3-11-24 Are You Philip?

You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.

One of my favorite things to do with church groups is to go out to a public space – a mall, a street corner, a park – and hold up signs saying, “Want a Prayer?” And then pray with whoever comes over. Many walk by without a glance, some do a double-take and keep walking – and some of those come back and say, “Wow. This is really nice. I’d like a prayer.”

It’s a great way to open conversations about faith. It would be even easier if we experienced what Jesus’ disciple Philip did during a festival in Jerusalem one day: “Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, ‘Sir, we wish to see Jesus.’”

News about Jesus, his teachings and miracles, had traveled beyond the Jewish community into the Roman and Hellenistic cultures of that region. Did these Greeks come hoping to see a miracle they could talk about in the agora? Did they crave a nugget of divine wisdom to chew on? Or did they want to get to know Jesus as the Messiah? We aren’t told what motivated them, only that they were eager enough to meet Jesus, they found someone they hoped could introduce him.

There are more such folks in our lives than we think. Doing prayer in a shopping mall one Saturday, many more people passed by than stopped, but at least nine came up to strangers for prayer in public during the hour we were there. That tells me this spiritual thirst I’m always hearing about actually does exist. And we have Living Water to share.

We don’t have to go looking for such people; the Spirit is already stirring their hearts. But we sure need to stop hiding from those who are looking for the spiritual blessings we have! Most are not going to cross the threshold of our odd, if beautiful, buildings at the odd times of the week we happen to be in them. We need to go out to where people are, and let them know how to find us. And we need to introduce them to Jesus as we know him, not just invite them to church. Share your experience. Ask about theirs. Ask if there’s anything they’d like to pray about. See where it goes.

Where and how are you being called to make Jesus known in your community? If you have an idea, ask God to bless it. If you don’t have a clue, tell God you’re open to ideas. And then look for how God might answer that prayer. God is not shy – when God wants us to do something, and we’re open, we’ll know.

We may not often hear those words, “We want to see Jesus,” but I believe there are many, many people who hold that desire. And the way they’re going to see Jesus in our time is through us, the Body of Christ, getting out of our buildings and beyond our Sunday schedules and making Jesus visible. We are all Philip. All we are asked to do is introduce people to the Jesus we love and worship. He’ll do the rest.

© Kate Heichler, 2024. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.