Fabric of Faith - A Sermon for Sunday January 14 2024
First Reading: 1 Samuel 3:1–10 [11–20]
Psalm: Psalm 139:1–6, 13–18
Gospel: John 1:43–51
The holy Gospel according to St. John the 1st chapter.
Glory to you, O Lord.
43The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” 44Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. 45Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.” 46Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” 47When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said of him, “Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!” 48Nathanael asked him, “Where did you get to know me?” Jesus answered, “I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.” 49Nathanael replied, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” 50Jesus answered, “Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these.” 51And he said to him, “Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”
The gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, O Christ.
Why doesn’t God speak to me?
We hear the Sunday School stories
about Moses,
about Abraham and Sarah,
about Noah,
and today’s story about young Samuel,
and some of us are wondering;
when is God going to call me?
When is God going to speak to me?
We might think about how wonderful it would be
to hear God’s tangible voice,
telling us exactly what to do.
I think that might also be terrifying.
We don’t all get a voice from the clouds.
We don’t all get dreams or visions.
But God still speaks to us;
each of us.
God doesn’t often speak to us
like God spoke to Samuel in the first reading,
But often God speaks to us
like God spoke to Eli.
In the first lesson,
we hear the story of
God's call to Samuel to be a prophet.
Samuel, a young boy
who does not yet know the Lord,
hears the voice of God calling 4 different times;
the first 3 times waking up Eli
from what I’m sure was a terrible sleep.
Eli spoke those four words
that every parent knows too well:
“Go back to bed!”
But on the 3rd wake up call,
Eli finally wakes up to what is really going on,
and provides Samuel some faithful direction.
Samuel responds the fourth time to God:
“Speak, for your servant is listening"
and God speaks.
We recognize that in this story
God is choosing to speak to Samuel,
but God is speaking to Eli as well,
through Samuel.
Some back story on Eli and Samuel is helpful here;
Eli and his sons were priests at Shiloh.
Samuel was presented to the temple in Shiloh
by his mother, Hannah,
who was said to be barren.
Years before,
Hannah prayed fervently before the Lord
in the temple
that she might have a child.
Eli saw Hannah praying,
her mouth moving
but no sound coming out,
and in the most pastoral way possible,
Priest Eli said
“Go home Hannah, you're drunk!”
Hannah explained that she was praying,
that she was not drunk as Eli supposed.
Eli blessed Hannah, saying
“Go in peace, the God of Israel grant the petition
you have made to him”
and sure enough,
Hannah, in time, was with child.
When the child, Samuel, was weaned,
Hannah presented Samuel at the temple
as she had promised.
This is an important connection to make
between Samuel and Eli -
Eli pronounced God's blessing on Hannah,
which brought about Samuel,
who prophesied against Eli and his house.
God works in wonderful ways.
Eli's sons, Hophni and Phinehas,
were scoundrels,
who had no regard for the Lord,
nor for their duties as priests.
The big problem we read about is they stole meat.
But it is about more than just meat:
“They treated the offerings of the Lord
with contempt.”
Suffice to say that their antics
made a mockery of the priestly role,
and I’d say a mockery of our God.
They were tearing the fabric of faith.
Eli spoke out to his sons about their sins,
but the sons did not listen to Eli.
The sins were great enough that
the Lord spoke to young Samuel saying;
“I am about to punish Eli and his house forever.”
In fact, The Lord spoke this same word to Eli previously
by an unnamed man of God.
God wasn't just speaking to Samuel:
God spoke to Eli as well -
it was a word of challenge and condemnation,
and it came through Samuel
and through another man of God.
Why doesn’t God speak to us?
Sometimes God speaks to us
like God spoke to Eli;
sometimes with a word of challenge
and a call to change:
a word that says “repent!” change your life.
Often we hear this through scripture,
through our liturgies,
and maybe even in a sermon.
Sometimes God speaks these kinds of words to us
through others.
Just to be clear, this is not a call for you
to call out the people you know
on all the stupid stuff they’re doing.
That is not today’s message.
The message is that God does speak to us all,
God calls us all,
just not always in a grand,
miraculous way;
not always with a voice from the burning bush
or from the clouds
or whispers at night,
but always in upholding the fabric of faith.
I wish God would just speak to me?
God does!
God speaks to us through God’s Word,
God’s living Word,
and this Word speaks like contagion;
spreads like COVID-19,
spread mouth to mouth,
infecting us from person to person.
From Hanna to Eli,
Eli to Hannah,
Hannah to Samuel,
Samuel back to Eli,
and Eli’s sons,
spread full circle.
In the Gospel story of the call of the disciples,
the Living Word of God was spread
from Jesus to Philip,
from Philip to Nathanael -
then full circle with Jesus again.
God’s Word is spread
like a local and global game of telephone tag!
The Living Word of God
is spread from person to person.
So when is God going to speak to you?
God has!
Listen! God is speaking.
Listen! God is calling you.
The person that you are today is no fluke.
You were created by God,
as our Psalm declares,
knit together in your mothers womb,
fearfully and wonderfully made.
You grew up with various influences,
nature and nurture in concert -
and God is at work in this.
Who you are is not a fluke.
God calls you,
the person you are today,
to follow Jesus,
to make a difference in the world
at that intersection where your
skills,
talents,
interests,
passions
- where your gifts from God -
intersect with the needs of the world.
That’s our call.
That’s what happened in the story of Samuel and Eli.
There was a need for trustworthy leadership,
so God spoke a change in call for Eli,
a forced resignation if you will,
and God called Samuel to something greater.
This is what happened when Jesus called the 12,
and we know the amazing things that happened
through God's call in their lives.
When it comes to God’s call for us,
we don’t have much say in the matter.
We might think we aren’t worthy,
but that’s not our decision to make.
God calls whether we like it or not,
whether we think we are ready or not.
Samuel didn't have much choice when God spoke.
I suppose he could have ran away.
If Samuel had a smart phone,
he could have hit decline,
but like a persistent telemarketer or debt collector,
God would have kept calling.
Jesus saw Nathanael.
Nathanael was hanging out under a fig tree.
Perhaps this has hidden meaning,
“Under the fig tree”
is a saying that could mean
that Jesus saw Nathanael studying the scriptures.
But it is less about the activity that Jesus saw,
what matters is that Jesus saw Nathanael.
He is seen for who he really is.
Trust that God sees you,
God knows you,
for who you really are,
and who you are becoming.
It’s not about worth,
The truth is that
while none of us are truly worthy to follow Jesus,
By God’s Spirit,
We are all made worthy.
As the Psalm declares,
we have been fearfully and wonderfully made,
marvellously made.
created in God’s image.
God knows us deeply.
God knit us together in our mother’s womb:
Our God is a knitter!
For too long,
the West’s image of God
has been an old, bearded white dude.
It is time to replace that image!
God is a knitter!
Think seriously about that image.
If God is a knitter,
that means that we are like yarn
that God stretches,
moves,
and knits together.
For the knitter,
there is always a purpose for the yarn:
Yarn is more than another toy for the cat.
For those of you who knit,
when you knit,
you knit a sweater,
a shawl,
or a scarf
or slippers,
all items that you could easily buy at the store,
for much less effort
and much less finger pain!
But there is something special
about knitting them together, yourself,
even with arthritic fingers
and frustrating patterns.
The knitted item,
that scarf,
that sweater,
it has a certain look and feel.
It is creative,
there are so many different patterns to chose from,
and you can knit without a pattern!
Our God is a knitter!
God wonderfully and marvellously
knit you together in your mother’s womb,
and by God’s Spirit,
God has been knitting you together
ever since.
God knits together the fabric of faith.
The church is like yarn,
and it feels these days like the fabric of faith
is being torn.
It might feel like the fabric of faith
is unwinding.
Yet the yarn is still good.
God’s wont throw out useful yarn.
While the fabric is coming apart,
God, the knitter,
is on the other end,
taking that good yarn
and knitting together something new,
something greater.
There is something about you, Church,
that makes you worth knitting -
and like any Good Knitter,
God has a purpose or purposes
for us:
For we are called into something greater.
God is speaking,
and God is calling unexpected people
from unexpected places -
places where we might expect no good to come from,
places like Nazareth,
places like Cochrane and Bowness,
even places like Edmonton!
What good can come from those kind of places?
What good can come from a place like
Advent Lutheran Church in Calgary?
Oh, Come and see.
Come and see.
