Speak, for Your Servant is Listening - Epiphany 2B

January, 18, 2015

Today we celebrate the second Sunday after Epiphany. An Epiphany is a visible manifestation of a hidden divinity, and today we hear a few great Epiphany stories that have all the right parts. Plot twists, surprises, and great supporting actors. 

First we hear a story about Samuel and Eli. A little background first. Samuel’s mother, Hannah, was in her old age and prayed for a child. After she conceived, she committed her child to God. So as a small child, Samuel was handed over to the temple and served the Lord under Eli’s watchful eye. Even steeped in the temple though, the story says that Samuel did yet not know the Lord. This is an interesting phrase, not knowing the Lord, and is reserved for some pretty sketchy characters. Pharaoh did not know the Lord. So we can assume Samuel, despite living in the temple, was distanced from God. But the story teller gives a little foreshadowing of what’s to come, by specifying that Samuel did not know the Lord, YET. 

So we have this boy, raised in the temple who didn’t yet know the Lord. The story also tells us that was a time when there were few visions in Israel – God did not make many appearances. So at a time when there were few visions, God calls out to Samuel, this distanced boy who had not heard the word of God. 

Samuel, thinking it must be Eli, checks in with Eli. 

Yes, Eli? 

Eli responds, I didn’t say anything. 

Again, God calls and Samuel goes to Eli. I didn’t call you. 

The third time God calls Samuel and Samuel bothers Eli, Eli figures out that it might be God calling and sends the boy to bed, suggesting that the next time he hears God, Samuel should respond, “Speak, for your servant is listening”. And so he does. And God calls a fourth time, the Lord stands before Samuel and this time, a more receptive Samuel responds. God gives Samuel some tough news about Eli and his family. God basically tells Samuel that Eli’s being fired because of the bad behavior of Eli’s sons and Eli’s non-response. Eli’s house will be punished forever. 

We are told that Samuel laid in his bed until morning, and was afraid to say anything to Eli. In the morning though, Eli tells him he should share what God said, and so reluctantly, Samuel tells of God’s message. 

Then we move to Gospel story of Nathaniel, Philip and Jesus. Jesus sees Philip and tells Philip to “Follow me”. Not only does Philip follow Jesus, but he goes and gets his buddy Nathaniel. Philip tells Nathaniel, “We have found the one Moses spoke about.” Nathaniel is duly skeptical, responding “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” Philip says “Come and See”. 

So we have three characters, each who has their own Epiphany, a new understanding or manifestation of divinity. They each are the main characters of their story, but they are reliant on other people to connect them to God, others who play supporting roles in their story.

First we have Samuel. Not only does God call Samuel, but God appeared before Samuel. Samuel didn’t see, didn’t recognize, didn’t respond to God. On one hand, it’s hard to imagine that he didn’t recognize God. But on the other hand, how could he? He didn’t yet know the Lord. God is so much bigger, so much more than we can imagine, God might be hard to recognize or comprehend, even if God was standing right in front of you. 

The first story with the actor and supporting actor is Philip and Jesus. We’ve got no story of Philip being a religious man or having any deep faith prior to his interaction with Jesus. And yet, Jesus, fully human and fully divine, calls Philip, and Philip responds immediately and affirmatively. Philip needed the living Jesus for his Epiphany. 

Lest you think that we’re all out of luck, without the person of Jesus Christ tapping us on the shoulder, think of Samuel and then Nathaniel. 

After being awoken by Samuel three times, it is Eli who understands that it is God calling Samuel, and tells Samuel to be receptive and responsive to God’s call. It is Eli who allows Samuel to understand and see. And without Eli, Samuel might have been awoken another 30 or 300 times without knowing it was God. Eli, the old man whose eyes had grown dim, permitted the boy who’d been raised in the temple see God, to have his epiphany. 

Finally we have Nathaniel. Nathaniel is sitting under a fig tree, minding his own business. After Jesus calls Philip, Philip calls Nathaniel. Come and see. Come experience the Holy. There must have been something incredibly special about Jesus, that he beckoned Philip, who came. And carried by Jesus’ power, Philip beckons Nathaniel, who recognizes Jesus as the Son of God. Because of Philip, Nathaniel follows Jesus. Without Philip, Nathaniel might still be sitting under the fig tree. 

So what can we learn about ourselves or our Epiphanies, from these stories and supporting actors? 

First of all, epiphanies aren’t limited to the right people, to the more holy. Samuel was living in the Temple but didn’t know God. And yet it’s to Samuel that God appears. 

Samuel’s encounter with God put him in an uncomfortable spot. He had to share bad news with Eli, who’d raised him. And when God appeared before him, Samuel didn’t yet know the Lord. He wasn’t a priest, wasn’t a religious insider. And yet, that’s who God selected. If you think you aren’t worthy of an interaction with God, think again. We are all worthy, and as baptized Christians, we already are in relationship with God, with an indissoluble bond. We need to get over our concepts of being unworthy or that God wouldn’t talk to me. When we do that, we are behaving like Samuel at the beginning of the story, and we risk being blind to what’s before us. Instead, we need to say, Speak, for you servant is listening. 

Second, after you say that, gird your loins, because Epiphanies often result in discomfort, risk and danger. Think about the wise men, and the risk they took worshiping a new king. Samuel was asked to tell Eli that he and his family would be punished because of Eli’s sons. Between the time he heard God’s message and when he spoke with Eli in the next morning, I can imagine Samuel WISHING he hadn’t uttered those words. Speak, for your servant is listening. 

And there’s Philip. After following Jesus, he immediately asks his friend to follow too, with little explanation. Come and see. And after he becomes a disciple of Jesus, it is Philip who is asked to feed the 5000. And tradition holds that Philip and Nathaniel were crucified upside down. We are not at risk for crucifixion, but we are all asked to serve Christ in all people. To proclaim by word and example the good news of Christ. 

Finally, epiphanies frequently require someone else. We all need Jesus, fully human, to help us understand the immensity of God and to have our epiphanies or new understandings of the holy. Sometimes you’ll need an Eli or Philip to help you see God or point out God in your midst. Sometimes you’ll need someone else to say, “Come and see”. 

And the opposite is also true. You need to be the Eli or Philip to someone else. Point out God in their midst. Come and see. 

Friday night, four of us from Eugene/Springfield went to Portland to Rahab’s Sisters, the ministry of the Diocese that provides meals and compassionate hospitality to vulnerable women. We served about 45 women in a pretty small space, and it was an exhausting, inspiring and exhilarating evening. I was thinking about epiphanies, about Samuel and Eli, and Nathaniel and Philip during the chaotic meal. 

I sat down and talked to Toni, a 45 year old woman. She’d previously lived in Texas with her husband. Somewhere along the way, her husband lost his job and she lost hers. They lost their home and burned through their savings. They returned to her home town of Portland, and things got worse. She and her husband struggled to survive on the streets of Portland. The allure of money and freedom from pain that accompanies the drug culture were too much. Earlier this week, her husband was lodged in jail, leaving her homeless and alone. 

She had never been to this dinner, but was in the neighborhood because of a needle exchange van, parked outside the church. She saw Windy her friend, who invited her in for a meal. Come and See. 

By the time I saw her, she had finished her meal and was sitting, sad and grateful. She was astonished at the horrible and relatively fast turn her life took. She was grateful for the meal, the peace, the friends she was making. 

I’d spent the whole evening looking at all of the ladies, feeling that it was good work to be sitting with them. But it wasn’t until I talked to Toni that I saw Christ standing before me. I saw Christ in each of the ladies. Last night, I was Samuel, and Toni was my Eli. She helped me see God. 

All I can say now is, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”

Amen.

Advent 4 B

In 2010, I worked at United Way in Seattle.  They had a great ad campaign that year, with each ad featuring two identical pictures, with two different captions. Below the pictures and captions was one tag line, “Choose the way”.  The implication was that you, the viewer and donor, could be the difference in the in someone’s story. You could be the difference between the narrative of Homeless or Housed.  Abused or Safe.  You choose the Way. The ads were on billboards and busses. They even make cameo appearances on the walls of the elevator scenes on Grey’s Anatomy, to give the show an authentic Seattle feel.  The ads were everywhere.

One was a particularly grey December day, my bus pulled up with another ad in the series on the side.
This was two identical pictures of a beautiful and simple young woman.  Beneath the pictures, the captions read, Hungry.  Filled.  This ad did not make me think of United Way. Because of the imagery and the choice of words and the time of year, it reminded me immediately of the song of Mary we read together earlier.  
He has filled the hungry with good things.
The song of Mary is a beloved and beautiful song that Mary delivers during a pretty exciting time in her life, which we hear about and celebrate today, the fourth Sunday of Advent.

In the Gospel reading, we hear the account of the angel Gabriel arriving and telling Mary that she will bear a son. Mary is a teen ager, unmarried and poor.  “But how will this be?” Mary asks.  Gabriel responds that the power of the most high will “overshadow” her. The whole episode sounds unnerving and risky.  To this kind of request, Mary could have responded with fear, or with sarcasm, or with anger.  She could have responded with all of those responses we know too well, that we offer when we are afraid, or scared, or feel at risk.  We respond that way when others scare us, and we respond that way when God asks us something hard.

Instead, Mary responds with the gracious and simple words, : “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word."

Wow.  What a response.  Simple.  Mary willingly and obediently received God into her life, despite the risks and difficulties that it most certainly would bring to her, an unmarried, poor teen.

Obedience is not something we tend to value in this culture and at this time, but look at what obedience looks like in this story of Mary.  She is asked by God to do something hard, and something counter-cultural, and something risky.  And with unimaginable grace and trust in God, she says, I am a servant of the lord.  She basically is saying, yes, I’ll be obedient.  Not only obedient, but blank-check obedient.  Let it be with me according to your word.  In other words, whatever you say.

Maybe Mary’s obedient response comes from Gabriel’s simple opening line, Do not be afraid.  Or maybe it comes from a deep seated faith in God that preceded Gabriel’s visit.  Or perhaps it came from Mary’s willingness to accept God’s grace which includes the gift of faith. She said yes to God, in an unambiguous and obedient way.  And while obedience is counter-cultural, when it comes to God calling us, obedience is surprisingly easier than resistance.  Like Mary, obeying and affirming what God is calling us to do can be hard, and equally can be beautiful and freeing.

Mary’s response to Gabriel is simple and powerful.  I am a servant of the Lord.  Let it be with me, according to your word.  And we could do well if we could learn this kind of simple, unambiguous, obedient response to God.
   
After this surprising exchange, Gabriel tells Mary she is to go see her relative Elizabeth, by now an old woman, who also was to bear a son, John the Baptist. Mary heads off to see Elizabeth.  Given the distance of about 100 miles, the journey would have taken her about a week on foot.

While Mary’s thoughts on the journey are not recorded, she surely had some, and I imagine she played the recent events over and over in her mind.  Did God just send me an angel?  Say I’m going to have a child – and not Joseph’s child?  And did I just say yes? Did I say “let it be with me according to your word?”

When she sees Elizabeth, she has much more to say than her original response to Gabriel. To Elizabeth, she fills in details about her response to Gabriel. This is the Song of Mary, also known as the Magnificat that we read earlier in the service.

And where Mary’s response to Gabriel is powerful, simple and demonstrates obedience, what she says to Elizabeth is powerful, complex and demonstrates defiance.

She starts by providing insight into her initial and visceral response to God’s request.  She tells Elizabeth that her soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, and that her spirit rejoices in God. When God asks us to do something hard, something risky, what is our response? What does your soul do in God’s presence?  Does it rejoice and proclaim God’s greatness?

She then proclaims the great things that God will do to turn the world back right-side up. This is where her defiance and power are shown. She speaks about two traits that she, an unmarried poor teen girl, didn’t have. Two traits that had turned the world upside down, and separated people from God. And these two traits contribute to a third that is equally problematic, and Mary speaks to that too.  She names the ill, and what God will do.

She speaks to power.  God will cast down the mighty from their thrones.  

Power without compassion corrupts. It creates inequities and imbalances. Power without embodying God’s love of all, creates the lowly. When the powerful believe they are entitled or better than others, with that power, we intentionally or unintentionally create the powerless. Mary speaks to this imbalance created from unchecked power. God will lift up the lowly. Not because the lowly are better than the mighty, but because they are no worse. God’s love is equal, and if doesn’t look equal on this earth, Mary is proclaiming that God will fix what human power has broken.

She speaks to wealth.  God will send the rich away, empty.
Riches without compassion corrupts. Riches without embodying God’s love of all, creates the hungry.  When the rich believe they are entitled or better than others, with that wealth, we intentionally or unintentionally create the hungry. Mary speaks to that injustice created from uncompassionate wealth. God will fill the hungry with good things. Not because the hungry are better than the rich, but because they are no worse.  God’s love is equal, and if it doesn’t look equal on this earth, Mary is proclaiming that God will fix what human wealth has broken.

Finally, Mary speaks to pride.  Pride comes when we feel personally responsible for something good. For our advances, our accomplishments, our wealth, our power.  Pride has the risk of obscuring our reliance and understanding of God’s role in our life. After all, it is God’s grace and love that allow us to advance, accomplish, gain wealth and power.  Mary speaks to pride, and the distance it creates between us and God. God will scatter the proud in their conceit.  Mary is proclaiming that God will fix what human pride has broken.

In less than a week, we celebrate the arrival of the human God in our human lives.  Today, we are given some powerful examples of how to respond to that arrival, and I’d urge you to think about your response this week.

Are you more apt to have the strong simple response, like Mary’s response to Gabriel?  If so, what is your response?  Here I am. Enter here.  Re-read the Gospel reading today and think about how you would have responded.  How you would want to respond.  How you will respond to Christ’s arrival.

Are you a person of more words?  Is your response more like Mary’s song?  What would you say about how your soul responds in the presence of God?  Does your soul sing?  Is it quiet?  Is it on fire?

What injustices would you name, and what do you believe God will do about it?  Racial tensions.  War. Hunger.

We are in the same place as Mary was in the readings today. God is inviting us to make room, to invite God in our lives.  

In the next five days, think about how you would respond to God’s invitation to enter your life. I’d even encourage you to write your own canticle. The song of Shari.  Song of George.  Is it long or short?  It doesn’t matter what it looks like. It matters that you think about God’s arrival, and that you think enough about your response that you actually have one.  Because in less than a week, we are invited to let Christ enter our lives again.  Actually, in about 20 minutes, we are invited to let Christ enter our lives again in the Eucharist.   Every week we are invited to let God into our lives. Every week, we can practice our own song.

If you put some thought into your response, into your Magnificat, several things happen.  For starters, you have a response.  You are an active participant in the incarnation story.  The other thing that happens is what happened to me in Seattle. You begin to see God’s hand everywhere, even on billboards on the side of the bus. In songs, notes from friends. God’s hand is everywhere, even in the craziness and busyness of the Christmas season.

Today, let’s obediently, powerfully and defiantly follow Mary and prepare our own personal response to God’s invitation to enter our lives once again.

Amen.