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Miracles, Inaugurations, and Holy Relationships: Come and See!

The Very Reverend Sam G. Candler
The Cathedral of St. Philip
Atlanta, Georgia
Second Sunday after the Epiphany
18 January 2009
John 1:43-52

Whether you are politically active or not, surely you notice electricity in the air this week. The current of our country is vibrating with the hope and expectation of the inauguration of a new president.

Truly, the inauguration of a new President of the United States of America is one of the perennially great moments for this country. When we inaugurate a new president, we witness one of the most graceful gifts this country has given the history of the world: power and political authority are transferred peacefully and constitutionally. Political opponents shake hands and work together. Citizens and leaders alike acknowledge that the democratic and constitutional republic of the United States of America really works.

I know of many people—republicans and democrats alike—who will stop what they are doing on Tuesday to watch the events. Friends who will be travelling on Tuesday have blocked out times in the middle of the day. Some people may even call in sick, but they have not told me that.

But we must make one thing perfectly clear today, Sunday, the Lord’s Day in our church. Barack Obama, the next president of the United States, is not the Savior. We have laughed at jokes either exalting him to that role or poking fun at his followers for so exalting him; but he is not the messiah.

He is a highly capable, highly intelligent, and highly disciplined man; and he will be the first African-American President of the United States. In that role alone, he carries the hopes and dreams of over three hundred years.

Stony the road we trod,
Bitter the chastening rod,
Felt in the days when hope unborn had died,
Yet with a steady beat,
Have not our weary feet
Come to the place for which our fathers died.

This Tuesday, there will be every reason to:

Lift every voice and sing
Till earth and heaven ring
Ring with the harmonies of liberty
Let our rejoicing rise,
High as the listening skies,
Let it resound, loud as the rolling sea.[1]

For many of us, the inauguration of Barack Obama is a sign and a miracle. Even without his wisdom and energy, he carries tremendous symbolic weight. And he meets tremendous challenge. Our country is eager for a hero, but our country usually forgets the energy and work that heroism requires. I pray that Jesus will give him rest for his soul, and that his burden will be light.

I am rejoicing today because of another hero: the amazing pilot of a US Airways jet who successfully landed his airplane on the Hudson River. It was, of course, an emergency landing, and many of the photographs showed an unusual sight. The passengers gathered outside the fuselage were standing on the slightly submerged wings of the plane. As such, it looked like they were standing on the water. It looked like a miracle: they were walking on water!

It was a miracle, a miracle on the Hudson. But that incident has something to teach us about heroism and miracles. Miracles do not happen by accident. It was no accident that Captain Chesley Sullenberger, “Sully” they call him, has been flying airplanes since he was thirteen years old, and he has been flying for that airline for almost thirty years. It was no accident that he flew in the air force and he is a certified glider pilot. It was no accident that he serves on safety organizations, and that he gives presentations and talks on airline safety. In other words, it was no accident that he was prepared.

The unfortunate disgrace of our present age is that so many citizens actually believe that miracles happen randomly, or that success comes accidentally. No. Miracles happen for those who have worked to prepare for them. Success comes to people who plan, and study, and work for them. So it was for that airplane pilot. His preparation is the great sign and miracle, and it served to save his passengers. Salvation occurred when relationships formed; passengers held hands, and New York City workers rushed to meet the scene face to face. Those are miracles that require effort and intention.

The miracle and the sign of our next president is similar. To be elected President of the United States is not a random accident; it is not something we can just attribute to the spirit of the age. It takes incredibly hard work for anyone to reach that position. It is not true, then, what they are saying, “Now, we have proven that anyone can become president!” No, not just anyone can do that. That role is available only for persons who have the will and the discipline to prepare.

And then, the President of the United States, like any leader, must have the will and the discipline and the energy and the wisdom to continue. Every president has the prayers of this congregation, and this president will certainly need them. The president will need strong relationships. The road is still stony, and there’s another stony road besides this one, and still another.

Apparently, Captain Sullenberger has not talked to many people officially since the emergency landing, but he did talk to the New York public safety director, who thanked him for a brilliant job. Captain Sullenberger looked him in the eye and said, “That’s what we are trained to do.”

That’s what we are trained to do.

So, my question to each one of us this morning is similar. What are you trained to do? What are you trained to do? And my second question is this: Are you doing it?

What are you trained to do? And are you doing it?

In the Christian Church, we often hear the same gospel on this Second Sunday of Epiphany, usually in the cold of winter, from the first chapter of the Gospel of John. Jesus, our true Savior, has been baptized and is beginning his public ministry. As he walks away from the baptism, he begins to draw his new disciples to him.

John the Baptist calls out, “Look here is the Lamb of God!” and two disciples immediately begin following him. And note what happens next; friends and brothers and colleagues begin telling one another what is going on. Andrew goes out and gets his brother, Simon Peter. After Jesus calls Philip, Philip goes out and gets his friend, Nathanael.

Now, Nathanael was not immediately so eager. Philip says, “We have found the one Moses and the prophets wrote about! Jesus, son of Joseph from Nazareth!” But Nathanael was not so eager; his sarcasm replies, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” We might say he was like a Republican at the inauguration of a Democratic president. Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Philip replied, “Come and see!”

And Nathanael did go and see. Jesus, our true Messiah, with the charismatic ability to speak truth and grace, converted Nathanael; and Jesus began to gather and to train other disciples. One of those disciples told a friend, and that friend told another friend. “Come and see!” she said. He told someone else, and she told her friend, over and over again.

It was a process of relationships that was begun by Andrew and Philip, and that process has repeated itself generation after generation, and century after century. We have found the messiah. We have found the teacher. We have found the son of God. Come and see! Relationships were formed.

And, finally, someone told me. Someone told you. If they didn’t tell you, I am telling you now. You and I have been called to be disciples of Jesus. We may have many other roles in life. We are fathers and mothers, husbands and wives. We lead corporations and law firms and banks and classes and schools. We run real estate offices and we develop land and houses. We may fly airplanes or lead countries.

But we have been called to be disciples of Jesus. And we have been trained to be disciples of Jesus. Every time we gather in this church, or in churches across the world, every time we pray together and sing, every time we study scripture and serve the poor, we are being trained to be disciples of Jesus. That is what we are trained to do. We are trained to be disciples of Jesus; are we doing it?

Come and see. Show up. Tell your friends. I invite you to come church this year. Start a new discipline. The Church has a critical role in this next year, a year of new political realities, a year of inevitable accidents, a year of certain economic challenge. The Christian Church will be the place that trains us for holy relationships. And holy relationships make for miracles in an emergency. Holy relationships can become political strengths. Holy relationships are sometimes all we have left when financial assets have tumbled.

Jesus came for holy relationship. That is why the message of Jesus is best communicated from person to person—face to face and hand in hand. Come and see this year. Come and see.

AMEN.

The Very Reverend Samuel G. Candler
Dean of the Cathedral of St. Philip

Comments? Contact Dean Candler at: SCandler@stphilipscathedral.org

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