[I deviated from my original manuscript quite a bit toward the end of the sermon, and came home to try to make the additions I included when speaking from the heart. This was an incredibly difficult sermon to preach... there is so much more to say, and I still do not have the right words... but Sunday comes and you must say something. This is my feeble attempt to speak truthfully in a particular and sometimes peculiar ministry setting ... Deb]
Year B - Epiphany 2 January 14, 2018
I Samuel 3:1-10, Psalm 139, John 1:43-51 Panzer Liturgical Service
Whether we think of it in relative cultural, religious or political terms, or embrace the idea of alternative facts, the search for truth with a capital T seems to be a lost art. But as Christians, people committed to God and Jesus Christ, our Truth is found in the life and message of the one who gives us life. And that truth is not relative at all.
Today’s lessons teach us something important about God and about us. I hope we can think for a bit about how we are called to think and respond when the world around us seems to be falling apart.
The Hebrew Bible reading takes us to the world of Samuel. God must have a thing for babies born to old mothers because once again, a faithful older woman gave birth to a child with a divine anointing. It is hard for me to imagine giving up a long-awaited and much-loved child for someone else to raise, just because God answered a prayer, but that was what Hannah did. She made a promise to God and she kept it, because she knew that God had something special in mind. The child was raised by Eli, the Lord watched Samuel grow and one evening he called him by name
It’s a very high bar, hearing God call your name, something we don’t expect for ourselves. But then again, what does the voice of God sound like? What if it’s not a booming voice from heaven, but something we hear in our hearts, or in our prayers? What if the voice of God comes from other people?
That is my experience. And like Samuel, God spoke to me several times through many different people before I recognized that this was a word I needed to hear. For me, the call of God came through a college professor, Jack Stevenson, who asked, “Are you sure you’re supposed to be a scientist because I’m getting a different vibe about you?” And from John Culp, who spoke to me in a quiet voice at a Conference worship service honoring the 30th anniversary of the ordination of women in the United Methodist Church and whispered, “I think you belong up there, too.” And from Lavon and Darlene Hucks, who rejoiced when I asked them to help me apply to seminary with a spirited, “This is what we’ve been praying for.”
I’m afraid that doesn’t mean each of you are off the hook. Having “a call” isn’t just about going to seminary and committing to full-time Christian ministry. My call just happened to include seminary but would have been just as important if I had just continued in the life that I was living before.
Answering the call is really about fully committing our lives to Christ. It is about having an Epiphany about who Jesus is… and realizing that he and this life are not what we expect them to be.
In our gospel lesson, which comes around every three years on this same Sunday, tells us some important things about God, Jesus and those who follow him. This is the first of several scenes where people meet Jesus and answer the call to follow him. Here in John, Jesus tells Nathanael that he saw him, long ago, sitting under the fig tree – known before he was called. And Nathanael believes him… even though he has asked, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”
Let me insert a little historical perspective. The village of Nazareth did not have a good reputation. It was literally thought of as a dump… think of the kind of place where Mother Theresa ministered in India. No modern conveniences of the day. Trash and sewage littered the streets. It’s the kind of place that most people would never claim to be from. But that’s the kind of place that God chose to lift up. Implicit in this story is the Truth that God can redeem anyone from anywhere. The world’s impressions and indictments are meaningless. Now back to our story…
Jesus saying that he knew Nathanael before he actually met him was not a “magical” event. Instead, it is the embodiment of 139th Psalm… “I have known you, even in your mother’s womb”… It is indeed marvelous and a little scary that Jesus knows us so well before we ever come to know Him. He knows our sins, our joys, our faults, our gifts, the blessings and the shortcomings and weaknesses and all the rest. He knows us in our ugliness and sinfulness, and still he says, “Follow me.”
The word epiphany means “manifestation” or “unveiling.” On these Sundays after Epiphany, it is not only Jesus who is made known; there is also self-recognition that takes place as people come in contact with Jesus: The wise men open their treasure chests and worship him. When John baptizes Jesus he says, “the one coming after me is before me.” Jesus recognizes his disciples and calls them - “Nathanael, you are the Son of God.” & “Hey, fishermen… come and follow me.”
When I look back on my life, I think God must have been calling me sooner than I recognized at the time, like the day when my 7th-grade friend Lisa asked me to go to church and youth group with her. And earlier, when I was 8 years old, and my parents asked me to stand up as a witness at my infant sister's baptism, telling me that I would be promising to help raise her as part of a Christian family. Maybe it was when I was 5 or 6, and cried because I wanted to go up and take communion with everybody else, even though I was told, "You're not old enough, you'll have to wait until you understand what you are doing up there." Maybe I was responding to a voice saying to me, "There's plenty of room at my table. You are welcome anytime”
But perhaps the most important day of my life, the day when I really first heard God call me was August 29, 1959, the day of my baptism at almost 3 months old. Important things were said that day. My parents made a public profession about how they were going to raise me, and the church made promises to support them. And God spoke a word, to my parents, to the church, and to me - laying a claim on my life that reaches forward to this day and beyond. God called me that day. God said, "I am your God - and I will hold you close until you hear me when I call." God said it to you, too. And God says it every day, to everyone God has created.
Of course, hindsight is 20/20. More often than not, we don't hear God's voice, because we forget to listen. Maybe, like Samuel, we are expecting someone else's voice, and we run around trying to figure out where it is coming from, and what to do next. Or maybe we don't listen because there are too many voices around us, or because things we think are more important are distracting us – like power and prestige. These are the kinds of distractions that lead us to look inward, not to God or into the world to serve.
And yet still, even with all the missed opportunities – God calls -- each of us as individuals and as the church. We may not be listening or even ignoring, but God still calls. So, the question that I want us to ask ourselves is this -- How can we learn to listen for God's voice and then act on what we hear?
In their book, Resident Aliens, my teachers, Stanley Hauerwas and Will Willimon tell us that "Being precedes doing." This means that in order to do the kinds of things that God would have us to do, we must learn to be the kind of people that God created us to be. And to some extent, that means training. That’s why we feel so strongly about offering a confirmation experience here in the chapel setting… to build on the promises previously made for the youth who were baptized as infants.
But Christian formation also happens in different ways every day. When we say the blessing at a family meal, when we listen to bedtime prayers, or read the Bible to our children or for ourselves -- when we participate in a worship service, singing and praying and saying the Apostle's Creed or recite the liturgy together -- All of these things open our ears a little bit more to God calling our name. Through the ministry and witness of other people, and through our own willingness to step out on faith, God is preparing us to be a different kind of people, ones who are shaped by God's word and by the life, death, and resurrection of his only son.
“Being precedes doing,” also means living out our faith in God and Jesus in the world, no matter where we are, no matter what the consequences. Every day I am more convinced that this is the best kind of testimony we can give. We can stand up in front a group of people and say that we are Christian, but if our actions do not match that confession, then people will either not believe our confession, or want nothing to do with our Church or our Jesus.
In this last minute or two, I want to share a personal reflection on recent events. I grew up in the South and I realize that I lived a very sheltered life. In Junior High School, our school district integrated. For the first time, I was in school with people who were really different from me, and I remember coming home the first week and telling my mom that I was afraid. She reassured me that people are just people, no matter the color of their skin and that if I was a friend to them, they would be a friend to me. And she was right. Something difficult happened in gym class one day, and while I was struggling to figure out how to get someone to help me - should I go to a teacher or another student - a girl I had never met before realized my situation and made sure that I got the help I needed. It totally changed my perspective and from that day on, I wanted to live in a world where the difference between us didn't matter.
For a long time, I thought that race relations were improving, even if progress felt too slow. (That's what privilege will do for you.) But this week I was confronted with an awful truth… that people are still judged by the color of their skin and the countries of their ancestors, in ways that I thought were past.
I am so sad. I am angry. And I have been burdened by what to say here today. Over the last three days, I have read dozens of statements by pastors, bishops, church leaders and good, faithful people. Ultimately, I went back to the social principles of my own denomination, and in the end, I was reminded that we are created in the image of God, who has known us and loved us long before we could know him. And, in turn, we are called to love everyone. Full stop. The Beatles were right... all we need is love.
Many of us have traveled to places that seem forgotten or unworthy of our help or admiration. And in those places, we have experienced grace and love and kindness unparalleled to any we have received at home. No matter what our current careers, our call as disciples of Jesus Christ must be the foundation of all of the work we do in our offices, in our families, and in our communities. In our baptismal vows, we promise to resist evil and injustice, in whatever forms they present themselves. I didn’t know what that would look like before, but now I do. The work will be hard and maybe even dangerous, but it’s a promise I have to keep.
The good news is this: our call to ministry is open-ended and open-minded. Recognizing that we are called to act is a good first step. But Jesus’ call to Nathanael reminds us that answering the call is just the beginning. So what does that mean for our next steps?
Let us end hearing the words of St Theresa of Avila:
"Christ has no body now, but yours. No hands, no feet on earth, but yours. Yours are the eyes through which Christ looks compassion into the world. Yours are the feet with which Christ walks to do good. Yours are the hands with which Christ blesses the world."
Amen.
Peace, Deb
