Readings
1 Samuel 3:1-10(11-20)
Psalm 139:1-5, 12-17
1 Corinthians 6:12-20
John 1:43-51
Have you ever had an epiphany?
Webster’s Dictionary defines an epiphany as “a sudden manifestation or perception of the essential nature or meaning of something.” In the church we define an epiphany as a manifestation of God, for example the Epiphany of our Lord, when God was made manifest in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.
And so, I ask again, have you ever had a moment in your life when you realized a greater truth because of an encounter with something greater than yourself?
Today’s Gospel is about an epiphany. It is about Nathanael’s epiphany after encountering Jesus. We hear in the story that Jesus, after his baptism, decides to go back to Galilee and finds Philip along the way and invites him to follow him. Then we hear that Philip, moved and excited by Jesus, goes to Nathanael and says to him “We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.” To which Nathanael responds, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip invites him to “come and see.” After such a statement, we can imagine that Philip reluctantly agrees and comes along. But as he arrives he and Jesus have an encounter in which it is clear that Jesus recognizes Nathanael and when he tells him how, Nathanael is blown away. We know this because of how he responds to Jesus. He responds to Jesus “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” And Jesus then, through his answer to Nathanael makes clear that in terms of what he has just encountered, this is only the beginning.
Nathanael’s understanding of truth (“can anything good come out of Nazareth”) is completely changed in the encounter. Nathanael moves from a place where he believes he knows what reality is to a radical encounter of faith (“Rabbi, you are the Son of God!”). Nathanael has nothing less than an Epiphany.
Another way of describing what happens in the story is that Nathanael experiences a 3-step process that moves from belief to crisis/epiphany to faith.
You know for most of us we base our sense of reality not simply on the facts, but on our beliefs. To paraphrase the theologian and spiritual writer, Brian McLaren, beliefs are the intersection between how we think things should be and our encounter with the world. In other words, beliefs give us a way of understanding ourselves and the world in which we live. They give us a way of forming community with like minded persons. And, in the religious realm, they help us to have a sense of God and our relationship to God.
Taking all of that into account then, the truth is that we use our beliefs to interpret our data. We don’t simply accept the facts, we always interpret them through some kind of lens. This is why we have such a divergent society. Today we have different groups using different beliefs to interpret the data of life and then arguing for the truth from their perspective.
But what happens when the data contradicts our beliefs? We have a crisis and either double down on the belief or experience doubt. Why? Because such moments can be quite scary. When our beliefs are challenged we can become completely disoriented and terrified by the experience.
But when we allow ourselves to doubt our beliefs. When we allow ourselves to consider a new reality, even when it deconstructs our sense of safety and certainty, then something profound can happen. We can recognize the limits of those beliefs and move to a larger universe. We can experience an epiphany.
Yes, the moment of doubt is the moment when we have the opportunity for an epiphany. It is a moment when something greater is breaking into our lives and offering us an opportunity to experience a new truth, a greater understanding of reality. That openness to the in-breaking of truth, of deeper understanding, is a moment of faith.
Just as Nathanael had a radical experience of the living God in Jesus when he, perhaps begrudgingly, set aside his assumptions and became open to something new, we too can have such an experience in our own lives.
But to do so requires us to do something extraordinary. It requires us to embrace love above fear. The love of God in us, through us, and all around us rather than a fight or flight response in the face of the unknown.
And be attentive to this. Nathanael’s belief wasn’t a religious one. His comment about Jesus and Nazareth represented a social prejudice of his time and culture. And yet, even so, his encounter profoundly affected his faith.
This is true for us as well. All of us hold a whole host of beliefs (social, political, economic, and religious). And those beliefs, as I said earlier, help us to understand ourselves and the world we live in.
But I would invite you to consider the possibility that when any of those beliefs are challenged that perhaps this is God proverbially “knocking on the door.” I would invite you to consider that this may well be not simply be a challenge to what we are certain is true. This, in fact, may be an invitation into doubt, an invitation towards an epiphany.
You see, God is all around us, waiting to break into our lives, waiting to transform us and our sense of the world. God’s love is overflowing and unbounded if we are but willing to be open to new and unexplored dimensions of our lives and the world.
Imagine what life might be like if we were to be open to the epiphanies verging around us. Imagine how real God might become and how our experience of the embodied love of God might become.
Can you imagine a love that isn’t about what we deserve, but about God’s unconditional love and acceptance of us? Can you imagine being that, not only for those who are easy to love, but for all of humanity and all of creation?
Our epiphany is waiting. May we be ready when it comes. May we, like Nathanael, be willing to come and see.