Sermon for Second Sunday after Epiphany
You are known. You are called.
By The Rev. Christie Webb -
Friends, as we begin this sermon time today, I want you to find a comfortable place to sit. Settle in. Take a deep breath. Let all things go besides this moment right before us. Soften your gaze or close your eyes as you feel comfortable. And listen. Listen to and savor the words of Psalm 139 again, hearing it spoken about you and God. As you listen, pay attention to where your heart is caught, what part shimmers or sparkles for you.
Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18
Lord, you have searched me out;
O Lord, you have known me.
You know my sitting down and my rising up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.
You trace my journeys and my resting-places
and are acquainted with all my ways.
Indeed, there is not a word on my lips,
but you, O Lord, know it altogether.
You encompass me, behind and before,
and lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is so high that I cannot attain to it.
For you yourself created my inmost parts;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I will thank you because I am marvelously made;
your works are wonderful, and I know it well.
My body was not hidden from you,
while I was being made in secret and woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes beheld my limbs, yet unfinished in the womb; all of them were written in your book;
my days were fashioned before they came to be.
How deep I find your thoughts, O God!
How great is the sum of them!
If I were to count them, they would be more in number than the sand;
to count them all, my life span would need to be like yours.
[Pause]
You friend, you beloved are known. God has searched you. God knows you, is acquainted with all your ways, surrounds you, hems you in behind and before. God created your inmost parts, knit you together in the womb, with the careful precision and wild inspiration of an artist. You are marvelously made. God beholds all of you, your body, each limb, all of your days. God knows you. And God calls you. Yes you. [Pause]
Feel free to come back into this space, or continue to keep your eyes closed and deep in that known space as you feel so called.
Calling. We are in the midst of a series on how God calls us. You and me. Each of us. God knows us, and calls us anyway. God knows us, and calls us because. God knows us, even all the parts we would rather keep hidden, and calls all that we are, all that we’ve experienced, all the ways we are knitted together, formed and shaped, God calls all of that into service to God, to know God’s love, and to share that love and the good news with all the world.
Today we have before us two profound calls stories, each of them unique, just the like the people who experienced them, just like you, who experience your own call stories.
I love the call story of Samuel. Do you know the whole story of Samuel? He was the son of Elkanah and Hannah. Now Hannah had a difficult time conceiving. She was very sad about this, and one time went to the temple to pray to God. She prayed and told God that if she had a son she would bring him to the temple and dedicate his life to God. And Hannah came to have a son. She named him Samuel which means God has heard, because she had asked God for this son. Hannah fulfilled her promise, and brought Samuel to the temple, and he grew up there, under the care of Eli. It says Samuel grew up in the presence of the Lord. I love that. I wish that for us all. Anyway, it came to be when Samuel was about 12 that what we read in our first reading took place. Samuel and Eli are sleeping. Samuel hears someone call his name. Thinking it is Eli, he gets up and goes to the older man. Eli woken up from sleep numerous times as the call comes, gets grumpier and grumpier until he realizes what it happening. God, not Eli, is calling for Samuel. And so he instructs Samuel to say those profound words: “Speak Lord, for your servant is listening.”
I wonder if your call story is like Samuel’s- where you knew your calling since you were a child. One of you shared that with me, after worship last week- that you knew from a young age you were called to be a nurse.
I wonder if your call story is like Samuel’s- where it took a bit of time, God calling again and again for you to finally get it.
I wonder if your call story is like Samuel’s- I wonder what it woke you up from.
We have as well, the story of God calling Nathanael. He is invited by Philip to “Come and see.” A repeat invitation Jesus offered to some other disciples the day before. Nathanael is skeptical at first- can anything good come out of Nazareth? But then he meets Jesus. And Jesus knows him. Knows Nathanael. “Where did you get to know me?” Nathanael wonders. I feel his awe at that, don’t you. How can you know me so well? And then in an instant, Nathanael not only is known, but knows: “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel.” A profound statement of faith after such a short interaction.
I wonder if your call story is like Nathanael’s- who was it who already knew Jesus who invited you to come and see?
I wonder if your call story is like Nathanael’s- where the call came later in life, when you were already established.
I wonder if your call story is like Nathanael’s- recognition coming in an instant.
Friends, God calls you by name. Friends, God knows you. God formed you, shaped you, knit you together, hems you in, knows even the parts you try to hide, loves you, and calls you, all of you, all of who you are, into relationship, into service. God calls you. Thanks be to God.
Amen.
The Rev. Christie Webb
Pastor - Mt. Olive Lutheran Church
Santa Monica, California
Sermon for:
January 21, 2024
