January 18, 2015

Helen Jacobi

Year B     Epiphany 2     1 Samuel 3:1-10     Psalm 139     1 Corinthians 6:12-20     John 1:43-51

Video available on YouTube, Facebook

Come and see Philip said to Nathanael. Go back and listen Eli said to Samuel. Samuel heard a voice calling, he thought it was his teacher Eli, a logical conclusion. Samuel was a boy born of the deep prayer and commitment of his mother Hannah, and so in a sense he was already attuned to the voice of God. She had brought him up in prayer and devotion. Yet here, while he was still young, God speaks to him and with a message he doesn’t really understand. And it is not even a message for him but for Eli, and for Eli’s family. And yet Eli confirms for Samuel he had heard God speaking. And so Samuel was known to be “a trustworthy prophet of the Lord” (v20).

We know much less about Philip and Nathanael. In fact Nathanael only appears in this account of the gospel of John, and he is not in any other list of the disciples. And the conversation between him and Jesus seems to be missing a few lines. But whatever goes on in the conversation, Nathanael is invited to come and see, and it is Jesus who “sees” him. Sees who he is as a person, and who he might be. And in turn Nathanael sees who Jesus is, the Son of God.

In your life who invites you to come and see, who says to you go back and listen. Who are the people in your life who have guided you as you have waited or longed for something? A teacher, a parent, a friend. When you haven’t been able to see what is going on around you, or couldn’t see what was really right in front of you, who has helped you find your way, discover a skill, or acknowledge a desire. Who has helped you have some insight into yourself, and who has helped you see Jesus for who he really is. They are your Eli and your Philip. Our Eli’s and Philip’s might not just help us understand ourselves but help us understand God’s world as well. Sometimes it is not a person who helps you see but maybe a movie or an article.

We watched a wonderful French movie this week called “Of Gods and Men” directed in 2010 by Xavier Beauvois. Some of you will have seen it – I know the Interfaith Council in Auckland showed it a few years ago. It is the story of French Cistercian monks in Algeria in 1996. Their monastery has been established there for generations and live to serve the local village, Tibhirine, offering a medical clinic and support. There is no sense that they are there to “convert” the locals, simply to serve. During the Algerian Civil War which had been going since 1991 they are increasingly under threat and debate whether to leave or stay. The movie has very little dialogue, reflecting the prayerful silence of much of their day. They go back and listen often and eventually decide to stay, knowing they are likely to be killed. And indeed they are.

In a letter left behind by the Abbot Christian he says

If it should happen one day – and it could be today – that I become a victim of the terrorism which now seems ready to encompass all the foreigners in Algeria, I would like my community, my Church, my family, to remember that my life was given to God and to this country. To accept that the One Master of all life was not a stranger to this brutal departure. I would like them to pray for me: how worthy would I be found of such an offering?

I would like them to be able to associate this death with so many other equally violent ones allowed to fall into the indifference of anonymity. My life has no more value than any other. Nor any less value. In any case, it has not the innocence of childhood. I have lived long enough to know that I share in the evil which seems, alas, to prevail in the world, and even in that which would strike me blindly. I should like, when the time comes, to have a space of lucidity which would enable me to beg forgiveness of God and of my fellow human beings, and at the same time to forgive with all my heart the one who would strike me down… [1]

He invites his readers to come and see and to go back and listen. Not to jump to conclusions and rush to judgment.

This week there has been an outpouring of commentary and opinion since the killings in Paris. There has been less commentary on other parts of the world such as Nigeria. We get so easily saturated and numbed to the reality of each of the stories of each of the tragedies. And that is ok, we can’t take it all in. But we can do something in our community, in our place. Come and see Philip said to Nathanael. Go back and listen Eli said to Samuel.

Aotearoa/NZ is a multi faith land now just as it is a multi cultural land. And we need to see and to listen to our sisters and brothers of other faiths more now than ever. The way to peace can only be though dialogue and mutual concern. Simply getting to know each other. We do not have to deal with the hostilities of many places in the world; we do not have the Wall of separation like in Israel/Palestine; we do not feel under threat. And yet these events across the world heighten our awareness of those who live along side us and who follow customs of worship different (and yet not so different) from our own.

This year I want us as a faith community and as individuals to seek ways we can intentionally be in conversation with our brothers and sisters of other faiths. I know this has been a part of the tradition of St Matthew’s and I want us to revive that spirit and expand on it. Jocelyn Armstrong is a member of the Auckland Interfaith Council and will be able to guide us. But I am also interested in the person to person contact. How many of you know someone who is Moslem, or Jewish, or Buddhist… That is where we start in conversation. Listening. Being intentional, making an effort to have new and fresh conversations and seeing where they may lead. We can organize some kind of “official” dialogue with leaders but it is the person to person contact where we learn and make a difference. Stephen and I have enrolled for an “Understanding Islam” course at Continuing Education at Auckland University. [2] It is 4 evenings in March – Who would like to join us?

Come and see Philip said to Nathanael. Go back and listen Eli said to Samuel. At the time Samuel was a boy we are told “the word of the Lord was rare, visions were not widespread”. The people were waiting to hear from God and Samuel was the first prophet (one who spoke God’s word) in a long time. The people in Jesus’ time were waiting too, waiting for God. Waiting and longing for hope, for peace, for justice, waiting to be in a deeper relationship with God. Come and see, Philip said; go back and listen, Eli said.

The psalmist (139) says “Lord you have searched me and known me … you knit me together in my mother’s womb”. God knows us from the beginning and in our hearts and at the same time God reaches from there to the rest of the world “even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day, for darkness is as light to you.” God calls us to see and to hear God within our own lives, and we can see and hear with God, to the rest of the world.

In many countries the children of Yahweh, and Allah, and Jesus are born into a world where they cannot be in relationship together. Just like apartheid in South Africa, just like segregation in the US. We can sit down together and meet and listen and see. God calls us into relationship with each other and with God. God invites us to come and see and to listen. God invites us to be loved and to be part of God’s reconciling love for the world.

[1] http://www.monasteriesoftheheart.org/scriptorium/testament-christian-de-cherge-ocso

[2] http://lifelonglearning.co.nz/introduction-to-islam/