Can Anything Good Come Out of Nazareth?

John 1:43-51

This week’s text comes from the lectionary. I chose the reading from John’s Gospel and sent in my sermon title long before this week’s airwaves got filled with reactions to the President referring to Africa* and Haiti as—let’s say—“Podunk” countries.[1] My intent in choosing this text was not to talk about these comments, but they do remind me of Nathanael’s comment about Nazareth. He looks down his nose and scoffs at Philip, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Nazareth was…one of those Podunk towns.

At the time of Jesus’ birth, there wasn’t much for a woodworker to do in Nazareth (which Mark’s Gospel tells us is what Jesus did before his baptism and public ministry). The Greek word tekton, meaning carpenter or woodworker, was used by the Romans as a slang term to describe any uneducated or illiterate peasant.[2] In his book on The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth, Reza Aslan describes Nazareth as “a modest and utterly forgettable village.”[3] He makes this point to emphasize the humble origins of Jesus, who John asserts from the first is the Word of God become flesh. Jesus was a tekton from Podunk. He knew what it felt like to be overlooked and underestimated.

“We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus the son of Joseph from Nazareth,” says Philip. Nathanael’s disbelief is understandable. His comment reflects what was likely a much more widely held bias, “Nazareth, really?” Philip’s response is simple, “Come and see.” Responding to Nathaniel’s underhanded insult with an invitation that would change the trajectory of his life.

While it would be easier for me to point the finger and say, “Ha, look at that person overlooking and underestimating others,” I feel like it would be more beneficial to the trajectory of my life to consider if, and when, and why I have done that. What does God want me to come to see in the world, in others, and in myself that I might be prone to overlook or underestimate. How might truly committing to following a Podunk tekton change the way I look at things?

But yeah…now I’m going to share someone else’s story that’s a lot better and more inspiring than mine.My brother gave me permission to share his story, it’s the story of how he came to see the world, and others, and his own life in a new way...and how that gave him hope, and inspiration, and a new sense of purpose. A few years back Ben allowed one of his good friends from New York to talk him into joining her and her home church on a mission trip to Haiti. I imagine the convincing went something like this, “Haiti…for two weeks, really?” “Ben…just, come and check it out.” “Fine, I’ll go.” And that decision introduced the opportunity to meet a group of children who changed the trajectory of his life.

These were the children of the Wings of Hope in Jacmel, Haiti—an orphanage for children and young adults with physical and mental challenges. “Wings of Hope provides a home and second chance for over 30 residents who would otherwise be shunned by Haitian society.”[4] This is because of a long-standing fear and superstition that those who are born with physical deformities or mental impairment are cursed or possessed by the devil, not only them, but their families as well. Many parents of these children, therefore, abandon them in the dark of the night. They are untouchable.

My brother recounts with great humility his initial shock at meeting some the residents there. At the time, Ben was a young man at the beginning of what he hoped would be a theater career, making his living singing and dancing. And there he was looking into the eyes of a young man, about his age, who could neither speak nor move. Towards the end of the trip, there was a worship service during which the minister gave a charge to the congregation. And to this group of children who could not speak, he charged them to pray for those who were less fortunate than they were. At some point on that trip I believe that the meaning of life was transformed for Ben, whether he knew it or not at the time.

He returned to New York and continued to play piano for the American Ballet Theater, but with an unsettling feeling that he wasn’t doing what he felt called to do—which he still thought was musical theater. He was likely experiencing what I talked about last week, an “existential crisis” of purpose: “What am I supposed to be doing with my life?” So, he did what anyone would do…he quit his job and moved to India for a couple of months. Okay…maybe that’s not what everyone would do, and that’s probably what I find so inspiring about his story.

Ben worked with a program that positioned him at the Shanti Bhavan School to teach music to the students there. These students were not physically or mentally handicapped, but they were similarly disadvantaged to the children of Wings of Hope. I’m not sure how much you know about India or the caste system. In a nutshell, the caste system divided people based on work and duty into classes of people. Your potential in life is determined by your class: Brahmins, could be priests and teachers; Kshatrias, warriors and rulers; Vashyas, farmers, traders, and merchants; and Shudras, laborers. There is also another class of people, often overlooked and underestimated, because it is the class of outcasts who are only permitted to sweep streets and clean latrines, these are the Dalits, also known as “the untouchables.”

Shanti Bhavan works with children from traditionally Dalit families, stuck in the rut created by the caste system, seeking to bring them “from generational poverty to a life of dignity and achievement.” These overlooked and underestimated children transformed my brother’s life. He returned from that experience and within months had partnered with a friend to create a non-profit organization, Broadway’s Babies, with the hope of sharing this powerful experience with others. “Come and see what I have seen and experienced.”

Before Shanti Bhavan, before Wings of Hope, Ben’s understanding of mission perhaps overlooked and underestimated the transformational power it would have on him. He stood, like Nathanael, at the invitation of his friend, wondering, “Can anything good come out of this?” Perhaps this is also due to thinking that mission had more to do with going to a place and doing something for the people there than it did with coming to a place at the invitation of others and truly seeing and getting to know about their lives.

This is the call to follow Jesus: “come and see.” And if you truly look at the life of Jesus, what do you see? You see a man seeking and serving the overlooked and underestimated, healing the sick, kissing lepers…take a step back and let the enormity of that sink in. These people were viewed and treated as untouchable people, they had no place in the community. Jesus’ disciples, too, would have been a laughable bunch for the Pharisees and Sadducees of Jesus’ time, fishermen and the like, undereducated or uneducated, certainly not the top-of-their-class-in-Hebrew-school picks that most Rabbi’s would choose to have as their disciples.

To the untouchable, overlooked, and underestimated people Jesus says: “I see you, and I see the Kingdom of God among you.” It’s hard to continue to overlook and underestimate someone into whose eyes you have looked. It’s hard to overlook and underestimate yourself when you realize that God has seen you, too. Jesus transforms people’s lives by looking at them, allowing the overlooked to be truly seen. And that’s the Gospel, here…that’s the Good News. God does not overlook a single one of us. That’s beautiful, that is unconditional love, that is grace. “Could anything so good possibly exist?” Come and see.

*Africa is not a country. It is a continent.

[1] <https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/11/us/politics/trump-shithole-countries.html>

[2] Aslan, Reza. Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth. Page 34.

[3] Ibid. 38.

[4] <http://heartswithhaiti.org/haitian-partners/wings-of-hope/