Come and See

May be subject to copyright.  Source: http://www.writespirit.net/inspirational_talks/political/martin_luther_king_talks/martin-luther-king2.jpg

But again I am thankful to God that some noble souls from the ranks of organized religion have broken loose from the paralyzing chains of conformity and joined us as active partners in the struggle for freedom.  The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Texts:

1 Samuel 3:1-10[11-20]

Psalm 139:1-6,13-18

1 Corinthians 6:12-20

John 1:43-51

The word of the LORD was rare in those days; visions were not widespread.

This could be said about most times and most places.  Tomorrow we remember the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and his work for civil rights in our country.  Almost 50 years ago, he wrote these words from his Birmingham prison cell:

Maybe again I have been too optimistic. Is organized religion too inextricably bound to the status quo to save our nation and the world? Maybe I must turn my faith to the inner spiritual Church, the church within the Church, as the true ecclesia and the hope of the world. But again I am thankful to God that some noble souls from the ranks of organized religion have broken loose from the paralyzing chains of conformity and joined us as active partners in the struggle for freedom. They have left their secure congregations and walked the streets of Albany, Georgia, with us. They have gone through the highways of the South on torturous rides for freedom. Yes, they have gone to jail with us. Some have been kicked out of their churches and lost the support of their bishops and fellow ministers. But they have gone with the faith that right defeated is stronger than evil triumphant. These men have been the leaven in the lump of the race. Their witness has been the spiritual salt that has preserved the true meaning of the Gospel in these troubled times. They have carved a tunnel of hope through the dark mountain of disappointment.

Come and see. 

What happens when a come and see sort of God engages an I’ll believe it when I see it world?  Sometimes, it’s hard for us to recognize God standing right in front of us.  It was hard for Eli, hard for Samuel, and hard for Nathanael as well.

Samuel slept where the Ark of the Covenant of God was.  Samuel slept by the place where it was believed the very presence of God laid.  He slept beside the Ark of the Covenant, where God’s promises inscribed on a stone laid forgotten, dimmed by the I’ll believe it when I see it world.  Nathanael sneered, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?  I’ll believe it when I see it.”  Come and see, all you Nathanaels.  Come and see what our God can do.

Samuel, Samuel!  He hears the voice, but he does not recognize it.  Though he sleeps in the presence of God, he does not recognize God’s voice.  He assumes it is Eli, who is at the end of his life and depends upon him as though Samuel were his son.  Heaven knows his biological sons, Hophni and Phineas, were not the sort to lend an ailing old man any help.    “Here I am.”  “I didn’t call you.  Go back to sleep.”  “Samuel, Samuel!”  “Here I am!”  “Seriously, Samuel, go to sleep.”  I cannot help but wonder if this felt a little like putting a child to bed: “I need a drink of water… I need to go to the bathroom… I’m not sleepy yet.”  A third time, “Samuel, Samuel…” “Here I am…”  Come and see, Samuel.  Come and see, Eli.  Eli squints outside, the moon hanging by a thread as the horizon darkens just before the dawn.  Could it be?  Could it be that, after all this time, the LORD will finally show up?  What must it have been, then, when Samuel finally said, “Your servant hears,” and the Word of the LORD is not a word that seems like Good News at all?  The next morning, Samuel is quiet and doesn’t want to talk.  Eli, having been warned in chapter 2 of what was coming, says, “Do not hide it from me.”  How much faith must Eli have had, then, to respond to this Word with, “It is the LORD; let him do what seems good to him.”

“Can anything good come out of this?”  Come and see.  A little later in Samuel, we read: “The LORD said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature… for the LORD does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.”  And David comes before Samuel, and Samuel anoints him king.  Come and see everything differently.  See a boy with a slingshot and a rock take down a giant.  Come and see a baby, born on Christmas, save the world.  Come, come and see a country where the church that is becoming smaller by the hour, as people start to think that God’s work in the world is done, or that he forgot about us while Christians halfway around the world are meeting in basements, lighting candles, praying, and propping each other up in faith.  Come and see.  Come and see God show up.

Come, doubters.  Come, sinners.  Come and see.

This is our invitation.  Let us not get too comfortable, though.  Come and see isn’t just an invitation for us, it is an invitation for all who will listen.  It gives us the words to reach out to another person who doesn’t really know if this church stuff is for them.  It gives an African American man the courage to tell the world that the children of God are not confined to color, even if his voice led him to a prison cell.  It is always inviting, always moving, always sweeping people up into its invitation.

This is no ordinary invitation.  It is the invitation into God’s work in the world.  The Word of the Lord comes, however rare, and when it shows up, it does something.  Samuel, Samuel!  The Word of God shows up and turns our lives on their heads and says, “Now, will you trust me?”  The Word of God goes out to the wilderness, to the places where people are not welcome, to the places where humans think they get to decide who is in and who is out: “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”  The Word of God says “come and see:”  come and see a helpless baby and a man on a cross change the way the world works.

I’ll believe it when I see it.  But we have seen it.  Each time we see God at work in the world, we go back to our normal lives, forgetting that this story that we read is still coming to us as the Word of God and that it still does something.  It’s not just God calling, “Samuel, Samuel!”  It’s not just Jesus calling, “Nathanael, Nathanael!”  It’s God calling all of our names.  In the times in our lives when the Word of God is rare and visions are not widespread, in the times we begin to doubt that the Word of God is even there, much less capable of doing something, we are invited to come and see.

Our come-and-see God has come to the I’ll-believe-it-when-I-see-it-world.  It has transformed our lives.  It brings us together, week after week, to celebrate in the confession and forgiveness, hearing the Word read and preached, and coming together to God’s table that the invitation continues: come and see.

This invitation transforms us.  It helps us understand how we could be broken yet holy, sinners yet saints; it forges community and family and binds us together.  Today, it’s not just Samuel and Nathanael who are called: it is you.  You are called, you are invited, to bear witness with all those who have gone before us who have said, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God.”

What if we went out to the world and said, “Come and see?”  nothing more: just an invitation.  What if we broke the paralyzing chains of conformity and crossed those imaginary fences we have constructed between us and our neighbors to say “Come and see?”  Perhaps we could carve a tunnel of hope through the mountain of disappointment, a tunnel of faith through the mountain of disillusionment, and a tunnel that speaks love in the face of separation and hatred. 

“In those days, the Word of the LORD was rare, and visions were not widespread… but the lamp of God has not yet gone out.  Come and see.”