epiphany-2-2021.md

Outline

Second Sunday after the Epiphany

Year B

1 Samuel 3:1-10(11-20)
1 Corinthians 6:12-20
John 1:43-51
Psalm 139:1-5, 12-17

Samuel: powerful image of inauguration and beginning

Philip: “Follow me.” “Come and see.”

You will see heaven opened up and angels going up and down.

Powerful scene of inauguration, beginning, – Samuel

Hinei one of the first Hebrew words I learned. Samuel jumps up in response to God calling him (thinking it was the priest)

Eventually the LORD says, “I’m going to do something in Israel that will make both ears of anyone who hears of it tingle” and I think, wow – there’s the origin of tinnitis which lots of people think of as an affliction.

All we have to do is explain, “No, that’s the Word of the Lord talking.”

Well, as we heard, the narrative is about telling of the origin of Samuel’s call as a prophet.

Wow!

I had thought to begin my homily this morning with a potato. – to help us visualize the “Wow!”

Plug wire, copper, zinc, diode – then –

it turns out you need 4-5 potatoes wired in sequence to get this to work.

I decided this wasn’t the proper place to go to those lengths – so I just brought a flashlight to make my point.

[Turn on flashlight]

A light bulb. You remember the old cartoon icon for an Idea taking hold.

I think of the old story of the student running through the streets shouting “I’ve got the answer. I’ve got the answer. Quick, someone, tell me the question.”

That student was all light bulb and no electricity – no potatoes, maybe.

As a teacher, as a priest, as a parent, as a friend, … I have lived for those times when “Ah, Hah” grabs the one we’re with. “Ah, I get it.” “No I understand.” “Oh, is that what you mean?” Wow!

Somehow we are living in Wow times. Ah hah times.

We just have Wow! all around us.

We have a Presidential Inauguration coming up this week – like none we have ever seen.

A pandemic vaccine that is trying to get distributed – and seems to need a lot of Wow! to get really going.

A new year is just getting started – and already it seems filled awe-inspiring Wow! Good and bad.

Epiphany season is about inaugurations. It is about light. It is about “Ah, hah.”

The gospel passage we just heard.

Philip and Nathaniel. Not among the well-known followers of Jesus. But they show up here on the 2nd Sunday of Epiphany. Philip is full of Wow!

He bubbles with enthusiasm. “We’ve found him! We’ve found him!”

It made me think about my enthusiasm this past week at a little comment one of my students made. She said that she really likes to eat at the NC Noodlebar in Rock Hill.

I responded to her that my wife and I love to eat there because it reminds us of Honolulu where there’s a noodle bar on every corner.

Philip had the kind of enthusiasm that makes one restaurant popular and the other a dud.

He was full of Wow!

Then there’s a picture of the wow, as Jesus talks about a fig tree and angels going up and down from earth to heaven. …

I don’t know of any fig trees around here. But it seems to me that angels are all around us, scurrying up and down, and we maybe just need to say, “Wow!”

I think I’ve told you of the note that is on our refrigerator. I’m reminded of its message on an almost daily basis.

Life isn’t measured by the number of breath we take … but by the moments that take our breath away.

We live in surprising times. In some ways they may be times that try a man or woman’s soul. They challenge us. They leave us perplexed. Sometimes I just feel weary from it all.

But I could not be more sure about this. We are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses to the presence of angels all around us.

Really perhaps the best response is just “Wow!” and turn a light on

[turn the flashlight on]
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