‘Come and See’ HillFaith!

There is a passage in the Gospel of John that should be of interest to any reader who works on Capitol Hill in any capacity and who is thinking about, has previously considered or might in the future look at checking out HillFaith.

The passage is John 1:43-46 and it’s where Jesus is in the process of choosing His first disciples:

“The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, ‘Follow me.’ Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, ‘We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.’ Nathanael said to him,  ‘Can anything good come out of Nazareth?’ Philip said to him, ‘Come and see.’”

Nathaniel’s response to Philip’s invitation is an example of conventional wisdom in that day in Galilee. Nazareth, the town in which Jesus grew. up, was looked down upon as a place where nothing happened because so little was there, including only an estimated 500 or so inhabitants in Jesus’ day. In other words, it was what we might today refer to as “way out in the sticks.”

Now, what is the application to you and where does HillFaith enter into it? Capitol Hill and indeed the nation’s capital in general is anything but a Nazareth.

People from around the nation and indeed the world are here, education levels of the men and women with whom you routinely associate at work are high, the competition to get ahead is intense, and there is definitely a worldly cultural and social ethos at work.

But with every cultural and social ethos comes conventional wisdoms like that Nathaniel employed in response to Philip’s invitation to whom to come check out this alleged “him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote …” By the way, the individual Moses and the prophets had written about was the Messiah, who Jesus claimed to be.

Examples of contemporary conventional wisdom include the idea that “religion is irrelevant because it’s just a bunch of mythology,” “science is the ultimate source of truth” and “everything that happens in the natural world can be explained with natural causes.”

So what happened when Nathaniel actually met Jesus? Nathaniel got the biggest surprise of his life when Jesus told him something that Jesus could not possibly have known unless He was indeed the Messiah, in verses 47-49:

“Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, ‘Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!’ Nathanael said to him, ‘How do you know me?’ Jesus answered him, ‘Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.’ Nathanael answered him, ‘Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!’”

Just as Nathaniel was amazed, you may well have a similar experience when you actually check-out HillFaith, starting with our “For Hill Aides Only” (FHAO) Monday lunchtime gathering at the Faith & Liberty (F&L) Ministry Center located at 109 2nd Street, NE, right behind the Supreme Court building.

At FHAO, you will find colleagues from the Senate and the House sides who come together for fellowship, apologetical Bible study, mutual support and prayer, fun and a free lunch (usually home-cooked by F&L’s wonderful Peggy Nienaber.

You will learn something new every week that will amaze, delight and/or inspire you about the life of Jesus, the overwhelming evidence that He really was resurrected from the dead three days after His crucifixion, and why He can change your life for the better if you accept Him as your Lord and Savior.

As Philip would say if he were here with us now, I say to you, come and see.

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