Upcoming Sunday's Scriptures

Sermon (January 15) – “When God Calls Your Name”

I Samuel 3:1-10

-          At one time, I & II Samuel was one book instead of two.  They were separated in the development of the Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures.

-          I Samuel is the first of four books which tell the story of Israel’s monarchy.

-          Young Samuel was 12 years old at the time of his calling, the same age of Jesus when he stayed behind in Jerusalem which is an interesting parallel.

-          The danger of this story is to see it as a cute story of how God called him.  But look what God is calling Samuel to do.  See Verses 11-14. 

-          Verse 2 – The reference to Eli’s eyesight might also serve as a metaphor for his and Israel’s blindness to seeing how God is at work.  In what ways are we blind to God’s presence and work in our lives?

-          Verse 7 – Samuel did not yet “know” the Lord.  Question: How could this be?  Didn’t Eli teach him about God and serve as a mentor for him?  Or was it normal to not have a sense of God prior to age 12?  What are your earliest memories of God as a child?  What age were you?

John 1:43-51

-          The Gospel is John is not part of the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, & Luke.)  It uses a lot of separate stories about Jesus and is commonly believed to have been written a little later after the synoptic gospels.

-          Verse 38 – Jesus asks, “What are you looking for?”  That’s a good question.  What are you looking for when you seek out Jesus?

-          Verse 39 – Jesus says, “Come and see.”  For John, this means, come and believe.  What a great way to invite people into a faith journey by simply saying, “Come and see.”

-          Verses 46 – 47 – I see this in a humorous way.  Nathaniel is kind of poking fun at people who are from Nazareth.  Notice how Phillip uses Jesus’ phrase of “Come and see.”  To continue the humor, Jesus pays Nathaniel who he has yet to meet, a compliment by saying that he is without fault.  Was Jesus aware of how Nathaniel was prejudging Jesus with his Nazareth comment?

-          Verse 50 – Jesus raises expectations by telling Nathaniel that he will see greater things than just being able to know of Nathaniel before meeting him.  This raises the question: Do we have high expectations for our church and for our future or do we just accept the status quo?

-          Verse 49 – When Nathaniel identifies Jesus as the Son of God and the King of Israel, he isn’t necessarily referring to Jesus as part of the Trinity.  His belief is that Jesus is the long awaited King who might finally kick out the Romans and restore Israel to independence which was the common expectation for the Messiah in the 1^st century.  Throughout his ministry and especially through his death on the cross, Jesus will demonstrate a different understanding of what it means to be the King and the Son of God.

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