EPIPHANY 2
2012 CODDINGTON
1
Sam
3,1-10 & John
1,43-51
D’you
remember the story of Samuel? His father was Elkanah, and he had two
wives,
Peninnah, who had children, and Hannah, who was childless. Peninnah
constantly
mocked and tormented Hannah because she was barren. So Hannah, weeping
bitterly, prayed to the Lord for a child while she was at the shrine at
This
is how
the boy Samuel, as we heard in the first lesson, was there with Eli and
came to
hear the calling of the Lord. He answered that call, and so later
became one
the great prophets and leaders of
God’s
calling of individuals is a constant theme throughout the Old
Testament, and it
was those who answered his call who were able to do great things for
him and
for his chosen people.
And
in the
New Testament it is again those who answer the call of Jesus who come
to
establish the church and cause the Christian faith to spread through
the
Mediterranean world.
From
In
St Mark’s
Gospel the account is much more straightforward. Come with me, said
Jesus to
Simon and Andrew. Come with me, he said to James and John. And at once
they
left their nets and their boats and followed him.
They
left
everything behind, not only their jobs and their livelihood, but also
their
possessions, their homes, their security and even their families. These
four,
together with Philip - Nathaniel didn’t become an apostle - and the
other seven
to be called later, abandoned everything to follow Jesus. It shows what
a
marvellously attractive personality he must have had.
It’s
most
likely, of course, that when Jesus said to them: Follow me, they
weren’t seeing
him for the first time. They’d probably already heard his preaching -
and what
a compelling message that must have been: The time has come; the
Anyway,
however it was, when the call came there was no hesitation, no
half-hearted
response. Immediately they left everything and went with him.
And
so
Jesus, shortly after his own baptism in the Jordan by John, which had
marked
the change from him being a carpenter of Nazareth to becoming a
wandering
preacher, so Jesus gathered around him his team of twelve. The number
of course
was significant. The people of God, the Israelites, had been formed
from twelve
tribes. Jesus had come to re-new the people of God, to create a new
And
the
very fact that he bothered to form a group is itself significant.
Unlike John
the Baptist, he didn’t want to go it alone, just doing his own thing,
working
in isolation.
These
men
were to be the nucleus of his church. For Jesus must have had an eye to
the
future. I’m sure that, just like us, he did not know
precisely what was to happen to him in the
days and months that lay ahead, but he was surely able to foresee that
if he
exclusively followed God’s way, he was likely to come to an early and
murderous
end. So it was necessary to leave behind him a small number of people
who knew
him through and through, who’d been his friends and companions day
after day,
who’d heard his preaching and teaching about God, who’d seen his
healing work,
who’d observed the way he dealt with people - all sorts of people, good
and
bad, the self-important and those in distress.
They
were
his disciples, and though we normally think that the word disciples
means
followers, more than that, it means learners. They were his trainees,
his
apprentices, being prepared to carry on his mission after he’d gone, at
least
physically gone.
So
what
sort of people did Jesus choose for this most important of jobs? It’s
not
unfair, I think, to say that by and large they were average men. By the
standards of the day they were neither rich nor poor, neither dunces
nor great
intellects. They were ordinary working people with no great background,
and
certainly at that time no great future either. They were, of course,
individuals with individual characters. That comes out in the gospel
accounts
and in the nicknames that Jesus chose for some of them. They certainly
weren’t
especially holy or other-worldly.
In
fact, in
St Mark’s Gospel, the first to be written, they’re not painted in a
good light
at all. It’s one of the puzzles of the gospel. Mark obviously thought
they were
important: at the time of his writing they were held in great regard,
but
almost every time they are mentioned we’re told how inadequate they
were, how
lacking in faith and understanding, how hard-hearted, how concerned for
themselves.
It
is, I
think, Mark’s way of getting across the point that these great and
famous
apostles we’re just like us - and us like them. How little faith we
have! How
often we fail to understand! How hard our hearts are, and how much in
the end
do we care most of all for ourselves! They did marvellous things for
God: so
could we, if we answer his call and put our trust in him.
When
Jesus
called the fishermen, he said: Come with me and I will make you fishers
of men.
It was not that they should catch people against their will. It was to
gather
them into the net of salvation; to bring them from outer darkness into
the
light, or - another biblical idea - to gather the lost sheep into the
safety of
the fold, which is the church.
How
can we
do any of this? We have answered God’s call: otherwise we wouldn’t be
here this
morning worshipping him. We are Jesus’ disciples - learners in his
school of
living. We’ve got our L-plates on, and though we may not yet have
passed the
test, there is something we can do, something active, something
positive,
something that can make a difference.
By
the way
we live and by what we say to others, by the example of our own lives,
we can
help people to see that ladder between heaven and earth. We can help
them to be
aware of that direct link connecting the things of God with our things,
with
our daily lives. Heaven will, so to speak, be opened, and we and they
shall be
tinged with the holiness of God, enriching our oh-so-ordinary lives,
giving
them an extra-ordinary quality.
Today
Jesus
says to us: Follow me. Let us do so, and let us, for him, also become
fishers
of men and of women, bringing others into the joyful sphere of God’
love.