Sunday Sermon 17th Jan 2021

 JOHN 1 43:51 17 JANUARY 2021

When I was ordained as a priest, a friend who is a member of the order of St Benedict, gave me a book called “The Glenstal Book of prayer”, published by the Benedictine monks at Glenstal Abbey in Ireland. In the book there are a number of readings from the rules of St Benedict, the founder of their order. 

One rules states “Let us open our hearts to the divine light, and with startled ears let us listen to what the divine voice is calling out every day, urging us : today if you should hear his voice, harden not your hearts.” 

I particularly like the phrase “listen with startled ears”, because I know like many people, I have listened to God with startled ears. And yet perhaps I should not be surprised, for our psalm today tells us that God knows every little thing about us.

Our first reading told us something of the prophet Samuel, who had lived in the Temple since he was a young child, when he was left by his mother. Hannah in gratitude for his birth. He had been ministering to the Lord in the Temple under the care of the priest Eli, so Samuel knew of God, even if he was yet to experience God. Samuel was so startled by the voice of God, that he simply didn’t recognize it. And why should he? Why would God call him? After all, he wasn’t much more than a child. We might expect that any audible messages from God would be given to Eli the priest, not to the child Samuel.

But it was Eli’s wisdom and experience that helped Samuel understand that it was God’s call. And it was Eli who encouraged Samuel to answer the call.

When Samuel answered “speak Lord, your servant is listening”, I don’t imagine that he could have foreseen how his life might have turned out, he would have had no concept of the plans which God had for him.

Because God didn’t see Samuel just as he was, a young boy helping out with religious duties. God saw Samuel as he could be: a priest, a prophet, a counselor, the last of Israel’s judges, and the man who anointed the first two kings of Israel, Saul and David. Samuel might have been young, but God had a future planned for him.

Fast forward almost 600 years, and in our Gospel reading, Nathanael also has startled ears. His friend Phillip is trying to convince him that he has found the Messiah for whom they have all been waiting. And not only that, the Messiah comes from Nazareth.

Nazareth was such a tiny insignificant dot on the map, no wonder Nathanael didn’t believe Philip. Nazareth had no palaces, no great Temple and nothing much to recommend it. We don’t know a great deal about Nathaniel, he’s not one of the star disciples, but some people believe that he is supposed to be representative of the nation of Israel. He’s Joe everyman; he’s a working man, he’s each one of us.

As believers, we might sometimes think it unlikely that God would ever want to work in any place we know. We might think that we are too ordinary, too uneducated, too insignificant to have God be interested in us. God is not limited by our experiences and environment: God’s power is greater than our limitations.

Once Nathaniel meets Jesus, he discovers that there is no limit to his power. Jesus calls Nathaniel not just for what he is or what he has done, but for what he can become, for his potential.

And like Samuel, Nathanael is going to witness things and become involved in things he cannot conceive at the moment he answered the call to follow Jesus. Like Samuel, Nathanael is going to believe, to obey and to trust, to walk by faith rather than by sight.

Our walk with God is never static if we keep in close relationship with God. I can remember walking the labyrinth at Wollaston with a friend; I am sure you all know what a labyrinth looks like: a path which goes around and around and in and out, with many corners and some straight paths. The purpose of the labyrinth is to walk and think and pray to the centre and back out again.

When we had finished my friend said, “you know, that labyrinth is like life: sometimes we can take big steps and sometimes we have to take little steps.” I thought that was a brilliant observation.

For all of us, I think there are times when we can take large steps of faith and at other times, we need to go carefully and not be in a hurry: we have to take things slowly. But we are still on a journey to God.

And for all of us, there is a time in our faith journey when we must become an Eli, a Samuel, a Philip or a Nathanael. Sometimes we must be Eli, who served and worshiped God, keeping in close relationship with God, and in recognizing and encouraging others.

It was Eli who recognized the voice of God when Samuel didn’t. In Samuel, we learn to listen to God, and be ready to say “here I am” when God calls us to action. Sometimes we must be like Philip, bringing others to know Jesus and sharing what we know to be true. Whatever Phillip’s circumstances, he shows himself to be an effective personal witness as he points his friend to Jesus. Nor was he put off when Nathaniel was doubtful about Jesus roots.

And sometimes we must be Nathanael, and allow ourselves to be surprised by God.

There is an old anecdote that when Christians pray we do not say “speak Lord for your servant is listening.” We say “Listen Lord, your servant is speaking”. But let us remember to actually listen to God’s voice. Let us all be a Samuel, let us be a Nathaniel.

AMEN