Sunday, January 17, 2021

Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

The lectionary passages for Baptism of the Lord are:

First Reading: I Samuel 3:1-10 (11-20)
Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18
Second Reading: I Corinthians 6:12-20
Gospel: John 1:43-51

The liturgical color for the day is: Green

“Then Eli Perceived That The Lord was Calling the Boy.” – I Samuel 3:8

It is a wonderful story.  Long about the third time Eli realizes what is happening here.  Eli, for a man of little eyesight and even less vision, he gets what is going on here.  He perceives that it is the Lord calling the boy.  This time Eli is careful to tell the boy what to do.  He tells him that the next time he hears his name being called he should answer to it: “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.”

The sound of God.  Yes.  Spoken all the time.  In the Scriptures and in the Sacraments, but more than that: in each other.  We hear God in each other.  It is what it means to be in relationship and in community with each other.  We can perceive the Lord and even hear the Lord in each other.

It is why it matters that we deepen our relationship with each other and be in community with one another.  The sound of God is in your voice.  Claim that.  Realize that.  And see, oh see, that it matters how you speak and how you share.

As each of us follows Christ—and as together we follow Christ as a vibrant Christ-centered community we are sounding to each other the living presence of the Holy Spirit God who abides in us in faithfulness.  Allow your life to be used in such a way that your life becomes this holy resonance of what God wants to say to the world.

Your being sounds out the presence of God.

Eli perceived it was the Lord.  Perceive it.  It is the Lord—resonating, speaking, voicing—sounding through you.  Are you perceiving it?

Philip said to Nathanael, “come and see.”  Do the same with the voice of the Lord in you—look and see.  Do you hear it?  Do you live it?  It is the sound of God, the sound of your vocal cords and your life.

Rev. Dr. Daris Bultena
General Presbyter and Stated Clerk