The boy Samuel ministered before God under
Eli. In those days the word of God was rare; there were not many visions. One night Eli, whose eyes were becoming so
weak that he could barely see, was lying down in his usual place.
The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and
Samuel was lying down in the house of God, where the ark of God was.
Then God called Samuel.
Samuel answered, “Here I am.” He ran to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.”But Eli said, “I did not call; go back and lie down.” So he went and lay down.
Again God called, “Samuel!” And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.”
“My son,” Eli said, “I did not call; go back and lie down.”
Now Samuel did not yet know God: The word of God had not yet been revealed to him. A third time God called, “Samuel!” And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.”
Then Eli realized that God was calling the boy. So Eli told Samuel, “Go and lie down, and if he calls you, say, ‘Speak, God, for your servant is listening.’” So Samuel went and lay down in his place.
God came and stood there, calling as at the other times, “Samuel! Samuel!”
Then Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”
********************************************************************
The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding
Philip, he said to him, “Follow me.” Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from
the town of Bethsaida. Philip
found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the
Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of
Joseph.”“Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Nathanael asked.
“Come and see,” said Philip.
When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, “Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.” “How do you know me?” Nathanael asked.
Jesus answered, “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.”
Then Nathanael declared, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel.”
During the presidential election campaign
in the United States ten years ago, the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,
whose birthday falls tomorrow, found its way into the election campaign. Former
Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, a Republican, claimed that he saw his
father march with Dr. King in 1963. In fact, Romney’s father had never appeared
with Dr. King, even though he had been a strong supporter of civil rights
during his political career. What Romney *meant*, his campaign stated, was that
he “figuratively” saw his father with Dr. King. Frank Rich, a columnist for the
New York Times suggested that the insertion of race into the discussion was to
deflect any possible charge of racial insensitivity; Romney’s own Mormon church
discriminated against blacks until 1978, and he had never spoken out.
Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton said in a speech that “Dr. King’s dream began to be realized when President Lyndon Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964... It took a president to get it done.” Members of Barack Obama’s staff felt her comment diminished Dr. King’s legacy. Senator Clinton’s staff said she was paying homage to both men.
Dr. King, however, would always point to the God who had been his guide throughout his life, and would have seen himself simply as a disciple living the call.
Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton said in a speech that “Dr. King’s dream began to be realized when President Lyndon Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964... It took a president to get it done.” Members of Barack Obama’s staff felt her comment diminished Dr. King’s legacy. Senator Clinton’s staff said she was paying homage to both men.
Dr. King, however, would always point to the God who had been his guide throughout his life, and would have seen himself simply as a disciple living the call.
Today, one might in a mood of complete
depression, feel as if all the movement forward has been lost, that all sense
of equality and sense of decency has been lost – and we may find ourselves
asking if anything good can come out of the current situation..the extent of
lies and deceit almost renders the tale of Mitt Romney pale by comparison. And the question which hangs in the air now –
why do people come from those ******** places? Can anything good come out of
Nazareth?
In her book “The Gospel of John: Introduction, Commentary, and Reflections,” author Gail O’Day talks about the “drama of discipleship”. And this morning we have two stories of both call, and discipleship – one which is quite dramatic, and one which contains a slur against a particular place. – Nazareth, a backwater noplace……
Samuel, just a boy lying in bed, who we are told doesn’t yet know God at all. Now, the name Samuel in Hebrew means “God hears”, and it also means “son of God”. This boy wakens to God's voice calling him. God tells Samuel that he is to go and speak to Israel with the authority of God behind him. It is the story of a great prophet being called, even when still a boy. God’s intent leaves absolutely no possibility of any doubt. Yet it takes several ‘calls’ before Samuel’s teacher Eli realises that something significant is happening, and that Samuel – a child – is being called.
In her book “The Gospel of John: Introduction, Commentary, and Reflections,” author Gail O’Day talks about the “drama of discipleship”. And this morning we have two stories of both call, and discipleship – one which is quite dramatic, and one which contains a slur against a particular place. – Nazareth, a backwater noplace……
Samuel, just a boy lying in bed, who we are told doesn’t yet know God at all. Now, the name Samuel in Hebrew means “God hears”, and it also means “son of God”. This boy wakens to God's voice calling him. God tells Samuel that he is to go and speak to Israel with the authority of God behind him. It is the story of a great prophet being called, even when still a boy. God’s intent leaves absolutely no possibility of any doubt. Yet it takes several ‘calls’ before Samuel’s teacher Eli realises that something significant is happening, and that Samuel – a child – is being called.
And this is probably what most people consider a call - something so dramatic as to stop us in our tracks, and change the course of our lives so significantly that there can be no doubt. For Samuel, God’s call set the course of his life even before he had ‘come to know God’.
In December of 1955, Rose Parks was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama for refusing to move to the back of a city bus. Leaders in the African-American community organized a city-wide transportation boycott, and turned to the young black pastor, Martin Luther King, Jr. as the leader. King was just 26 years old, and he wrestled with issues of call; call to ministry, call to discipleship, and whether or not his role was call to be a local pastor. In the end, he concluded that God called him to this new ministry as well - and the rest is history. He became President of a new organisation called the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He organised the great civil rights marches. We know he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, but we also know that this call first set the course of his life, and eventually spelled the end of his life.
Well, let’s look at the second story - the call of Nathanael. Nathanael means, in Hebrew, “a gift of God”. The story tells us Jesus had seen Nathanael sitting under a fig tree even before Philip went to get him. Fig trees give good shade, and maybe sitting under the tree was a good place to read, get cool, take a nap, or sleep off the previous night’s fun. And if we read the prophet Micah, the fig tree was one symbol of a place of peace, of rest, of community and hospitality. Now, Jesus simply talks to Nathanael after Philip goes to “call him out” from under the fig tree. That’s all Jesus did. Nothing spectacular - and the funny thing is, Nathanael is called to be a disciple. No dramatic vision, just a man saying "Follow my way." And Nathanael saying yes.
Now, as the author of the story, John believed Jesus was the Messiah, born in Bethlehem, but he *identifies* Jesus as from Nazareth, and Nathanael’s first question is “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” Nazareth being considered a ‘******** place. John’s whole point, of course, is that this Messiah is a real human being from a backwater town - and that this man was called as well. In current vernacular terms, Nazareth was a zero-horse town of maybe 250 people on a good day – and not considered the best place to live, or to come from, by any means. Nazareth was one of those places the current US president has a name for – and the name in Jesus’ time was pretty much the same. Can anything good come from a place like that? What do we want with someone from a place like that?
But today’s story is about call, and more importantly that God calls who God will – sometimes from the very places we figure God just wouldn’t. And whose call was more real? The drama of God’s voice in the middle of the night, in the temple with Elli the priest? Or something as quiet as “Come and see.” offered to an ordinary person sitting in the shade of a tree, who begins his call with a slur aimed at Jesus’ hometown. What’s curious here is that both Samuel and Nathanael were disciples - ordinary people who were called by God to live and speak faith. They were called to ministry - but the point is they were *not* called to *ordained* ministry or a specialised priesthood. God named them and called them to ministry – not to a prescribed role.
We tend to think that a call has to be something dramatic, like a Damascus road experience, or a burning bush, or a voice in the darkness. Yet most of us who feel a call to ministry can’t say it was a dramatic event. For me, it was almost a non-event, kind of ‘well, duh’. I wanted to apply for a position in the Canadian Council of Churches, and was told by the then-General Secretary that I didn’t qualify because I didn’t have a Master of Divinity. When I repeated that to a colleague and mentor, that I needed the MDiv – his response was “Well, why don’t you go get one?” Really – well, duh indeed.
John demonstrates to us clearly that
we are all called and named, and it isn’t any sudden flash of insight - but
instead something as simple as the words “I saw you sitting there. Come.”
Samuel’s story, for all the seeming drama, is simply a boy hearing God. He has
an open heart and God sees.
Discipleship, or call, doesn’t mean you have to take up formal ministry in the church. Not at all. It *does* mean that as someone professing to be Christian, you are professing that you are called and named as a follower of the way, and that discipleship means doing something.
Dr. O’Day asks this question; “Why are there so many names for Jesus? Each disciple sees something different in Jesus and bears witness in his own way. Each disciple came to Jesus with differing expectations and needs – one needed a teacher, another the Messiah, another the fulfillment of scripture – and each of these needs was met…”
Can anything good come from Nazareth? Can anything good come from Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump? Or Ferintosh, Alberta? Or the tiny island of Aukra in Norway, or the lump of land in Finland known as Korvatunturi? Well, yes, actually. There are some fabulous people in Ferintosh, Alberta population 202, who are committed to being disciples; I have a friend living on Aukra in Norway who is a sailor, building ships – and by all accounts in northern Lapland/Finland, the real Santa Claus lives in Korvatunturi which means “Ear Fell”, or the place shaped like an ear, where Santa hears the children.
Nathanael missed it completely at first. So do most of us. God’s call *does* come to the ordinary people - farmers, fishermen, sailors, truck drivers, mechanics, engineers, carpenters. It is not a call to drop our current lives and go into ordained ministry - but a call to follow even while doing what we do. Seeing what we do as a calling, with God at the centre, as the voice which moves us.
All Philip said was "Come and see" – a simple invitation to meet Jesus. Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Can anything good come from Trillium? What is our call to discipleship? It is up to you - because you are all called and named. Each of you - each of us, is a Nathanael - a gift of God, and we are each a Samuel - a child of God. So - come, and see - what is the call in this world, today, in this tiny corner of Ontario. Because that presence is here – calling each of us into something larger and fuller than ourselves.
CALLED
We are called
to leave behind our solitary searching,
to put on that single garment of destiny -
the uniform of faithfulness -
worn by creatures great and small,
old and forgotten,
young and eager,
broken and bewildered,
spirited and set on fire:
sisters and brothers who share not race or tongue,
but whose hearts are claimed by love,
signed by a cross.
Our future is together, arm in arm,
finding healing as we heal,
knowing freedom in our forgiving.
We are the strangest travellers:
seeking no reward at trail's end,
As long as we know the joy of journeying with him.
We are called
Disciples.
We are called
His.
Discipleship, or call, doesn’t mean you have to take up formal ministry in the church. Not at all. It *does* mean that as someone professing to be Christian, you are professing that you are called and named as a follower of the way, and that discipleship means doing something.
Dr. O’Day asks this question; “Why are there so many names for Jesus? Each disciple sees something different in Jesus and bears witness in his own way. Each disciple came to Jesus with differing expectations and needs – one needed a teacher, another the Messiah, another the fulfillment of scripture – and each of these needs was met…”
Can anything good come from Nazareth? Can anything good come from Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump? Or Ferintosh, Alberta? Or the tiny island of Aukra in Norway, or the lump of land in Finland known as Korvatunturi? Well, yes, actually. There are some fabulous people in Ferintosh, Alberta population 202, who are committed to being disciples; I have a friend living on Aukra in Norway who is a sailor, building ships – and by all accounts in northern Lapland/Finland, the real Santa Claus lives in Korvatunturi which means “Ear Fell”, or the place shaped like an ear, where Santa hears the children.
Nathanael missed it completely at first. So do most of us. God’s call *does* come to the ordinary people - farmers, fishermen, sailors, truck drivers, mechanics, engineers, carpenters. It is not a call to drop our current lives and go into ordained ministry - but a call to follow even while doing what we do. Seeing what we do as a calling, with God at the centre, as the voice which moves us.
All Philip said was "Come and see" – a simple invitation to meet Jesus. Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Can anything good come from Trillium? What is our call to discipleship? It is up to you - because you are all called and named. Each of you - each of us, is a Nathanael - a gift of God, and we are each a Samuel - a child of God. So - come, and see - what is the call in this world, today, in this tiny corner of Ontario. Because that presence is here – calling each of us into something larger and fuller than ourselves.
CALLED
We are called
to leave behind our solitary searching,
to put on that single garment of destiny -
the uniform of faithfulness -
worn by creatures great and small,
old and forgotten,
young and eager,
broken and bewildered,
spirited and set on fire:
sisters and brothers who share not race or tongue,
but whose hearts are claimed by love,
signed by a cross.
Our future is together, arm in arm,
finding healing as we heal,
knowing freedom in our forgiving.
We are the strangest travellers:
seeking no reward at trail's end,
As long as we know the joy of journeying with him.
We are called
Disciples.
We are called
His.
Sources and acknowledgments:
1. Dr. Frank Trotter, First United Methodist Church, Pasadena, California Sermon “The Drama of Discipleship” January 20, 2008.
2. Dr. Gail O’Day. The New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. IX (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1995). Dr. O’Day is Professor of Homiletics at Candler School of Theology, Emory University, in Atlanta, Georgia.
3. Rev. John Nadasi, Paonia United Methodist Church, Colorado. Sermon “Can Anything Good Come from Nazareth?”
4. Poem by Timothy Haut, Deep River, Connecticut. January 18, 2009.
1. Dr. Frank Trotter, First United Methodist Church, Pasadena, California Sermon “The Drama of Discipleship” January 20, 2008.
2. Dr. Gail O’Day. The New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. IX (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1995). Dr. O’Day is Professor of Homiletics at Candler School of Theology, Emory University, in Atlanta, Georgia.
3. Rev. John Nadasi, Paonia United Methodist Church, Colorado. Sermon “Can Anything Good Come from Nazareth?”
4. Poem by Timothy Haut, Deep River, Connecticut. January 18, 2009.
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