SUNDAY, JANUARY 14, 2024 | EPIPHANY - Second Sunday After The Epiphany (B)

Good morning!

As noted last week, we continue the season of revelations. In 1 Samuel, we read about the revelation of God to Samuel, who was rather confused at first about hearing God’s voice, he thought it was his master Eli. However, with the help of Eli, he recognized it and listened. And oh boy, was it a hard first word of the Lord Samuel received - a judgement against the house of Eli, for the priest’s sons were blaspheming against God. Samuel must have been like…cool, cool, thanks, God! Luckily, Eli took it well, but it could have gone very differently! The lesson is that sometimes, it may be hard to recognize the voice of God and when we do....it may be something we do not want to hear, let alone share with others! And yet...

And then in John, we have a revelation in discipleship. As you may have noticed, the writers of John do not want to wait with declaring who Jesus is - it’s bam, right there, in the very first chapter and even the recognition by the apostles is in the first chapter. Mark with its hush-hush approach to Jesus being Christ would be like an intimate community play in the park and John would be more of a full on Las Vegas Cirque du Soleil production.

What is interesting is that Jesus chooses to exercise discipleship chain - he found Philip and told him to follow him and then Philip had gone to Nathanael and tells him about Jesus. Jesus delegated some of that discipleship work, just as it should be! Nathanael was a wee bit prejudiced/biased at first - as it is translated in the New Living Translation: “Nazareth!” exclaimed Nathanael. “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” and in the very loose and interpretative translation of The Message, it says: "Nazareth? You've got to be kidding." Allegedly, Nazarenes would be considered hillbillies by some.

But that is what Jesus actually likes about him, speaking his mind, believe it or not. And because Jesus knew where he was previously, Nathaniel was convinced about the identity of Jesus. Whether he fully understood it, well…we know that is much more complicated, both “Son of God” and “King of Israel” are very much open to different interpretations, not just then, but to this day.

But revelation also occurs within us - our bodies are temples of the indwelling Holy Spirit as Paul writes and taking it even further, everyone in the world, regardless of their religion, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, worldviews…is also made in God’s image! Every person is an unique revelation of God in three persons.

Which then has many consequences, one of which is that whenever we hurt ourselves or other people, we are hurting an expression of God’s image - there is no way around it! Our bodies are sacred and so is our whole being.

So when humanity chooses to hurt each other, we are acting against God. Be it hateful shouting matches, abuse of all kinds, assault…or more systemic ways of hurting people like legislation, oppression, wars, or genocides. We are all connected by the very same God.

As my favorite author Terry Prattchet wrote in one of his novels:

“Evil begins when you begin to treat people as things.”

Sure, that makes lowering your compassion for the other and treating them differently than your neighbors, friends, family much, much easier. God’s image is imprinted in Palestinians, Ukrainians, Israelis, Russians, Iranians, Somalis, Afghani, Chinese, Malay, Germans, Italians, Jamaican, African American, regardless of their socioeconomic status, marriage status, morals, … Those children from disadvantaged families that will go hungry over summer break because Republican governors “do not believe in welfare” and will not implement federally funded food stamps for them, bear God’s image as much as Elon Musk or Malala.

God is revealed in all of us! And that is the good news - it’s not just some supernatural event, a voice in our head/conscience, or a especially gripping part of a Bible story.

The bad news is that makes our lives…complicated. Just as Samuel’s life got complicated when he received his first prophesy about Eli and his house. Realizing that before God we are all equally priceless has the potential to turn the world upside down. Every justification for a war will ring hollow, no matter how “good” it is…Every effort to exclude and oppress anyone is ultimately wrong, no matter how much we are told they deserve it.... and every occurence of abuse and assault is an affront against/to our righteous and loving God. If we try and act like it just a little bit, it can make a big difference still! Just a little bit more respect and love for each other can go a long way.

We are all created in God’s image and thus we are all unique revelations of this very God. Amen.