Rector’s Reflections
Wednesday 2nd October 2024
A Life-Giving Conversation with Jesus
There are perhaps two key steps in our relationship with God. The first is the realisation that God really is present in our lives – the realisation that God isn’t just some theoretical Being living somewhere in the far-distant corners of the Universe, but is actually close to us, and interested in our lives and well-being. It is the realisation that God knows us, cares for us and loves us. It is the realisation that there is no point in hiding our true selves from God, because He already knows all our secrets and our failings, and He loves us anyway. In other words, it is the moment when God becomes real to us.
The second key moment in our relationship with God is the time when we decide to do something about our realisation that God is for real. It is the time when we choose to make a response – to reach out to God, just as He has reached out to us.
We might picture the first step in our spiritual lives as the realisation that God is holding out his hand towards us. And the second step is the moment when we pluck up the courage and reach out our hand towards God, placing our hand in God’s hand, in trust and confidence that all shall be well.
For Nathanael, the first step came when he realised that Jesus already knew him, even before they had ever met. Jesus already knew him, and cared about him – Jesus had seen Nathanael “under the fig tree before Philip called [him]”. Nathanael realised that God was holding out his hand towards him. And then the second step came. Nathanael saw God’s hand stretched outwards to him in love, and he decided to grasp that hand in love and trust. He could well have decided to ignore what had happened, but instead he decided to surrender himself to the reality of God’s presence in his life.
Our response to a realisation of God’s presence in our lives will take many different forms, depending on the context and circumstances. For Nathanael, it took the form of a heart felt declaration of belief, spoken aloud so that all could hear : “ Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Isarael!” It must have taken a lot of courage for Nathanael to utter such a statement of his belief in significance of Jesus. At this stage, Jesus was only at the beginning of his ministry, with perhaps a handful of followers. Jesus himself had come from a modest background, and had no connections with the Jewish elite in Jerusalem. Furthermore he hadn’t as yet worked any miracle, and there seemed little if anything to distinguish him from any other Jewish man who took his faith seriously. But Nathanael realised that there was something remarkable about Jesus: he was God’s Son, and the King of Isarel!
So Nathanael moved from a realisation of the reality of God in his life, to the articulation of a response to that realisation, in the form of an expression of heartfelt belief. Nathanael’s willingness to reach out to God allowed God to give him the gift of new life – the gift of a transforming relationship with Him through his Son Jesus.
But how often are we willing to reach out to God, in response to an awareness of his transforming presence in our lives? Our acknowledgment that God is really present in our lives is good, but it is only a beginning. It is the first step in our spiritual lives. But we need to move on to the second step – to allow our acknowledgment of God’s presence to change our whole outlook on life. We need to respond to God’s initiative. Our responses will be varied, according to our characters and circumstances. Not all of us will be called to follow Nathanael’s lead and utter a heartfelt proclamation of faith. But I believe all of us are called to respond in some way or other to our realisation that God really is involved in our lives – He really does love us and care for us. God isn’t just an abstract noun. He’s a real person, and He’s inviting us into a relationship with Him.
I wonder: how we are being called to respond to God’s presence in our lives? Or have we forgotten that God is still there, extending a welcoming hand of friendship?