Over time I have wondered if Scripture comes to us in primarily two forms, declaration, or challenge. Maybe I should actually say that scripture approaches us in two forms simultaneously: promise and requirement. My father called it blessing and obligation. My teachers at the seminary always described this as Gospel and Law.
These stories we have for today are call stories about individuals from long ago who made a forever difference by their response. In that way these pieces of scripture can come to us as pronouncement of the prevailing work of God that always enters our lives by God’s initiative and our reception. Some would call this providence, or grace. Some will say this is the mighty deeds of God. God’s will is exercised among us. Because Samuel listened to God, and acted upon it, the promise of God’s involvement with God’s people has become woven into the good news of God’s involvement in our own lives. Because Philip and Nathanael responded to God’s call the early church grew and expanded. Both sets of stories tell us that it is God who initiates the conversation, even when we think we did when we got down to pray. After all, who is already sitting there waiting to listen? It is God who shaped us to be restless until we find our rest in God, it is God who arrives, God who descends the ladder, in another way of describing it, it is grace that is always bequeathed even before the need of it is apprehended.
The call stories can function in another way, and not exclusive of the first. The call stories of others can often challenge us to question how well we are listening to God, to re-examine our own response to God’s will in our lives. To hear the story that way does not mean that the promise was not already given. But it invites us to consider our holy obligation. With that I’d like to examine these stories for today to find the wisdom they provide as we recognize God’s action already complete, and acknowledge our accountability.
In 1 Samuel we find ourselves in the midst of strange encounter. Samuel a young child was given to God by his grateful mother and left in the care of Eli, a priest at Shiloh. We are told that Eli’s eyes were dim, but it is not difficult for the reader to know that it was more than eyesight that was causing Eli his troubles. In previous chapters we hear of his out of control sons doing just as they please, outrageous and irresponsible with the spiritual authority they were granted. Furthermore Eli is not too perceptive. When he saw Hannah, Samuel’s mother praying for a baby, he thought she was drunk; imagine that, a priest who couldn’t tell what kind of spirits were involved in a holy woman’s prayer. And yet we see that God’s persistent call will get through Eli’s lack of faith.
We learn from the story that while Eli is mentoring Samuel, a voice disturbs the young apprentice in the night. He has grown up listening to Eli so he runs to the old mentor naturally. The voice for Samuel does not strike fear and trembling in his heart, but must have sounded familiar in a way. Like a voice close to him and so he goes to the one he knows best. ‘Go back to sleep’ Eli grumbles. Again the voice, again Sam is a good boy, again Eli growls. Again the voice, again Samuel runs to him, the kid is persistent! But now a light begins to flicker in Eli’s mind. This hasn’t happened in such a long time. But in the disturbed sleep of a young boy Eli starts to recognize the action of the God who once walked a garden calling for humanity. God’s entrance is God’s initiative; Samuel does not need to be a theology student, nor some devotee with years of reflection and practice. God comes into our lives. And Eli finally wakes up to the awesome reality breaking into his world. ‘Go back and listen my son, tell him that you’re listening.’ Samuel was soon to be the bearer of God’s word and authority, one whose words God will not let fall to the ground (3:19), but he needed Eli, a burnt out priest, to recognize that God was talking.
Did you notice that after an excited Philip seeks out Nathanael to tell him that they have found the one about whom the law and the prophets wrote, “Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth,” Nathaniel’s response is not very promising. “Can anything good come out of Nazareth,” he responds skeptically? But Philip isn’t put off by Nathanael’s sarcasm, he isn’t much concerned or worried about Nazareth. Nathanael must have been expecting fire and clouds encircling a mountain or something grand and unmistakable, not something common or even less worthy. “Come and see” is all he says, following the role model of Jesus from the day before. Philip offers no defense of Nazareth, doesn’t get drawn into an argument, just an invitation to a personal encounter. Like a role model for us all, Philip doesn’t try to argue for Jesus; he just invites. Such a good role model – don’t argue, just invite.
As the story unfolds Nathanael accepts Philip’s invitation to ‘come and see,’ but it is Nathanael who is seen. In Nathanael we see how his skepticism offers him a certain protection, a certain upper hand, when he experiences the unknown and seemingly inappropriate, he just gets snarky. Isn’t that how we all use skepticism: to hold new things or different things at bay. But Jesus isn’t put off, he just meets Nathanael where he is in all his snarky, sarcastic doubt and self-protection. Jesus comes with a divine invitation to a reluctant Nathanael and the rest is history. Jesus comes to us with divine invitation, and that history is yet to be written.
God's call comes when we least expect it, and often to those we least expect. God is always the God of surprises. We, as the church, need to be like Eli as he woke up to God’s activity, we need to be encouraging everyone to hear the voice that calls them forth into all they are created to be. We need to be like Philip with a simple bold disarming invitation, ‘come and see.’ God’s Word was probably not rare in those days after all, but perhaps the skill of listening was rare. Might that be true again? You know it is. Where is God’s voice resounding today? How has God called you to come and see? Come and see in the unexpected. Not in some heavy and thick theology or even in a fine divine liturgy, but in the backwater streets and places where needs and wants are crying for help. “Can anything good come from….?” I’m sure you are like me and have discredited a source of information only to find out too late the truth being shared with you. Where is God’s invitation coming from?
It is needless to say that there are many skeptics today. There are also people who find Jesus an interesting person and may even privately admire him, but who reject Christian faith in its entirety. How can the Church invite today's skeptics into a personal encounter? In some cases, people have been blinded by their preconceptions about Jesus and the Church, just as Nathanael was blinded by his preconceptions about Nazareth. What they have heard or seen about church from a distance convinces them that church is a bad thing, and they rationalize that Jesus is unnecessary. Sometimes these preconceptions seem to us to be unfair, but when honest with ourselves, we can see why. People prejudge church and faith with it without actually getting to know it. The history of the church is indeed checkered and worse, which therefore calls all of our integrity into question. That is a sad truth. It requires honesty and repentance, and action to repair the damages. But current extremes and sins being committed in God’s name by various churches innoculate many from ever hearing the word of grace and compassion we are told to share. And so the Church must also ask itself whether it has failed to offer people reasons why they should "come and see." Does the Church thoughtfully offer people a coherent vision for life? Does the Church introduce people to Jesus? Does the Church live out the love of God? Or does it offer a mixture of entertainment, pop psychology, and superficial spirituality that satisfies in the short term but leaves people empty when the difficult questions and problems of life arise? Or worse, do some groups calling themselves christian advocate love of nation over “love your neighbor?” If we are convinced that Christian faith holds the truth about human life, then we must, in all earnestness, show people how that truth of God’s steadfast love and mercy, righteousness and justice and presence makes sense and is embodied in our own lives, both as individuals and as communities.
So who was it that stands out as Philip or even Eli in your life? For many of us, it is the example of our parents, other family members or friends, who by their own lives invited us to “come and see,” presented a witness to faith that convinced us of the truth of Christian faith, told us to go let our light shine. The Gospel of John reminds us that it is not only marvelous signs that lead to faith. Faith also comes from simple and pure witness. Perhaps we learn here that skepticism and inexperience are no barriers to the Word of God when they are accompanied by truthfulness and sincerity. And perhaps these stories help us understand the blessing that always precedes our obligations. God comes to us even in our doubts and defenses, even in our fears and loss. And by God’s choice and involvement in our lives we will experience the blessing Jesus would later give, which all desire to hear, “blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”
