Second Sunday after the Epiphany (B)—Psalm 139:1–6, 13–18; 1 Samuel 3:1–20 and John 1:43–51

You can still get the book of these poems for Year B from me (and from Wipf and Stock, Amazon, etc.) With 107 poems for all the Sundays plus special days of the year, I hope this will be for you a wonderful little book to hold, pore over, and use each week for the sake of your own imagination and faith, preaching and study. With two indices: one with all the 128 biblical references, not only to the specific lectionary texts, but to all other texts referred to in the poems; and the other with all the titles, such as “Real Fundamentalism,” “Job’s Non-Hollywood Ending,” “Does Jesus Still Thumb His Nose?” and “I Never Liked to Preach This Text.” You can order from me for a signed copy, inscribed to yourself or a giftee, for only $14, which includes shipping and tax. Email me at scott.l.barton[at sign]gmail.com for payment details (Venmo, Zelle, check).

Marc Chagall:

Le jeune Samuel, 

serviteur du sacrificateur 

Eli et couchant dans la chambre

de son maître, s'entend appeler par Dieu 

 

Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18

 

Astonishing

 

Before genetics, I wonder: How did the Psalmist know

About that knitting of our DNA in utero?

Before geology, how did this ancient, faithful seer

Know we are literally dust from earth, to God endeared?

The writer says we're fearfully and wonderfully made,

The Maker's thoughts so vast there is no way they might be weighed,

And though they number more than all the grains of all the sand,

It's so astonishing I'm with this LORD, still, at the end.

 

Scott L. Barton

 

O Lord, you have searched me and known me.

You know when I sit down and when I rise up; 

you discern my thoughts from far away.

You search out my path and my lying down, 

and are acquainted with all my ways.

Even before a word is on my tongue, 

O Lord, you know it completely.

You hem me in, behind and before, 

and lay your hand upon me.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; 

it is so high that I cannot attain it.

 

For it was you who formed my inward parts; 

you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. 

Wonderful are your works; that I know very well.

My frame was not hidden from you, 

when I was being made in secret, 

intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

Your 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.

How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God! 

How vast is the sum of them!

I try to count them—they are more than the sand; 

I come to the end—I am still with you.

 

+  +  +

 

1 Samuel 3:1-20 and John 1:43-51

 

Means of Grace

 

There's nothing like telling the truth!

So Samuel and Nathanael learned,

They told what they heard,

The meaning, unslurred,

And another truth to them returned.

 

In Samuel's case, somehow, he knew,

From the voice that kept calling that night,

What old Eli should know—

Though the news was his woe,

And though bad news is rarely polite.

 

Nathanael had heard, nothing good

From backwater Naz'reth could come,

So he challenged Phil's cry

The Messiah was nigh—

To the latest craze he'd not succumb!

 

Thus, speaking what they thought down deep,

Despite worry what others might say,

With their clear lack of guile,

Sure the Maker then smiled,

And astonishing things then displayed.

 

Scott L. Barton

 

 

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. At that time Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see, was lying down in his room; the 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. Then the Lord called, “Samuel! Samuel!” and he said, “Here I am!” and 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. The 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.” Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. The 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. Therefore 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. Now the Lord came and stood there, calling as before, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”

 

Then 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. On that day I will fulfill against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end. For 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. Therefore I swear to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be expiated by sacrifice or offering forever.” Samuel lay there until morning; then he opened the doors of the house of the Lord. Samuel was afraid to tell the vision to Eli. But Eli called Samuel and said, “Samuel, my son.” He said, “Here I am.” Eli 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.” So Samuel told him everything and hid nothing from him. Then he said, “It is the Lord; let him do what seems good to him.”

 

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

+  +  +

The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip 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.” Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said of him, “Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!” Nathanael asked him, “Where did you get to know me?” Jesus answered, “I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.” Nathanael replied, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” Jesus answered, “Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these.” And 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.”