Epiphany 2B sermon

Epiphany 2B
(slightly reworked from 1/18/09)
January 15, 2012
It was a Sunday like any other Sunday. The pastor stood in front of his congregation and greeted them with open arms, saying “The peace of Christ be always with you!” A little boy leaned over to his mother and asked, “A Piece of Christ? What am I supposed to do with a piece of Christ?”
It’s an innocent question that gets at the very heart of who we are as Christians. And it especially powerful when we remember the baptisms last Sunday, the bishop’s words to them and to us about how in baptism we are marked as Christ’s own forever, and it is the church’s job-- it is your job and my job-- to help each other remember that.
So what am I to do with “a piece of Christ”?
Our readings for today give us three different looks at what it means to respond to God’s call in our lives. Samuel, whose mother so longed for a baby that she promised God she would dedicate that baby to God’s service, is eager and ready to serve. But he doesn’t recognize the voice of the Lord until gentle but flawed Eli, whose own sight is growing dim, understands and tells Samuel how to answer God. Paul chides the people of the church in Corinth for their gluttony and fornication and reminds them that their bodies, their lives are not their own; they are a member of the body of Christ, bought with a price, and a temple for the Holy Spirit. Philip responds to Nathaniel’s skepticism with an invitation to “Come and see.” And when he does, Jesus’s recognition of who Nathaniel really is, Jesus’s ability to see into his heart, seeing who he is at his very foundation, immediately transforms him into one who is passionate and eager to follow. These readings remind us that the call of the Christian is best heard in community. They remind us that our call must start from an understanding that “I am not my own” but that I am God’s and have been even before I was born.
So what am I to do with “a piece of Christ?”
In the face of the world saying God has nothing left to say, the prophet says to reply: “Here I am Lord. Speak, your servant listens.”
In the face of the world saying that you are your own person, you can do whatever you want/need to find yourself, the poet says, “God has always known you; you must seek the knowledge of yourself in and through God.”
In the face of the world saying you can find meaning and fulfillment in food and sex, the teacher says, “Don’t you know that you are not your own and you are called to glorify God who dwells in you in and through how you use your body?”
In the face of the world who asks, “Can anything good/new/surprising come out of the middle of nowhere?” the friend replies, not with argument or justification, but with an invitation and a smile: “Come and see!”
In the face of resistance and skepticism, our Lord replies: “I have seen inside your very heart, and it leaps with joy as it recognizes me, its deepest desire. Come and follow me and allow me to give you back your life in a way that only I can.”
God’s call to each of us (as individuals and as a church) is a reminder first --that “you are not your own” and second --that we are to “glorify God in all that we are and all that we do.”
We are called, like John the Baptist, to testify to the light, to surrender our lives and our very selves to God, to whom we already belong, allowing that awareness and that surrender to transform us. We are called to help each other hear the call of our Lord, trusting the wisdom of others to help us recognize the call of God in our own lives; not judging but inviting others to go back and try answering a different way or inviting them to join us and to “come and see!” We are called to live our lives differently, as those who are holy, set apart; to confront the world by shining the light of the Son on the world’s excesses, on our own systems of evil and injustice.
Do you know that [you] are members of Christ? Therefore, a piece of Christ will always be with you. Now go forth, and let it shine into the world!