"Unlikely and Unexpected" by Rev. Jillian Hankamer, January 18, 2026

John 1: 29-51

In so many ways, it was the unlikeliest meeting. Nathanael didn't even want to meet this Jesus guy. He was just doing it as a favor to his friend because, honestly? Is this guy somehow the one Moses and the prophets wrote about? “Some self-appointed teacher from that backwoods little town of Nazareth?”

There’s no way this is true, but Nathanael’s a good friend and so he goes to meet Jesus who’s greeting is..well, odd. As Nathanael approaches, Jesus says to those standing around him, “Look closely, and you will see an Israelite who is a truth-teller.”

Now, there are a couple of options for how to interpret such a greeting. Perhaps it’s “a backhanded compliment. Maybe Jesus was saying he appreciated Nathanael speaking his mind--didn't take offense at the whole Nazareth comment.”

Or perhaps Jesus isn’t being kind but infusing his words with a double meaning. It’s subtle, but the thing to know is that “Jesus' calling Nathanael an ‘Israelite’” brings to those he’s standing with “echoes of the Jacob story.” Jacob of the Hebrew Bible. The trickster who comes into the world holding onto his brother Esau’s heel, then steals that same brother’s birthright, runs away, wrestles with God, Jacob, the ultimate anti hero, who the people would know to be sly and deceptive and who was given the name “Israel” by God.

But Jesus says But Nathanael is an Israelite who’s a truth-teller, one without deceit. “In this conversational sparring about hometowns…” Jesus has hit a verbal home run. What an “unlikely beginning for a relationship.”

At this point Nathanel must be wondering how Jesus knows of his Nazareth comment. After all, Jesus wasn’t there to hear him. How could he respond with this verbal parry about Nathanel’s hometown?

But then something else occurs to Nathanael. How does this man he’s never met know where he’s from? So he asks Jesus, “How would you know this about me? We’ve never met.”

Jesus responds that he was watching Nathanael earlier in the day as he was enjoying the shade of a fig tree, before Philip said a word about Jesus. And Jesus' admission is enough to convince Nathanael that Jesus is the one Moses and the prophets wrote about. Philip was right, Nathanael is convinced and “the traditional phrases [pour] out of Nathanael's mouth. You are the Son of God. You are the King of Israel.#”

As I said, it’s an unlikely beginning to Nathanael's walk with Jesus, but why not? In these days after Advent as we continue to celebrate Christmas and the presence of the Christ Child among us, why can’t a relationship with God begin with something as simple as being in the presence of Jesus? After all, “what is more unlikely than heaven touching earth?”

For though there’s very little I can tell you for sure about heaven I can say this with confidence, “heaven is where love reigns.” As Rev. Dr. Sharon E. Watkins says so beautifully, heaven is “where there is room for all God's children at the table. Where… nothing's broken and no one's missing.”

Sadly, this is often the opposite of life on earth. While I don’t believe the earth is a terrible, dark place without hope of redemption, a quick browse of the paper or a few minutes listening to the news shows us this place’s shortcomings. “Global warming, political gridlock, [people] without healthcare” and COVID continuing to be something we’re arguing about. “And yet, in Jesus, the unexpected happens. Heaven gets a foothold on earth”# and Nathanel has the sense to recognize what he’s seeing. This unlikely beginning is reminiscent of another.

As you’ll remember, Montgomery, Alabama in 1955 was a difficult place to be. Due to forced segregation on city buses, Rosa Parks will soon go on trial for refusing to give up her seat to a white person.

“Local pastors are gathered at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church strategizing. A lot of ideas go back and forth, but nothing clear emerges. Until–the most unlikely thing. A young pastor who’s new to town and unknown to the city fathers raises his hand. And though he’s a newcomer, this man, like Nathanael, has experienced through Jesus “the reign of God come near.” This experience, this knowing makes him “an ambassador of that place--that meeting of heaven and earth - inviting others to walk on that street where the reign of God has gotten a foothold.”

Most unexpected!

Years later this newcomer, this modern-day Nathanel, has become well known. A leader of the civil rights movement, a beacon of non-violent resistance. And in perhaps the best know speeches in history he will “describe his glimpse of what it looks like when the reign of God comes near.

“...One day every valley shall be engulfed, every hill shall be exalted and every mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plains and the crooked places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together. This is our hope. This is the faith that I will go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.

With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to climb up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.”

Of course, this modern Nathanael is Martin Luther King Jr., who continues to exemplify what it means to respond to Jesus “because he had raised his hand.” He recognized what the presence of Christ in his life meant and he was willing “to walk in that place where heaven and earth come near.” That is, he walked and marched, sat in prison, and was ultimately assassinated because he’d been touched by Christ, made different by the presence of God, shaped and re-formed by the Christ Child. 

My friends, we know that following Jesus can be hard on good days, let alone on painful days or when that call leads us down unexpected, poorly light paths. And too often, following Jesus and bearing witness to the places where heaven and earth come near comes with a cost. 

Following Jesus means “working for justice.” Seeing earth and heaven meet requires doing the work to make our world more resemble the heavenly world “where love reigns,” God’s wholeness is the standard, “where nothing's broken and no one's missing,” and where a table is spread and all are welcome.”

The good news this morning is that the call of Nathanel reminds us we can meet Christ in the most unlikely of places. We can experience the power of God even when we aren’t expecting it, and we can be known by Christ even we aren’t aware of his presence. Because when we choose to walk with Jesus “we walk in those unlikely places where heaven and earth come near.”

We, as wonderfully imperfect as we are, are God’s representatives in our words and actions. And thankfully, when we respond to Christ’s call and follow his pathways we have the chance to be present when and where “the reign of God comes near…: We have the ability to share with others “ a glimpse of a time and place where nothing's broken and no one's missing.” And we have, through the love and presence of the Christ Child in our lives, an opportunity to see and share that there’s a “table is spread for [us and] all God's children.