Check It Out

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apostles, Jesus, judging others, Nathaniel, Philip, St. Bartholomew, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, trust

We know very little about most of the men that we call apostles, the ones closest to Jesus during his “public life.” (Today’s saint is even less well-known because he is sometimes called Bartholomew and sometimes Nathaniel!) There are two things in the gospel for today (JN 1:45-51) that caught my attention. The first was right at the beginning where Philip sought out Nathaniel to take him to meet Jesus. Today’s passage begins with Philip saying: “We have found the one about whom Moses wrote in the law.” My question was about who the “we” is/are and what is the evidence they had. When Philip gave him the slightest background (“Joseph’s son, from Nazareth”), Nathaniel was obviously not interested, asking “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” Philip didn’t give up, however. He invited Nathaniel to “Come and see.” By his persistence we can intuit prior encounters of others.

I presume Nathaniel was surprised when Jesus saw him coming and said, “Here is a true child of Israel. There is no duplicity in him” Then addressing Nathaniel directly, he said, “Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree.” And that was enough for Nathaniel to believe that Jesus was the one they would know as “Son of God.”

Admittedly, the gospels are rather sketchy, not giving us full descriptions of events and conversations. My “takeaways” from the above encounter are the following:

#1: How quick we are to judge people by where they come from and what is the status of their family, and #2: How important it is to trust other people while also judging for ourselves by checking out what they have told us.

Renewal

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apostles, awaken, disappointment, fatigue, frustration, Jesus, John, Macrina Wiederkehr, Philip, renewal, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

On days when I don’t feel especially far along on the path toward God, I often think of the apostles for comfort. They sometimes appeared rather dense – not unwilling but just not able to grasp what Jesus was saying. Of course, I also feel sympathy for Jesus who must’ve been frustrated at those moments. One of the clearest examples of such a situation appears in this morning’s gospel (JN 14:7-14) and I always feel bad for Jesus when I read it. He is speaking to Philip about the fact that anyone who knows him (Jesus) also knows the Father (God). Philip says, “Master, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” In the response of Jesus I hear not only frustration but fatigue and disappointment that he hasn’t been able to make his point about who he is and the mission he has been given. Then comes the question that I hear not only as spoken to Philip but sometimes also to me. Jesus says, “Have I been with you for so long a time and still you do not know me?”

Jesus has been with me for my whole life, in the example and prayer of my parents, in school, in religious life. I’ve read hundreds of books and participated in numerous meaningful retreats and rituals and still sometimes I feel lax or lazy in my efforts at recognizing the God that Jesus preached and manifested. His question this morning is always a goad to renewal. As usually happens, my chosen morning “word” from a source other than the Scriptures is a perfect motivator. Here is what Macrina Wiederkehr just offered to me:

O Morning Song of Love, O you in whom we live and move and have our being! We have been asleep too long. Heal the unseeing part of our lives. Lead us to our awakening places. Awaken us to new light. Open the doors of our hearts, the windows of our souls, the walls of our minds. Awaken us to hope. Awaken us to joy. Awaken us to love. Awaken us to new insights. Make our hearts ready to receive the brightness of your presence. To you we give praise.

I can imagine that Jesus is happy to have the assistance of people like Macrina in moving people to know God as he knows God and wishes to show God to us all. I know I am similarly grateful today.

Agency

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agent of revelation, believe, Father, Jesus, Nicodemus, our role, Philip, put on the mind of Christ, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, understand, unity

In this morning’s gospel Jesus is having one of those frustrating conversations with his disciple, Philip. He is talking about things that seem beyond rational comprehension however. “If you know me, you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” I can see why that would be a hard concept to grasp but when Philip says to Jesus, “Show us the Father,” Jesus gets frustrated: “Have I been with you for so long a time and still you do not know me?…Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?…The Father who dwells in me is doing his works…” Poor Philip.

If even we, with 2,000 years of living in the light of Christ, still have trouble understanding the depth of the words and teachings of Jesus, how can we blame Philip for his confusion? The difficulty, of course, is like that of Nicodemus when he was trying to understand the concept of being born again on a literal, physical level. This morning Jesus is speaking about unity, about his role as an agent of revelation for the God in whom he “lived and moved and had his being” – so at one with God that God shone through his every word and deed. But the most amazing thing about this morning’s passage is that Jesus is trying to get Philip to understand that our role in life is also one of agency for God in the same way! “Whoever believes in me,” Jesus says later in the passage,” will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these…” And how will we do this? It seems to me that it will only be possible if we follow the dictum of Paul to put on the mind of Christ, in love, compassion and surrender to the best of who we are becoming. Now there’s a mighty challenge to try on for size!

Miracles Abound

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Acts of the Apostles, Easter, Gaza, Isaiah, Jerusalem, miracles, Philip, spirit, Spirit of God, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

The book of the Acts of the Apostles, which is read in the Easter season, is filled with the enthusiastic ministry of those who either had experienced Jesus or had caught the Spirit from those who had been with him. This morning there is a fantastical story – one of many in the book – which mimics that of the disciples on the road to Emmaus after the Crucifixion of Jesus when he appeared to them and explained the Scriptures and then disappeared when “they recognized him in the breaking of the bread.” In this story (ACTS 8:26-40), the apostle Philip is traveling in the desert on the road from Jerusalem to Gaza when an angel of the Lord tells him to catch up to a chariot in which rides a court official from Ethiopia. The official is reading the book of Isaiah about the “suffering servant.” Philip does what he is told, stops the chariot and asks the man if he understands what he’s reading. His answer is a good question: “How can I unless someone instructs me,” whereupon Philip opens the meaning of the Scriptures to him, referencing Jesus and what happened to him. The rest of the story includes the Ethiopian asking for baptism. Philip fulfills the request since they happen to be passing some water, and Philip then is “snatched away” by the angel of the Lord, leaving the man to tell the story just as he did back in Jerusalem.

Jesus had promised his disciples that they would be able to do as he had done – “and more besides” – and we have only to suspend our rational, judgmental, 21st century thinking to get in touch with the power of faith that fairly jumps from every page of the book of Acts. Today I am reminded of the second side of the coin necessary for the miracles written about to be effected. Not only is the power of the Spirit present in the “instrument” of God, but the one who is to be healed or converted must believe that it is possible. That’s why I like the question of the Ethiopian this morning. He needs to understand what is being offered to him and then to accept the offer because his heart has been touched.

I am in California this morning, getting ready to attend a four-day “think tank” with students of “the wisdom way” and a group of wealthy people who are committed to responsible use of their resources. They have called us to the Camaldoli Benedictine Monastery at Big Sur to reflect on the intersection of wisdom and money and how that might impact their decisions about projects to undertake because their “heart-knowing” will be engaged. Surely we will need to deepen our mutual understanding of what we each bring to the table in order to move toward this heart-knowledge for our mutual benefit. I am confident that the Spirit of God is living and active in our day, just as it was in the first century CE and I am hopeful that in the silence that wraps around and informs the monastery we will hear God’s message to us.

One thing about the monastery that will be helpful for the conference but not for communication is that there is no internet or cell service there. So there will be no blogging here after today until Monday morning. Perhaps a good substitute is to read sections of The Acts of the Apostles each day!