1 Sam. 3:1-10
1 Cor. 6:12-20
John 1:43-51
Today we have three passages that all talk about recognizing
or hearing God in different ways. In the
1st Samuel passage, Samuel is learning to recognize the voice of God
when it calls him. It takes him time and
the words of his mentor/teacher to realize that the voice that is calling him
is coming from God, but he does eventually learn to hear and recognize God’s
voice. In the John passage Nathanael is
challenged to recognize Jesus as the Messiah or Emmanuel, God with us. Nathanael recognizes Jesus because Jesus can
tell Nathanael what he was doing when Jesus wasn’t there. The Corinthians’ passage is perhaps the
hardest to understand. But even there
the Corinthians are being challenged to recognize where God is in our actions,
in our behavior: what is Godly behavior.
The Corinthians had been arguing over the necessity of obeying Jewish
law, Biblical law: whether or not they needed to be circumcised, whether or not
they needed to follow the food laws that are outlined in books such as
Deuteronomy. And Paul basically told
them that no, they did not need to follow these laws. Their faith in Christ gave them freedom from
Law for the sake of law. But, he added,
out of their love for God, they were stilled called to do what was right – or
in other words what showed love to God, neighbor and self. And while we might argue about how to do that, as obviously the early Christians were, hence the argument between Paul and the Corinthians, the message is important. We are called to discern what is most loving to God, self and other, and we are called to do our best to behave in ways that express that care for all three.
These three passages, then, represent three challenges that
are really part of the same. The challenge
to recognize what is Godly behavior, the challenge to recognize the Godly
person and the challenge to recognize the voice of God when it speaks. In today’s world some might say that these
challenges are easy – we know that Jesus is the Godly person, we hear the voice
of God in scripture, and the Biblical instructions help us to know what is Godly
behavior. But in other ways, I think
that all three of these remain very challenging. How do we hear God’s voice in the world
around us? How do we discern it from the
voices of so many others around us? How
do we see who is leading us in God’s path and who might be pushing us into a
path that may not be what God calls us to?
And there are times when it is not clear what is the most loving path to
take. Also, and what is harder, there
are times when we have to choose between what is most loving to one person over
another person or even what is most loving to others vs ourselves. Those challenges confront us regularly, and can
make living a Godly life very difficult.
Sr. Joan Chittister told this story: once, the ancients say,
a seeker asked a group of disciples: "Does your God work miracles?"
And they replied, "It depends on what you call a miracle. Some people say
that a miracle is when God does the will of people. We say that a miracle is
when people do the will of God." If
discerning the will of God were easy, this parable would not make sense. But it does.
It rings true to us because living the life that God calls us to live is
a miracle, and part of the reason it is so hard is that discerning the voice,
the will, and the presence of God can be a real challenge.
I have heard it said that life can be understood by looking
backwards but must be lived going forward.
How do we do that, how do we live life going forward when we can really
only see where God’s hand guides us by looking back on our lives?
A while ago for Film and Faith night we watched the movie,
“The Help”. In it, an African American
maid named Abileen in Jackson Mississippi in 1962 is asked by a white woman to
help her write a book about the experiences of black maids working for white
women in the South. Abileen knows how
dangerous it would be to tell her story – that she would be risking everything,
including her very life, to share her experiences. She refuses, therefore, to do so. But then she goes to church, as she always
does, one Sunday when the preacher is talking about the call to be brave. And he says, “Courage isn’t just about being
brave. It’s about overcoming fear and
daring to do what is right for your fellow humans. It’s about being willing to speak the truth.”
As Abileen sits there and listens, she hears God’s voice calling her to do what
she knows to be risky, but what she hopes will begin to make some changes as
people come to understand her experience and the experiences of other African
Americans in the South during the 60s.
In early 2013 the Pope resigned. The last time that had happened had been in
1415. He read from a statement that
said, “Both strength of mind and body are necessary, strength which in the last
few months has deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognize my
incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me. For this reason and well aware of the
seriousness of this act, with full freedom I declare that I renounce the ministry
of Bishop of Rome, Successor of St. Peter, entrusted to me by the cardinals on
19 April 2005.” It takes a strong person
to give up power, to acknowledge ones limits.
It took incredible strength to recognize his time was over. It took courage.
I found myself reflecting on a poem written by Ken Untener,
later bishop of Saginaw, called, “Prophets of a Future that is not our own.” Sometimes attributed to Archbishop Romero.
It helps, now and then,
to step back and take the long view.
The Kingdom is not only
beyond our efforts,
it is
even beyond our vision.
We
accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction
of the
magnificent enterprise that is God’s work.
Nothing
we do is complete:
which is another way of saying
that the Kingdom always lies beyond
us.
No
statement says all that should be said.
No
prayer fully expresses our faith.
No
confession brings perfection.
No
pastoral visit brings wholeness.
No
program accomplishes the church’s mission.
No set of goals or objectives includes
everything.
This
is what we are about:
We
plant seeds that one day will grow.
We
water the seeds already planted,
knowing that they hold future
promise.
We lay
foundations that will need further development.
We
provide yeast that produces effects
far beyond our capabilities.
We
cannot do everything
and there is a sense of liberation
in realizing that.
This
enables us to do something, and to do it very well.
It may
be incomplete, but it is a beginning,
a step along the way, an opportunity
for
God’s grace to enter and do the
rest.
We may
never see the end results,
but that is the difference between
the master builder
and the worker.
We are
workers, not master builders,
ministers, not messiahs.
We are
prophets of a future that is not our own.
Once again I believe that through prayer, through gathering
together in worship, through time with God, through building our relationships
with God, but also by weighing everything against the central call and message
of Christ – to love God and to love our neighbors as ourselves – that is how we learn to hear God’s voice
when it speaks to us. In that
relationship to God, we learn to recognize God’s presence and God’s call for
us. Samuel was just a boy at the time
that God first called him. But through
his mentor and teacher, Eli, Samuel began to learn to discern when it was God’s
voice calling him. Nathanael began as a
doubter, but when confronted by the Jesus who looked into his eyes and knew
him, he believed. The Corinthians came
to know the will of God through conversations, and sometimes arguments, with other Christians. We come to hear, to see, to
recognize God’s voice, God in our midst, God’s call for our lives by spending
time with God. When our hearts are open,
God does come in. When our minds are open, sometimes we are given the grace to
hear the call, to recognize the voice, and to see God in our midst.
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