I remember being in grade school during a pop quiz in one of our classes (I think it was math class). I leaned over to look at my friend’s paper just to see what answer he had gotten to the problem. The teacher, who was sitting at her desk, said, “Mr. Boucher, do your own work!”
You may not have known it – and I wouldn’t have if I did not write this blog – that the Catholic church celebrates the feast of St. Bartholomew today. He was one of the apostles called by Jesus. His name did not sound familiar to me, so I had to do some research. Scholars are pretty sure that Bartholomew was called “Nathaniel” and is the person named in today’s gospel reading from John 1.
In the passage, Philip says to Nathaniel, “We have found the one about whom Moses wrote in the law, and also the prophets, Jesus son of Joseph, from Nazareth.”
Nathaniel hears the word Nazareth and says the famous line, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?”
Let’s just pause there.
We could all easily channel our inner Nathaniel and think of a town/place that would be our Nazareth. These would be the small, backwater places that people snicker about – the places no one would expect to produce anyone special (let alone THE CHOSEN ONE).
Basically Nathaniel says, “I don’t believe it…”
And Philip offers such a beautiful line, “Come and see.”
Nathaniel goes on to have his own mystical encounter with Jesus, and that is enough to convince him to remain in the company of Jesus.
What I love about Nathaniel is that he is willing to “do his own work.” He doesn’t just take Philip’s word for it. Nathaniel wants to have his own experience. Philip, for his part, who has already had his own experience does not try to convince Nathaniel of anything. He invites him to do his own research.
Our faith lives seem to mirror this a lot.
In his amazing book Awareness, Jesuit Anthony de Mello tells the short parable, “What would you say if someone offered you a fruit and chewed it before giving it to you?” Would you like that?”
That would be disgusting to most of us.
Yet a lot of us let others “chew our food for us” by allowing the beliefs, practices and experiences of others to determine our own actions and beliefs. We just accept them without testing them. This particularly happens quite often in Christian circles, and it is even encouraged by a lot of leaders.
Many of you might be familiar with the Christian phrase, “God said it, I believe it and that settles it.” This often refers to how people read the scriptures. But the bible is hardly the unfiltered word of God. I picked up a great little book lately (from our local library system) called Serving Up Scripture: How To Interpret the Bible for Yourself and Others by Jennifer Garcia Bashaw and Aaron Higashi. I’m only early on into it, but they make it clear (as so many others do), that the “bible” does not have a singular meaning. It has meanings (plural) and these are largely dependent on literary, historical, theological and ideological influences (including those of the reader and not just the text). They say that “Sometimes people will say, ‘I’m not interpreting the bible, I’m just reading what it says.’ Such people are mistaken. All reading is interpretation, and all interpretation involves choice.”
A mature faith requires us to do our own work and pursue our own truths through the lens of our own lived experience as well. Philip invites Nathaniel to do just this and Nathaniel does it. St. Paul picks up on this theme when he says in 1 Thessalonians 5:21, “Test everything. Hold on to what is good.”
But a lot of us were not trained that way. We were taught to eat the food that others had chewed!
Don’t get me wrong, there may be a lot of truth in what others say or in how others interpret the bible. Throughout my life, great spiritual writers and teachers have been my guides and influences. Pastor Kristian Smith of a place called The Faith Community (which is a virtual community of faith that is doing some pretty groundbreaking stuff in my opinion) doesn’t dismiss what others have taught. But an organizing principle of their communal life is, “Don’t uplift theory or doctrine above what people have lived.” In a recent podcast interview with Prentiss Hemphill, Pastor Smith says, “So if you have a theory or bible interpretation and it contradicts someone’s lived experience, take time to hear that person’s lived experience and assume that God might be doing something there…Doctrines were created by people who had one set of lived experiences.” And there are MANY, MANY lived experiences in this world.
What I appreciate about today’s gospel is that it invites us – like Nathaniel – to do our own research and to take seriously our own lived experience and the experiences of other people and to put those in conversation with whatever interpretation, theory or doctrine we may be encountering. As opposed to walking away from the tradition because it does not speak to our experience, this way of thinking invites a “come and see” position.
Correspondingly, just because something does not square with our lived experience does not mean it has no value either. There are things that may be out of my lived experience that I really should consider. But like Nathaniel, we, too, might be invited to engage versus disengaging. Even as he questioned if “anything good can come from Nazareth,” he remained open.
Now I know that this won’t be for everyone, in part, because the bible and the Christian tradition have been such sources of harm in people’s lives. And I lament that this is such a pervasive reality. But if you’re going to be a follower of Jesus, don’t be afraid to bring your questions, your critiques and your challenges to your faith life. Bring them to your pastors and the leadership at our church. Bring them to God. I know that I have been deeply enriched by so many people – women, LGBTQIA+, BIPOC, people living in poverty – who have brought their lived experience to bear on the tradition and opened up new territory that I think has benefitted us all.
As opposed to some who would see questioning as not demonstrating “enough faith,” I see it as just the opposite. When we, like Nathaniel, have seen for ourselves, we, too, are likely to become closer followers.
Note: Just like last week, I invited people to respond to this blog post with their own questions related to wealth and possessions, I’d love to hear from you related to what doctrines, dogmas, teachings or biblical interpretations you have questioned – especially because they did not fit with your lived experience. How do you understand them now? What was it like to do your own wrestling with the text/teaching?
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