Hearing and Meeting

2 Epiphany B 2009
(1 Sam 3: 1-10; Ps 139: 1-5, 12-17; 1 Cor 6: 12-20; John 1: 43-51)


Do we hear the voice of God? Do we answer, “Of course!” or “of course not!” or “I don’t know what that means.” We read texts that tell of God speaking. God IS speech in our tradition, God is word. But what do we believe about the voice of God? Not God’s speech to the holy and the famous, but God’s speech to us, to you and to me. Do we hear the voice of God?

Do we hear in the Bible the voice of God? Does Samuel’s story help us hear? This IS a story of speaking and hearing. We hear “the Word of the Lord was rare in those days”, a statement which has always made me feel at home. This story is set in a temple and the boy was a priest, but even then Samuel did not know that God was speaking. His sleep is disturbed, and he thinks the old man Eli is calling. It also takes old Eli time to believe that God may still speak and that it is the boy, not him, who is being addressed. He does tell Samuel to listen and what to say back.

What wakes us up in the middle of the night? What is hidden in the speech or silence we hear? Is it in our own pain or our own joy where God’s speech is hidden? Where else do we hear the voice of God? The speech of God is a hidden speech. Dietrich Bonhoeffer said that any God that would let us prove his existence is an idol. The speech of God is no easier to prove. The speech of God may be subtle and soft, but when heard it can move hearts and change lives. Perhaps to be a person of faith is to believe that God’s speech is still possible. A world in which God may speak is a world with hope. A world in which God may speak is where power or wealth or despair or death does not have the last word. A world in which God may speak is a world where all our assumptions may be upset. A world in which God may speak is where faithful hearts are listening hearts. Do we hear the voice of God?

Have we ever met Jesus and what does that mean?

Today’s Gospel tells about meeting Jesus. Jesus decides to go to Galilee, he does not say why. Before he goes he finds Philip and says, without explaining what it will mean, “Follow me.” Philip follows by finding Nathaniel and asks him to come see Jesus. Nathaniel does not buy it and Jesus likes that. Jesus says he saw Nate under a fig tree, and Nate bursts out with that statement of faith—“Son of God! King of Israel!” Why? Two different groups in my hearing this past week wondered why. And Jesus tells Nate that he’ll see greater things still—just like Jacob long ago, Nate will see angels rising and descending, not on some stone in the wilderness, but on the mysterious Son of Man.

What does it mean to meet Jesus? Did we meet Jesus in our own face or in the face of another, in prayer or worship, sacrament, speech, or silence? Was it once only or does it still happen? One seeker told me that they wished they had not met Jesus because life was simpler before they had. But done is done, and once our hearts and minds have been kindled we find we wish to go deeper and deeper. And then we are surprised when we find our lives changing, our immersion in the community of Jesus deepening, our sense that our life has a new center growing.

And no matter what we have felt, no matter what we have learned, no matter how far we’ve come, Jesus may still come as a stranger and a surprise. I don’t believe that we follow Jesus because we know him. We know Jesus because we follow him, we’ve begun the journey, and we learn of him on the way. Each time we take the road with Jesus, the wonders we find will be greater still.

Have we ever met Jesus and what does that mean? The answer will deepens, and he’ll show us more wonder still.