OF NAZARETH

John 1:14,46 “And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory… 46 Nathanael said to him, ‘Can anything good come out of Nazareth?’ Philip said to him, ‘Come and see.’”

John quickly establishes the critical link between the Word-made-flesh and Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus is of something, somewhere. “Of Nazareth” gives tangible, tactile, “this-world” humanity to the Word-made flesh. So that we do not lose him in esoteric ethereal ideas. There is glory, wonder, and awe - justice, wholeness, and newness of life on this side of eternity. This is a reality that the church has too often lost sight of. The divine life has something to say, to do, and to create on this side of eternity. As the cliche goes, Christians are too often “so heavenly-minded that we’re of no earthly good.” I heard someone once say that people are so tired of Christians leveraging life after death that they begin to doubt that Christians have anything to say about life before death. We talk too much about Jesus and not enough about Jesus of Nazareth, the infinite man delineated into time and space, arresting it into new possibilities. Nazareth becomes the stuff of God, and God the stuff of Nazareth. The dusty places of the earth, the muddy primordial sites, locate the creation where the Word-made-flesh continues to create, in you and I. Justice, peace, and joy in the divine Spirit can come from surprising, unexpected places. It’s important to identify what you are “of” - and to be honest about it, the good and the not so good. Assessments that are honest are open to transformation. Compassion and mercy do their best work when things are brought out of hiding. Most importantly, make sure you leave room for the deepest reality: “God is at work.”

I am not just Jon Paul, and you are not just _____. I am Jon Paul of Youngstown, Ohio. I have a story… and God is at work within it. And you are ______ of _____. You have a story… and God is at work in your life, on this side of eternity, and it’s always for the sake of your neighbor.

Let it be so, AMEN.