HERE I AM- Sermon for the 2nd Sunday after the Epiphany

Can you think of a time when you heard the voice of God clearly calling out to you? Like Samuel, perhaps you were asleep when the Voice called. Perhaps, like Samuel, you misunderstood the call. You thought that the Voice came from someone else, someone close by and near to you.

What about on the flip side of the coin? Can you think of a time when you felt that God was silent in your life? This, of course, is the context in which we hear of the calling of Samuel as a young boy. “The word of the Lord was rare in those days; visions were not widespread” (1 Sam. 3:1). The people were not hearing God speak to them in those days. Was God truly silent? Or had they forgotten how to listen?
Is there a time in your life when God seemed to disappear from your life? Do you think it was due to God’s failure to act or to speak? Or was it due to your lack of perception?

When Nathanael met Jesus, our Lord explained that he knew Nathanael – he knew what kind of person he was, and in fact he knew where Nathanael had been even before they met! Nathanael was shocked! “Where did you get to know me?” What a great question! Where did you get to know me, O God? From our side of history, we can laugh at Nathanael’s question. “Of course this man knows you! This is God incarnate, you fool!” Nathanael could not have known this. We know it to be true, but do we believe it. Do we truly and deeply believe that God knows us? Listen to these words from Curtis Almquist that boldly declare this truth:

“God loves you. Who you are, what you are, how you've gotten to be where you are: God know and loves all that. God has this passionate love affair going on with you. God has created you as you are, cherishes you, and longs for your companionship. God has plans for a relationship with you that lasts forever and that grows in intimacy over time. It's like an eternal infatuation. When you're sleeping, God is dreaming up ways to be with you. When you're working or walking or weeping, God is catching up with you in the wind across your face, in the singing of a bird, in the free fall of laughter, in the soothing touch of a friend. You are the apple of God's eye. “ —Unwrapping the Gifts: The Twelve Days of Christmas, by Curtis G. Almquist.

God knows us – even better than we know ourselves! “You knit me together in my mother’s womb.” And God speaks to us, calls us by name. But we desperately need to learn the art of listening. Bruce Main, the director of Urban Promise in Camden, a ministry to children in the inner city, tells of a time when he came home from work and greeted his wife, Pam, in their kitchen. Bruce was tired from a long day of work and not really paying attention as Pam launched into a story about her day. Pam was explaining that she took flowers over to their friend Kay who recently learned that her husband had an aggressive brain tumor and would not live long. Unfortunately, Kay was not at home. Pam met Kay’s son-in-law and Pam learned that Kay was spending most of her time at the hospital every day with her ailing husband. So Pam left the flowers and began to drive home, but she had a nagging feeling that she was supposed to do something. She felt a deep compulsion that she was supposed to deliver this message to Kay, “God hears you.”

That’s it? Bruce thought, as he listened to her story, now a bit perplexed. That’s the divine message for Kay, “God hears you”? Isn’t that a simple platitude, a really basic idea, not very profound? And was Pam supposed to spend the rest of her day driving into Philadelphia, struggling to find a parking space, hoping to find Kay in the hospital, all in the hopes of giving her this simple message, “God hears you”?
Well, Pam did it. She made it into the hospital, stopping on the way to pick up some sandwiches and juice for Kay. Kay, of course, was a bit surprised to see her, but pleased also. And after a few minutes of small talk, Kay asked Pam why she had come all the way into the city to see her.
“I have a message for you, Kay,” she explained. “What I’m about to tell you may sound a little strange – maybe absurd! … God hears you!” “That’s it?” Kay asked. Pam nodded, and then it began. Kay broke down in tears and cried. Through her tears, she explained that her first husband had died of cancer years earlier. And she had prayed and asked God to please spare her from that kind of pain again. And when she married Jack, her second husband, she had again prayed specifically to ask that she die first before Jack if he were to become ill. But now here she was, with Jack close to death, Kay had given up on God. Kay had given up on prayer. But here Pam came to her –there, at that moment - with a message of hope!

Pam listened to the Voice of the Holy Spirit. God called to her, and she listened. God spoke, and she obeyed. And something important and meaningful was done there in the name of Jesus. (See Bruce Main, Spotting The Sacred: Noticing God in the Most Unlikely Places, 2006, by Baker Books.)

Did you hear that prayer –the Collect – which was appointed for our gathering this morning? “Grant that your people, illumined by your Word and Sacraments, may shine with the radiance of Christ’s glory…”
Well, my friends, that prayer is about us. By the grace of God alone, we are his people, chosen and selected to be instruments of grace and blessing to the world around us. But to do this, we must be willing to listen, and to act with courage when the Voice speaks to us. It may only be a hunch, a feeling deep inside. But deep inside is where the Holy Spirit dwells! Have no fear, my friends. God knows how to speak to us, how to communicate in a way that we can hear. But we must listen and follow. When we do, we glorify God in our body. When we do, then we truly go forth into the world with “strength and courage to love and serve [our Lord] with gladness and singleness of heart.” So may it always be among us who share bread together at this, the Lord’s table. Amen.