“That Trash from Nazareth”
John 1:43-51
Rev. Désirée H. Gold
St. Mark’s United Church of Christ, Baltimore, MD
Sunday, 18 January, 2009
Second Sunday after Epiphany
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 I have four things coming together for me this week. Tomorrow our nation will commemorate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. On Tuesday we will inaugurate our first African-American president. I have been reading about American slavery in John Michener’s book Chesapeake. And this morning our gospel lesson tells us that one of Jesus’ potential disciples had a hard time trusting anyone from Nazareth.
Let’s deal with the thing about Jesus first. Jesus had just begun his ministry and was in the first stages of gathering disciples. It seems Philip was already on board -- he already believed that Jesus was someone really special and was beginning to tell other people about him. So, Philip approached Nathanael to spread the news. We’re not told here who Nathanael is, only that Philip finds him and tells him about Jesus. “Look, Nathanael, we found the guy about whom the prophets wrote, Jesus, son of Joseph in Nazareth!”
Nathanael, however, is not impressed. “Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Can anything good come out of that hick town? If he’s truly what you say he is -- really great and all that -- shouldn’t he come out of some real place...like Jerusalem?!” Nathanael’s prejudice is sort of like a snobbish celebrity wondering how anything good can come out of, say, North Dakota. All the good stuff’s in New York City or Los Angeles. But here we have it: something good did come out of that hick town, Nazareth. God works in surprising ways, and Jesus is proof of that.
I am reminded of God’s surprising works this morning as our nation prepares to welcome its first African-American president the day after Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Just a few short decades ago -- well within some of your lifetimes -- African Americans were relegated to the very bottom rungs of society. They -- and it was always “they” because “they” were so different from “us” -- could not drink from the same water fountains. I think of this when I grab a sip to drink at Lexington Market. They could not sit at the front of the bus. I think of this when I choose a seat at the back of the bus. They were relegated to innumerable other humiliations that I, as a young white person, cannot imagine. And these humiliations were viewed (by many whites, at least) simply as the cost of freedom. I am currently reading about the 19th century practice of slavery in the United States -- in Maryland, in fact -- and I realize that Jim Crow laws were nothing compared to the indignities and horrors endured by slaves. It boggles my mind that human beings were considered the property of other human beings. They were chained and whipped and raped and killed, and while not all of this abuse was technically legal the authorities would look the other way if it was punishment for a slave’s “misbehavior.”
This was really not that long ago. I read a new story recently about a woman who is 114 years old. Her parents were former slaves, and yet she herself had the opportunity to vote for an African American for president. In her case, she is only one generation removed from slavery. Granted, she is very, very old -- one of the oldest people in the world -- but it still shocks me that the child of former slaves could have the opportunity to vote for an African American president. I cannot begin to imagine what went through her mind as she cast that vote.
Just a few decades ago many people would have said, “Can an African American really be president?” (“Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”) Sadly, there are still people who doubt that a person of color can hold that position, regardless of politics. There is still a great deal of racism in this country, and I’ve seen it in the city of Baltimore. But the majority of American citizens voted their confidence that color does not matter in the White House. And I have hope that a majority of people who did not vote for Barack Obama cast their vote because they did not like his politics, not because they cared about the color of his skin. In the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., I am willing to hope that Barack Obama was not “judged by the color of [his] skin but by the content of [his] character.”
Something surprising is happening in our nation this week. The American people -- black and white and every color in between -- are rallying behind an African American and upholding him as the leader of our nation. I have heard people say that they did not vote for him because they never vote for a Democrat, but that they are excited nonetheless at this historic moment. I have heard more expressions of hope about this presidency than I have heard in a long time. It really does seem like our nation is coming together for this, across party lines, across political beliefs.
Something good did come out of Nazareth, and a surprising thing is happening here too. People of all colors, from all backgrounds, with all beliefs, are celebrating an historic moment in our nation’s history: the inauguration of our first African American president.
I have made some comparisons here between Jesus’ ministry in Nazareth and Barack Obama’s election as the first black president of the United States, but I want to be careful not to compare them too closely. Barack Obama is not Jesus by any means. He is not perfect, he is not a messiah, and I pray to God that he will not be a martyr. His election as an African American is not the same as Jesus coming out of that country bumpkin town of Nazareth either. It really shouldn’t be surprising that America voted for an African American. What should be surprising (and sad) is that is took so darn long.
These are important points to make in a nation that has a history of lifting its leaders to Christ-like status. There are those who said that President Bush was “ordained by God” to be our president. The role of president of the United States has been and always should be a secular role, and saying that a president is “ordained by God” is dangerous. While I believe that God guides all people who believe in God, including the president, I do not believe that God says, “Here. This person must be the next president or else.”
In recent history there have also been those who have believed the president of the United States to be infallible -- completely perfect. We do a disservice to our country when we assume that our leader is perfect. It is fine to expect him to be better than the rest of us, but President Obama will make mistakes, just as every president before him has done. We work as a better unified country when we understand this. Believe it or not, we are better unified when we have the free speech to say that we disagree with something the president has done. Barack Obama did not wear a hat when he was in Baltimore yesterday. I think that was stupid.
A surprisingly good thing came out of Nazareth and something surprisingly good is happening in our nation this week. Regardless of our politics or of how we voted in November, let us gather together this week as Christians and as Americans and celebrate the fact that an African American is finally in the White House. Our forebears in the United Church of Christ were among the first to fight slavery and were also quite active in the Civil Rights Movement, and we can be proud that our ancestors just might have had a hand in what is happening this Tuesday. May God guide us and give us strength to fight slavery and oppression as it continues today.
Now let us pray.
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