Finding God in the Least Expected Places
Commentary
The lessons remind us that we are not likely to find God or what God wants in the places we expect.
1 Samuel 3:1-10 (11-20)
The First Lesson is drawn from a book whose origin as a distinct work derives from the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, which divided the story of Israel’s monarchy into four sections (1 and 2 Samuel and 1 and 2 Kings). The collective work is probably the result of three sources, the first of which being early traditions about Samuel and Saul. Since this lesson is the story of God’s first revelation to Samuel, we may assume it is the product of the earliest of these traditions. The story begins during his childhood as he was lying down in the temple in Shiloh (where apparently The Ark of the Covenant was then housed) while his spiritual mentor Eli, the high priest and judge of Israel in the eleventh century BC, was lying down in his room (vv.1-2). It is noted that this was a time when the Word of the Lord was rare and visions were not widespread. (This may refer to a lack of visions in this era, as they were equated with revelations in the ancient mind.) During the night while Eli and all slept, the boy hears his name called, but three times incorrectly responds, thinking it is Eli calling (vv.4-8). Eli directs Samuel to remain lying down and is called again to respond to Yahweh. The lad complies when the Lord came to him again (vv.9-10).
The lesson continues with Yahweh recounting to Samuel a warning he had already issued to Eli through an anonymous spokesman (see 2:27-36), that due to the blaspheming his sons had undertaken and his failure to restrain them, the sin could not be abrogated by sacrificial offerings (vv.11-14). Samuel laid there until the morning and was afraid to tell Eli (vv.15-16). But after receiving reassurances from Eli, Samuel tells everything (vv.7-20). It is reported that Yahweh was with Samuel as he grew, and Israel is said to have known him as a trustworthy prophet (vv.19-20).
We are living at a time when there does not seem to be much hope (see poll data cited in my Illustrations for this text). These attitudes are not unlike the era in which Samuel came under the tutelage of Eli, as the Bible notes that it was a time when visions were rare. A thoughtful sermon will explore similarities between our context and the context of the text. Our lesson recounts how it took a child (Samuel) to hear the voice of God, to hear and proclaim a word of hope! That is clearly a lesson in our context. We do not receive the fresh visions and divine direction from the established leadership. As in our lesson, we are craving for the word, but clearly not hearing it. The text promises it is coming, that America will find a way out of our mess. But that word and the guidance we need are likely to transpire in the most surprising circumstances and venues. Just as Eli was open to the possibility that God might use the unlikely youth under his charge as a vehicle of revelation, we need to look in unlikely places for God to reveal Himself, to find new directions to make life better. And yet we are reminded that this unlikely child would come to change the character of Israel, be the one to anoint Saul King (1 Samuel 9:15-27). As God worked great things through this child, so we will want to be heads up in this new season of political and social change for the most unlikely surprises God may have in mind. As he cared for the people of Israel in Samuel’s era, we can proceed with the confidence that God is not likely to give up on us.
1 Corinthians 6:12-20
The Second Lesson emerges from one of Paul’s authentic letters, written from Ephesus prior to his epistle to the Romans, to a church he had established (Acts 18:1-11). Relations had become strained with the church. The epistle aims to address doctrinal and ethical problems disturbing the Corinthian church. The lesson addresses a controversy touched off by some Corinthians who were teaching that Paul’s views entailed that all things are lawful/authorized (v.12), and so they could indulge in satisfying sexual desire. Paul responds by noting that not all things are useful and that the body is not made for fornication (v.13). We are said to be members of Christ (v.15), one spirit with him (v.17), a temple of the Holy Spirit (v.19). Some things like adultery, Paul adds, are not beneficial, and we should not be dominated by such desires (vv.12-13). The resurrection of Christ is said to raise the faithful (v.14). Our bodies dare not become members of a prostitute (v.15), for we belong to the Lord (v.14). Paul justifies these moves by nothing that two become one flesh in sex, so that in sex with a prostitute we become who she is (v.16). All the more reason to shun such behavior, as we are now a temple of the Holy Spirit, are no longer our own (v.19). Paul reminds the Corinthians that they have been bought with a price, now belong to Christ, and may glorify God (v.20).
This is a text that warns us about whom we go to bed with! Paul tells the Corinthians and us 21st-century followers that our freedom in Christ does not mean anything goes. Because of what Jesus has done for us, making us his own for he paid the price for us, you and I are no longer our own. Help the flock to appreciate that because we now belong to Christ, we are no longer our own. Consequently, life is no longer about fulfilling ourselves and our own pleasures. If we go to bed with anyone, it is God to whom we belong. Life is about doing God’s thing —caring for the neighbor and glorifying God! After all, the Holy Spirit has taken us over, is living in each of us.
John 1:43-51
The Gospel Lesson is found in the last of the four gospels to be written, probably not composed until the last two decades of the first century. The book has been identified with John the son of Zebedee, the disciple whom Jesus loved. It is likely that it was written by a disciple of John. Its main agenda was probably to encourage Jewish Christians in conflict with the synagogue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God (20:31).
The lesson is the call of several of Jesus’ disciples — Philip and Nathanael. There are no clear parallel accounts in the Synoptic Gospels. Jesus had just gained some of John the Baptist’s followers (especially Andrew and Peter) (vv.37-42). Like Andrew and Peter, Philip is said to have been from Bethsaidea, a town of the west shore of the Sea of Galilee. Philip and Nathanael recognize Jesus as the Messiah (“the one about whom Moses in the law and the prophets wrote”) (vv.43-45). Nathanael expresses surprise originally that the Messiah could be from Bethlehem (backwater town that it was) (v.46). Jesus recognizes who Nathanael is prior to meeting him (having seen him under a nearby fig tree), and Nathanael is led to confess Jesus as Son of God and king of the Jews (vv.47-49). Jesus’ comments about Nathanael being a Hebrew in whom there is no deceit/guile (v.47) are probably a reference to the fact that the man named Israel (Jacob) received his original blessing through deceit (Genesis 27:35). After he had confessed Jesus to be Son of God (huios tou theou, an affirmation in John which entails his divinity), finally Jesus challenges Nathanael as to whether he believed only because of this prophecy of identification, for there will be greater things to be seen in his ministry (vv.49-50).
The greater things to be seen are heaven opening, the angels ascending and descending on the Son of Man (v.51). This reference to the opening of heaven may again refer to Jacob, to a dream he had (Genesis 18:12) after deceitfully receiving Isaac’s blessing. In this text, “Son of Man” (huios tou anthropou) seems to represent a link between heaven and earth (3:13; 5:26-27; 6:62).
Help the flock to recognize how like Nathanael we are. Basically, decent people without guile, like he was, we seem more likely to follow Jesus and the ways of God if miracles or expressions of God’s power become evident in our lives. We need this text to move us away from such wrong-headed thinking. The account helps us recognize that Jesus defies our ordinary thinking (thus his birth in that backwater town of Bethlehem defied the thin king of many of his contemporaries). He is to be followed for who he is, not as some miracle worker. God and Jesus show up in unexpected places and ways, because the revelation in Christ is greater than any of us can really imagine.
Another angle for the sermon might be to focus on the greater things Jesus says are seen in his ministry (vv.49ff.). Preachers could focus on what John means by referring to Jesus as Son of Man. In the fourth gospel, this title seems to entail that Jesus is the link between heaven and earth, bringing spiritual goods to earth while bringing the things of earth (even the human body) to God. Certainly, finding a mix of heaven and earth, of the perfect and the fallible together in Jesus, could be a fruitful direction for sermons.
All of the texts make clear that God is present and in control of our lives in unexpected ways which shatter our normal expectations of how to be spiritual and religious. Faith is not about you and me and our expectations or our finding fulfillment. The life of faith is full of hope but also filled with surprises.
1 Samuel 3:1-10 (11-20)
The First Lesson is drawn from a book whose origin as a distinct work derives from the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, which divided the story of Israel’s monarchy into four sections (1 and 2 Samuel and 1 and 2 Kings). The collective work is probably the result of three sources, the first of which being early traditions about Samuel and Saul. Since this lesson is the story of God’s first revelation to Samuel, we may assume it is the product of the earliest of these traditions. The story begins during his childhood as he was lying down in the temple in Shiloh (where apparently The Ark of the Covenant was then housed) while his spiritual mentor Eli, the high priest and judge of Israel in the eleventh century BC, was lying down in his room (vv.1-2). It is noted that this was a time when the Word of the Lord was rare and visions were not widespread. (This may refer to a lack of visions in this era, as they were equated with revelations in the ancient mind.) During the night while Eli and all slept, the boy hears his name called, but three times incorrectly responds, thinking it is Eli calling (vv.4-8). Eli directs Samuel to remain lying down and is called again to respond to Yahweh. The lad complies when the Lord came to him again (vv.9-10).
The lesson continues with Yahweh recounting to Samuel a warning he had already issued to Eli through an anonymous spokesman (see 2:27-36), that due to the blaspheming his sons had undertaken and his failure to restrain them, the sin could not be abrogated by sacrificial offerings (vv.11-14). Samuel laid there until the morning and was afraid to tell Eli (vv.15-16). But after receiving reassurances from Eli, Samuel tells everything (vv.7-20). It is reported that Yahweh was with Samuel as he grew, and Israel is said to have known him as a trustworthy prophet (vv.19-20).
We are living at a time when there does not seem to be much hope (see poll data cited in my Illustrations for this text). These attitudes are not unlike the era in which Samuel came under the tutelage of Eli, as the Bible notes that it was a time when visions were rare. A thoughtful sermon will explore similarities between our context and the context of the text. Our lesson recounts how it took a child (Samuel) to hear the voice of God, to hear and proclaim a word of hope! That is clearly a lesson in our context. We do not receive the fresh visions and divine direction from the established leadership. As in our lesson, we are craving for the word, but clearly not hearing it. The text promises it is coming, that America will find a way out of our mess. But that word and the guidance we need are likely to transpire in the most surprising circumstances and venues. Just as Eli was open to the possibility that God might use the unlikely youth under his charge as a vehicle of revelation, we need to look in unlikely places for God to reveal Himself, to find new directions to make life better. And yet we are reminded that this unlikely child would come to change the character of Israel, be the one to anoint Saul King (1 Samuel 9:15-27). As God worked great things through this child, so we will want to be heads up in this new season of political and social change for the most unlikely surprises God may have in mind. As he cared for the people of Israel in Samuel’s era, we can proceed with the confidence that God is not likely to give up on us.
1 Corinthians 6:12-20
The Second Lesson emerges from one of Paul’s authentic letters, written from Ephesus prior to his epistle to the Romans, to a church he had established (Acts 18:1-11). Relations had become strained with the church. The epistle aims to address doctrinal and ethical problems disturbing the Corinthian church. The lesson addresses a controversy touched off by some Corinthians who were teaching that Paul’s views entailed that all things are lawful/authorized (v.12), and so they could indulge in satisfying sexual desire. Paul responds by noting that not all things are useful and that the body is not made for fornication (v.13). We are said to be members of Christ (v.15), one spirit with him (v.17), a temple of the Holy Spirit (v.19). Some things like adultery, Paul adds, are not beneficial, and we should not be dominated by such desires (vv.12-13). The resurrection of Christ is said to raise the faithful (v.14). Our bodies dare not become members of a prostitute (v.15), for we belong to the Lord (v.14). Paul justifies these moves by nothing that two become one flesh in sex, so that in sex with a prostitute we become who she is (v.16). All the more reason to shun such behavior, as we are now a temple of the Holy Spirit, are no longer our own (v.19). Paul reminds the Corinthians that they have been bought with a price, now belong to Christ, and may glorify God (v.20).
This is a text that warns us about whom we go to bed with! Paul tells the Corinthians and us 21st-century followers that our freedom in Christ does not mean anything goes. Because of what Jesus has done for us, making us his own for he paid the price for us, you and I are no longer our own. Help the flock to appreciate that because we now belong to Christ, we are no longer our own. Consequently, life is no longer about fulfilling ourselves and our own pleasures. If we go to bed with anyone, it is God to whom we belong. Life is about doing God’s thing —caring for the neighbor and glorifying God! After all, the Holy Spirit has taken us over, is living in each of us.
John 1:43-51
The Gospel Lesson is found in the last of the four gospels to be written, probably not composed until the last two decades of the first century. The book has been identified with John the son of Zebedee, the disciple whom Jesus loved. It is likely that it was written by a disciple of John. Its main agenda was probably to encourage Jewish Christians in conflict with the synagogue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God (20:31).
The lesson is the call of several of Jesus’ disciples — Philip and Nathanael. There are no clear parallel accounts in the Synoptic Gospels. Jesus had just gained some of John the Baptist’s followers (especially Andrew and Peter) (vv.37-42). Like Andrew and Peter, Philip is said to have been from Bethsaidea, a town of the west shore of the Sea of Galilee. Philip and Nathanael recognize Jesus as the Messiah (“the one about whom Moses in the law and the prophets wrote”) (vv.43-45). Nathanael expresses surprise originally that the Messiah could be from Bethlehem (backwater town that it was) (v.46). Jesus recognizes who Nathanael is prior to meeting him (having seen him under a nearby fig tree), and Nathanael is led to confess Jesus as Son of God and king of the Jews (vv.47-49). Jesus’ comments about Nathanael being a Hebrew in whom there is no deceit/guile (v.47) are probably a reference to the fact that the man named Israel (Jacob) received his original blessing through deceit (Genesis 27:35). After he had confessed Jesus to be Son of God (huios tou theou, an affirmation in John which entails his divinity), finally Jesus challenges Nathanael as to whether he believed only because of this prophecy of identification, for there will be greater things to be seen in his ministry (vv.49-50).
The greater things to be seen are heaven opening, the angels ascending and descending on the Son of Man (v.51). This reference to the opening of heaven may again refer to Jacob, to a dream he had (Genesis 18:12) after deceitfully receiving Isaac’s blessing. In this text, “Son of Man” (huios tou anthropou) seems to represent a link between heaven and earth (3:13; 5:26-27; 6:62).
Help the flock to recognize how like Nathanael we are. Basically, decent people without guile, like he was, we seem more likely to follow Jesus and the ways of God if miracles or expressions of God’s power become evident in our lives. We need this text to move us away from such wrong-headed thinking. The account helps us recognize that Jesus defies our ordinary thinking (thus his birth in that backwater town of Bethlehem defied the thin king of many of his contemporaries). He is to be followed for who he is, not as some miracle worker. God and Jesus show up in unexpected places and ways, because the revelation in Christ is greater than any of us can really imagine.
Another angle for the sermon might be to focus on the greater things Jesus says are seen in his ministry (vv.49ff.). Preachers could focus on what John means by referring to Jesus as Son of Man. In the fourth gospel, this title seems to entail that Jesus is the link between heaven and earth, bringing spiritual goods to earth while bringing the things of earth (even the human body) to God. Certainly, finding a mix of heaven and earth, of the perfect and the fallible together in Jesus, could be a fruitful direction for sermons.
All of the texts make clear that God is present and in control of our lives in unexpected ways which shatter our normal expectations of how to be spiritual and religious. Faith is not about you and me and our expectations or our finding fulfillment. The life of faith is full of hope but also filled with surprises.
