A way to live a mission in the wider world;
Count on God to help you to improve the world in some particular way that you see is needed.
Based on John 1:43-51
A way to live a mission in the wider world based on John 1:43-51, a reading from the Revised Common Lectionary for the Second week after the Epiphany, 1/14/18.
Going to Galilee, Jesus finds Philip and asks him to become a follower. Philip tells Nathanael about Jesus and Nathanael makes fun of Nazareth, Jesus’ home. [The towns of each—Nathanael is from Cana—were in a kind of rivalry according to a proverb of the time.] Philip presses the point, “Come and see.” Jesus sees Nathanael coming and says he has no “guile” (or deceit) —perhaps because he is ready to believe when shown.
When John writes that Jesus says, “I saw you under the fig tree,” John is probably emphasizing Jesus’ ability to know things beyond the normal range of humans. Nathanael responds with a high degree of faith in who Jesus is. Jesus, in turn, praises Nathanael for his faith and promises he will see and believe “greater things than these.”
A theme: People vary in their growth in faith.
