Sermon for January 2012—1 Samuel 3:1-20, Psalm 139, John 1:43-51
The Hebrew reading, from First Samuel 3, is the story of young Samuel. Samuel’s mother, Hannah, was barren. As she prayed, in the temple, she gave a promise to God. If God would give her a child she would consecrate him to God. Samuel was a very young boy when his mother dedicated him to God and sent him to be the prophet Eli’s helper. In today’s reading, Eli helps Samuel to recognize his calling from God. Samuel is able to distinguish that still small voice of God from the cacophony of other voices that are competing for his attention.
The call of Samuel reminds us that everyone is capable of being called to be God’s messengers to the world.
John's Gospel tells the story of the calling of Philip and Nathanael. Philip and Nathanael realized that Jesus was the one "about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote" (1:45). This realization propels them to leave everything behind to follow Jesus. Nathanael asks Jesus: "Where did you get to know me?" (v. 48). Psalm 139 gives us the answer to this question. God knows everything about us because we are “fearfully and wonderfully” made by God.
Psalm 139 reminds us that each person is the work of God’s hands, unique and valued in God’s sight. When God calls us we may not be called in the same dramatic way that Samuel and Nathanael were called, by God’s voice in the night or by Jesus standing before us. Nevertheless, we are each valued by God and called into relationship with God.
Psalm 139 is one of my favorite psalms. I love Psalm 139, not only because it reminds me of how much God loves me but also because it reminds me of my love for my own children. I can picture them as cuddly babies or when they were wobbly-legged toddlers. I can close my eyes and still see my 4 boys as they played street hockey or my daughter making cookies with me in the kitchen or digging in the dirt with me in our garden. I see them all on their first day at school as they waved goodbye and stepped on the bus. And I remember the struggles as they reached their teen years when I wasn’t certain if either of us would be able to survive. No book of Dr. Spock could have prepared me for the realities of parenthood. It was the hardest job I have ever done and with all its trials and tribulations, it is also the most rewarding. No matter how infuriating children and grandchildren can be they are still loved each moment of their lives. And that is pretty much how God also looks at us. Most of the time we can easily see the beauty and wonder of God's handiwork— when we look at a newborn baby, when we marvel at the stars in the heavens or the beauty of nature. It is sometimes more difficult when we look at other adults or even when we look critically at ourselves. Sometimes we fail to see God’s wonder when we look at each other.
The nightly news brings us constant reminders of the devaluing of human life. With each news report we are reminded of the ways in which all of human life is diminished. We hear of the numbers of the men, woman and children who have been recently killed in Afghanistan, Africa or somewhere else in the world. We hear about the thousands of North Koreans who have been sent to labor camps because they didn’t show enough sincerity in mourning Kim Jong Il’s recent death. The death tolls from war, starvation, abuse and neglect are usually reported by numbers, rarely by name. We forget that each of them is a human being. Each one of us has our own sacred story. We push that knowledge to the back of our minds because otherwise it would be unbearable.
Every Friday evening NPTV broadcasts a list of the most recent American soldiers to be killed in Afghanistan. Their names and pictures are shown and each one is given a moment of honor. Most of them are young. They each had promise. They were parents or children, sisters or brothers, husbands or wives. Each one of them was loved by another human being somewhere. Each one was a beloved child of God. Each one had his or her own sacred story. It changes everything when we give a face to the numbers.
We human beings have traditionally divided ourselves by an “us and them” mentality. We segregate ourselves by race, health, religion, gender, politics, age, wealth, social status—whatever we can think of that sets one group against another. Psalm 139 reassures us that God doesn’t think of us in that way. We belong to God. We are intimately loved by the One who fashioned each of us in the quiet darkness of our mother's womb. We are "not mass-produced in the heavenly assembly line.” We are each custom-made" by God, who has a call in mind for each one of us.
At the end of Psalm 39 there is a sudden shift to violence that seems to be in direct conflict with the spirituality of the rest of the Psalm. Where in the world does that come from? It seems out of place but it also makes us acknowledge and remember that perhaps similar hateful thoughts and feelings are also part of who we are at times. The truth is that we are not always filled with beautiful and loving thoughts toward one another. These thoughts and feelings are the parts of ourselves that we don’t usually acknowledge to others or even sometimes to ourselves. These are the parts of ourselves that we may even try to keep hidden from God. But as the psalmist says, there is no place to hide from God. We are awesomely and wonderfully made by God but we do not always have awesome thoughts or act in wonderful ways. We can act in hateful and spiteful ways. We can bully each other, tell lies and have unkind words and actions towards one another. It is better to acknowledge that occasionally there is a darker part of ourselves.
Remember that we have the assurance that God is with us even in the darkest of places and in our darkest thoughts. We can ask God for forgiveness and help to change. It is far better to deal with the dark parts and try to change them than to hide them and pretend that they never existed. We belong to God. Each of us is unique and we were each made in God’s image. There is a spark of the divine in each of us. The beauty and goodness of God’s handiwork is within each one of us. When we recognize that in ourselves we can also recognize that in each other. We can praise God that we are all awesomely and wonderfully made. We have the choice to accept God’s Spirit within us and God’s call upon us or to reject the Holy and go our own misguided way.
In the end the psalmist’s heart turns again to God confessing that he is aware that he needs to change. He asks God to lead him on the right path, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts. See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” That is a choice we all have, as well. May we all allow God to lead us to the path of the love of Christ. May we find ways to honor and respect each other and to look for Christ in each other. Amen.