God's voice will be heard, if only in whispers, and Jesus will emerge

Well, here we are just a little more than two weeks into the New Year and already we could be excused for wondering why we persist in calling it "new." There is a depressing familiarity about the first days of this year, a sense of dismal repetition, an awareness that there is indeed "nothing new under the sun." Our headlines have been dominated by terrorism - nothing much new there - and all the other world events that greet us each day seem to be very much business as usual, with a tired old world spinning endlessly, one more time.

Then we turn to our appointed Scriptures for this coming Sunday and we find ourselves in familiar territory. We turn to the reading from John's Gospel and we find ourselves sympathizing with Nathaniel's cynical, jaded reaction to Philip's excitement. Philip claims to have found the one foretold in the law and the prophets! But what is Nathaniel's response? "Nazareth? Are you kidding me? Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" We all know Nazareth! It's a place for losers and always has been.

I remember a conversation I once had with someone who had traveled to Nazareth. He was excited at the prospect of traveling to the Holy Land and really looked forward to seeing the place Jesus lived so much of his life. Alas, it was a disappointment. It was a bland town, a boring place. And, apparently, it was a dull place back in Jesus' day as well.

What we need to know about Nazareth is that it was more than just a dull and bland place. It was also a dark place. Around the time of Jesus there were a number of rebellions and uprisings against the Roman occupiers in the area where Jesus lived. Such rebellions were put down ruthlessly. The Romans did not meet insurrection with half measures. The Roman response to uprisings was swift, and so we can assume that Nazareth was not as much a boring place as a scarred place. A place of tears - and of painful memories.

In some ways, I picture it not unlike Ondjiva, Angola, where six of us from New Hampshire visited some years ago. The tour books said "there's nothing there to see." And, sure enough, by surface standards, that was true. You'd surely never call Ondjiva a "tourist spot." Years of war had made it a scarred place - as well as, I'm sure, a boring one. (Though in our time there, I can assure you, we never became bored.)

And yet, like when Jesus was growing up, Ondjiva had become something of a dynamic place if you looked beneath the surface. Traumatic events had formed a resilient people there - and a people hungry for God to act. It is out of a place like this that suddenly Jesus emerges. In Nazareth Jesus is nurtured. Here he grows and is taught and learns about God. Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Yes, something, someone does.

So maybe there is something new under the sun after all. History has been memorably described as "just one thing after another" but perhaps that is wrong. The voice of God is heard in a time of God's seeming absence. Something new does come out of scarred and bland places like Nazareth. But the task is to discern it. Like Nathaniel, our prejudices and presumptions can cloud our eyes so that we are oblivious to it.

Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Yes, to our surprise, something does. Jesus does. Can something new emerge from old, tired, scarred places? Yes, for those with eyes to see and ears to hear, it does. And in dark places today, places like Nazareth and Ondjiva, God is at work. And in other places like South Sudan or Zimbabwe, you will also find stories of heroism and love and self-sacrifice. Here God will be found and God's voice heard, if only in whispers, and Jesus will emerge.

Fr. Chip