Epiphany 2B

It seems fitting on the Sunday when we have our annual meeting that the first lesson and gospel reading both talk about God’s calling us into an active journey of faith. The Book of First Samuel describes Samuel’s initial misunderstanding of who is calling him; the gospel according to John describes Philip’s invitation to Nathanael to ‘come and see,’ using the very words that Jesus has used to call others to discipleship.

Listen… come and see. Such are the twin invitations the lectionary readings issue us this morning.

First, listen. What does it mean to listen for God’s voice?

Sören Kierkegaard describes holy listening this way:

As my prayer became more attentive and inward
I had less and less to say.
I finally became completely silent.
I started to listen
— which is even further removed from speaking.
I first thought that praying entailed speaking.
I then learnt that praying is hearing,
not merely being silent.
This is how it is,
To pray does not mean to listen to oneself speaking.
Prayer involved becoming silent,
and being silent,
and waiting until God is heard.

When Samuel finally realises it is not Eli calling him but God, he then is able to say: Speak, for your servant is listening. Only when Samuel falls silent does God reveal what God has in mind for Israel: I am about to do something in Israel that will make both ears of anyone who hears of it tingle.

Out of this attitude of prayerful silence Samuel is able to say with conviction: Here am I!

Here am I!, the response to the second part of this morning’s invitation, to ‘come and see.’

What comes out of this response to God’s call beyond the simple words, ‘Here am I?’ What do we see when we follow Jesus?

A life of commitment. A life of service. A life of prayer. A life of joy.

+

Through these two readings is a basic, simple conversation. The first person speaking is God, and the second person is us. God calls us, saying: Follow me! Come and see! And our response is: Here I am.

It is so simple, isn’t it? Or is it?

When was the last time that someone invited us to do something different, unsettling or unexpected and we responded without hesitation: Here I am… ready to go, ready to do.

When was the last time that God called us to reach beyond ourselves, to stretch ourselves in faith, to take a risk and we answered without any bargaining or conditions: Here I am… ready to see, ready to trust.

Follow me. Come and see. Here I am.

It is so, so simple. And it is so, so hard. It is so much easier for us to be like Nathanael, questioning, doubting, even at times making snide remarks that cover our discomfort and our unease with something new. It is so much easier to believe in that which we can see, and touch, than to trust in that which is unseen, intangible. It is so much easier to hang back than to jump up in the middle of the night to answer a voice crying our name.

Yet as we look around, we realise that we are part of the communion of saints that has responded to God’s invitation to follow and come and see. Maybe our initial response was that of Nathanael, but we have stuck it out. Maybe we have reached a point that when God calls us by name — as we are at the moment of our baptism and from thereon in — we respond instantly: Here I am.

Surely those who formed Trinity, and those who in the past 200 plus years that have kept Trinity alive and well, have heard God’s call, and have answered to it. It has not been easy — this parish, like so many others, has had its real ups and down. But throughout it all, the people who make up this parish have trusted in God, trusted enough to keep following even when the path was unclear. We are part of this journey, continuing where our forebears have walked. It is up to us, now, here, to answer God’s call with an unflinching, unconditional, ‘Here I am.’

Indeed, both of these readings — First Samuel and John — move us beyond the sacrament of baptism (as was described last week) to the life that follows it. We are not promised a controlled, managed, no-risk response to Jesus. We are called to a life that engages with the world, being those who make the world tingle with the wonder of God’s revelation through Jesus the Christ. We are invited to roll up our sleeves, plunge our hands into the mess of daily life, knowing that where love and charity reside, there God is also.

On this Sunday when we, Trinity Episcopal Church in Rutland, God’s people, gather for our annual meeting, let us remember that what we are about this morning is not merely passing a budget or electing vestry members and delegates to convention, but one of the ways in which we listen for God’s still, small voice, and respond with a clear voice, Here am I! Pray that through our holy listening, we will make good decisions that will enable us to be God’s hands and feet, eyes and ears in a broken and needy world.