Called to Be Light in the World

 Here on this January day in the Season of Epiphany                                                                    when the liturgical emphasis is on increasing light,

and having affirmed our baptisms last Sunday

            with an intention to live out our baptisms in ministry and service

we have much set before us.

 

I am not just referring to the Annual Meeting coming up next Sunday,

            or to diligently following the steps through the calling process

                        for a new priest for Nativity.

I am also referring to our Christian witness in the world,

            being examples of the light that serves to guide others

                        in the way of love.

We are to be contributing to life for the world around us.

We, as a congregation, are not a closed society, 

                        turned inward to our own needs,

            but in following the words and example of Jesus

                        servants  who, like Jesus, are willing to wash feet,

            as evidence that our salvation with Jesus took.

The world needs Christians like that.

 

The Epiphany theme of increasing light in our scripture readings each week                     starts with a star shining over the baby Jesus

and progresses in increasing brightness to the last Sunday in the season

            with the blinding white brilliance of light in the Transfiguration.

 

First today let us consider for a moment the Old Testament reading,

                        the Hebrew Bible reading .

 

It is the calling of Samuel – and note this: 

            the child did not get to decide his own course.

            It was chosen for him.

Samuel was called to be a servant of God, a prophet to convey God’s message:

            first to Eli, the priest,

            then to Saul chosen as the first king,

            and later to David, the man after God’s own heart.

God called Samuel to be God’s servant and prophet.

 

Maybe we think that we have chosen to be associated with this church,

            that we claim Nativity as our spiritual home

                        and where we so earnestly want to be back together again.

We labor under the illusion of our own autonomy.

There is nothing like a pandemic to disavow us of that notion,

            and stand in the way of our choice to be here today.

So let’s reframe this.

It is because we are drawn by God through Jesus 

            that our hearts are in anguish.

We haven’t recognized that the Holy Place for our Sunday worship

            is first and foremost in the Holy Place of our heart.

The building is a support to our worship

            but not a necessity for worship.

 

On the other hand, like Samuel attending the tabernacle keeping the lamp lit

            where the Ark of the Covenant was kept, 

            where under that holy influence he was open to hearing God’s call,

we also have had the privilege of being in a holy place

            where the reserve sacrament, the consecrated bread and wine,

                         in the tabernacle, like Samuel’s, 

            has its own perpetual light that indicates the Holy Presence.

Coming here puts under the influence of not just architecture, 

            but more importantly under the influence of holy words in the liturgy.

We, like Samuel, have been in a vulnerable place 

            in which we may hear God’s call.

The point is to discern the call and follow,

            not just to occupy the pew, to take the nourishment 

                        but neglect applying that spiritual nourishment to our lives

            so that we can be of use to God.

 

Let’s now turn our attention to the Gospel reading.

 

This is John’s account of the calling of the first disciples,

            and it is far different from the Synoptic Gospel accounts:

                        accounts in which Jesus calls Peter and Andrew, James and John,

            which you will hear next Sunday from the Gospel of Mark.

 

In the Gospel reading for today we are coming in at the middle of a story.

It starts with two disciples of John the Baptist.

            John had pointed to Jesus and said, “Behold the Lamb of God,”

and they had headed right off after him,

            drawn by their curiosity or whatever – they are drawn to him.

Jesus asks them what they seek.

            They want to know where he is coming from, what he is about,

            and he says to them, “Come and see.

After spending a short time with him, mere hours

            they are irresistibly drawn in.                        They have been called.

 

Andrew, one of the two, went and got his brother Peter.

Then Philip gets called directly by Jesus.

Philip tells Nathaniel, 

            and Nathaniel has his encounter with Jesus.

 

Note this:  each of them had their own title for Jesus, what they saw in him – 

            Messiah, Christ, Prophet, Son of God, King of Israel.

We are led to believe that these are their Epiphanies of Jesus,

            using that common usage of the word, meaning insight.

But more accurately Epiphany means a shining forth, a manifestation,

            the light of Revelation.

 

Careful reading of the passage shows 

            that Jesus doesn’t respond to any of those titles they give him.

Instead he presents to Nathaniel a whole new image and concept of himself,

                        a new way of manifesting God,

            as a connecting point, between earth and heaven – as a ladder,

a ladder between the created, physical environment we live in 

            and the divine Presence of God.

Jesus reveals himself as “axis mundi,” the point where it all comes together,

            where God and humanity are joined in perfect union,

            where others can then access God through Jesus.

That is the Epiphany moment in this Sunday’s readings.

 

But Jesus had a different title for himself than what everyone else

            was trying to peg on him: his self designation was Son of Man,

                        son of humanity, son of human being,

                                    who then manifests what it means to be fully human.

 

This puts those first called by him on the line – and all the rest of us too,

            because we also are all human beings.

The purpose of discipleship is to fulfill this human being,

            and to become, to live into, to be

                        the manifestation, the epiphany, the shining forth of God.

 

What does fulfilling our humanity look like?

            It is to realize, like Jesus, a perfect self offering to the Creator.

That is fulfilling the discipleship – 

            like Jesus, to become a living sacrifice.

Then the followers of Jesus become a light to the nations.

 

Let me share with you a little of my own calling 

            which eventually led me to the priesthood.

My parents brought my sister and me to church every Sunday.

I was placed under the influence of the Holy –

            the sacraments, the liturgy, the prayer book,

            and a particular stained glass window above the altar

                        depicting Matthew 25, the parable in which Jesus says,

“Inasmuch as you have done it unto the least of these, you have done it unto me.”

 

At age 16 I had my Samuel experience of being called.

Like Samuel I found it confusing at first.

            (You remember, Samuel thought Eli was calling him.)

My confusion was that the call I was experiencing 

                                                was like a call to the priesthood,

            but this was 1963 and I was female, not male.

It would be 14 years before the Church caught up with the Holy Spirit

            and opened the way for women’s ordination.

 

The call of God is irresistible.

We have much less of a choice in the matter than we think.

Even your membership at Nativity is not entirely of your own volition,

            and you didn’t come here by accident,

because everyone is potentially a candidate for a discipleship calling

            that can produce a servant useful for being a light to the world.

God is working with each one of us.

 

There is one key ingredient to calling,

            to becoming the shining forth of God in your humanity – the Holy Spirit.

 

Those first called by Jesus followed him throughout all he said and did,

            then went through profound loss and confusion at the Crucifixion,

            and then went through profound confusion and joy at the Resurrection.

But they didn’t fully get it until the Day of Pentecost            

            when the Resurrection Presence of Jesus as Holy Spirit

became an extension of the Epiphany, the revelation and shining forth,

            from the fulfilled humanity of Jesus

            into the Apostles and all those called from then on –

the grace of God working in us to realize our potential as human beings.

 

One might quip, this gives cosmic scope to the expression, “be all that you can be.”

 

But the point is, it is the Holy Spirit at work in us, 

            not our own self-generated efforts,  that makes it possible,

and thank God.

 

The calling is too important to leave it all up to our own efforts.

            God has seen to it, has provided for what is needed.

If you dare, ask for the Holy Spirit to be active in your life, 

            and see what happens.

 

You are called, if you are open to hear it, to be a light bearer,

                        very much needed right now,

            to be like Jesus, each in our own unique ways,

for the sake of the world and to the glory of God.                                    

Think about it.