Text: "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?" John 1:46

The wedding march had just begun. I stepped to the center of the chancel area. In the ministry there is no moment as deeply moving as that when a wedding march begins. The groom took his place, followed by the best man, at the front of the sanctuary. Down the aisle came the ushers and the bridesmaids. Then into the Narthex came the bride - beautiful, radiant, on the arm of her father. As she moved slowly down the aisle, every eye was fixed upon her. But in that moment my thoughts were far away.

I remembered a day, seventeen months before, when a young woman was weeping in my study. She had blurted out that there is no meaning in life - that it isn’t worth going on. Because of numerous experiences of the kind I suspected that it had to do with not having a man around, and I talked about it. She said through her tears, "I haven’t met a man who wasn’t ‘on the make.’ " I spoke words of encouragement. I gave her several suggestions as to approach. Then we had prayer together and she went on her way. That day she saw no possibility of unforeseen happiness and love. Her mind was obsessed with loneliness and sorrow. And now, seventeen months later, she was walking down the aisle to look with love into the face of the young man at the altar.

We are often blind to the possibilities of unforeseen goodness. It’s hard for us, any of us, to believe in unforeseen victory, unforeseen happiness or joy. We have no difficulty believing the worst. When there is talk of pollution, we solemnly assert that the end of the world is not far away. When the youth rebellion is discussed, we are totally blind to the possibilities in the lives of countless young men and women who are seeking a better life and better world. We have no difficulty feeling cynical in the presence of a man who has been successful, and we sneer, "But look how he got that way!" Or when someone in a position of leadership falls, we quickly shake our heads and say, "I guess we don’t know the half of it." It is human nature that we constantly think of the unforeseen evil and forget that unforeseen good.

I

It was so in the time of Jesus. When Jesus left the village of Nazareth to begin his public ministry great crowds followed him. The multitudes were on every hand, the old and the young, the rich and the poor, the wise and the ignorant. Men of all classes, all walks of life gladly went after this man from Nazareth. When his golden voice was lifted in teachings that are unmatched by any voice in history, they listened with eager anticipation. When his hands reached out to touch those that were sick, there was healing power. All whom he contacted were concerned about Jesus. Then came the inevitable question, "Who is this man? Who are his people? Where did he come from? What is his background?" And when they were told that he came from Nazareth, there was a quick sneer, "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?"

Nazareth wasn’t much. It was a town on the highway between the Mediterranean Sea and the Sea of Galilee. It was barren. Its hillsides were gray and lifeless, except for one or two months in the year. When you came from the beauty of Haifa at the Mediterranean Sea, and traveled forty miles away to the luxuriant beauty of the Sea of Galilee, you passed through Nazareth. You hurried through. It was an ugly city. The people had an accent that was despised by those in the rest of the little country of Palestine. It was rumored that revolutionaries came out of Nazareth. It was scorned as a city which had no influence. People avoided it diligently, lest they be contaminated by it. It was this city from which Jesus came. No wonder the crowds asked, "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?"

II

Many good things came out of Nazareth. The prophet, Elijah, made Nazareth his home and carried on his great work from there. Jonah went out from Nazareth to challenge the entire world to a new missionary zeal. A young woman bearing a child walked sixty miles from her home in Nazareth to the village of Bethlehem. She lay on a bed in a barn because there was no one to give her a room. It was there she bore her child. It was to Nazareth she returned to bring up the baby boy. He was to grow to manhood and to a power for all mankind. Many things came out of Nazareth which indicated that what one could see wasn’t enough to explain what was there by the power of God.

III

We need the emphasis in our day on the unforeseen providence of God. It is the doctrine of unexpected goodness in the midst of the evil of our world. It is hard for a cynical society to believe that there is more in life than we can see. It is hard for an unbelieving world to think that there is any possibility of change beyond that which can be measured in test tubes, and in the processes of arithmetic and physics. It is difficult for us to understand that there is something more in life than what we can measure.

Many centuries ago there were ten brothers. They were leaders among the people, influential in their community. They had a younger brother by the name of Joseph. One day they were with their flocks on a farm far away from home, and Joseph came over the hillside toward them. When they saw him they cried with scorn, "Behold the dreamer cometh!" So they dismissed him. But when all their struggling had resulted in starvation, it was the dreamer, the unforeseen beyond anything they could imagine which saved their homes and their families.

I have often listened to arguments as to whether heredity or environment is more influential in the development of a life. Some psychologists have said, "After all, it’s blood that counts. Give me the right kind of mother and father, grandparents and great-grandparents, and you have the making of a genius." On the other hand, I hear the environmentalists who say that the only real influence upon a growing child is environment, the place in which he grows up. Yet we are aware that there is more in many human lives than either heredity or environment can explain. On the negative side, a child may be born to good parents with a good education, and seemingly a good environment, and yet make a failure of life. On the other hand, out of an unfortunate, tragic situation some children rise to godliness and dedication, to worthy service to humanity. Neither heredity nor environment can explain the potential for good which lies within the hearts of men. We have forgotten that God has something to do with life, and is waiting for man’s response to Him to bring unforeseen glory and joy. This is the romance of life, the glory of the unforeseen.

There is more goodness at the heart of things than we dream. There is more potential for glory than there is the potential for evil. In a museum in Boulder, Colorado, I came to a large glass case. Underneath the glass were pieces of rock: gray, brown lumps. I said to myself, "Why have they brought that stuff to exhibit in a museum?" Then I saw a sign that said, "Push this button." I accepted the invitation and an ultraviolet light came on. Lo, those brown and gray stones were transformed into a myriad of what seemed like shining diamonds. Hidden in the dark lumps was a glory which couldn’t be measured except in terms of radiant beauty.

The glory of the unforeseen frequently enters and transforms many of the crises in life. When it appears that the ultimate has happened, and the worst that could possibly come has occurred, out of the darkness the providence of God is at work, and we find that there is hope. There is a triumph even in the midst of what seems the disaster of that moment.

I like to go back to the story of the crucifixion. You may remember that Jesus carried his own cross. As he stumbled toward the gate which led toward Calvary, he fell under the weight and the weariness of all that had happened in those hours leading up to his conviction. It says in the scriptures, "They laid hold of one Simon of Cyrene and forced him to carry his cross." You may have overlooked it, but in the next book in the Bible, written about thirty years later, there is a verse which says, "Simon of Cyrene, father of Rufus and Alexander." When Simon of Cyrene was forced to carry the cross he must have thought there couldn’t have been anything more degrading. How he must have felt the eyes of the hostile crowd upon him. They looked with scorn at a man forced to carry a felon’s cross, charged with the worst. Yet, just thirty years later, out of the degradation and humiliation of that moment, something happened in the life of Simon of Cyrene. When the author is listing great Christians, he says "Simon of Cyrene, father of Rufus and Alexander." What unforeseen glory lies between those two verses within a brief space of years in the New Testament. None of us can measure the potential, under God, of a new world, inspired by His presence.

I was invited to speak at Yale Divinity School in New Haven, Connecticut. A young man called from the university to ask if I would care to attend their prayer group that evening. As I walked down the hill from the Divinity School I was aware of the tension on the campus. I knew they had been having a great deal of trouble in the town and on the campus itself. I came into the room where the young man had asked me to meet him. He took me up two flights of stairs into another room. I looked around in amazement. Twenty-three juniors and seniors at Yale University had met for prayer. I sat on the bed with three of four of the young men. One of them said, "Well fellows, let’s begin. What have we got on our minds tonight?" One after another they spoke about the problems and anxieties which they felt about the world - about the war - about their campus and what was happening on their campus about their own personal lives and their problems. They covered a wide range of anxieties. Then the young man who was the leader said, "Shall we bow in prayer?" One after another the young men prayed. I suppose you wouldn’t call them impressive prayers but for me, they were eloquent ... simple ... they spoke to God as if he were close by. There was a simplicity about their dedication and an assurance about the expectations in their fellowship together. After we finished, I learned that they meet every Tuesday night at 9:30. I was aware that when one considers the campuses of America he ought not to forget that there are millions of young men and young women, idealistic, dreamers, dedicated, seeking for a way they can be used to make for a better society, and stronger and better personal lives. We haven’t counted enough on the glory of the unforeseen when God works in the minds and hearts of those who love Him.

IV

The law of the unforeseen has been evident in many lives. Think of a boy wearing a coonskin cap, and trousers made out of a deerskin, driving four cows down a woody pathway in the wilds of Kentucky. Not much culture, not much of a home, not much possibility of an education. Yet, when you look for the unforeseen you see a President’s name - Abraham Lincoln. Or, consider a drunkard in a town in Germany, who courted and led to the altar a tubercular girl. People in the village shook their heads sadly. "What a pity!" they murmured. "Nothing will come out of that family." But a baby was born to those parents. His name was Ludwig Beethoven. He composed some of the greatest music that ever inspired the human heart and mind. When I think of that background as I listen to Beethoven’s "Ninth," I recognize that the unforeseen, with God’s power, is beyond human measure.

Or think of that man, 38 years old, at the zenith of his strength and influence who, within a period of three weeks, became completely blind. They moaned, "How sad! His future is now dead." But that man, blind, wrote Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained, some of the greatest poetry in all the history of the English language. The unforeseen brings hope in a time of despair.

It is so in government. Haven’t you seen a man elected to public office who seemed to possess few qualities of leadership, but in the pressure of responsibility, rises to a place of influence and power?

When Winston Churchill was chosen Prime Minister of England, a wail went all over England, "Have we come this low? Where can we find hope in a man who has had failure after failure to mark his career?" Who could anticipate what divine courage and strength, working in the life of a dedicated man, could bring out of the despair of that moment. I have seen frivolous young girls transformed into loving and dedicated mothers when a baby is in their arms. I have seen young men, caught up in the desire to have a good time, changed by marriage to become good husbands and fathers.

So it is in the realm of government. Out of what seems hopeless, there is born the triumphant. Men respond to the call of greatness when God is at work in their lives.

When Daniel Webster was growing up in a small town in New Hampshire these words were written about him by a man who was a leader in the community, "Daniel Webster is little more than an idiot. It is probable that his parents would be wise if they put him in an institution for the rest of his life." Daniel Webster! And he became one of the great statesmen in all of American history. The glory of the unforeseen.

V

It is so in religion. There was Jesus. Who would have thought that a boy, born of a peasant mother, with a father who worked in a carpenter shop, growing up in the ignorance and bigotry of the village of Nazareth, would become the world’s central figure? Who would have thought that such a person would become King of kings and Lord of lords for all mankind? It’s the power of God that makes the difference. It’s something divine within every man and woman who knows Him.

Eighteen hundred years after Jesus was on earth, one of the great hymn voices of all time wrote:

"All Hail the Power of Jesus’ name,
Let angels prostrate fall.
Bring forth the royal diadem
And crown him Lord of all."

He was writing for more than one-third of the population of the entire earth. Out of the humble life of Jesus of Nazareth there came the glory and wonder of man’s greatest hope.

We find this when we look at the lives of the disciples. Take twelve men. One of them betrayed Jesus and then hung himself. The other eleven were the most common of men, ignorant as far as learning of the world was concerned. Who would have thought there was potential for goodness and for glory in them? They went across the world as flaming evangelists. They sang hymns in the catacombs and sewers of the city of Rome. They were crucified and burned at the stake. Every one of them died a violent death, but when they finished their work the name of Jesus was hailed in all parts of the Roman and Greek worlds. Who could have thought that eleven such men would be the instruments of the power of God to bring triumph for his truth?

This law is equally important when applied to our personal lives. We recognize ourselves as self-centered. We are often self-righteous and critical of others, very often with a blundering prejudice which makes us look down on other people. Sometimes we recognize that we aren’t what we ought to be, yet we do not know what to do about it. Alfred Lord Tennyson writes:

"Oh for a man to arise in me

That the man I am might cease to be."

Many of us have felt degraded in heart and mind by the consciousness of what we are and how we have failed. But the glory of the Christian faith is the glory of the unforeseen.

Anything can happen to a man when God’s spirit takes hold of him. It happened to the Apostle Paul. He walked down the road to Damascus ... a man filled with prejudice and anger against the Christian movement. In the light of a new faith he became a new creature, totally transformed. Who could have foreseen what was going to happen when God took hold of the life of the Apostle Paul?

We call this conversion. It’s an old-fashioned term, but it expresses the reality of what faith means in a day like this. No matter what we have been, no matter what we are, no matter what burden of sin we carry, no matter how filthy of mind and heart we have been, there is something more for us. God intended it so and by His presence He can make us new creatures through faith in Him. No one can measure the potential of a man, a woman, a young person dedicated to God who is ready and willing to be led by His spirit.

A number of years ago a young actor was in a traveling troup playing in Louisville, Kentucky. He had an overwhelming desire for fame and social recognition. There was a great deal of greed and avariciousness in his nature. On a Sunday afternoon there was a knock at the door of

his boarding house room. Two young people stood there. They invited him to go to church with them that night. He replied, "Didn’t you know I’m an actor? They wouldn’t want me in your church." The young people smiled, "Yes, they’d like you to come to our church and you can sit between us." He went to the church with them, and his heart was strangely warmed. Something happened to him. He gave his heart to Christ. If you were to name the three greatest preachers in American history, you would list the name of that transformed young actor. His name was Russell Conwell, founder of Temple University, Temple University Medical School, and many of the great institutions of the East. A man of such power in preaching that life became new because of his influence.

The potential for goodness is in you. The potential for Godliness is in you. Rather than thinking in terms of unforeseen tragedy, recognize now what can happen if in this moment God takes over your life. The unforeseen glory of what God can do will be demonstrated tomorrow and in every tomorrow.

PRAYER

Let us pray. Eternal God, our heavenly Father, forgive us that we have often been unexpectant about thy truth. Forgive us that we have closed our minds to the glory of what the unforeseen can bring by the inspiration of thy spirit. Help us now to turn to thee in fresh and deeper dedication. Amen.