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First Reading: 1 Samuel 3:1-10[11-20]
Psalm: Psalm 139
Second Reading:1 Corinthians 6:12-20
Gospel: John 1:43-51
I would imagine it must be so difficult to be a movie star or someone famous. I certainly would not want the responsibility of being President of the United States or to undergo the scrutiny of my personal life being debated in the National Enquirer or TMZ. But I think the most disconcerting aspect of being famous for me would be to have people whom I didn’t know or recognize to call out my name, and I would respond, ‘and who are you?’
Perhaps you have had the experienced yourself from time-to-time, some in the store, at school, or at the sporting event calls out “Paul, Cookie, Sara, and Paula!” and you think to yourself, ‘how do they know me?’
Well it is exactly the experience that Nathaniel has in the Gospel lesson. Jesus has just called Andrew, Peter, and Philip to ‘come and see’ the mission of Jesus, to take up their cross and follow him, to hear the call of God who cares about them deeply into the service of God and neighbor and follow in Jesus’ mission and ministry for the redemption of the world, and they follow Jesus. And then they come to Nathaniel, the skeptic. When Jesus approaches Nathaniel, Nathaniel asks, who are you, really?
We actually know very little about whom Nathaniel was in scripture, he is only motioned twice briefly in John’s gospel. Although it is not certain scholars believe that Bartholomew was Nathaniel’s alias name. And why does anyone go by an alias name? Alias are most often created because we have something to hide. But Jesus call is to the true name, Nathaniel.
Nathaniel asks Jesus “where did you get to know me?” And Jesus responds “I saw you under the fig tree.” It is at this moment that Nathaniel knows Jesus to be the Messiah, the Christ, the redeemer and comes to follow him.
We don’t know exactly what Nathaniel was doing under the fig tree. Some scholars suggest that being under the fig tree was a Jewish phrase that suggested he was studying the Torah or Scriptures. The reference from Adam and Eve – the first man and woman – from Genesis – is that when they are doing what they are not supposed to be doing, they attempt to hide behind fig leaves but God still seeks through their guilt and nakedness.
See the phrase, “I love you.” Does not mean much from someone who does not know us well. And we can like people on the surface for who they are, but to love someone is to know their quirks, beauty, but also their deep secrets, their hurts, their own brokenness. To know we are truly loved must come from someone who knows us well.
Sometimes though we want to hide, we don’t want to be found out, so we create an alias, we tell half truths, we hide behind a fig leaf, because we are afraid that if our true self is known, that the other will not love us, God will not love us. But it is God who knows us so very well that calls you by name to serve in God’s kingdom. It surprised Nathaniel, “how do you know my name, Jesus?” He puts up a defense, “can anything good come out of Nazareth?” And we do the same, we slight others – at the root of all our prejudices are insecurities about you. And Nathaniel does it to Jesus, “really… a Nazarene, come on now.” But God calls and uses us exactly as we are broken and redeemed just as he called Nathaniel.
The name Nathaniel, means “gift of God” in Hebrew, and the name Samuel from our first reading also means the same “gift of God.” God also calls both Nathaniel and Samuel. Samuel’s mother, Hannah, had no children and she grieved it. She had been told essentially that she could not have children, but she prayed to God – more like to she mopped to God asking for children, and God gave her Samuel who she committed as a gift of God to work with the priest Eli in the temple. And it is Samuel who even as a young boy grew in wisdom and stature and love for God and listens to God’s voice when God called him and responded “Here, I Am Lord”. Our hymn of the day this morning which we will sing next is Samuel’s response to God’s call and all of our response is echoed, in the words: Here I am Lord, send me!
When you listen to where God is calling you to serve: a neighbor in need, on the church council, on a committee at work, or wherever you sense there is a passion that God’s kingdom is being built up, and God will give you all that you need to follow the call. Even the call of the cross is not too much for Jesus. God knows you well – your strengths and your faults and will strengthen you with the will to do the tasks that are ahead.
While talking to a young adult serving a breakfast meal to homeless in Chicago, I commented, “wow, this is great that you enjoy doing this!” He responded to me, “I rarely enjoy doing this; most of these youth are homeless for a reason… they are difficult.” Then why do you serve, I asked to which he responded, because Jesus called me to this work. Martin Luther King Jr. felt God’s call on him. He sang in the church choir in Atlanta, Georgia, and at the age of 13, questioned his Sunday school lessons unrelentingly including the bodily resurrection of Jesus. He completed his studies, was ordained a minister, and in a 17 minute public speech in August of 1963, conveyed an international dream for peace and civil rights. King preached to Ebenezer Baptist Church “God has called me to deliver those that are in captivity.” The call of God came scientist, lawyers, doctors, teachers, politicians, preachers, and comes to you as well. To serve your neighbor, to use your gifts, to reach the world for God’s kingdom of lasting peace and justice.
Where is God calling you? God will provide all that you need to follow Jesus, so come and see.
The Rev. Jason Bense
Second Sunday after Epiphany
Lutheran Church of Our Redeemer
Sacramento, California
