Lent #4: Can anything good come out of you?

Philip:  We have found the One. Moses wrote about Him in the Law; all the prophets spoke of the day when He would come, and now He is here--
His name is Jesus, son of Joseph the carpenter, and He comes from Nazareth.


Nathanael:  How can anything good come from a place like Nazareth?
John 1:45-46

We say these words to ourselves about ourselves.  How can anything good from our Nazareth?  Many of us carry with us pain from our childhood, family or early experiences.  Shame and insecurity rises up from this pain and threatens to overwhelm us even into late adulthood.  Some of us have made deep mistakes and poor choices in our lives as adults and we grieve that it is "too late for us".  We say to ourselves:  can anything good come out of me?

We also say they words about God-bearers in our lives.  When people show up in our lives to offer words of grace and truth and they do not come as we expect them to (from a certain place, with a certain degree, with a certain personality,  a certain age, a certain theological opinion, or with a certain style) we say to them in our our hearts "Can anything good come of Nazareth?".  Or essentially, this person cannot bear God in my life. In order to be a God-bearer in my life, you must be the kind of person I am expecting you to be.

Finally, we also say this to Jesus in our lives.  We doubt that Jesus is who He is.  Although we have know Him in our head as Christ, we still wonder if Jesus is really able to be who He says He is.  As if our situation is the advanced variety and just might be too much for a carpenter's son from Nazareth.  We act as though our shame keeps Jesus from being Jesus in our lives.

And to all of this, the response is:
"Come and see."
Come and see who I am.
Come and see how another can bear God in your life.
Come and see what I can do with your past.
Come and see what is beyond your expectations and shame.

If you are willing, it is a willingness to be in relationship with self, others, and Christ is such a way that Nazareth (ours, someone else's Nazareth) is transformed into the birthplace of Grace and Truth in us and for us.