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Epiphany 2 – Year B

Preached on January 15, 2012

At St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Brookline

The Reverend Jeffrey W. Mello

1 Samuel 3:1-10; 1 Corinthians 6:12-20; John 1:43-51

There are two lines in the hymn “Will you come and follow me” that we sang right before the Gospel that always get to me.

The first is “Will you love the “you” you hide.”

This is a powerful question that sits at the very heart of the Gospel. We’ve all got parts of ourselves we put out in front for the world to see. We’ve got roles we play at work, at home and here at church. But most of us, if we are honest with ourselves, have another part of ourselves we aren’t so sure about. A part of ourselves that we think, if others knew about, they might not like us, or trust us, or love us.

And yet it is that person, the one we don’t let anyone else see, that is the one to whom God calls. It is the “us” no one else knows who God knows completely and who God calls in love.

It’s hard for us to grasp. First, it’s hard to grasp that we could be known that deeply; that God could know us better even than we know ourselves. And it’s also hard to grasp that God could know us that completely; could know all our faults and limitations, all our shame and fears, and not only love us, but love us enough even to call us into God’s service.

That’s the story of Samuel. Three times, Samuel hears someone call his name and three times he runs into Eli, his mentor and teacher. “You called?” Samuel asks. “No, go back to bed.” Again, “you called?” and again, “No! Go back to bed!” and yet a third time, “You called?” but this time Eli understands what Samuel doesn’t and says to him – “It isn’t me who’s calling.”

It never even occurred to Samuel that it might be God calling to him, because he didn’t know God could call. He never expected God would call. But God did call. The ancient Jewish historian Josephus said Samuel was 12 at the time. 12. And God called him.

There would have been a thousand people Samuel would have expected to get called into God’s service ahead of him. God’s choice makes no sense, he is just a child.

So Samuel is given a choice. He can believe what others might have to say about God’s choice of him as the new leader of Israel, he can believe what he might think of God’s choice of him or he can trust God and trust that he is enough to do the work God gives him to do.

“Speak,” Samuel says, and off he goes.

He is enough. Once he lets go of his fear of not being perfect, he becomes enough. We are enough. If we let go of our fear, we become enough.

Will you love the “You” you hide, and never be the same?

The other line from the hymn that gets to me is “Will you risk the hostile stare, should your life attract or scare.”

This line gets to me not just because I fear risking the hostile stare, but because I’m not sure I am living my life faithfully enough to ever attract a hostile stare in the first place.

I sometimes feel stuck between not wanting to risk others’ disapproval, and not feeling bold or prophetic enough to evoke a strong reaction in the first place.

I think about those willing to risk the hostile stare and I think of Mother Theresa, Of Mary, Jesus’ mother, and Saint Paul. I think of Bishop Tutu, Harvey Milk, Rosa Parks, and of course Martin Luther King, Jr. Now those are examples of faithful men and women who were not afraid of the hostile stare in their quest for justice and mercy and reconciliation.

We gather this morning on Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend and remember a man whose life certainly attracted and scared millions. A person who fought so boldly for God’s Dream for the world that he risked not just the hostile stare, but the hostile stare aimed at him through the scope of an assassin’s rifle.

Am I brave enough to risk the hostile stare? Am I bold enough to warrant it?

Nathaniel, who we read about in John’s Gospel has the hostile stare on his mind when he encounters Jesus. Philip comes to him and tells him that the one they have been waiting for has come. The one about whom Moses and the prophets wrote is coming right now – in the flesh – from Jesursalem!

Nathaniel thinks, “From Jerusalem? Seriously? Can anything good come from Jerusalem, never mind the Messiah.” What will people think when they hear Nathaniel went to see the Messiah – FROM JERUSALEM!!!

And then he meets Jesus, and his life is never the same. Jesus sees him and says that he knows that Nathaniel is a really great person, despite never meeting him before. He had never met him, but he had seen him, hiding out under that fig tree.

I feel like the church today is a little like Jerusalem in Nathaniel’s day. We aren’t getting a lot of great press of late and more and more it seems like we are being asked to choose between being intelligent and admitting we go to church, between being a person of compassion, committed to justice and being a person of faith.

You won’t be surprised to know that all too often when I tell people who are meeting me for the first time that I am a priest, and that I am a part of a church community, I am met with a look, a raised eyebrow, a slight grin that seems to say, “The Church? Seriously? Can anything good come from the church?”

And so sometimes I don’t say anything. And yet I can’t help but think that the world I encounter everyday out there could use a little dose of what it is we experience in here.

Will you risk the hostile stare should your life attract or scare?

You’ve heard me quote Verna Dozier before when she asks the question, “Do you want to follow Jesus, or are you content just to worship him?”

It is easy to gather here and talk about what an amazing person Jesus was and how we can only aspire to bring the Good News of God’s love to the world like he did. But are we prepared to put those aspirations into action?

It is easy to read Martin Luther King Jr.’s sermons and letters, to attend memorial concerts and prayer breakfasts and talk about what a great man he was. But are we prepared to continue the work he started no matter how difficult and out of reach it might seem.

What Samuel, and Nathaniel and Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King all had in common was the courage to say “yes.”

Though they were the least like of candidates for the work they were given, they said “yes”.

Though they would encounter fear and bigotry, they said “yes”.

They had the courage to believe that God loved them enough to give them work to do in the world, no matter what they thought of themselves.

And they had the courage to believe that what they knew to be true about God dream for the world was worth sharing, no matter what others thought about them.

When asked, “Will you love the “you” you hide?” they said yes.

When asked, “Will you risk the hostile stare?” they said yes.

Will you love the “you” you hide?

Will you risk the hostile stare?

Let’s say “yes.” Let’s say “yes!”

AMEN.

© 2012 The Reverend Jeffrey W. Mello