The Second Sunday after the Epiphany, 15 January 2012
I Samuel 3:1-20
Psalm 139:1-5, 12-17
I Corinthians 6:12-20
St. John 1:43-51
Background: The Book of Samuel
The Books of Samuel were originally a book of Samuel. It was only later when the materials were translated into Greek in Ptolemaic Egypt (LXX – or the Septuagint) that the division occurred. The various chapters are centered on the cusp of change in early Israel where the tribal confederation moves into and finally adopts a monarchial system. In the course we meet not only Samuel, but Saul and David as well. What is given us is a history of the Samuel Tradition, and then a David cycle as well, which well may have derived from a court history. It is an important stage in the development of the cult of Yahweh, and we are allowed to see the liturgical landscape prior to David’s centralization of the rite in Jerusalem. In addition, this early history, and court history sets out a number of themes and principles that will be important in forming the Christian story as well.
1 Samuel 3:1-20
Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the LORD under Eli. The word of the LORD was rare in those days; visions were not widespread.
At that time Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see, was lying down in his room; the lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the LORD, where the ark of God was. Then the LORD called, "Samuel! Samuel!" and he said, "Here I am!" and ran to Eli, and said, "Here I am, for you called me." But he said, "I did not call; lie down again." So he went and lay down. The LORD called again, "Samuel!" Samuel got up and went to Eli, and said, "Here I am, for you called me." But he said, "I did not call, my son; lie down again." Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD, and the word of the LORD had not yet been revealed to him. The LORD called Samuel again, a third time. And he got up and went to Eli, and said, "Here I am, for you called me." Then Eli perceived that the LORD was calling the boy. Therefore Eli said to Samuel, "Go, lie down; and if he calls you, you shall say, `Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.'" So Samuel went and lay down in his place.
Now the LORD came and stood there, calling as before, "Samuel! Samuel!" And Samuel said, "Speak, for your servant is listening." [Then the LORD said to Samuel, "See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make both ears of anyone who hears of it tingle. On that day I will fulfill against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end. For I have told him that I am about to punish his house forever, for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them. Therefore I swear to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli's house shall not be expiated by sacrifice or offering forever."
Samuel lay there until morning; then he opened the doors of the house of the LORD. Samuel was afraid to tell the vision to Eli. But Eli called Samuel and said, "Samuel, my son." He said, "Here I am." Eli said, "What was it that he told you? Do not hide it from me. May God do so to you and more also, if you hide anything from me of all that he told you." So Samuel told him everything and hid nothing from him. Then he said, "It is the LORD; let him do what seems good to him."
As Samuel grew up, the LORD was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel from Dan to Beer-sheba knew that Samuel was a trustworthy prophet of the LORD.]
There are elements of the Samuel story that influence the Birth Narratives in Luke and Matthew. There is the image of the barren mother (Hannah=Elizabeth), and of the son given up to godly service (John the Baptist and Jesus). In this reading we see God’s adoption of Samuel as the worthy prophet and God’s condemnation of the house of Eli. As with Joseph and later Daniel, Samuel’s mode of revelation is a dream/vision in which God communicates a prophetic word. In this scene, God calls Samuel to be God’s spokesperson – sometimes a dangerous task, such as revealing to Eli God’s condemnation of him and his sons. This call sets up Samuel as the voice who will share God’s pronouncements, and mirrors the calls that we will witness in today’s Gospel reading.
Breaking open Samuel:
- Have you ever felt that you have been called by God?
- To what were you called?
- How were you supported in your call?
Psalm 139:1-5, 12-17 Domine, probasti
LORD, you have searched me out and 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 press upon 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; *
they were fashioned day by day,
when as yet there was none of them.
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.
This is perhaps one of the most intimate psalms in the Bible, where the author recounts all the ways in which he is known by God. Some of the vocabulary and ideas are reminiscent of the call of Jeremiah “before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.” In addition there are other images that are repeated in Jeremiah. Jeremiah saw the individual as “clay” and God as the “potter.” So it is in this psalm where repeated verses see God as winnowing (perhaps analyzing and assessing God’s creation) or “from behind and in front you shaped me.” The realizations of the psalmist go beyond the intimacy with which God is acquainted with the individual, but continues on to setting up the individual as unique “for awesomely I am set apart.” Although the individual seems to be the focus here, it is actually God’s consummate knowledge of not just the individual but the totality of creation that is celebrated here.
Breaking open Psalm 139
- How intimate is your relationship with God?
- How well do you think God knows you?
- How has God shaped you?
1 Corinthians 6:12-20
"All things are lawful for me," but not all things are beneficial. "All things are lawful for me," but I will not be dominated by anything. "Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food," and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is meant not for fornication but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord and will also raise us by his power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Should I therefore take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! Do you not know that whoever is united to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For it is said, "The two shall be one flesh." But anyone united to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Shun fornication! Every sin that a person commits is outside the body; but the fornicator sins against the body itself. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body.
When Paul makes his points about being the “body of Christ”, the members of that body are subject to an understanding of things that is informed by being a part of that body. Being the body of Christ, then, is a matter of discernment and decision. In this reading, Paul wrestles with those who are trying to understand what we are bound to do or not to do if we indeed are the body of Christ. The issues seem to center on what to eat (which flows from the Jewish dietary laws), and what sexual behaviors are to be expected. When Paul announces early on in the reading, “All things are lawful for me”, Paul is moving to understand, along with the gentiles following him, what such liberties actually allow. The theology of the Body of Christ seems not to allow all the liberties that would have been allowed the gentiles of his time. The sticking point is not the dietary laws, but rather the sexual constraints, and these points are tied to his understanding of the Body of Christ. In Paul’s mind, sexual union, creates an ontological change – that of being “of one body.” Thus he argues against the sexual liberties that were common for most gentiles.
Breaking open I Corinthians:
- What liberties are you allowed as a Christian?
- What does it mean to you to be the Body of Christ?
- What are you forbidden in your life in Christ?
John 1:43-51
The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, "Follow me." Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, "We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth." Nathanael said to him, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Philip said to him, "Come and see." When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said of him, "Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!" Nathanael asked him, "Where did you get to know me?" Jesus answered, "I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you." Nathanael replied, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!" Jesus answered, "Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these." And he said to him, "Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man."
The evangelist peppers this scene with a knowledge of the Old Testament, some of which might slip by us. This foundational knowledge of the prophetic vision of the Messiah becomes the means by which these soon-to-be apostles connect not only with Jesus, but with one another as well. Philip seems to know Jesus through communication with Andrew and Peter, and perhaps John the Baptist, as well. He seems predisposed, as does Nathanael as well. Nathanael is a discerning Israelite however. Knowing that the town of Nazareth had produced no prophets, he wonders about it as a provenance for the Messiah. Their meeting (Nathanael and Jesus) indicates Jesus’ knowledge of some private event in Nathanael’s life – see the themes in the psalm for this Sunday, where God intimately knows the life of the psalmist as well. This knowledge for Nathanael is the tripping point. “Rabbi, you are the Son of God!” This is an amazing leap of faith. Jesus however promises greater and more – indicating a vision of the Son of Man that recalls Jacob’s vision of the ladder into heaven. Once again, God visits humankind.
Breaking open the Gospel:
- How did you come to know Jesus?
- When did you decide that you were a follower?
- What has happened since then?
After breaking open the Word, you might want to pray the Collect for Sunday:
Almighty God, whose Son our Savior Jesus Christ is the light of the world: Grant that your people, illumined by your Word and Sacraments, may shine with the radiance of Christ's glory, that he may be known, worshipped, and obeyed to the ends of the earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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