January 18, 2015
Fr. Phil Eberhart
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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FOLLOW ME!
As we enter into the season of EPIPHANY we are invited, once again, by Jesus, as His disciples to simply "follow me." In the same way that he walked on the shores of the lake and on the roads of Galilee - in the same way that he encountered these fishermen and tax-collectors and disciples of John the Baptist, he encounters us and the invitation is still extended:
FOLLOW ME!
Our readings this morning point us to a particular feature of that journey though - its not about our trying hard to figure out what Jesus wants us to do - its not about even doing some things that we think will make Jesus happy with us. The key to FOLLOWING HIM is coming into relationship - knowing and being known by Him - by Jesus Christ, who is alive and is anxious to reveal Himself to each of us, even today.
The readings all lead us to a single conclusion!
Samuel, the young prophet, comes to "know" the voice of the Lord in our first reading. The Psalmist celebrates the fact that God knows every intimate detail of our lives - of my life - God knows me before I know me! Paul tells us that you, as you sit here this morning, are a temple of the Holy Spirit! Poke yourself - pinch yourself! This is good news friends. And finally, Jesus calls his disciples from among those he encountered along the way. John's disciples, friends, brothers, fishermen, tax-collectors, zealots - the disciples represent us - every man.
And here is the force of the meaning of EPIPHANY - in our lives both a season (a noun) and an action of the Holy Spirit (a verb)!
The collect - prayer that we opened with this morning says it well:
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.
Here is the three fold circle of discipleship again:
KNOWN - WORSHIPPED - OBEYED
I want to look a little closer at these three this morning and challenge us to a deeper walk with Jesus in this new year.
Paul uses the phrase in his love chapter that we will know as we have been known:
[1Co 13:12 NLT] 12 Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.
Do you feel like you know Jesus to the extent that Jesus knows you? The psalmist writes that God knows us...
Let me read these opening verses again from the New Living:
[Psa 139:1-5 NLT] 1 For the choir director: A psalm of David.
O LORD, you have examined my heart and know everything about me.
2 You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my thoughts even when I'm far away.
3 You see me when I travel and when I rest at home. You know everything I do.
4 You know what I am going to say even before I say it, LORD.
5 You go before me and follow me. You place your hand of blessing on my head.
We see this in action in the gospel passage as Jesus interacts with Nathaniel and calls him to follow as a disciple. He was actually quite amazed at this reality as it was manifested by Jesus!
Do we really live our lives as though Jesus is right here with us?
Step by step, moment by moment, in our thoughts and actions, in our fears, in our travels and our resting? No not really - and I'm talking about myself! I can't say for you - but for me the answer is no! Plain and simple.
PSALM 139 has been one of my life verses, ever since I met my birth parents - I came away with a sense of awe and a deep knowing that God has had His hand on me and on my life from before the very first breath!
Yesterday was the march for life here in Denver. We have been struggling to help people know and believe that life begins at the moment of conception in the mother's womb - and life ends when God takes the last breath back to Himself.
David concludes his poem/song with these words:
[Psa 139:13-17 NLT]
13 You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother's womb.
14 Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous--how well I know it.
15 You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.
16 You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.
17 How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered!
What a picture of a God who knows you - and who has known you from the very beginning - from before your first breath! And who will know you till your last breath!
And the invitation this morning is to reciprocate - to come to KNOW HIM AS YOU ARE KNOWN BY HIM.
How precious are your thoughts about me, O God!
How precious indeed.
As we come to know His thoughts about us, we are compelled to one thing: WORSHIP
I'm reminded of Isaiah, the prophet of ancient Israel, as he encountered God's presence in the temple that day - the day he was called to his ministry as a prophet -
WOE IS ME, Isaiah said. I AM A MAN OF UNCLEAN LIPS AND I DWELL AMONG A PEOPLE OF UNCLEAN LIPS.
When we come to know God in Jesus Christ, we truly begin to understand the grace involved in this relationship! It's not about us or anything we can, or should, or even could do to curry the favor of God or make Him love us. It is about HIM and HIS LOVE and HIS INITIATIVE to come among us, to live his life here as the God-Man - as the incarnate Son of God.
It's about HIS POWER to make and re-make us - to form and reform - to trans-form us.
It's about HIS TOUCH - on our lips, on our lives, our hearts, our minds and wills.
And our response to this EPIPHANY - the shedding of light into our life and onto our path is
OBEDIENCE.
Have you heard this before?
Willingness - Availability and ...
OBEDIENCE.
Something so simple, yet so hard. Jesus even knew this reality:
The Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak, He said to disciples who were sleeping in the Garden, instead of praying!
Obedience is the action part of "Follow Me."
It is in the action of knowing him, and worshipping him that we come to know what we are to do. Doing is the last part of the journey - after knowing and worshipping. Obedience is the outflow of those activities in our lives.
Obedience is the last thing, and it leads us into greater knowing and even greater worship. It is an ascending spiral - what Paul referred to as "the high calling of God in Jesus Christ." Something that he "pressed on toward" - not something he had achieved. Not something that was a finished reality in his life.
And surely it is not in ours either!
Each year, as we come to Epiphany, this is our task - this is our call - just like the first disciples to "come and see." to "follow me!" We are invited afresh in this season, at the beginning of the year, to re-investigate, to re-encounter, to re-new our own discipleship with Jesus Christ the person. We are invited to re-engage with His WORD - to read in such a way as to come to know Him better.
WWJD - What would Jesus do? Moreover, what would Jesus think? What would he say? And how can we adequately reflect his ways and his thoughts, his footsteps lived out through our lives, as He continues to teach and to touch lives in our world, through each of us. As He continues to invite others to "come and see." Come Follow Me.
Let us pray.
Will you pray our opening prayer again with me now:
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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