Known

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

Known, we are known by God. Today we have the story of the calling of Samuel. God calls to Samuel because he knows Eli may hear the message better from a boy as a messenger better than from God's self. It is not good news. He knows how bad the Eli boys are and they need to change their ways. In the Psalm the writer describes everything being known by God. Even the words off of his lips before he even says them. God knows us well, knows us in our mother's wombs, has shaped and formed us. Jesus knows Nathanael, can tell him where he was and what he was saying. This turns Nathanael from doubt to belief and he follows Jesus as one of his disciples.

One of the things I didn't like about the faith I grew up with was this fact. God knows everything and is keeping a scorecard of things we do right and wrong. Whatever we do God sees. As I grew I didn't think this was a good thing. Nor did it help with keeping me in the faith, not because I did things which were awful, but we all do wrong things and it's not fun thinking God is always critiquing us on what we did. 

When I got my divorce years ago it was one of the things I looked for in a new church. No scorecard mentality. Yet if I get rid of the scorecard and look at God fully knowing me, might this be something different. Would it help me to be kinder, more thoughtful in how I treat others. Not that God is waiting to come and round me up for the things I do wrong, but are my actions ones I would want God to see?

I think this is helpful to us right now. It makes me think of the book Prince Caspian in it the children Peter, Edmund, Susan, and Lucy find themselves transported once again to the land of Narnia. When they were there before they were all kings and queens of Narnia and appearance is everything. The dwarf who encounters them can't believe they are the ones prophesied about because they should be old. Peter can't deal with sharing the leadership with Caspian, the now prince either. He makes mistakes and tries to act like he really knows it all, when he doesn't. It is only when he feels known again, as Aslan would know him that he can surrender and share power and acknowledge his mistakes. It is a big step.

Being known can be intimidating and encouraging. It is encouraging to know we are known and loved this deeply. Known from our mother's womb and loved even when we are helpless and selfish. It is intimidating because it means there are times when we don't act as we always should and try to appear as though we know everything and have it all under control. Like King Peter we want to make sure others know we know things. This isn't the point of life though. It is in our connections with others where we most fully know God and God is known to us.

People have honored me by telling some part of their stories in life. In these glimpses I know more about what is sacred and what is holy. It is in the other where I see God. Through these glimpses I see the gift of what it is to share the experience of life on this earth and our struggle with being known by God. It is never a scorecard, it is a life lived of accountability when I do things which have hurt another. When I can acknowledge this we all grow a little more in faith and following God. Eli could never get his sons to understand the harm they had done to others, yet Samuel comes along and has the same problems with his sons because no prophet job is ever inherited by the other. This is a call which comes from God. Because the best prophet knows what surrender is and this surrender leads them to God. 

Maybe this is the way accountability works, not in the scorecard mentality, but in the realization we are fully known and loved anyway. Now isn't this something we should take to make us more accountable for how we treat one another. If we went in with love, wouldn't this make the world a much better place.