The Call
Sermon preached in St Salvator's Chapel, St Andrews on 18th January 2009 by Professor Karla Pollmann
Readings: 1 Samuel 3: 1 - 11 and John 1: 43 - 51
Sermon
Our age is sometimes called an age of information or information technology, with almost unlimited possibilities of communication: I only mention e-mail and the mobile. This opens up new possibilities, can bring or keep people in contact over great distances and within very little time. But this ease and ubiquity of communication, attractive as it is, comes at a price: the price of over-stimulation; people are exposed to too many media, in too quick a sequence and in too dense a concentration - what has been called information or stimulation overload ('Reizüberflutung'). It is sometimes impossible to check or even simply to absorb certain kinds of information. They threaten to lose their context and lasting impact. What is today at the centre of the news, is tomorrow forgotten. The fact that one consumes information seems almost sufficient in itself, rather than being merely a stimulus one should react to, or think about, in an appropriate manner. We live in the age of the video-clip. Another consequence is that children tend to become hyper-active, adults end up having ME. Moreover, 'real' reality can lose out: cyber space (or virtual reality) replaces direct contact with the surrounding world. A computer game or a chat room can have more meaning than direct human interaction. While it is handy to use all these means as tools for something else, they risk becoming an end in themselves and taking over people's lives. They may cause changes or damage of which we presumably are not yet fully aware.
How is such a hyper-technological world to be compared with the maybe not idyllic but still decidedly under-technologized worlds of the OT and the NT, with the statements that are at the centre of our readings for today that humans have a relationship with and receive stimuli not from a technical device but from a supernatural being called God or his son Jesus Christ? This seems rather more akin to another tale which can presumably be called the most successful story of the turn of our millennium, not least in commercial terms: I am talking about the Harry Potter novels by J.K. Rowling. Here a little orphan boy, living in inconspicuous, unpleasant and disadvantaged circumstances, all of a sudden receives a message revealing his true identity: his situation is not as hopeless as it seems, and his life very soon is going to change for ever, with a special meaning and purpose. It turns out that indeed not only is he privileged with special gifts and belongs to a different, supernatural world, but he is even chosen to fight a crucial battle representing good against evil. A chosen one, with special gifts and a special task - a timeless and intriguing combination - what most of us might wish for, the discovery of our own special identity, the full potential of our self. And one reason for the success of this story is precisely its remoteness from technological devices, and the richness of its fantastic apparatus which engages with reality in a different way.
This, in a sense, is a 'call', and we can observe many calls, happening all the time: for St Andrews University most important right now is the call that brought our new Principal who has just arrived here at the beginning of this month. We extend a warm welcome to her with our best wishes for a fruitful time here.
If we now turn to our biblical passages for today it is noteworthy that they impress by their remarkable lack of narrative ornamentation, in contrast e.g. to the Harry Potter novels. Let us first have a brief look at the passage from 1 Samuel: it talks about God's revelation and interaction with humankind, not in an abstract and theoretical way, but illustrated in the lives of concrete human beings. Samuel, a youngster and outsider, is privileged over the old established priest Eli; God ignores the established hierarchy among humans (even in the 'church'). He gets in touch with the young and virtuous Samuel as a sign of a new beginning. However, the communication between the two is not straightforward and easygoing. It is based on a misunderstanding, as Samuel does not recognize God¿s voice and thinks it is Eli's. God has to repeat his action three times, a motif we also know from fairy tales: things that are repeated three times gain increased credibility, even if they appear to be supernatural or incredible at first sight. So after the third time of God's calling Samuel it is finally Eli who recognizes what is going on - and explains to Samuel the meaning of God's action in all this and how he should react appropriately. God does not interact with Eli directly, who thus turns now into an outsider himself, or rather into a tool: it is Eli's last important task to help the young and inexperienced Samuel to recognize God's voice. Only then the successful communication between God and Samuel will finally take place.
But one can also turn this story's meaning the other way round: while Samuel thinks it is the old man Eli who calls him, it is in fact God - but God calls Samuel through Eli. Samuel comes to understand that through his relationship with Eli he is able to reach communication with God. Likewise, God gets in touch with us through others; we are urged to recognize the potential presence of God in our neighbours, as Samuel came to recognize God¿s presence through Eli. To have grasped this will make Samuel a prophet widely acknowledged throughout Israel for his authority; he is able to explain to people the divine meaning behind human events. Samuel's obedience to God expresses itself in his willingness to listen in internal composedness and tranquil contemplation to God. This in turn has the consequence of Samuel's successful leadership in Israel, as God can then do good through Samuel.
That God is calling us though others and that he does good through human beings, is also beautifully expressed in a prayer of Teresa of Aquila: 'Lord, you have no hands but my hands to do your work'.
In the NT the Samuel story gets a Christological twist. Once again, ostensibly, God approaches humankind through another. In this case, however, the other is none other than the second person of the Trinity, the incarnate Son of God. As in the OT story, the boy Samuel has to arrive at a recognition of God through the old man Eli, so now in the NT one has to recognize God in Jesus Christ. In both the OT and the NT, God knows us before we know him, he takes the initiative, he has chosen us before we were even aware of this possibility. While the other gospels tend to emphasize the human obedience to Christ, in John the emphasis lies on recognition: Jesus recognizes humans before they recognize him. And this pattern will continue even beyond his resurrection, as when at the sepulchre he calls Mary by her name (a strong identity marker), who only then in turn recognizes him by calling him 'Rabbi' (John 20; Kasper Bro Larsen).
Chronologically speaking we see in John 1 the initial formation of the followers of Jesus Christ - as a significant instance of his epiphany (which means 'appearance'), a very suitable reading for the Second Sunday after Epiphany. Sociologically speaking this formation is done through networking, based on personal acquaintance and interaction (Malina/Rohrbough). The aim is to establish a [new antisocietal] group around the new leader Jesus. The members of such an in-group are often socially marginalized outsiders and are characterized by a strong loyalty towards each other and their leader (as their new kin group). They remain in society and the world, but are opposed to it and in conflict with it: they are in the world but not of it (cf. Heidegger). Moreover, there is the risk of potential rivalries with other groups and also with the dominant social order: at the time of Jesus, very much like in our own time, there were many religious and social groupings and a wide choice of spiritual options. The term 'Christians' (Christiani) was first coined by the pagan opposition to denote a partisan group of 'Followers of Christ', the same way as, for instance, they would denote in the Year of the Five Emperors (193/4) the followers of the usurper Pescennius Niger, 'Nigeriani' ('Followers of Niger'), or as we nowadays would speak of 'Blairites'.
Our passage in John 1 is characterized by a strong contrast between its dry narrative style and the mysticism of what Jesus promises: this reflects the inherent paradox of the incarnate godhead as combining wretched humanity and glorious divinity in himself (Bultmann). This is constantly reflected in our passage: whereas in the Samuel story the elevation of the low (i.e. Samuel) is central, in John it is the humiliation of the high, as the Incarnate himself approaches human beings as the ultimate fulfillment of God's plan with humankind. Jesus is not only Son of God (as confessed by Nathanael) but also Son of Man (in Jesus' self-proclamation), i.e. he partakes in both divinity and humanity, in present misery and future glory. The Incarnate is the point of contact between heaven and earth, as indicated by the angels connecting these two realms. Although the mention of angels here symbolically gestures towards Christ's divinity, it is precisely through Jesus' earthly presence and his works on earth that the disciples, as all human beings, can see the reality and presence of God. By his statement that heaven will be wide open Jesus hints at the eschatological dimension of the end of time, which is already now present in his person (Schnackenburg).
Moreover, it is not only Jesus who calls followers (here Philip), but also the followers themselves find new ones (here Philip invites Nathanael). The latter is not without complications as Nathanael disparagingly doubts the veracity of Jesus' claim of being the Messiah - again a pattern which will persist also after the resurrection, in the person of the doubting Thomas (John 20). Philip does not attempt to discuss the matter with Nathanael but refers him to Jesus ('Come, see for yourself'): not human instruction, but only the personal encounter with Jesus himself can enable an individual to make the decision of following him. Jesus proves to be the true Messiah by revealing to Nathanael Nathanael's own identity - and this recognition causes (or almost forces) Nathanael to confess Jesus as the Messiah. As in the Samuel story this is only possible because of Nathanael's fundamental sincerity to engage with God. But Nathanael's confession of Jesus as Messiah alone does not contain the whole of the richness of faith - Jesus announces that renewed and greater experiences of revelation will deepen Nathanael's faith (and so with others). Thus, the coming to faith is characterized here as a gradual, interactive and continuing process. This again reminds us of the Samuel story, although the focus there is on divine judgment, whereas in John the focus is on messianic salvation. A further interesting fact is that Nathanael is the last of the disciples to be called (Brown 87) and his name is not mentioned in the other gospels; he is not one of the traditional twelve disciples - this indicates already at the formative beginnings of Jesus' new (anti)society that is it not closed, but dynamic and expanding beyond a 'canon' of privileged individuals or peoples.
To conclude: Jesus calling us is one call among the many calls surrounding us, in different shapes and guises - how can we avoid losing orientation? Our internal being is like a cave with many opinions (or voices or calls) flying around in it like bats, whizzing around, confusing us with their manifold and varied approaches and noises. The risk is that the true call may be drowned out; it can be difficult to distinguish the wrong messages from the true ones. But when we go deeper into this cave as we attempt to hear the true call of God, these noises get fainter and fainter, till there is only one voice left to be heard - our own voice, or the voice of God. Sometimes the voice before the last is the most dangerous as it can be the voice of Satan, occasionally very hard to distinguish from the voice of God. In this struggle, we may win out if we, like Nathanael, operate with honesty and without deceit.