Epiphany 2

Blessed be God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Blessed be God's family now and forever.

Amen.

Let's pray together.

Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you no secrets are hid.

Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you and worthily magnify your holy name through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

Let us pray.

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 forever.

Amen.

A reading from one Samuel.

The word of the Lord was rare in those days.

Visions were not widespread.

At that time Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see, was lying down in his room.

The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was.

Then the Lord called.

Samuel, Samuel, and he said, Here I am, and ran to Eli and said, Here I am, for you called me.

But Eli said, I did not call.

Lie down again.

So he went and lay down.

The Lord called again, Samuel.

Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, Here I am, for you called me.

But Eli said, He did not call my son, lie down again.

Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him.

The Lord called Samuel again a third time, and he got up and went to Eli and said, Here I am, for you called me.

And then Eli perceived that God was calling the boy.

Therefore Eli said to Samuel, Go lie down, and if he calls you, you shall say, Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.

So Samuel went and lay down in his place.

Now the Lord came and stood there, calling as before.

Samuel, Samuel.

And Samuel said, Speak, for your servant is listening.

And then the Lord said to Samuel, See, I'm about to do something in Israel that will make both ears of any one who hears of it tingle.

On that day I will fulfill against Eli all that I've spoken concerning his house from beginning to end.

For I've told them that I'm about to punish his house forever, for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them.

Therefore I swear to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli's house shall not be expiated by sacrifice or offering forever.

Samuel lay there until morning, and then he opened the doors of the house of the Lord.

Samuel was afraid to tell the vision to Eli, but Eli called Samuel and said, Samuel, my son, he said, Here I am.

Eli said, What was it that he told you?

Do not hide it from me.

May God do so to you, and more also if you hide anything from me of all that he told you.

So Samuel told him everything and hid nothing from him.

And then Eli said, It is the Lord.

Let him do what seems good to him.

As Samuel grew up, the Lord was with him, and let none of his words fall to the ground.

And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba knew that Samuel was a trustworthy prophet of the Lord.

Hear what the Spirit is saying to God's people.

Thanks, speak to God.

Let's read responsibly by half verse as indicated by the bold type.

Lord, you have searched me out and known me.

You know my sitting down and my rising up.

You discern my thoughts from afar.

You trace my journeys and my resting places.

And are acquainted with all my ways.

Indeed, there is not a word on my lips.

But you, O Lord, know it altogether.

You press upon me behind and before.

And lay your hand upon me.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me.

It is so high that I cannot attain to it.

For you yourself created my inmost parts.

You need me together with my mother's womb.

I will thank you, because I am marvelously made.

Your works are wonderful, and I know it well.

My body was not hidden from you, while I was being made in secret, embodied in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes beheld my limbs, yet unfinished in the womb.

All of them were written in your book.

They were fashioned day by day, when as yet there was none of them.

How deep I find your thoughts, O God.

How great is the sum of them.

If I were to count them, they would be more in number than the sand.

All things are lawful for me, but not all things are beneficial.

All things are lawful for me, but I will not be dominated by anything.

Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food.

And God will destroy both one and the other.

The body is meant not for fornication, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.

And God raised the Lord and will also raise us by his power.

Do you know that your bodies are members of Christ?

Should I therefore take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute?

Never.

Do you not know that whoever is united to a prostitute becomes one body with her?

For it is said, the two shall be one flesh.

But anyone united to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.

Fornification.

Fornication.

Fornication.

Every sin that a person commits, it's outside of its body.

That the fornicator sins against the body itself.

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own.

For you were bought with a prize.

Therefore, glorify God in your body.

Hear what the Spirit is saying to God's people.

Thanks be to God.

Glory to you, Lord Christ.

Jesus decided to go to Galilee.

He found Philip and said to him, Follow me.

Now Philip was from Beth Seda, the city of Andrew and Peter.

Philip found Nathanael and said to him, We found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus, son of Joseph from Nazareth.

Nathanael said to him, Can anything good come out of Nazareth?

Philip said to him, Come and see.

When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said of him, Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.

Nathanael asked him, Where did you get to know me?

Jesus answered, I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.

Nathaniel replied, Rabbi, you are the Son of God.

You are the King of Israel.

Jesus answered, Do you believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree, you'll see greater things than these.

And he said to them, Very truly, I tell you, y'all will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.

The gospel of the Lord.

Praise to you, Lord Christ.

This is the second Sunday after the Epiphany, and I just want to start by opening your consideration that a lot of times we think that there's an epiphany we're supposed to get from the story without stopping to realize the people in the story are having an epiphany.

And we're invited to consider theirs so that we can hopefully join them.

Now, this is year B in the lectionary.

We're normally reading Mark's gospel.

It's always true in the second Sunday of Epiphany, we go to John.

And this is a little bit of a strange departure, but I think it offers something, frankly, we could all use this week.

Maybe the first point I'd offer for your consideration.

Jesus has encountered Philip.

Philip has a friend called Nathanael, which in Hebrew means something like God's gift.

God's gift to the world.

Philip goes to God's gift to the world and says, You've got to meet this guy.

He's from Nazareth, which is like being from the south side of Chicago.

And God's gift to the world says, Can anything good come out of the south side of Chicago?

Can anything good come out of the Fifth Ward?

Can anything good come out of a place where nothing good can come from?

Nazareth was a village with 70 people, sort of built right next to the equivalent of an Indian graveyard.

Native American graveyard, sorry.

I really didn't mean to do that.

But you I hope you understand this.

It's an accursed piece of ground.

It's tiny.

Philip does something that Jesus does.

The Gospel of John does this really carefully.

He doesn't say yes, something good can come, and you need to change your attitude.

He doesn't say no.

He says, come and see.

Come and see.

This week, this is a wonderful reminder that as much as we would like to flatten people into their political views, into what church they go to, into you name it, flattening people into a box that they check so that we can accept them or get rid of them is absolutely opposite of the gospel practice.

The gospel practice is come and see.

Come and see.

A lot of times when somebody has a political opinion, an academic opinion, a religious opinion different from ours, we do not want to make any time for them.

We know enough.

The gospel says that is the opposite of good news.

We are invited to come and see.

I want to suggest to you that if we could show up and take our time, especially when somebody has an opinion we don't like, we might be surprised, like Nathaniel is, to find that God is not just in places we consider sacred.

God yearns to fill the places we consider secular.

I don't know anybody that wants to have the wrong opinion because they hate being alive.

I don't know anybody like that.

And if I could take my time to come and see, especially when we disagree.

Especially when we disagree.

You notice the language?

He found him.

Jesus found Philip.

He'd never met him before.

And he found him.

How do you find somebody that didn't even know they're lost?

Because until you find him, they are lost to you.

Jesus invites us through Nathaniel to find one another by coming and seeing.

I know that's inconvenient, and it is the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Jesus tells Nathaniel, I know where you've been.

I saw you under the tree.

And Nathaniel says, God's gift to the world says, You are a wonderful teacher.

You're the Son of God.

Sometimes we hear that phrase son of God and we think, oh, like he's saying he's like God.

But you need to do biblically, son of God means somebody with a special relationship with God.

Somebody who's favored by God.

There were lots of those in the Bible.

Kings of Israel, prophets, priests.

It doesn't mean you are literally God's son, it means you're favored.

So you're going to be my rabbi because you know something about God.

Son of God, King of Israel.

Jesus says, Hey, you believe me because I told you something about who you were?

No, no.

How about you come and see where God's going to take you?

And here's the image.

You will see the heavens which you think are closed.

Like in the book of Samuel, not a lot of people had visions.

Did you hear that?

You thought God had closed the heavens.

You're going to see them open up.

You're going to see messengers coming down between, like God invading the earth.

And you're going to see those messengers coming not on the sons of God, but on the sons of human beings.

Son of man.

Man in Greek, that's the word anthropos.

It means human beings.

I think the invitation is if we'll come and see, we'll find God in the person next to us in the pew.

In the person who drives too slowly in the neighborhood, and the person who doesn't vote like we vote.

And that seems really important this week.

The Samuel story is interesting.

It's actually really hard for me to read for a couple of reasons.

First, Samuel is not Eli's son.

Samuel was sort of dropped off at the temple when he was a baby.

So Eli has been like his surrogate father.

This is the high priest.

This is the Pope, the presiding bishop.

And somehow he hasn't taught Samuel that God is still speaking.

That's an error in ecclesiastical leadership.

As a young boy, I learned that we've got this book and it has everything God ever wants to say to us.

And this story defies that.

God is still speaking.

Part of our job as clergy and as the church is to help one another open our ears so that we can hear.

Eli gets around to helping Samuel do that.

Samuel has really kind of an awful thing to say, which is people who are in power, who are supposed to be using people's good intention and resources to serve the community, are devouring it.

And it's not going to last.

I don't think God tells us to Samuel so he can tell it to Eli.

I think God tells us to Samuel so that Samuel will not grow up to be that kind of person.

I've got to tell you as a young man, I grew up in a church when people would say, God wanted me to tell you this thing.

It is the worst thing you could possibly tell somebody else.

God can speak to me.

Thank you very much.

No, I think this story is not so we can go around telling other people what God wants them to know, but so that we can be the people God wants us to be.

At the time this is written, there's not even a king in Israel.

There's a judge.

The people with the most power are the priests.

We still have a lot of power.

But this story is not just about us.

This is about congresswomen and congressmen.

This story is about justices of the Supreme Court, governors.

This story is saying you are supposed to represent the people, and instead of making their sacrifices meaningful, you're devouring them.

And this is formational and who Samuel is supposed to be.

This is a great reminder to us this week as a nation.

As a church.

I mean, look, even if we just talked about this religiously, we've got a lot of reason for why most people don't care for church.

Because clergy people are entitled.

I'm going to tell you three funny stories, and then I want you to hear how entitled I am at the end of the story.

Right after I got ordained, I walked into a barber shop wearing my black shirt and my black collar.

The person who cut my hair said to me, Are you a lawyer?

I said, No, but I'm married to one.

A year later, I walked into an ER wearing my black shirt with the little square tab.

I asked what room a patient was in.

The nurse said, Why should I tell you what room they're in?

I said, Because I'm their priest.

She said, I didn't know that.

I said, Well, I'm wearing, you know, like my clericals.

I don't keep up with the latest fashions.

A year and a half ago, I was in the grocery store and I was buying some groceries, and a man said to me, Are you a priest or is that some fashion statement you're making?

I think it's sort of funny.

And to be honest, I was astonished that these people didn't recognize what an important pillar in the community I was because I'm awfully entitled.

I'm awfully entitled.

And this story is about that.

Sometimes, thank God people don't recognize me wearing this thing because I might make the church in God look really bad.

This story is about that.

And it's not just about me as a clergy person with whom people welcome me right into their lives without me even earning their respect and trust.

You know that.

It's an awesome privilege.

I'm not alone in it, though.

You have relationships full of privilege where people trust you and respect you.

You've earned a lot of it.

And you're not entitled to any of it.

This story is inviting us to consider what do we do with accumulated privilege, earned or not?

Do we serve or do we hoard?

That's at the root of Samuel's call.

It's the difference between being sons of God and sons of human beings.

God is apparently happy for us to be sons of human beings, daughters of human beings, siblings with one another instead of some kind of earthly pyramid scheme of piety and hierarchy.

Poor Graziella.

She got one of the most difficult readings of the year.

I mean, nobody wants to stand up in church and say fornication 15 times.

Thank you.

It actually was kind of wonderful that once you said it like twice in a row, like it was like a reverb.

It was kind of amazing because it's a tough reading.

A lot of times what we don't realize is that Paul is writing about something that is much deeper than it seems.

That word fornication comes from the Latin word fornix.

A fornix is an arch.

Like think about the Colosseum and all those arches.

Porixes were the equivalent of red lights in Amsterdam.

Told you where to go do that.

Paul's not just writing, though, about something physical.

That kind of prostitution, forgive me for saying, was not secular, it was sacred.

People went and worshipped Roman and Greek gods and Canaanite gods by having fornication.

Paul is talking about something that is equivalent not to some sexual misdeed only.

He's talking about idolatry and division.

And he doesn't say, you, Mike, are the body of Christ.

He's telling the Corinthians, y'all are.

Y'all.

Which ones are y'all?

Oh y'all.

And I want to suggest to you that maybe the most idolatrous act of fornication all we all could commit is to say, you don't belong in the body of Christ because you don't vote like I do.

I think that's more dangerous this week than most things I could think of.

Who are we willing to cut off from the body of Christ on earth?

Paul says, all y'all are members.

All y'all.

Which shingle are you going to pull off in a rainstorm?

Even if it's only one.

Well, I just can't get along with them.

Come and see.

Come and see.

I'm not telling you this because it's easy.

I'm not telling you this because I do it on a daily basis.

But I think that these scriptures are designed to help us understand what's right.

And look, we read in the Psalm today that God's thoughts of us outnumber the grains of sand.

And as a little boy, that terrified me.

Because it meant God, like a certain holiday celebrity, was always watching and taking a list of all the naughty and all the nice.

And that it was up to me to determine how God felt about me with what I did.

And I did not want to get coal in my stocking at the end of my life.

That is a perverted spirituality that has nothing to do with the scriptures.

How precious to me are your thoughts, O God.

How precious to me.

That is not only true for you, but it is true for you.

It is true for the people on TV that scare you.

It is true for them.

That doesn't mean I'm okay and you're okay and there's no accountability.

That is the basis for accountability.

I want you to consider whatever the framers of the Constitution had in mind about who's in and who's out.

They did believe that because we had fundamental equity before God, we deserved a trial, even if everybody knew we were guilty.

Accountability comes from dignity, it's not in conflict with it.

But to remove dignity from somebody else because they don't agree with us is the definition of idolatry.

And that's the fornication Paul warns us about.

And that's what we need to spend this week in prayer about and in repentance about.

The gospel of Jesus Christ says that God loves those people who are on their worst behavior at the Capitol.

And that's why we can hold them accountable because God loves them.

And God loves those people who put crazy things on Facebook.

And that's why we're going to hold them accountable.

And God loves those parts of yourself that you don't even like.

But this, I think, is our call about God's good news in us and among us for our nation and for the world.

Please join me as we pray our faith in the words of the Nicene Creed.

We believe in one God, for our Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen.

We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one being with the Father.

Through him all things were made.

For us and for our salvation, he came down from heaven.

By the power of the Holy Spirit, he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary and was made man.

For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate.

He suffered death and was buried.

On the third day he rose again in accordance with the scriptures.

He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.

He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son.

With the Father and the Son, he is worshipped and glorified.

He has spoken through the prophets.

We believe in one holy Catholic and apostolic Church.

We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.

We look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.

Amen.

I ask your prayers for God's people throughout the world, for all people and ministers, for the priests in our community, Mike, Craig, Bill, and Lillian.

For our bishops Andy, Hector, Jeff, and Kai, in the Diocesan cycle of prayer, Grace, Georgetown, Incarnation Austin, and Resurrection Resurrection Austin.

For Justin, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and for our presiding bishop, Michael, I pray for the church.

I ask your prayers for all who govern and hold authority in the nations of the world, for the members of the armed forces, and for all who struggle for peace and justice, that they may act with prudence and vision to plant the seeds of our kingdom everywhere.

Pray for justice and peace.

I ask your prayers for our parish and our vestry, that the source of wisdom may guide us, the source of strength may support us, and the source of love may unify us.

Pray that our community may discern clearly and minister effectively.

Pray for those in any need or trouble.

And I ask your prayers for all who seek God or a deeper knowledge of God.

I pray that they may find and be found by God.

I ask your prayers for the departed, especially.

And pray for those who have died.

Let us give thanks for our blessings and pray for our own needs and those of others, especially Chris, Jerry, Sean, Jerome, Susie, Joe, Nancy, Alan, Renee, Mark, and Janice.

The congregation is also invited to name their own celebration or petition silently or aloud.

O Lord our God, accept the reverent prayers of our people in the multitude of your mercies.

Look with compassion upon us all, and all who turn to you for help, for your gracious, O Lover of souls, and to you we give glory, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now and forever.

Amen.

Let us confess our sin unto Almighty God.

We acknowledge that we have not always used our gifts, talents, and God-given personalities in the service of creation, our neighbors, and ourselves.

We seek change of heart toward a reflection of steadfast love.

May we forgive and be forgiven, resuming our journey through life with renewed intention.

Amen.

God forgives you.

Forgive all others.

Forgive yourself.

Amen.

And now we stand because we believe that's happened, that God is able to do that.

So we are worthy to stand in God's presence with one another and say, the socially distanced peace of the Lord be always with you.

And also.

And again, thank you for coming and worshiping with us today.

There are a few announcements I want to call to your attention.

The first is that these just arrived.

It is a lovely colored magazine of our 55 years in ministry as a parish.

Tells you about how we started, some of the things we've done, what difference it's made.

It's really a lovely effort that many of you contributed stories to, and huge thanks to Ellen Cook and Mary Ruth Greenwell for helping do a lot of the compiling and curation and to Christopher Alexander, who graphically organized it.

They're by the front door.

We do ask for a donation of$10 because that's what they cost us to make.

But it is really great to hear the difference this parish has made in the community for 55 years.

So again, you'll find them there at the door.

I want to call to your attention that this Tuesday, and I'm going to send a link, a parish link tomorrow when I get the bulletin.

The four diocesan bishops, Andy, Hector, Jeff, and Kay, are leading a diocesan prayer service on Zoom at 7 p.m.

for the upcoming inauguration for the administration to uphold justice and peace.

That's the goal.

That's what we pray for every time.

Not for our leaders, but for them to uphold justice and peace.

So that prayer vigil led by our bishops is on Tuesday at 7, and you'll get a link in your email.

If you're not on our email list, just let me know or email me or five me and I'll make sure you get the link if you'd like to join with people throughout our diocese in praying for our new government.

I also want to hold up to you that in two weeks we're doing sort of two things back to back.

On January the 30th, we'll be doing our fresh food distribution in the parking lot at 7.45 in the morning.

You can come without needing to sign up.

We'll hand out fresh food for about two hours.

We're always done by 10.

About a hundred cars will drive through and we'll pass out fresh food groceries through the Galveston County Food Bank.

We'll be doing it again on February the 6th as well.

So we're doing two Saturdays in a row.

On Sunday, the 31st of January is our parish annual meeting.

That's at 9 a.m.

We're doing it on Zoom.

It's a Sunday at 9.

We elect our new vestry, uh representatives for us at Diocesan Council, and we approve the parish budget.

The candidates and the budget are in the e-news.

If you have any trouble accessing them, please let me know.

It's a great opportunity for us to talk about our goals for the year, hear the State of the Union, and be all together in really our annual business meeting.

So I hope you'll make time to attend.

These tend to be very fun, and the great thing about being on Zoom is you can wear whatever you want as long as you're at home.

So that's on January the 31st.

Continue to walk in love as Christ first loved us and gave himself for us, an offering and sacrifice to God.

It is to be ready for those who seek relationship with God.

So come and make this journey, you who have much faith, and you who have little, you who have been here often, and you who have not been in a long time or ever before.

You who have tried to follow, and you who have lost your way.

So come and make this journey.

Not because I invite you, God invites.

It is God's desire that we gather here.

So come and see.

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

Lift up your hearts.

We lift them to the Lord.

Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.

It is right to give God thanks and praise.

It is right and a good and joyful thing, always and everywhere to give thanks to you, Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth.

Because in Jesus Christ our Lord, you have received us as your daughters and sons, made us citizens of your kingdom, and given us the Holy Spirit to guide us into all truth.

Therefore we praise you, joining our voices with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven, who forever say this hymn to proclaim the glory of your name.

Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might, heaven and earth are full of your glory.

Hosanna in the highest.

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

Holy and gracious Father, in your infinite love, you made us from yourself.

And when we'd fallen into sin and become subject to evil and death, you in your mercy sent Jesus Christ, your only and eternal Son, to share our human nature, to live and die as one of us, to reconcile us to you, the God and Father of all.

He stretched out his arms upon the cross and offered himself, in obedience to your will, a perfect sacrifice for the whole world.

On the night he was handed over to suffering and death, our Lord Jesus Christ took bread, and when he given thanks to you, he broke it, gave it to his disciples, and said, Take, eat.

This is my body which is given for you.

Do this.

For the remembrance of me.

After supper, Jesus took the cup of wine.

And when he had given thanks, he gave it to them and said, Drink this, all of you.

This is my blood of the new covenant which is shed for you and for all for the forgiveness of sins.

Whenever you drink it, do this for the remembrance of me.

Therefore, we proclaim the mystery of faith.

Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.

We celebrate the memorial of our redemption, O Father, in this sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving.

Recalling his death, resurrection, and ascension, we offer to you these gifts.

Sanctify them by your Holy Spirit to be for your people, the body and blood of your Son, the holy food and drink of new and unending life in Him.

Sanctify us also that we may faithfully receive these holy sacraments and serve you in unity, constancy, and peace.

And at the last day bring us with all your saints into the joy of your eternal kingdom.

All this we ask that your Son Jesus Christ, by Him and with Him and in Him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all honor and glory is yours, Almighty Father, now and forever.

Amen.

And now, as our Savior Christ has taught us, we are bold to pray.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom, and the power and the glory forever and ever.

Amen.

Be known to us in the breaking of the bread.

We who are many are one body, for we all share in the one bread.

These are the gifts of God.

And we are the people of God.

I invite you to receive bread or a blessing by coming to the aisle closest to your right, coming down front, socially distant, and returning to your seat on the far side.

Will you go where you don't know and never be the same?

Will you let my love be sure?

Will you let my name be known?

Will you let my life be grown in you and you in me?

Will you love you?

Will you quell the fear inside and never be the same?

Will you make your thought to retape the world around through my side and touch your side?

In you and you in me Christ just comes across true when you would call my name.

Let me turn and follow you and never be the same in your company where your love and footsteps show the soon living room in you and you in me.

Before all creation, we acknowledge the mystery of this simple meal.

Let it remind us of our common humanity and our commitment to love one another and all of creation.

Through it may we be strengthened to service.

In it may we find peace.

Amen.

May God bless you with the patience and perseverance to come and see.

The heavens opened in yourself, in the people you love, in the people you are afraid of.