Second Sunday

Second Sunday Ordinary
January 15, 2006

“Here I am,” he said. “You called me.”, “Speak, for your servant is listening.” (1 Samuel 3:3-19). “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you " (1 Cor 6 13-20). They said to him, “Rabbi”... “where are you staying?” He said to them, “Come, and you will see.”. (John 1: 35-42).

All of our passages this Sunday seem to point toward the call of the Spirit to intimate living with the Most High. The prophet Samuel is asleep in the very place where Yahweh lives in the Ark of the covenant, the holiest of all places. We are told that in spite of this, "he was not familiar with Yahweh". Living in the house of God does not by itself guarantee that God is living in us. Samuel carries on a touching dialogue with his teacher, Eli, thinking it is he who is calling rather than God. He requires several tries before he gets it. Listening, often frustrating, puzzling and confusing, is the beginning of holiness. Samuel's persistent willingness would have profound and far-reaching Messianic effects from David's life, through subsequent generations, to Christ, and beyond to our own day. One person's "yes" can produce spiritual gifts far beyond its apparently insignificant beginnings. .

Two of John the Baptist's disciples see Jesus walking by, ask him where he lives and he tells them simply to "come and see". It is hard to avoid the impression that we are meant to take this more than literally. In the course of his life Jesus will make it abundantly clear that his Father's living arrangements are in the hearts and minds of those live in trust and hope. Buildings, as important as they are, do not last forever. They are "sacred" only as temporary dwellings for the people who live in God's kingdom. We have from Jesus an offer we can't refuse: "come and see". When we respond with open minds and listening hearts, we may be quite surprised when we discover.

Paul reflects on another "place" where God lives -- in our bodies. I think about this as I see people close to me enduring and surviving with all sorts of physical and mental diseases and disorders, some curable, some not. I sometimes think about my own apparently useless appendages and wonder if I would not be better off without them. I have joked about having my head put in a jar with electrodes attached, like in an old B sci-fi movie, from where I can continue to give orders. But seriously, folks. Our bodies, frail and temporary as they may seem now, are an enduring part of our essential being with an eternal destiny in some form yet to be experienced. We learned as children that, as Paul says, our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit where God is to be glorified. God is as present in disease as in health and "wholeness". In fact, we often observe that there is a special divine presence discovered in disease, not found in health. We carry the living God in our flesh and bones, healthy or otherwise.