Come and See — Don't Miss God in the Messenger

``Now sometimes, scripture is really abstract. Sometimes, it's difficult to understand and interpret. Sometimes, we read passages that we're at a loss to find a solid meaning for the world today because they were written so long ago. And then there's other times. Other times, it feels as though scripture could have been written by commentators and reporters, bloggers and influencers of the day. This scripture feels like it could have been written yesterday. It talks about human behavior and human reactions that we all see today. And I think I'm equally comfortable saying that God's response then is similar to God's response now. [00:29:57] (51 seconds)  #TimelessScripture

Our Nazareth can be a brand name that we don't like. Our Nazareth can be a race. Our Nazareth can be a sexual orientation. Our Nazareth can be a gender identity. Our Nazareth can be anything that makes us blind to something else, blind to a greater truth. Our Nazareth is anything that offers a preconceived notion of what something else is or what something else is like. Because you see vision is dictated as much by our desires and ideas as it is by our eyes. [00:32:14] (45 seconds)  #BreakPrejudice

We see what we want to see, and we believe what we want to believe based on what our experiences tell us. We see what we choose to see. Philip is really excited in this passage. He and his friends, Andrew and Peter, are pretty sure they found the one they've been waiting for. They are pretty sure that they found the messiah who Moses was talking about. [00:32:59] (30 seconds)  #WeSeeWhatWeWant

And so Philip runs to tell his friend Nathaniel about it. Some scholars think that Nathaniel and Philip were brothers. Others believe they were just friends. That's secondary. It doesn't matter for right now. Jesus says to Philip, come, follow me. Philip goes, and the first thing he does is he wants to be sure that others know about it. Philip wants to be sure that he is sharing the amazing thing with as many people as he can, especially the people closest to him. [00:33:29] (39 seconds)  #ShareTheGoodNews

But be clear about this. He is not scoffing at the message. Nathaniel would have been thrilled to find the messiah. He would have been thrilled that the one that they've been waiting for for generation after generation was found. He would have been thrilled. He did not scoff at the message. His first reaction is to scoff at where the messenger was from. I mean, if that is not a 2026 response, I don't know what is. Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Is what Nathaniel says. [00:35:09] (45 seconds)  #StopJudgingOrigins

The door that Philip was trying to open was slammed shut, not by the message, but by some preconceived notion, by some stereotype that Nathaniel had of where this messenger was from. Because you see, vision is dictated as much by our desires and our ideas as it is by our eyes. We see what we want to see, and we believe what we want to believe. [00:35:54] (29 seconds)  #StereotypesBlindUs

More recently, in the year twenty twenty four, fifty nine percent of those surveyed like the Affordable Care Act. 59%. 49% liked Obamacare. Here's the thing. It's the same bill. It's the exact same bill. The Affordable Care Act signed in '2 in 2010 was then given the moniker Obamacare. And yet 59 of the people like the Affordable Care Act, but only 49% of the people like Obamacare. What's different? The messenger. [00:37:00] (48 seconds)  #MessengerMatters

The messenger is what is different. Now, just like then, rejected as much as the messenger is rejected. And Nathaniel's experience told him that Nazareth was a town of questionable repute at best. Nathaniel's experience told him that Nazareth had morally ambiguous residents who were simple in their speech. And so Nathaniel's vision was based not on what he saw not on what he saw, but what he believed, and what he wanted to continue to believe. Can anything good come out of Nazareth? [00:37:48] (46 seconds)  #BeliefShapesSight