Second Sunday of the Year January 15, 2012
1 Samuel 3: 3b-10, 19 1 Corinthians 6: 13c-15a John 1:35-42
Because we live in the city, in an urban environment, we might take for granted the noise that surrounds us. It is noise that comes from cars, motorcycles, trains, or planes. It is noise that we or others cause from radios, televisions, and a variety of sound systems. It is noise that comes simply from living close to one another.
One of the benefits from being awake early in the morning, before the city itself wakes up and starts it day, is that there is sufficient quiet to both appreciate and distinguish some of the noises that are heard simply by sitting in my room. For example, if I clearly can hear trucks and cars on the highway, that means that the winds are generally from the north, and that there are cooler or colder temperatures and a greater possibility of lake-effect snow. But if I can hear trains, then the weather is coming from a southern direction, and that can mean more moderate temperatures or, if snow is falling, it is coming from a storm front. If I hear a car traveling along Triskett, I can tell if the road is wet or dry. If I can hear the motor sound but not a tire sound, that means that the road is probably covered with snow. To appreciate or to understand the message that a noise conveys, it has to be heard with quiet, silence.
It was this thought that gave me insight into the story which we heard today about Samuel and Eli. Samuel was a young and inexperienced boy. For him to distinguish what he was hearing, he first had to question the wiser and older Eli. Then he had to return to the quiet of sleeping and to listen closely to what he was hearing. The wise man, Eli, was suggesting to him that he was hearing a call from God, a call from the Lord. This story was a simple way of illustrating to us that in the relationship that God seeks to establish and maintain with us, we must be attentive to what we hear and experience around us in order to appreciate and understand more fully the “noise”, the “sounds” we are hearing.
A somewhat similar circumstance can be observed in the story of John the Baptist and his followers. The followers of John heard him describe Jesus as the “Lamb of God.” A “lamb” was the usual animal of sacrifice in the worship of God. Calling Jesus the “Lamb of God” was describing him as the sacrifice, the offering, that is made by God for us and for our human world. John is announcing that Jesus is the means of joining us, of reconciling us in our relationship with God. The response that the followers make by asking Jesus where he is staying is rather tentative, questioning. In a sense, it suggests that the place where he is staying might more fully describe him, much like our own homes can tell a great deal about ourselves. In this story, too, there is a noise, the description given by John, and a response that is an effort to grow in the understanding of what had been heard.
Along with these two incidents we have heard, God also speaks to us today in what Saint Paul writes to the Christians in the city of Corinth. The call of God to us, in Paul’s thought, is not that we are to escape or avoid the world in which we live. Rather, we are to live in this world, where we are, with whom we are, how we are. We are to do so while, at the same time, recognizing the different values we possess, the different view of the world that we hold. We are human beings with human bodies. We interact with one another in living our daily lives. But we are to do so with a great respect for ourselves and for one another because of the dignity and worth that is ours as creations of a loving God, and as having been important enough for God to act on our behalf through the message, the mission, the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The stories of Samuel and the followers of John the Baptist are simple examples for us. In our human nature, as we are, we are called to a relationship with God, the creator of that nature. That call to us, the opportunity it represents for us, is so important to what we are that God has come to us in the person of Jesus Christ. We must be attentive to that call, we must be willing to hear it. But to do so also means we have to seek a certain “quiet” of mind and heart and spirit. It is a quiet that allows the call of our God to be heard because that call comes to us through the circumstances and persons that are a part of daily living. Sometimes that call might be evident and clear. Most times it is not. We need to listen carefully because God’s call to us comes within the contexts of our families, our work, our neighborhoods, the simplicity and ordinariness of our daily activities.
It is through a response to the “noise” of these calls, heard because of a quiet listening in our lives, that we can experience all that God intends for us, and we can live out the highest qualities of what we are as reflections of the goodness and the truth of our gracious God.