Filling the Senses

1 Samuel 3:1-20; Psalm 139:1-5, 12-17; 1 Corinthians 6:12-20; John 1:43-51

Today all the scriptures have to do with our senses, how we hear, see, find God or how God comes to us. With Eli and Samuel's story they both don't get what is happening, three times, and the scripture makes a point of telling us that hearing from God is rare. Yet it happens here in this story. God makes God known in calling through sleep, through misunderstanding, through the inner sanctuary and tells what God has to say to Samuel. God doesn't give up and go away because they don't get it, God doesn't give up.

Do you think the boy Samuel was nervous, or maybe excited, or wondering what Eli was talking about? We don't get this part of the story of what Samuel might have felt or thought once Eli told him it was God calling him. Maybe he even thought Eli was old then and loosing it, whatever he thought we are left to guess because God calls and Samuel answers this time and God speaks with the boy.

See we never know when or where we might encounter God. The scriptures do not give us clues because the stories are as varied as the people who they happen to. Imagine God is in a burning bush, God is in the still quiet, God is at the potters house, God is in the cloud, are you getting the picture yet? God can be anywhere, anyplace, any time and its our job to open ourselves to finding those places and spaces of when, where, and how.

This is why we have John and the Jesus John writes about. John's gospel leads us on a new way of calling. It is different from all the other gospels because they are not fishing and called, even the names change a bit as to who and how this happens. See John is layer upon layer of revealing itself, revealing God in Jesus and the Holy Spirit. We actually have to start this story in verse 35 though. It starts with Andrew, who happens to be a disciple of John the Baptist. John makes a statement as Jesus walks by, "behold the lamb of God," and two of John the Baptist's disciples follow and see where he is staying. Once this happens Andrew, who was one of them goes to find his brother Peter and takes him to see Jesus. Then Jesus finds Phillip and Phillip then finds Nathaniel and brings him to Jesus.

Seeking, finding, following, seeing they are not a prescribed point or something we can nail down to become a tangible way to encounter or find God, Christ, the Holy Spirit they are just ways of taking and being a disciple. We can't bottle it and say this is the way, it just doesn't work like that. Instead it is a series of paying attention to where we are, whose we are, what we are.

Paul gives us this as well as the Psalm does today. The Psalmist says we are fearfully and wonderfully made, Paul calls our bodies the temple, a holy space. This is a totally different way to look at ourselves. The temple is not a place, God is not far and removed, God made us, us. Its a lot to take in. We are a part of God's creation so shouldn't we want to seek, find and follow where God takes us. See its all a series of Epiphanies in our lives. Not just a one time knock us off our feet encounter. All through our lives we should be seeking, finding and following.

This means we have to be open to new ways and new possibilities of being. Because we are fearfully and wonderfully made, because the Holy Spirit dwells in us we seek to find God in our lives and follow a new way because we have learned something new about God and ourselves. This is faith's journey calling to us. It grows us, changes us, sets us on new paths because we were willing to seek, find and follow. Do we dare to make this journey? The scripture doesn't tell us how our characters felt, yet it does sprinkle in a healthy dose of doubt from Nathaniel and then Jesus reveals something about Nathaniel and them he knows.

So follow the way of Epiphany. Dare to seek the star, the road, the way of where God is, and when you find God go and follow. Follow the path, follow the new way, follow with all your heart.

Comments