You Never Know Who You'll Meet
Sunday 14 January 2024 11:30
Nathanael said to him, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Philip said to him, "Come and see." (John 1:46)
Some of you may be old enough to remember Peter Cook and Dudley Moore back in the 1960s and early 70’s. They used to do sketches known as the Dagenham Duologues: two ordinary guys engaged in surreal conversations. I remember a snatch of one where Peter Cook says, “I heard this scrabbling sound outside my bedroom window. I looked out and climbing up the drainpipe, blinking Greta Garbo.” Like I said. Surreal. But here’s the thing; Garbo is no longer with us but let’s take someone who is. Taylor Swift is real. She’s alive. That means she has to be somewhere. The chances of that somewhere being the drainpipe outside your bedroom are extremely small, but technically not zero.
You never know who you’ll meet when you step out of your door. You never know who you might engage in conversation at the checkout at Tesco, or on the train, or whatever. These days you don’t even have to step out of the door. Through the internet - social media and the like - you can come into contact with people all over the world. My son does a lot of online gaming and he has friends now around the globe. You never know who you might meet online.
Nathanael really had no idea who he was going to meet when Philip took him to meet Jesus. Sure, Philip had told him it was the Messiah but his expectations aren’t too high. “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” he asks. I’ve read about on this. There’s no agreement about what he means. Galileans were looked down on by pious Jews because lots of Gentiles lived there, but Nathanael himself lived in Cana. Maybe the reputation of Nazareth was especially dodgy. Whatever the case he’s not convinced he’s going to meet the Messiah. But then, you never know who you’re going to meet.
He’s going to meet Jesus. He is going to meet the Christ in whom God came into the world in the life of a human being. He is going to meet the man in whom God came into this world to meet us where we are; to meet us in our weakness and our flaws; to accept the physical frailties of humanity and meet us in our darkest moments, including facing death itself, to assure us that he is always with us and offer us the hope of the resurrection. This is a Greta Garbo moment. No one imagined this would happen. No one foresaw this. No one - not the most ardent prophets of the Messiah - foretold that God would come to us in this way.
So Nathanael meets Jesus and it changes his life. But that was all a long time ago. What of here and now. You never know who you’re going to meet and sometimes you meet a person who changes your life. Sounds dramatic but we all know it’s true. Anyone who’s ever fallen in love knows it’s true. Conversely anyone who has been severely bullied knows it’s true.
Sometimes the influence of people you meet is subtle but life-changing. From about the age of 10 I decided that there was no God and I identified as an atheist. I thought I was clear about what God was and what Christianity was about. Then I went to university and my first real girlfriend was an active Christian and talking to her I came to understand that for her God was not an abstract concept but a living reality; as real to her, as she put it, as the chair, the desk, the bed.
Then there was the friend I made when I moved to Lockerbie. We’d sit in the King’s Arms drinking of an evening and talking about all sorts of things. He is a devout Catholic so we’d get talking about religion and I came to understand that Christianity isn’t just a bunch of superstitions but a coherent set of ideas and beliefs that inform the way he lives his life. Between them these two people, and others rearranged my mental furniture.
That meant that when I met God one night when I was 24 the ground had been prepared. I’m not sure how far they are aware of how they fulfilled the role of Philip for me and brought me to meet the Messiah; the Christ. The last person, I suppose, I ever expected to meet. But you never know who you’ll meet or how they will influence you or, more importantly, how you will influence them.
That’s what we do as human beings. We are social animals. We interact with each other. We influence each other. We communicate ideas to each other. Not just in the things we say but in the things we do; the values we stand by; the beliefs we embody; the standards we hold ourselves to. To encounter Christ is to encounter the love of God; a love that enfolds us all the days of our lives and assures us that we matter in a world that often seems uncaring and chaotic. A love that we are meant to share with the world around us.
A love that we are meant to share with those we meet, whether it’s face to face or through the internet or whatever. A love we can share by following the teachings of Christ: by doing what we can to ensure that the hungry are fed and that the homeless are sheltered and that the stranger is welcomed. By offering that supporting hand on the shoulder of someone who feels lonely or lost or taking the time to listen to their grief. By standing up for what is right even if it’s unpopular or inconvenient. By living our faith openly and confidently as children of God. You never know who you’ll meet but maybe, by living our lives in Christ, people may meet Christ in us.
Lord when people meet us, may they meet your son in us. May they know that they are loved through us and may they come to know that they matter to you.
Preached at Eaglesfield Parish Church