January 14, 2018

Epiphany 2 B

John 1:43-51

Names are very important.  They are more than merely a means of distinguishing between people in a conversation.  If that were all they were about – numbers would do.  But people complain and rightly so if they are treated as a number without a name. Names are personal.  They are not only labels but expressions of who we are.  If we say someone is a Hitler we don’t mean that they have the name “H-i-t-l-e-r” it usually means that they are an evil person like the former leader of Nazi Germany.  Before the 20th century the name Hitler probably had no bad connotations to it.  In the same vein if we say someone is a Mother Theresa we usually mean more than they are a mother whose name is Theresa.  We mean they are a person who loves and cares for the needy.

This brings us to an important point.  Simply knowing what a person’s name is is not the same as knowing that person by name.  Have you ever asked a salesperson an innocent question about their product and before you know it they are on a first name basis with you.  I feel that they are just pretending to know me on a first name basis so that they can get me to buy something.

So why am I talking on about names?  It’s because God knows us by name.  David, the author of Psalm 139, praises God by saying, “O Lord, you have searched me out and have known me.”  Then he goes on to describe how God knows him.  God has known him in his sitting down and his rising up.  In other words God has known him in all his actions.  God has even known his thoughts from a far.  The Psalmist David tells us that God knows what he is going to say even before the words are formed.

And God’s knowledge is not limited by time. Even before we existed God knew us.  Even when we were being formed in our mother’s womb God knew us entirely.  God knew us because God was the one knitting us together as a Mother lovingly knits booties for a baby.  It even says that before we were created God had written our days in a book.  God’s knowledge of us is so overwhelming that we mere humans are unable to comprehend it.

It should not surprise us that God called Samuel by name.  The Bible tells us that the chief priest Eli and his sons had stopped listening to God.  As a result the people were wandering away from God.  But the temple servant boy Samuel was ready to hear.  And God knew more than Samuel’s name.  The Bible tells us that it was by a miracle of God that Samuel had been born.

God knew Samuel inside and out.  He knew that Samuel was one who would listen and pass on his message to the people.  The Sons of Eli would not listen and Eli was too old to carry on by himself so God called Samuel.  The Bible says that Samuel was attending the flame in the temple when God spoke.  That flame, like the flame on our altar candles, was a reminder of the presence of God.  So he was doing basically the same kind of thing that our acolytes do.

One night God spoke calling “Samuel, Samuel.”  It is no surprise that Samuel thought it was Eli speaking.  Eli had been like a father to Samuel taking care of him and helping him while he grew up.  God’s voice must have sounded like the voice of a loving Father.  God knew Samuel like a loving father and called him by name.

This same God, who knows us by name, is the God that Nathaniel encountered in Jesus in our Gospel reading.  Philip, who had met Jesus just the day before came to Nathaniel and said, “I have found the one.  The one that the prophets said was coming – the Messiah – Jesus the son of Joseph from Nazareth.”

Nathaniel was a little doubtful.  I mean you know what they say about Nazareth – can anything good come out of Nazarath?  But Nathaniel went to see this Jesus fellow anyway.

And when he arrived he was surprised that Jesus already knew him.  Jesus knew him by name.  He not only knew what his name was, but Jesus knew the kind of man Nathaniel was.  He was an Israelite with no deceit!  He was a true Israelite: one who truly looked forward to the coming of the Messiah and tried hard to be a good example to the nations.  There was no deceit in his heart.  But that wasn’t all.  Jesus even knew where Nathaniel had been before Philip came to him.

“How could this be?”  Philip thought.  Then maybe he remembered a song from the synagogue.   “O Lord you have searched me and known me, you know my going out and my coming in.”  And in an instant he knew Jesus must be from God because he knew him as deeply as God.  And then Nathaniel replied, “Rabbi you are the Son of God.”

God knew the psalmist by name, God knew Samuel by name, God knew Nathaniel by name, and God knows us by name.  Our Heavenly Father has searched us and knows us.  God knows our comings and our goings – our ups and our downs.  God is intimately acquainted with our way of thinking.  God even knows what we are going to say before we say it.

Now that’s scary.  God knows me and still loves me.  In fact God calls me to serve just as God called Samuel.  Not as a friend, but as a close relative, my Heavenly Father.

God knows all of us and God calls us all by name too.  God has searched us and knows us.  God knows when we come and go.  God is even intimately acquainted with what we think.

Isn’t it time we get to know more about God – to search out and know God?  Isn’t it time that we became more acquainted with God’s comings and goings?

And while we are doing that, let’s learn from Philip, and introduce God to a friend so they can get to know him too!

Thanks be to God.

Amen