Readings: 1
Samuel 3:1-10, Psalm: 139:1-6, 13-18, John 1:43-51
Let us pray: May the
words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your
sight, O God, our rock and our sustainer.
Amen.
“Then the Lord said
to Samuel, ‘See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make both ears
of anyone who hears of it tingle. On that day I will fulfil against Eli all that I
have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end. For I have told him that I am about to punish his house for
ever, for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God, and
he did not restrain them. Therefore I swear to the house of Eli that the
iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be expiated by sacrifice or offering for
ever.’”[1]
How incredibly
difficult it must have been for Samuel – not just to realise that the voice of
God was calling him – but also the message that he was to hear – the apparent down
fall of the one who had nurtured and guided him throughout his life. How on earth
can we ever think that the calling of God is an invitation to an easy life?
Both our readings
today are about calls to follow – Samuel hearing God’s call in the night and
Nathanael hanging around under the fig tree and responding to Jesus even in his
cynicism.
In both cases there
is an invitation and a response – and a realisation that this call is not
ordinary nor is it safe. There is a
sense that there is an epiphany happening for each – an encounter that somehow
transcends and turns upside down all previous invitations to relationship. What was it that made a young boy and a
cynical man centuries apart both take notice, enter into this life changing moment
where belief in God becomes engagement with God?
In my reading I
came across this statement: “that on
this, the second Sunday after Epiphany, the church stands between Christology
and discipleship, between the wonder of the Word made flesh and the gritty joy
of our attempts to respond.”[2]
It comes after the
baptism and before the long painful journey to the cross, and is all about
answering the call to discipleship from one who invites us to step out on a
journey of faith.
As we consider
that call on our lives it might be helpful to learn a little more about the two
people we heard of in our readings today.
Samuel was a young
boy – one who had already had trauma in his life, given away by his mother to
this man Eli for a life of priestly upbringing.
And he was still in a vulnerable position, subject to Eli as his master,
one who had full authority over him and his life. He hadn’t imagined anyone other than Eli
commanding him hence his constant and immediate response being to run to Eli. He must have felt a bit of a chump
afterwards, like we do when our brain just doesn’t engage and we get things so
wrong. And it took courage to pass on
the message, that, because of the sins of his sons, Eli’s priestly line was to
come to an end. Yet he did it.
The encounter with
God instilled in this young boy something that was life changing – some sense of urgency and courage for what was to
come. Some anchor to see him through a
topsy turvey life. For there was no
instant wisdom or perfection suddenly gifted to Samuel – his own sons were
equally to be labelled scoundrels and he too was put aside – but there was fuel
for the journey – a journey that couldn’t be denied.
Nathanael too found
something in that moment of invitation that allowed him to respond unequivocally
and urgently – one minute he was muttering that nothing good could come out of
Nazareth – and yet his feet were taking him towards this man - and it wasn’t
good argument or persuasive rhetoric that convinced him – it was the man
standing before him, his very presence that somehow convicted him.
And it wasn’t that
Nathanael was looking for a lifeline – he was an upright faithful man – one lacking
in any guile we hear. It wasn’t that he
needed adventure in his life or that he didn’t have a healthy dose of scepticism
when it came to extraordinary claims, it was that something happened that
called him into something more, something he couldn’t walk away from. God knew his name and called him to follow.
I have come from a
fairly traditional faith experience, brought up in the local church, a bit
chary about overt expressions of worship and a reluctant or non-existent proselytizer. Any call I had on my life was well supervised
by self and my relationship with God was contained and measured. But all the while there were little bits of
excitement - you could say my ears tingled!
There was something greater, a hint of a presence, a wind of the spirit
that said there was more. I totally
relate to Samuel – Margaret, Margaret, oi you!
Deaf as a post I reckon. Till
now.
What was it that
changed – that encourage me to step out from under my fig tree, muttering all
the while, but somehow drawn towards this new journey with unknown future (now
if I’d have known Opoho was the future I wouldn’t have worried so much would
I?). There are no clear words that I can
offer you except a sense of rightness, of empowerment, of presence with me in whatever
I would be faced with. It didn’t mean
sudden perfection (trust me on this) nor did it mean a smooth path – but rather
a deep relationship of trust and faith in the midst of the realities of life and
a sense of urgency and an ability
to step into places and spaces
that normally terrified me with some small confidence in the presence of Christ
there too.
So it is in our
very ordinariness that we are called to discipleship – if a somewhat dozy youth
and a slightly cynical but good man and a rather reluctant (what me) woman in
her fifties can respond to God’s call, recognise the faithful presence of God
in their lives and be empowered therefore to walk in new place with courage and
hope – what might that look like for each one of you.
For there is no
magic formula – no definitive path – no one experience that all have to
follow. Each of us has our own story to
tell and our own path to walk. But we do
all need to understand that the journey is not made to be suddenly easy, that
we are called to trust in the presence of God wherever we might be and that we
are to be the presence of Christ in our love for one another, our care of one
another and our deep desire for justice, equality, mercy for all people of the
world and for the world itself. They will know we are Christians by our
love.... This is what discipleship is about and this is what Christ offers us
when he invites us to join with him on the way. We each of us have our own response – take
some time now to consider what this means for you. Amen
Margaret Garland
