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Sermon - The Second Sunday after Epiphany (B) - 18th January 2009
St Alban's Anglican Church Epping 7,8 and 10am
Readings: 1 Samuel 3:1-10, Psalm 139:1-5,12-18, 1 Corinthians 6:12-20, John 1:43-51
Every so often I am asked, “ How did you know that God was calling you to be ordained?” Sometimes I even ask that of myself, particularly when things in my life are dark and stressed!
I can remember walking around Deakin Oval in Canberra in a confused manner early in 1979 as I struggled with a three week intensive preliminary Greek course at what was then called the College of Ministry, now St Mark’s College. It was the first weeks of my training and I had gone to Canberra before Christine, Elisa and Brad joined me there, bringing with them with all our furniture and belongings. I remember thinking to myself, not only, what have I committed myself to, was it really God’s voice that I had heard, but also what am I doing expecting my family to come to live with me there when everything seemed black? I was in a very confused state not knowing what was a declension, or aorist tense or middle voice and what they all meant.
Εν αρχη ην ο λογος και ο λογοσ ην προς τον Θεον και Θεος ην ο λογος
In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. See I survived! John 1:1
Christine knew a long time before I did that ordination was what I had to seek. I believe that God never gave up God’s insistent call to me. As it says in the first verse of the “Hound of Heaven” a poem written by Francis Thompson,
“I fled Him, down the nights and down the days;
I fled Him, down the arches of the years;
I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears
I hid from Him, and under running laughter.
Up vistaed hopes I sped;
And shot, precipitated,
Adown Titanic glooms of chasmèd fears,
From those strong Feet that followed, followed after.
But with unhurrying chase,
And unperturbèd pace,
Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,
They beat and a voice beat
More instant than the Feet
“All things betray thee, who betrayest Me.”’
There is a fascination with the notion of God calling and the assumption that it only happens to the professionally religious. Today's lessons tell a different story. The Old Testament and Gospel lessons each describe what it means to be called.
The Israelites had settled in their Promised Land. The priesthood had made religion dysfunctional and somewhat corrupt. The Philistines were attacking the people. Theyb were in disarray. Eli is the high priest, but his two sons are about as decadent as they can be, abusing their priestly office and the people. Eli is unable to do anything about that and even seems resigned to it.
Enter the child Samuel. As the reading says, “the word of the Lord was rare in those days; visions were not widespread.”
In the middle of the night, God calls. Samuel hears the call but has no idea that it might be God. He thought that it was Eli. “I didn't call you,” says Eli; “go back to bed.” Eventually, Eli tells him if he hears the voice again to say, “Speak Lord, for your servant is listening.”
God finally gets through to Samuel and Samuel gets an earful. God has had it with Eli and his sons. God will wipe out the family forever. Not even repentance, it seems, will change God's mind on this one, sobering fact if there ever was one. With that, God is gone.
Imagine Samuel tossing and turning for the rest of the night, struggling with what to do. God's call can do that to us. It has interrupted more than one night's sleep for me. The next day Eli calls Samuel and presses him on the matter. Samuel's first prophetic word from the Lord is a word of severe judgment, spoken to the man Samuel has faithfully served and who has looked after him. It will not be the last time God calls on Samuel to say hard things to people, even to king David.
This is part of what it means to be God's mouthpiece in this world. We are called upon to say hard things and often to those we most highly esteem and care for. Every preacher knows what that means. The kind responses are delivered at the door on Sunday, the stinging rebukes arrive in the next few days. Such is life when the preacher seeks to speak what he or she believes to be the words of God, spoken to them.
Eli, however, says, “It is the Lord, let him do what seems good to him”. There is more than simple fateful resolve in Eli's words. Eli knows to whom Samuel has been listening; he knows whose word it is that Samuel speaks. Though Eli has not heard that voice in some time, he recognizes the divine tenor of it.
This is the second thing to say about calls. When we finally awaken to the fact that we are being spoken to, the owner of the voice is unmistakable to us.
That same dynamic is true for all of us, lay or ordained alike. For God's call comes to all who respond to his son, to all he names as Christ's own in the waters of baptism. Each of us arises from those waters a sister or brother of Christ, a bearer of Christ, but also as one who is called to bear witness to Christ. Last week we read, John the Baptist, surrounded by his own disciples, declare, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” The result of John's witness is that two of his own disciples follow Jesus. One of those two is Andrew, who immediately goes to his brother Simon, announces that he has found the Christ, and brings Simon to Jesus, who immediately changes Simon's name to Peter, the rock. The next day Jesus calls Philip, who finds Nathanael, saying “We have found him about whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.” In so many words Nathanael's response is like Mary's, “How can this be?”
Notice how Philip responds: he does not argue, he does not cajole, he does not in any way ridicule Nathanael's doubt. He simply says “Come and see.” This is the essence of evangelism. Philip offers an invitation. It is as easy as that. Evangelism is nothing more than saying, “look what I've found; come and see for yourself”. For all the talk about the decline of the Church, it is only declining where people have lost their ability to say, “Come and see”. There are churches all over the place that are growing simply because their members are excited enough about what they have found to share it with others, be they believers, seekers, cynics or agnostics alike: come and see. Note, it is not an invitation to come and see the preacher, not an invitation to come and listen to the beautiful music, not an invitation to come and meet a wonderful group of people, much less a possible mate. That is a false form of evangelism and programs of church growth built upon them are all destined to implode. They always lead people to worshipping the wrong things. The offer is to come and see who Jesus is.
This is what you and I have been called to do, issue an invitation. This is not about arguing a case. This is simply about saying “Come and see”. Come and experience the power of God that is present in this place where Jesus Christ is present, welcoming, embracing, loving and changing all of us for his own sake. Philip risks and Nathanael comes to see for himself. Jesus speaks to Nathanael's doubt, reveals himself in what he says and Nathanael's scepticism falls away.
This is what happens when anyone hears God call them by name. It does not mean dropping everything to go to theological college. Who God really needs to speak for him are mothers and fathers, neighbours and friends, doctors and lawyers, aunts and uncles, investment bankers and brokers, teachers and students, old and young, the list is as endless as each of us here, people who can say, “Come and see.”
At a time when God's word was rare, God took a young boy and made him the prophet who would lead Israel from its crisis with the Philistines to become the dominant power in the region, under King David. God called three boys from Bethsaida and a world-changing movement began. He calls you and me to be his witnesses, not simply to do Christ's work, but to speak his word, to say “Come and see”. At a time when God's word is rare in so many people's lives, have you got God’s persistent voice ringing in your ear?
This sermon based upon one by The Madison Avenue Pulpit
The Rev. Dr. Fred R. Anderson, Pastor, Copyright 2006. www.mapc.com