaming about the campus.
As I sat there under the oak tree, I saw a woman walking across the quad. She turned her head and saw me sitting there. She was quite a distance away, no way she could have known who I was. I was no more than a lone figure. When she saw me, she suddenly changed trajectories and headed straight towards me. “Oh, no,” I thought, “I’ll bet she’s a Christian and she’s going to try to evangelize me.”
She made her way up to me and said hello. And sure enough, she launched into her evangelism spiel. She put down the enormous backpack she was carrying and pulled out a tract. She handed it to me. And then she was on her way.
There was such a high degree of artificiality about the exchange. I felt like I had a big target on my back. I’d been sitting there by myself and she zeroed in on me. There was nothing personal. She didn’t know me at all and I would never see her again.
Philip does none of this. He looks for his very good friend, Nathanael. It’s very personal. He wants to share this marvelous thing with his friend. When he receives some resistance from Nathanael, he doesn’t push back. He just invites him. “Well, come and see him for yourself.”
It’s a simple invitation. That’s all that’s necessary in sharing the good news. Philip understood his role. He didn’t need to convince Nathanael about Jesus. That is Jesus’ part of the equation. It was the face to face encounter with Jesus that would touch Nathanael’s heart. All Philip did was make an invitation. “Come and see.”
When we hear about evangelism and the call to share our faith, oftentimes we feel intimidated by false expectations. We have this notion that we need to be able to present an open and shut case demonstrating that Jesus is the divine savior of the world. We’re afraid that if we start a conversation about faith, we’ll be challenged. We need to have plenty of biblical ammunition! That way we can counter any argument with scriptural references proving our point.
But rarely does anyone come to faith by being beaten down in argumentation. That’s not how I came to belief in Jesus. Is that how you came to faith?
No, one torch lit another. I owe my faith to the people who ushered me before Jesus. These weren’t strangers. They were people I knew and trusted: my parents, friendly people I already knew.
Philip knew what to do: Just invite. “Come and see,” he said to the questioning Nathanael. This simple invitation is the most effective way we can introduce people to this amazing grace. Just invite them to come and see.
To the new neighbor or office colleague, we can ask them if they have a church home. If they don’t, we can invite them to join us. In most of the congregations I’ve served, there have been some confirmation students who invited a friend to come to class. We can invite others to help on a service project, or to youth group or a book study. When we receive new members, I always ask them how it was they came to Hope Lutheran. The vast majority tell me that they know someone here and they were invited to something. It’s so very simple.
There’s a critical distinction between coming to church (that is, encountering the communion of saints) and coming to Christ. We see it played out in the story of Philip and Nathanael. Philip just invites Nathanael to come. It’s Nathanael’s encounter with Jesus himself that brings him to faith in Christ. We do the inviting. The Holy Spirit sparks faith.
We invite. And as people come, the Holy Spirit speaks through hearing the word. Faith is energized. Listening to a spiritual song or singing a hymn stirs something within. During prayer, their soul is touched and renewed.
“One lighted torch serves to light another.” Disciples have never stopped coming to Jesus. Light the way, friends. Share the light.
