Bible Tuesday for Epiphany II, 2018

1 Samuel 3:1-20

Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord under Eli. The word of the Lord was rare in those days; visions were not widespread. 2At that time Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see, was lying down in his room; 3the 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. 4Then the Lord called, “Samuel! Samuel!” and he said, “Here I am!” 5and ran to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call; lie down again.” So he went and lay down. 6The Lord called again, “Samuel!” Samuel got up and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call, my son; lie down again.” 7Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. 8The Lord called Samuel again, a third time. And he got up and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” Then Eli perceived that the Lord was calling the boy.9Therefore 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. 10Now the Lord came and stood there, calling as before, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”

11Then the Lord said to Samuel, “See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make both ears of anyone who hears of it tingle. 12On that day I will fulfill against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end. 13For I have told him that I am about to punish his house forever, for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them. 14Therefore I swear to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be expiated by sacrifice or offering forever.” 15Samuel lay there until morning; then he opened the doors of the house of the Lord. Samuel was afraid to tell the vision to Eli. 16But Eli called Samuel and said, “Samuel, my son.” He said, “Here I am.” 17Eli 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.” 18So Samuel told him everything and hid nothing from him. Then he said, “It is the Lord; let him do what seems good to him.”

19As Samuel grew up, the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground. 20And all Israel from Dan to Beer-sheba knew that Samuel was a trustworthy prophet of the Lord.

Eli is both priest of Israel and judge, as this text takes place before Israel has its first king. Eli is quite old and blind. His sons, Hophni and Phineas, do most of the priestly duties for Eli, but they do not love God, and use their positions for graft.

This text begins by telling the hearer/reader that “the Word of the Lord was rare in those days.” In other words, Eli did not hear words from God as other judges and prophets did, despite being both High Priest and Judge. Instead, the word of the Lord comes to a little kid who serves as Eli’s go-fer from the time he was 4 years old, when his mom and dad brought him to the Tent of Meeting (precursor to the Temple) as a thank offering to God.

While Eli is blind, in the dark, both to the word of the Lord and to what his sons are up to, Eli does recognize that God might be up to something when little Samuel twice runs to his cot, insisting that someone called him. Eli knows the Hebrew tradition that the number symbolizing God is 3 so, if this voice called to Samuel a third time, it is likely God, and Samuel should just answer, “I am listening.”

God’s message to Samuel is actually God’s message to Eli, but Eli is blind physically, parentally, and seemingly spiritually, so God has to speak to Eli through someone else. This is the beginning of the end of Eli and the beginning of the great and faithful service of Samuel as God’s prophet and final Judge of Israel.

Psalm 139:1-18

O Lord, you have searched me and known me.

2You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away.

3You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways.

4Even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it completely.

5You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.

6Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is so high that I cannot attain it.

7Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence?

8If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.

9If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,

10even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast.

11If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light around me become night,”

12even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day, for darkness is as light to you.

13For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

14I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well.

15My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

16Your eyes beheld my unformed substance. In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed.

17How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!

18I try to count them—they are more than the sand; I come to the end—I am still with you.

I do not share Martin Luther’s great love of the book of Psalms, but I do LOVE this one! I regularly use it as one of the funeral texts. I am especially fond of the section the Revised Common Lectionary skips, verses 7-12 which state in prose what St. Paul writes in Romans 8, “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[a] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” This psalm is “an exquisitely detailed and poetic description of divine omniscience,” says The Jewish Study Bible. God knows everything about each person in all creation. Despite fully knowledge of each of us, God loves us unwaveringly.

1 Corinthians 6:12-20

“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.13“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. 14And God raised the Lord and will also raise us by his power. 15Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Should I therefore take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! 16Do 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.” 17But anyone united to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. 18Shun fornication! Every sin that a person commits is outside the body; but the fornicator sins against the body itself. 19Or 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?20For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body.

“’All things are lawful for me’ but not all things are beneficial.” – The Law that God gave the Israelites prohibited all kinds of things, from eating shell fish and carrion eaters, to the cost of restoration if your bull gores your neighbor’s child. There was debate among the first Jews who followed Jesus as to whether or not the Law was in effect despite Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection having fulfilled it. Peter taught the early disciples that they must continue to life under the Law and that baptized Gentiles had to also be circumcised and live under the Law. Paul taught that the Law was merely meant to be a guide to relationship with God, and that once one is in relationship with God in the person of Jesus, the Law is no longer useful. Therefore, those baptized into Jesus, God, and the Holy Spirit, are not bound to the restrictions under the Law. This is what Paul means by “’All things are lawful for me’.

In the above passage, Paul is addressing the congregation in Corinth which went off the deep end. Yes, they were free to live life out from under the Law, but there were wealthy folks in the congregation who used this as an excuse to live debaucherously. Paul teaches that, while the baptized Christian is not bound to the Law, he/she is bound through baptism to Christ, himself. Therefore, whatever we do, we should do to honor Christ, not get away with murder because we are already forgiven through Jesus.

John 1:43-51

3The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” 44Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. 45Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.” 46Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” 47When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said of him, “Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!” 48Nathanael asked him, “Where did you get to know me?” Jesus answered, “I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.” 49Nathanael replied, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” 50Jesus answered, “Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these.” 51And he said to him, “Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”

It is of paramount importance whenever studying Scriptures (or any quote) to learn the context of the passage one is studying. It is especially important when the passage to be examine begins with, “The next day…” or “Immediately…” or “And then…”. So much poor Bible commentary is done by first lifting a quote from Jesus or Paul or Peter right out of context and errantly applying it to a situation it was never meant to address.

We are studying the first chapter of the gospel of John, specifically a passage that begins with “The next day…” What came before this? The first 18 verses of John 1 are the prolegomena, which we covered in Advent. Verses 19 through 28 describe John the Baptist and his ministry at the Jordan. Verses 29 – 34 cover John pointing out Jesus to John’s disciples, and describing to them what John witnessed when Jesus was the Holy Spirit descend upon Jesus. Verses 35-42 occur the following day, and describe John the Baptist pointing out Jesus to two of John’s disciples, Andrew, and another, and how they followed Jesus. Then, Andrew went and told his brother, Simon, that he and the other disciple of John’s had found the Messiah/Christ. When Andrew brought Simon to meet Jesus, Jesus all knowingly identified Simon by name before any introductions were made, and then said, “You will be Cephas, aka, Petros, or Peter in English.”

This catches us up to the above pericope. Jesus already has three disciples, Andrew and the other from John the Baptist, and Simon Peter. They accompany Jesus north to Galilee where they find a likely acquaintance of Andrew and Simon Peter’s, a guy named Philip. Once called, Philip finds his buddy, Nathanael, who is not so willing to ascribe the Messianic title as Andrew, Simon, and Philip. Jesus all knowingly addresses Nathanael by name before introductions and also indicates and intimate knowledge of Nathanael: “Here is a man who is completely void of deceit.” Nathanael is impressed by this display of seeming mind reading. Jesus scoffs at this reaction knowing that there is oh so much more to come in these last several months of his life.

Why does Jesus go around calling disciples? First, it is rabbinic tradition. This is a time of education without universities so once teachers were acclaimed by authorities, they would go about, collecting students to further their particular teaching. In the gospel of John, Jesus is acclaimed by a recognized authority, John the Baptist. Therefore, in order for Jesus to be a proper rabbi, he now must go find students who will carry on his teaching. Second, Jesus is God on earth and wants to spread God’s relationship with humanity in the most relational way possible: one on one. As the Eucharistic Prayer for Christmas says, “in loving the God made visible, we may love the God whom we cannot see.” God already tried codifying relationship with God in the Law given to Moses. Instead of serving God’s intent, being a framework within which God and humans love and relate, the Law became an idol, the god of proving one’s superior holiness. Jesus sets about allowing people to get to know him in order to start the ripple effect of one on one relationship with God and one on one relationships with fellow believers.