The Blessing of Remembering

by Pastor Gina Johnson

Well, so here we are in our third week of this walking down the road backwards with Jesus.

And so it started off where we got invited to come and sit on the shore and have breakfast. That's where things began. In that time, we felt the welcome of Jesus.

Then in that second week, we met Levi, the tax collector, and we saw how Jesus doesn't only welcome you, but he gives you that opportunity to belong. And so today, we will continue on our journey. But this time, we are not at a dramatic miracle.

This isn't the Sermon on the Mount, but we are at a private moment that takes place underneath a fig tree. So, this is a moment where Jesus remembers someone who wasn't quite thinking they were seen. This is a moment that perhaps Nathaniel didn't even think God would care about.

And as he has an encounter with Jesus, he sees that's different. This is a moment that's going to teach us something holy, although it was just a young man sitting under a fig tree. So how many times do you have those sacred moments in life and you don't even recognize how sacred they are until after? And maybe that after is after you've walked out the door of this incredible conversation with that stranger.

But for whatever reason, you knew from that moment on, things were different. Would you ever see them again? Who knows? But things were different. Or what about that sacred moment that you spent in quiet? And as you were sitting there, you felt this great moment of peace.

And anyone else that might've looked at you said, no, that's just mom having her morning cup of coffee. Oh no. She does that all the time.

She sits in that seat and she stares out the window. But perhaps that is that sacred moment where you felt God's presence and no one else did. And then what about those other times where you're just going through the ordinary motions of life? You're doing your thing.

It feels routine. Perhaps you might have a little bit of slight change, but even that feels routine. And then all of a sudden out of nowhere, something is different.

And what was a routine moment, whether it's involving a person or a place or something that occurred in that very second, that routine moment turned into a different moment. And the more and more you look upon that different moment, you recognize that that different moment ended up being one of the most sacred catalytic moments in your life. And you probably didn't know it when it was happening.

But when you look back, it's obvious that because this happened, because in this moment I saw something, I felt something, someone recognized me and saw me, everything changes. So today we're going to go into the scripture in the book of John in chapter one, verses 43 through 51.

The next day, Jesus decided to leave for Galilee.

Finding Philip, he said to him, follow me. Philip, like Andrew and Peter was from the town of Bethsaida, Philip found Nathanael and told him, we have found the one Moses wrote about in the law and about whom the prophets also wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. Nazareth, can anything good come from there? Nathanael asked.

Come and see, said Philip. When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit. How do you know me? Nathanael asked.

Jesus answered, I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you. Then Nathanael declared, rabbi, you are the son of God. You are the king of Israel.

Jesus said, you believe because I told you, I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that. He then added, very truly I tell you, you will see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending on the son of man.

And that ends the scripture reading. So Jesus calls Philip and Philip is excited. He runs to go tell his friend Nathanael.

He goes and tells him, he says, I've seen him. The one that Moses was prophesying about, this is him. This is Jesus of Nazareth.

How does Nathanael respond? We know this one is talked about all the time in church. Nazareth, what comes out of Nazareth? See, I am not a long-time Maryville person, so I don't want to pick surrounding towns and then one of you are further from there, but you know what I mean. There's gotta be a town here that, you know, when you hear this, it's like, oh, that place.

And maybe it's not about the people. I'll leave that to you because we could end up in a road of gossip and stories that are really not important in this moment.

One of our congregation members told me several stories when I got here. And so, from then on, whenever I heard about the town Skidmore, all that came to my mind were all these tales and stories.

So Nathaniel says, “Nazareth, can anything good come from there?” That is not the greatest first impression to make.

Here comes your friend. Your friend's like, “Dude, this is the one, the Messiah. We've been talking about it. We've been learning about him and all those books and secret club meetings we're having. Now he's here. You want to go meet him.”

And he just gets caught up and well, that's where he came from. What good could he possibly bring me? And you know what? Philip doesn't even get into a story with Nathaniel. He drops three simple words, come and see, you know, he knows right then and there.

I know who I'm following. I don't have to prove it to you. Just come and see.

And so then when Nathaniel approaches Jesus right away, Jesus says, “Here comes an Israelite. Here comes someone where there is no deceit in them.” You know, someone like that, someone comes walking up and you're just like, oh, that is a person of character. That is an honest person. That's someone you want in your life. This is Jesus meeting Nathaniel for the first time.

And he says, look at him. This is a man of no deceit. And here we go again, Nathaniel with these award winning returns.

He says, how do you know me? How do you know me? What can come out of Nazareth? How do you know me? And Jesus says, I saw you while you were still under the fig tree. Jesus saw it. He remembered it.

We don't even know the significance of that moment under the tree for Nathaniel, but now we're starting to get it because that's where Jesus saw him. That's where Jesus remembered and that's where soon Nathaniel is going to remember. And it becomes a doorway into a relationship with Christ Jesus.

It becomes a doorway into a discipleship that returns Nathaniel to seeing himself. You see, God saw Nathaniel before Nathaniel could even see himself. And that's what God does with all of us.

We come into this experience and sometimes throughout life as we get programmed and we get taught and poured into, but we also end up falling under patterns and habits, whether they're family inherited, whether they're dictated by the world or whether they're just from within our own minds that we've made up. And we start to follow that and we start to see the noise. We start to see other things, but we no longer see ourselves. So, when we're having a moment of difficulty and a moment of challenge, we still can't see ourselves. We still can't see what God sees when God looks at us.

So, then we start to do what? Sometimes we enter into that moment of challenge and we say to ourselves, well, I knew this was coming. This is my luck. I can't win for losing.

You know, I just got out of a situation and I was just waiting for the next one to take place. There are those moments where every time we're looking back to see God's hand, we're too busy caught up on everything that went wrong and we missed it.

And so let me not get ahead of myself. Let me jump back. And so here it is.

Here is Jesus trying to build rapport with Nathaniel, who's questioning Jesus, questioning where he's come from. And Jesus says to him, I saw you under the fig tree. I'm not going to start here with a miracle.

I'm not going to give you some extravagant demonstration. I'm going to tell you, I saw you and I see you now. He says, I'm going to begin with a memory.

And I'm sure Nathaniel was wondering, why is he paying attention to me? Of all the places he could be looking, of all the things he could be doing, what did he care? And you notice Jesus says, I saw you before Philip even came to come and tell you. So what do you do with that? Here goes this moment where you have been brought by your friend to go and meet Jesus, the one that's been prophesied about. And you're feeling a little apprehensive.

You're wondering, why is this taking place in this moment? And he just simply says, I saw you. He simply says, I see you now. Are you going to allow yourself to recognize that in those quiet moments, in those busy moments, in your worries, in your questions, that God sees you.

Before your prayers are even uttered off your lips, God sees you and God saw them. And this is me reminding you that there are going to be circumstances, there are going to be people, there are going to be random moments in your life that are going to start to nudge you. And so if you were Nathaniel having that moment, is it enough for you to follow Christ when he says, I saw you.

When nobody else saw you, I saw you and greater things are going to happen than this. Is that going to be enough for you to stop the questioning of who Christ is and follow him? Or are you waiting for the grand demonstration? Think about a moment where you saw God. It could be expected. It could be unexpected, but write down that moment in one word, a few sentences, draw a picture, whatever's easiest for those of you who don't know how to write words. Remember those spaces because remembering is sacred work. You know, in Psalm 103, it says, bless the Lord my soul and forget not all his benefits.

Forget not, because we do forget. Life speeds up, problems get louder, fear gets bigger, the loneliness gets even deeper, and suddenly we forget. We forget the ways that God has carried us, the way that God has empowered us to carry ourselves at times and to carry others.

You know, we forget that God has opened so many doors for us, that his love is constantly surrounding us, and we forget that we have been given the gifts, we have been given the love, we have been given that same peace and mercy to bring that to others. Remembering is not nostalgia. Remembering can be going to that spiritual gym and building up that strength, because when we remember what God has already done in our lives, then we can continue to trust God as we move forward.

As I told you, when Jesus saw Nathanael, he said, I saw you. And he's telling Nathanael, he's saying, you know, you're thinking by looking outside your life, but I am seeing beyond that. I am seeing into the core of who you are, that essence of you that people may not look because they're just looking on the outside.

How many of us run around chasing these big moments? You know, in my house, there's always someone making a TikTok video at some point. We're always trying to post that next thing that's going to get those likes, and oh my gosh, I might even go viral.

What will I do then? I'll chase around my next big moment, right? Because this got all the attention, and wow, I never expected it, and this will feel good for a while, and I'll tell my friends, did you see how many likes I have? And then what happens next week? Shoot, what am I going to do this time? What am I going to create? What am I going to learn? How am I going to shake my booty so I get all the likes, and everyone then loves me and sees me?

Well, you know, that's the thing is we get so caught up in being attracted to the demonstration, attracting to the lure. Oh look, there's something to catch my attention. And so then we think, okay, if that's what it takes to catch my attention, what do I need to do to get the attention of others? And this is Jesus saying it doesn't have to be these big dramatic moments.

It doesn't have to be church approved moments or family perfect Facebook moments. God often does the biggest work, the greatest work in the stillness, in the small quiet moments where we're taking the time to turn inward and go into that quiet corner within us where we know God always meets us there and says, I saw you. You didn't have to do anything extraordinary because just your being is extraordinary.

We're going into the season of Advent, and we'll light the candles, and we'll have different songs to sing, and there will be all sorts of Christmas parties and gathering, and we'll journey that way. This is the last message before the Advent season, and Advent is a journey. And so here we are as we're preparing, and we recognize that God welcomes us in, and God has given us a space to belong.

But today, I'm reminding you that God sees you and has seen you long before you even received the welcome. So that's why, you took the time to write that moment. This is that moment. This is just a simple acknowledgement of a time where you can say, I saw God was there. In my congregation we placed our written memories on a tree. One was a moment when someone was seeing their baby sister for the first time. Some others were knowing that God has been there in family, in the birth of a grandchild, when mom passed away, and she was at peace, not suffering. There was one from someone who had a heart attack for three days, and didn't even know it was going on. There was a moment where God was there when someone had to eject out of a plane and was floating in the ocean, waiting for eight hours. The other pilot from the other plane was never found. I think that's a moment where we know God was there. A funeral service, when someone met, oh, I would assume is their dear friend, Ava. Being outdoors by a river with my family, when I was sitting in choir on a Sunday, when we were in a car accident, and the only damage was to the car.

I'm sure, as I shared some of those moments, you can think of many. And there's some of them that take place just in that stillness, those places that you have every day. Because it's easy to think about the time the baby was born, or the wedding, or the funeral, or the time that we got the good news after that surgery, and we've all been holding our breath and praying and waiting all night.

But what about that time where you stepped out on your porch, and you just took a breath, and you just had that moment of gratitude, where you didn't have to be anywhere else. You didn't have to think too far back or look too far ahead. Just in that moment, you remembered God was there simply because you are there.

And if you are there, God is there. And if you're looking out for God, you are going to see God. As we continue to move into this season, amongst all the noise that's already taking place, this is going to be a time where we are going to remember how we are seen and loved and welcomed by God.

But then we're going to step confidently into this journey of Advent. Because when Jesus said, you will see greater things than this, He wasn't pushing Nathaniel. He wasn't pressuring him.

He wasn't expecting him to achieve something. He was just saying, in your natural unfoldment of remembering who you are and navigating this beautiful life experience that God has given you, you will see greater things than this. Greater things is not a destination.

It's a quiet, inward expansion that takes place the moment you start to realize that you have been seen and that God is empowering you to see yourself and see others. Remembering is this doorway, and the greater things are simply those things that continue to unfold as we're navigating life.

Perhaps this week as you're moving through the routine, don't let it be routine. Take a moment and say to yourself, I am here with a purpose. I am here to notice. I am not alone.

Take those times. And as you move through the week, remember, forget not his benefits. Because when you remember all that God has done for you throughout all these seasons of your life, don't cling to them.

Don't hang on to them like they're never going to occur again. But look at them for that reminder of trust as we go into this Advent season, that God has been with you. God continues to be with you. And he steps with you with this hopeful joy as we continue to move forward.

Please pray with me. Our most gracious and loving God, we give you thanks for your word, your living word that empowers us and that reminds us of who we are.

God, we pray that as we go from this place that we will receive the message of your spirit as it is planned for us, that it will empower and encourage us, that we will look upon others as you look upon us. God, we thank you for your Holy Spirit, our guide, our comfort, our advocate. And we thank you for Christ Jesus, our living Savior, here to show us the way.

It's in his most beautiful name we pray. Amen.