A Nobody, but God's Somebody

Similarly, we continue to get so much mail addressed “Dear Resident,” which says that the writer doesn't know who we are, but we should read this anyway.

Even a bit more unsettling is the mail that is addressed “Dear K. Elkin or current occupant”.

Who am I anyway? --a nameless, faceless occupant, who is causally addressed, and just as easily ignored?

The number mania of our day accomplishes the same thing:

--there is the Social Security number, the driver's license number, the telephone numbers, credit card numbers, and all of those passwords with a jumble of letters, numbers, and symbols.

The clerk takes your card, and without even looking up asks “What is your telephone number?”

Who am I anyway?

Just a long string of numbers, and please get each one exactly right, or the machinery grinds to an abrupt stop.

I'm unimportant, an insignificant part of a big operation, and not really needed.

Whether it is due to our age, or loss of family, or economic worries, or anger, grief or loneliness, despair over unworthiness, or a host of other possible causes,

very often we share in those feelings of emptiness.

Even the most self-assured person among us with the most carefree and breezy manner cannot maintain that attitude forever.

Sooner or later all of the things which lead to death begin to loom large.

No I'm not much of anything, am I?

It is not just our technological age which stumbles into this gloominess.

We are not any more successful in covering it up than have people in any century before us.

It is part of our common heritage.

The Greeks had the concept of Fate, three goddesses whose job it was to figure out who would get zapped next.

The Babylonians had a very negative view of all of life.

Their creation story says that the earth was made from the discarded carcass of a monster killed by one of the gods.

Ask a person in those cultures about their identity, and they would speak of being a pawn in the hands of powers beyond them, gods who might be angry or capricious, mean, or simply unconcerned.

“I'm a bit of dust to be stomped,” they might say.

“My job is to stay out of the way of the gods so that it doesn't happen to me too soon.”

The witness of the Bible is so different from all of this fatalistic gloom, isn't it.?

The Genesis story gives God's reaction to creation: “and God saw that it was very good.”

And also, God sees the place of humanity as the crown of this good creation.

In today's lesson from Exodus, God reminds the people that they are the ones whom God has brought out of Egypt and establishes as a blessing for the nations.

“You are my 'brought-out' people,” says the Lord, “and don't forget it!”

“You have important jobs to do as my people.”

The Second Lesson approaches the matter from another angle.

Paul talks about the gifts that we have, the great diversity of gifts that we have received from God, in order to serve the whole body of Christ, as well as the fullness of creation.

You and I are not “nobodies;”

we are persons with different gifts which all come from the one Holy Spirit, for the benefit of congregation and community.

Approached, then, with this background, our Gospel lesson today is great Good News.

We have no indication that Philip and Nathaniel were anything but the most ordinary of folks, regular working-class men.

Jesus could well have said, “Here comes some more of those curiosity-seekers, the folks who hang around without any real purpose, just to see what might happen next.”

Jesus could have ignored them as bits of dust on the road, but he doesn't.

To Andrew he says simply, “Follow me.”

To Nathaniel he says, “I know all about you and your past; and even more, I know your future in God's kingdom.”

And there is more:

To Nathaniel Jesus says, “Here is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit (or guile.)

There was an Israelite who was deceitful.

Jesus is recalling that ancestor, Jacob the trickster, who cheated his brother Esau out of his birthright.

Jacob was a slippery character, who took matters into his own hands in order to get what he wanted.

God had to work on him for years to bring him around, until he would be useful for God's purposes.

Nathaniel is not like Jacob.

He is ready to listen, to follow, to do what Jesus needs.

He names Jesus with the appropriate titles.

He is ready to hear that Jesus is the center of all that is.

He is being prepared to acknowledge that Jesus is the point of contact between heaven and earth.

Remember that angels, God's messengers, ascend from and descend upon Jesus, rather than on a rock as they did in Jacob's story, or on the Temple which was supposedly built on the same rock by Solomon centuries later.

It is the person of Jesus that is crucially important now; ours is a portable faith, not tied so fully to place as it was in prior centuries.

Nathaniel is sent out, then, to let us know about all of this.

Nathaniel, the ordinary person, is claimed and commissioned by Jesus to do far more than he could have ever imagined.

To Nathaniel, Jesus says:

“I know all out you and your past, your ancestors, yourself...and even more I know your future in God's kingdom.”

The twelve have a unique place in the story in salvation, but God has a word to us also, through them.

Are you and I “nobodies?” Not at all.

In Holy Baptism, Jesus says to each of us, “You are mine forever.”

And that makes us “somebody.”

Our three lessons have said it today:

--we are the ones brought out of old bondage

--we are the ones to whom great gifts have been given,

--we are the ones to whom final promises have been made.

And this is what makes every one of us important, needed, and beloved of Jesus.

So what is next?

At the Worship study group this week we explored the concept that the worship service does not end with the Benediction and Postlude, but rather continues in what we do in the hours and days that follow.

--When we see people without food and shelter and do something about it through Family Promise as we did in this past week, it reflects the truth that Jesus has first fed and comforted us.

--When one of us gives an offering for the Ebola treatment effort in western Africa, it reflects the truth that Jesus ultimately heals our hurts.

--When one of us welcomes a new neighbor with a smile, a greeting, and a plate of cookies, it reflects the truth that Jesus welcomes us in Holy Baptism, we who have not earned anything.

In our Grumpy Men's Bible study on Thursday morning we were observing that when one skips a time of worship on a Sunday that the rest of the day and week seem oddly off-kilter.

It is true; without the center of life in place, the rest doesn't make sense.

One may be mistreated by an employer, have trouble with co-workers or neighbors, receive disrespect from family members, be unsure about personal decisions that need to be made, or a dozen other things, but here, together, we know the over-arching truth: we who so often feel like nobodies are given the gift of being somebody in the promise, love, and intentions of God.

Thank you, Lord Jesus, for calling and gracing Nathaniel, and us.

Let all say...Amen.

Please note: The preceding sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.