Sermon
for St. Thomas
2nd
Sunday After Epiphany (MLK Jr./pre-inaugural of Biden/Harris)
January
17, 2021
Readings
Ps. 139; 1 Sam 3:1-10; John 1: 43-51
Welcome to the season of ‘A-ha!’
That’s what it means to have an “Epiphany.” An “A-ha!”
What we didn’t fully understand, now we get it.
What we didn’t see clearly, now comes into focus.
All of that is certainly true for the prophet Samuel in our Epistle
reading and it is also true in our Gospel. Samuel doesn’t fully grasp that God
is calling him; Nathanael doesn’t believe there’s a great one coming out of
Galilee.
In fact, he scoffs at Phillip’s “A-ha” and declaration: “We have
found him about whom Moses in the law and the prophets wrote, Jesus son of
Joseph of Nazareth.”
Nathanael’s answer?
“Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”
Understand that Nazareth was a tiny very rural village in Galilee.
So this is a little bit like saying, “Can anything good come out of Metcalf?”
Nothing of great importance could possibly come out of such a
place. Undaunted Phillip responds: “Come and see.”
Phillip has already heard the call and experienced his epiphany.
He’s insistent that Nathanael must meet this new Moses.
When Jesus lays eyes on Nathanael, he exclaims:
“Here is truly an Israelite with no deceit!”
We can almost see Nathanael’s jaw drop, and his eyes get big. We
sense that his heart must be pounding a little faster. This Jesus, who he was
so ready to dismiss as a nobody from Nazareth, has sized him up as an Israelite
of great stature.
Nathanael stammers, “How do you know me?”
Great question, since the two had never met before. And yet Jesus
has more knowledge of Nathanael than Nathanael has of himself. It’s as if he
knows Nathanael’s “sitting down and rising up” (Ps.139:1) Suddenly it is
starting to dawn on Nathanael that this man, who tells him “I saw you under the
fig tree,” is someone he must respect: he is a Rabbi. He is God’s Son. He is a
king of Israel. The one moniker he has yet to utter is that he is meeting the
Word made Flesh…the one who had come to earth to dwell as one of us. What he
knows is his life is changed in this encounter.
These epiphanies…and “A-has” are wonderful, and finding God is
amazing. But we also see how hard it is to perceive God. It takes a nearly
blind Eli to interpret this voice calling for Samuel…and it takes Nathanael
getting past his skeptism to meet Christ. We don’t always get the message the
first time, and once we do, the challenge is how do we respond to a call. Once
called by God, there is no other option but to follow and walk in a new path
with no guarantee about the outcome. Now, the church likes to talk of “call” as
applying to those of us who seek to enter ordained ministry. I have been asked
countless times now to tell my “call story” to committees or groups of
strangers.
But God calls more than those who are entering the sacramental
priesthood. The call of God extends to everyone to “do justice. Love kindness
and walk humbly with God.” (Micah 6:8). Serving God and living into following
Jesus is not a spectator sport. God seeks out true disciples to love and serve
in their communities, to do the work of lifting up the poor, proclaiming
release to the prisoner, and liberating those who have been oppressed. This is
the work of love…and it is not easy. But just like the prophet Samuel and the
disciple Nathanael…it is the proper response when one has made a true
commitment to follow God and respond to that commandment to “love God, love neighbor,
and love yourself.”
I can’t think of a better time for us to hear that call of Love than
right now. Amidst the anger and destruction and the violent attempts to
overthrow the government…there is still a call from the One who knows us
completely to live in Love.
I’ve been reading Presiding Bishop Michael Curry’s book “Love is
the Way.” It’s an autobiography with lots of reflection and Christian teaching.
He has a chapter called “The Real E. Pluribus Unum”… our national motto of “Out
of many-one.” In it, he speaks of the division we’ve had in the country, where
we are more “pluribus” than “unum.” And he acknowledges the Anglican Communion
has had its own share of in-fighting.
A few years ago, when Bishop Curry was in England for the Royal
Wedding, there was a press conference featuring him and the Archbishop of
Canterbury Justin Welby. As you might expect, one of the reporters wanted to
know how these two men could be sitting together and participating in such a
high-profile wedding while there was still disagreement between them on the
topic of same-sex marriage. And Bishop Curry without missing a beat told the
journalist, “We follow Jesus. He teaches us the way of love; he didn’t teach us
the way of agreement.”
Jesus…the Prince of Peace who specifically calls us to love our
enemies…seeks a specific type of love. As Curry says, this call of Love is
deciding to commit to do what is best and right and good…as best as you can
figure it out…for the other person. You don’t have to like your enemies. But
you do have to decide that working toward a common goal of civic order that
reflects goodness, justice, and compassion ultimately reflects the will and
love of God for all people.
Goodness. Justice. Compassion.
This is the way of love that has been missing for too long. The
call to us now in this season of Epiphany is to tune our ears and listen and
follow the command to love and respond like Samuel to that call with “Here I am.”
The Word of God from John’s Gospel is
still with us. We are to remain open to those “A-ha” moments when we find
Christ in the other and stand for goodness, justice and compassion.
To be Christ’s disciple isn’t about being a cheerleader for our
Savior. It’s about Christ stirring us into the action of bringing heaven and
earth closer together, and rejecting the attempts to draw us into isolation, selfishness,
and greed.
The hymn lyricist Cecil Frances Alexander says it best:
Jesus calls us from the worship
of the vain world's golden store;
from each idol that would keep us,
saying, "Christian, love me more."
In the name of God…F/S/and HS.
The link to the actual sermon is here. I begin at 26:24
