Come and See

This is my sermon from The Bridge worship service at Woodmont Christian Church on July 1. As always, this is the manuscript so it's the gist of what I said, but not entirely what I said. The scripture passage for the sermon was John 1:35-46

This sermon has intimidated me all week long because I knew that I was going to speak about Guatemala. And I knew that whatever I said this morning would be woefully inadequate in describing all that we experienced. It would be like taking a cup to the sea, bringing it back, and saying the cup contained the ocean. What do you say when you know what you say will fall short? I needed help. Thankfully on our final night at the Unbound Center, I and a few of our adult chaperones found ourselves sitting around the dinner table talking with Chico, the head of the Center. Was there any message that he wanted us to share with Woodmont? What did he want me to say?

Chico thought for a moment and then through Yovany, who translated for him, expressed that the first thing he wanted to express was gratitude. This congregation has done so much for the people in Guatemala from sponsoring scores of children and the elderly to raising the funds to build multiple houses for families that needed reliable shelter. Through Unbound, Woodmont has given so much to the Guatemalan people and he wanted you to know that he was profoundly grateful for that generosity.

The second thing he told me was to extend an invitation to come and see what Unbound was doing in Guatemala. It echoed a theme present among the staff throughout the week. They truly wanted people to experience what was going on first hand: to see the people and talk to them, to walk the dirt and gravel roads of their villages, to get a sense of what life is like and how this organization is trying to partner with families to empower them. Chico wanted me ask that you would consider coming down and seeing for yourselves what is happening in Guatemala.

Chico’s invitation reminded me of a story that occurs in the first chapter of John’s gospel. In this passage, which was read earlier, Jesus begins to call his disciples and those first few disciples invite other people to come along. Andrew recruits his brother Simon, better known to us as Peter.  Phillip runs to tell his friend Nathanael about this rabbi from Nazareth that he believes to be the messiah. Nathanael scoffs at the mention of this backwater town from which Jesus hails. “Nazareth? Could anything good possibly come from Nazareth?” Phillip’s response to his skeptical friend echoes what Jesus says earlier when he calls Andrew: “Come and see.”

You can easily insert any location into Nathanael’s dismissive attitude towards Nazareth. Prominent leaders have made news in the last year for deriding some countries with profane contempt. There is no doubt in my mind that some would look at the poverty and crime that exists in Guatemala and scoff, “Can anything good possibly come from there?” It is a morally dangerous attitude to suggest that some are worthy of compassion and others are not. 

And before we get too far from Nathanael’s naysaying, it’s not just blowhard politicians who are dismissive of places and people. I’m sure that if you and I were honest with ourselves, we might look at impoverished neighborhoods around Nashville or rural communities that dot our state and wonder the same thing. Maybe not as belligerently as Nathanael and others, but we may still be hesitant to reach out to such perceived lost causes. Can anything good come from there?

You, I, Nathanael, and whatever other persons who shall not be named would do well to remember the opening line from Psalm 24: “The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it, the world and its inhabitants too.” So whenever we ask whether anything good can come from there, the answer is, “It is part of God’s good creation and even though it may have its issues, yeah, something good, something beautiful can come from there.” Within us all, because we are made in the image of God, there is capacity for something good to come from anywhere.

Can anything good possibly come out of Guatemala? I’m sure most of you don’t really ask that question. It is not a question that I asked. But just in case there is any Nathanael-like attitude lingering in the room, I can say definitively that, yes, good flows throughout that country every single day. I have seen it with my own eyes. 

Midway through our week, our group met in the chapel for a time of prayer and reflection. As part of that time, I asked everyone to share one of their favorite memories from the week thus far. Over two dozen stories spilled out: stories of bonding with sponsored children, of meeting communities of women who seek to lift up their neighborhoods, of watching a small child wave as he ran after our bus, stories of unbelievable joy, hope, and perseverance, stories of radical hospitality. Our students and adults came to Guatemala and they saw so much that was good.

I cheated a little bit and didn’t offer up a single memory. Rather I said to our students what I’ll say to you now: what I will remember most from this week is the eyes. I’ll remember how the eyes of our family’s sponsored children lit up like Christmas when they opened a bag to find superheroes, a few Hot Wheels cars, and Legos. I will remember the joy that danced in Franklin and Cristian’s eyes when they successfully tossed the basketball through the hoop. I would be remiss if I didn’t tell you that Franklin made a basket veinte times. He was quite proud and would want me to mention that. 

I saw that joy throughout the gymnasium on sponsored friends day as children played, sang, and danced. In villages I saw tired eyes flicker with hope when they received bags of rice and beans that were possible because of sponsorships. I saw eyes filled with pride as parents spoke of how their children were in school or as they placed a home-cooked meal in front of us or showed us their home. Their eyes humbled me.

I also won’t forget the eyes of our students. The way in which they were totally locked in to their sponsored children. I think a bomb could have gone off and it would not have pulled their gaze. Throughout the week whenever we got off the bus—even when they were tired, even when there were some dustups of teenage drama—their eyes were on the women, men, and children we met. Despite the differences in cultures, in languages, I could see genuine love flow from the Guatemalans to our students and back. What I saw convicted me, it inspired me, and it challenged me.

I would not have seen any of this had I not gone. I have seen hundreds of pictures from Guatemala and heard countless stories and they were all beautiful. Yet none of it did justice to being there; to experiencing it for myself. All of which brings us back to what Jesus and Phillip said in our passage: “Come and see.” 

As followers of Jesus, we are to do just that: follow. We cannot just sit on the sidelines, but we have to get up and go and see where God is working in the world around us. And I am not just talking about getting up and going to Guatemala. The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it and God is at work everywhere. Go to Room at the Inn. Go to the Nashville Food Project. Go to the Dream Center of West Nashville where our middle schoolers went a few weeks ago and spent the afternoon with children who go there because summer means they are not in the schools that feed them free and reduced lunches. Go and see what God is doing through people all over.

This isn’t just about doing something that we are supposed to do. I don’t want to stand up there and be one of those ministers who just tells people, “Do better!” and that’s it. Though we should all do better. But imagine what happens if you don’t go. Imagine what happens if you don’t see. What is life like if we don’t experience the fullness of what God is doing. If we don’t experience what is happening in the lives of our brothers and sisters. I would hate to imagine my life without this last week’s experience. If the basics of what we are to do as Christians is to love God with of all our being and to love our neighbor as ourselves then Guatemala brought those ideas to life in vivid technicolor.

Because this is what happens when we go and see what God is up to: we want to be a part of it. Jesus knew that Andrew just needed to see and he would follow. Phillip knew the same about Nathanael. Chico knows that if you see what Unbound is doing in Guatemala, you’ll want to be a part of that. I know that if you witness the good people serving at the Food Project or Room at the Inn or ton of other places, you’ll want to be a part of it. One of the things we talked about through the week is what we were going to do when we went home. How were we going to continue the spirit of what we saw in Guatemala in Nashville. 

And it did my heart good to hear students talk about how they were going to sponsor children, volunteer at organizations in town that served others. I heard adults talk about sponsoring children and getting others involved. I spoke of my hope that missions would be something that we did in our youth group year round and I have work to do on that. I stand here hoping that we will all follow through.

Because being a part of what God is doing is not easy. There is sacrifice involved. People are good but they can also be turds, to use a PG phrase that I used a couple of times this week. I don’t want to make it seem like a fairy tale. Andrew, Phillip, and Nathanael literally had to leave their lives, homes, and careers behind to follow Jesus. You will wrestle with whether you have the time or the money or the willingness to be a part of what God is doing.

But what if you choose to stay? What if Nathanael decided that he was right and nothing good could come out of Nazareth? Imagine what he would have missed. What if he just decided to send a check with Phillip? Do not get me wrong. These organizations need your financial assistance. I’m sure men in dark suits would haul me away right now if I suggested you shouldn’t give money to churches or charitable organizations. I want you to sponsor as many kids through Unbound as you possibly can. I want you to raise money to build houses. For the literal love of God and neighbor, do those things. 

But don’t let it stop there. Get your hands dirty. Meet people. Plug your life into the lives of others. If you don’t know where to start, A group from this church will go to Guatemala in 2019. We’ll go back in two years. You actually have to wait to go with a group because Unbound has groups go all the time. Lauren Beuerlein and the young adults are doing things like helping out at the Salvation Army all the time. Steve LaForge is our missions field coordinator. He was with us last week. He’s heading to Puerto Rico in a few more. The man is a breathing directory of ways in which you can help others and his heart for others is contagious. Come talk to me. But don’t sit on the sidelines.

We went to many places where there were gravel and dirt roads. Many of the roads were filled with massive potholes that would put the ones on 440 to shame. And traffic laws seem to be more like loosely observed suggestions. One day we were in this village way up in the mountains and a few of our were waiting outside a building when this old truck came blazing down the dirt and rock road. He wasn’t going to hit us but he was still going way too fast. As he passed us, his truck kicked up a cloud of dust that temporarily covered us. 

And I remembered an old rabbinical saying. It’s possibly apocryphal but the message is true regardless. The saying was: May you be covered with the dust of your rabbi. May you follow your teacher so closely that the dirt he kicks up as he walks would get all over you. I saw our students and adults and the Unbound workers and the people of Guatemala covered with dust this week, both literally and metaphorically. And it was a beautiful sight. You and I are called to follow Jesus so closely that his dust covers us and that means getting out there, seeing people, and loving them. It changes everything. Believe me. I have seen it with my own eyes.