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January 15, 2006
Second Sunday after Epiphany — B
Book of Common Prayer
Lectionary
1 Samuel
3:1-20
Psalm 63
1 Corinthian 6:11b-20
John 1:43-51
Revised Common Lectionary
1 Samuel 3:1-20
Psalm 139: 1-6, 13-18
1 Corinthian 6:12-20
John 1:43-51
Reflection and
Response
Prayer Starter
Today’s readings extend the call
to discipleship. In 1 Samuel, the voice of the Lord awakens a sleeping
Samuel, who responds with attentive obedience. Paul outlines how
those called by God are to honor their physical bodies. Jesus calls
his first disciples Philip and Nathanael with the simple invitation,
Follow me (v. 43).
First Reading: 1
Samuel 3:1-20
First Samuel focuses on the
man who ushered Israel through the political transition from judges
to kings. Samuel united in himself many of the roles of the tribal
confederacy period of Israel’s history. He was a Nazirite dedicated
to the Lord, a judge, a prophet, a priest and the reluctant leader
of the movement to place a king over Israel.
Today’s reading recounts the call
of Samuel in the temple at Shiloh. Shiloh was at that time the resting
place for the ark, the throne for the divine presence on earth.
The setting in the temple and the time, probably just before dawn
since the lamp was to burn all night, are traditional for divine
revelation.
1 Samuel 3:1-20
Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the LORD under Eli.
The word of the LORD was rare in those days;
visions were not widespread.
At that time Eli,
whose eyesight had begun to grow dim
so that he could not see,
was lying down in his room;
the lamp of God had not yet gone out,
and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the LORD,
where the ark of God was.
Then the LORD called, "Samuel!
Samuel!"
and he said, "Here I am!"
and ran to Eli, and said,
"Here I am, for you called me."
But he said, "I did not call; lie down again."
So he went and lay down.
The LORD called again, "Samuel!"
Samuel got up and went to Eli, and said,
"Here I am, for you called me."
But he said, "I did not call, my son; lie down again."
Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD,
and the word of the LORD had not yet been revealed to him.
The LORD called Samuel again, a third
time.
And he got up and went to Eli, and said,
"Here I am, for you called me."
Then Eli perceived that the LORD was calling the boy.
Therefore Eli said to Samuel,
"Go, lie down; and if he calls you, you shall say,
‘Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.’"
So Samuel went and lay down in his place.
Now the LORD came and stood there,
calling as before, "Samuel! Samuel!"
And Samuel said, "Speak, for your servant is listening."
Then the LORD said to Samuel,
"See, I am about to do something in Israel
that will make both ears of anyone who hears of it tingle.
On that day I will fulfill against Eli
all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end.
For I have told him
that I am about to punish his house forever,
for the iniquity that he knew,
because his sons were blaspheming God,
and he did not restrain them.
Therefore I swear to the house of Eli
that the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be expiated
by sacrifice or offering forever."
Samuel lay there until morning;
then he opened the doors of the house of the LORD.
Samuel was afraid to tell the vision to Eli.
But Eli called Samuel and said,
"Samuel, my son." He said, "Here I am."
Eli said, "What was it that he told you?
Do not hide it from me.
May God do so to you and more also,
if you hide anything from me of all that he told you."
So Samuel told him everything and hid nothing from him.
Then he said, "It is the LORD;
let him do what seems good to him."
As Samuel grew up, the LORD was with
him
and let none of his words fall to the ground.
And all Israel from Dan to Beer-sheba knew
that Samuel was a trustworthy prophet of the LORD.
Psalm: Psalm 63 (BCP)
This psalm expresses intense
personal yearning for God in a time of separation. Recalling times
of joyful worship in the temple, the psalmist praises and blesses
God throughout the long nights of isolation and is sustained by
God’s steadfast love.
Psalm 63
O God, you are my God,
I seek you, my soul thirsts for you;
my flesh faints for you,
as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,
beholding your power and glory.
Because your steadfast love is better
than life,
my lips will praise you.
So I will bless you as long as I live;
I will lift up my hands and call on your name.
My soul is satisfied as with a rich
feast,
and my mouth praises you with joyful lips
when I think of you on my bed,
and meditate on you in the watches of the night;
for you have been my help,
and in the shadow of your wings I sing for joy.
My soul clings to you;
your right hand upholds me.
Psalm: Psalm 139:1-6,
13-18 (RCL)
This is a prayer for deliverance.
The psalmist puts his trust in the all-knowing and ever-present
God who has known him thoroughly and intimately since his conception.
The psalmist invites further examination and cleansing.
Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18
O LORD, you have searched me and known me.
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from far away.
You search out my path and my lying
down,
and are acquainted with all my ways.
Even before a word is on my tongue,
O LORD, you know it completely.
You hem me in, behind and before,
and lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for
me;
it is so high that I cannot attain it.
For it was you who formed my inward
parts;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and
wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works; that I know very well.
My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes beheld my unformed substance.
In your book were written all the days
that were formed for me,
when none of them as yet existed.
How weighty to me are your thoughts,
O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
I try to count them–they are more
than the sand;
I come to the end–I am still with you.
Second Reading:
1 Corinthians 6:11b-20
Paul calls the Corinthians
to remember their spiritual status effected through baptism. They
have been freed from guilt, united with the people of God and placed
into right relationship with God. Now their lives are to exemplify
the moral effects of conversion.
Paul points out that Christian freedom
is not only deliverance from the law, it is freedom for the service
of God. Christian freedom is qualified by communal and personal
duty, by consideration of the nearness of the end, and by relationship
to Jesus and to the Spirit.
Paul knows that salvation embraces
the whole person. Physically, the body incorporates the human personality
and so is the instrument of relationship with God and with one another.
Spiritually, the body is a temple that contains the Holy Spirit
and so is sacred and must not be profaned by sinful behavior.
1 Corinthians 6:11b-20
Brothers and sisters:
You were washed,
you were sanctified,
you were justified
in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ
and in the Spirit of our God.
"All things are lawful for me,"
but not all things are beneficial.
"All things are lawful for me,"
but I will not be dominated by anything.
"Food is meant for the stomach
and the stomach for food,"
and God will destroy both one and the other.
The body is meant not for fornication
but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.
And God raised the Lord and will also raise us by his power.
Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?
Should I therefore take the members of Christ
and make them members of a prostitute?
Never!
Do you not know that whoever is united to a prostitute
becomes one body with her?
For it is said, "The two shall be one flesh."
But anyone united to the Lord
becomes one spirit with him.
Shun fornication!
Every sin that a person commits is outside the body;
but the fornicator sins against the body itself.
Or do you not know that your body
is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you,
which you have from God,
and that you are not your own?
For you were bought with a price;
therefore glorify God in your body.
Gospel: John 1:43-51
After John’s prologue
(1:1-18), his gospel presents Jesus’ significance by not recounting
the baptism. Instead, it accords him a sequence of titles in 1:29-51
that summarize the gradual understanding of Jesus’ identity
by his followers.
Nathanael’s skepticism about Nazareth
may rest on its obscurity, for it is never mentioned in the Old
Testament, in contemporary historical accounts or in early rabbinical
writing. Or he may distrust the whole region of Galilee, whose inhabitants
were regarded by strict Jews as ethnically mixed and religiously
impure.
The "greater things," which
Jesus promises that Nathanael will see, begin with the first sign
in Cana (2:11) and culminate in Jesus’ crucifixion, resurrection
and ascension. Jesus is presented as the point of contact between
heaven and earth, as the locus of divine glory. The sequence of
titles in this chapter sets forth a process of understanding that
the disciples did not complete until after the resurrection.
John 1:43-51
The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee.
He found Philip and said to him, "Follow me."
Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.
Philip found Nathanael and said to him,
"We have found him
about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote,
Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth."
Nathanael said to him,
"Can anything good come out of Nazareth?"
Philip said to him, "Come and see."
When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward
him,
he said of him,
"Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!"
Nathanael asked him, "Where did you get to know me?"
Jesus answered,
"I saw you under the fig tree
before Philip called you."
Nathanael replied,
"Rabbi, you are the Son of God!
You are the King of Israel!"
Jesus answered,
"Do you believe because I told you
that I saw you under the fig tree?
You will see greater things than these."
And he said to him,
"Very truly, I tell you,
you will see heaven opened and the angels of God
ascending and descending upon the Son of Man."
Reflection and Response
A question in today’s
gospel is as pivotal as the other crucial scriptural questions,
"Who do you say that I am?" and "What is truth?"
When Nathanael asks, "Where did you get to know me?" (v.
48), Jesus’ answer reveals the nature of discipleship for God’s
people through the centuries.
Jesus does not reply with a lofty,
idealistic philosophy. Instead, he suggests that the relationship
begins with his loving eye. He sees each woman, each man, each child.
He knows each habit, each thought, each action. The call to discipleship
is not merely corporate. It is personal, a face-to-face meeting
that begins with Jesus’ invitation.
Before meeting Christ and after meeting
him, the initiative is Christ’s. Only a life lived out of that
center can offer the hint of an explanation for what he is about.
Ironically, later Christians have written treatises and books, sat
through seminars and homilies, organized classes and pursued degrees
in theology. But for Jesus himself, the answer is as simple as three
monosyllables: "I saw you."
The consoling thing about his response
is that the Christian life is accessible to anyone. God is all-seeing.
What may be discomforting is the other side of the coin. Christianity
is part and parcel of messy daily life. We can’t excuse ourselves
by saying it’s for someone else, for that group of people or
those sorts.
The story of Samuel is humorous proof
of the humble way God enters ordinary lives. God does not resort
to the trumpet call or an angelic apparition, but uses the insight
of a groggy Eli. It’s fun to picture the befuddled man with
tousled hair, growing increasingly annoyed as his sleep is repeatedly
interrupted. And yet, in the middle of the night, God speaks. God
is found where flawed human beings are willing to listen to each
other and to do what God asks. As Paul says, we have been purchased–at
the price of Jesus’ crucifixion.
God does not demand the impossible,
but invites the simple response, "Here I am."
Quietly consider:
What does Jesus’ invitation "follow me" mean
in the specific context of my life?
Prayer Starter
O loving God, help me to respond generously to your call,
even though...
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