The Second Sunday after the Epiphany

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The Second Sunday after the Epiphany, January 15, 2006
I Samuel 3:1-20, I Corinthians 6:11b-20, John 1:43-51
St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, West Valley City, UT

This morning we have the accounts of being called by God. Samuel responds in the classic way of the faithful throughout scripture: “Here I am.” This is the response of those men and women called of God from Samuel to Mary. In the Gospel we have the account of Nathaniel and Phillip. I have always found Nathaniel's response to be rather incredulous: belief because Jesus saw him under a fig tree? I believe there is an unknown part of this story that will forever be hidden from our eyes regarding this man within whom there is no deceit/guile. In the call of each of the initial twelve disciples, there is the leap of faith to follow this itinerant rabbi. Each of these men walked away from family, career, regular lives at the invitation of Jesus. They took a leap, a risk of faith.

I love stories of calling, of responding to a sense of call or ministry, of transformation and rebirth. How were you called? What difference has it made in your life? Why are you here today?

One of my all-time heroes is Dag Hammarskjold. He writes: “I don't know Who—or what—put the question, I don't know when it was put. I don't even remember answering. But at some moment I did answer Yes to Someone—or Something—and from that hour I was certain that existence is meaningful and that, therefore, my life, in self-surrender, had a goal.” (Markings)

I believe we answer Yes throughout our lives. There may be the one moment, but there are other moments throughout our lives when we answer Yes to our sense of call, our sense of ministry.

Call and response; question and answer, however, are just the first part of ultimate call. The real part, the hard part, is living into the “yes,” of living into the unknown, the unseeable, the mystery. Nathaniel, Phillip, Andrew, Peter and the other disciples did not know their lives would end violently as a result of their yes to Jesus.

Tomorrow we will remember a man who answered, “Here I am” in a very specific call to be a voice of prophecy, a voice of justice to an entire nation, Martin Luther King, Jr. In Utah we will note it as “Human Rights Day.” And I actually agree with the naming of this day by the State Legislature for it touches every aspect of our national social fabric: male-female, black-white, gay-straight, rich-poor, every aspect. It is about justice. It is not just about race relations.

In our language as Episcopalians, it is about working for “justice and peace among all people” and respecting the “dignity of every human being” from the Baptismal Covenant we renewed last week.

This is means our life is not always easy, peaceful, or calm. To work for justice and peace means more times than not tension. Dr. King wrote the following from Birmingham jail: “I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Councilor or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate who is more devoted to 'order' than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice ... who lives by the myth of time and constantly advises the Negro to wait 'until a more convenient season'....Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than the absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.”

When we are dealing with issues of justice and peace and the respect of every human being, there is no “convenient season.” The season is now and the call is for us to answer.

There has been much talk of late about the various controversies surrounding our Episcopal Church. As a deputy to General Convention, I have been part of the decision making that has brought us to this place in our history. I believe our church is answering the call for justice and peace, and the cry to respect the dignity of every human being. The warning of Dr. King is for us as well, that we not be “more devoted to 'order' than to justice” and that we not seek a “negative peace which is the absence of tension” but rather “a positive peace which is the presence of justice.” The Holy Spirit continues to move through our church and we are seeking to heed her promptings in the ordering of our common life.

As we look at our response to God's call to us. As we look at the lives of those men and women who have responded in faith and courage to God's call to them, may we also respond in our way, in our own voice, in our own lives with, “Here I am. Speak for your servant is listening.”