You are Never Alone

Second Sunday in Epiphany

January 15, 2012

Lectionary B

Fred D. Wilcoxson

The driveway leading to our Tennessee home is about 600 feet long. As you turn off the hard road onto the gravel road that leads to our driveway, you journey into another world. The bunnies run across your path and the butterflies flit all around.  Through the trees on the right you can see the cows lazing along a trickling creek bed. On the left you can sense the height of the rocky ridge. The farther you go down the road the more the forest on both sides begins to close in on you. The last driveway is ours; it is marked by huge boulders on either side. When you turn up the drive and up the incline the trees actually form a tunnel like effect, mostly shaded, but with rays of sunshine piercing randomly through. When you top the ridge you break out into a beautiful vista of color. The sky forms a blue canopy over a wide valley between you and the Cherokee National Forest. The lower ridges and rolling hills in the valley are painted in shades of green. You can stand there in the shade of a tree and feel completely alone. You can enjoy the solitude watching the birds flitting about, hear a dog bark or a cow mooing somewhere in the distance. One could just stay there in the aloneness and day dream. Even in the winter time the trees provide cover from the cold wind. Even in the winter there is a feeling of peace in this place, where you can be quiet and reflective.

I wonder if this was what Nathaniel was doing as he stood under the fig trees alone in his thoughts. He could have been enjoying the limited amount of shade provided by the fig tree and the cool breezes that might have been coming his way. Was he enjoying a moment of private revelry with his imaginings and fantasies? His friend Phillip roused him from his quiet reflective musings. He thought himself alone, but God had found him even in this private place and moment. He was likely just like we are when we are in the same situation, when we think that we are all alone only to find that God is right there with us.

John says that Phillip said to Nathaniel “follow me.” Nathaniel was jarred back into the real world. He likely said or felt that he had been pulled from a peaceful and comfortable place. Phillip went on to say: “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of Joseph.” Obviously the offer didn’t thrill Nathaniel. He actually sounded a little put off when he replied: “Can anything good come out of Nazareth.” But his trust in his friends and Phillips call: “Come and see” was enough for him. He joined them in their trek to see this Jesus of Nazareth.

When Jesus talked to him, Nathaniel was amazed that Jesus had seen him under the tree, and was probably a little frightened that even though he thought he was alone, he had been seen. This event, Jesus telling him of seeing him under the tree, made him a believer.  Jesus responded to Nathaniel with a new life and new calling. Jesus said “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” He went on to say: “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

What just happen here? Think about how Nathaniel’s life just changed. That is obvious. What is the deeper reality of the way that God works in the lives of his people? When Nathaniel said: ‘Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!’ Nathaniel knew that from that moment forward that his old way of living day to day was over with. The life that he had known had ended.

But, wonder of wonders what has Jesus also done. Before the door was closed on that old way of life a new door was opened a new way of life was waiting for him. Jesus greeted Nathaniel with the promise that he would see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man. There was no question of ‘what am I going to do now.’ 

Nathaniel was a grown man and had heard the prophecies of Moses and prophets. He had been prepared to the extent necessary for this revelation. This was not true of Samuel the young boy in the Old Testament reading. When Nathaniel heard God’s call he responded in just one calling. Samuel on the other hand mistook God’s call for him as being the call of his earthy, human, master. And like a good young servant he jumped from his bed and ran to his masters side not just once, not just twice, not even in three in three calls did he realize whom was actually calling him. It was only when he was visited in a dream that he was able to receive instructions from God on what he was to do. He then had to sleep on it; or at least he had lay in bed the rest of the night to think about what the messenger of God had asked of him. It was only after doing his morning chores that he went to Eli and delivered God’s message.

 It was only after he had done as God had asked that his life was changed. He was no longer a servant in training. He himself had become a prophet. He would never be the same again. The door to his old life was shut.  But, before it was shut God had prepared for him a new life. Because Samuel was just a child he didn’t recognize that it was God calling and he was full of reluctance and trepidation.

All of that time Samuel had spent in the Temple, in his sleeping closet, and about his servants duties he thought that he was alone.

Do we think that we are alone when no one else is around? Psalm 139 lays down for us a great doctrine. That is that our God, the one and only God, has a perfect knowledge of all the motions and actions of our life, both our inward and outward being are bared and open to his eyes.

Lord, you have searched me out and know me: *you know my sitting down and rising up; you discern my thoughts from afar.

You trace my journeys and my resting places *and are acquainted with all my ways.

You see, he is with me when I walk up my driveway, when I sit in solitude on my porch looking out over the valley, or when I stand under the protection of the forest. Even though I don’t know He is there and when I don’t experience phenomenal events, I am being blessed. You too are constantly in the presence of and under the watchful eye of a loving, caring, providing God and you are blessed.  This is so even in the midst of our struggles and trials; God is with us, despite it all.

How will you hear Gods call, that sometimes still, small voice? How will you recognize that God is preparing to close one door and open another for you?

Let me help you find the answers to those questions by closing with a meditation from Henri Nouwen called The Still, Small Voice of Love:

Many voices ask for our attention. There is a voice that says, "Prove that you are a good person." Another voice says, "You'd better be ashamed of yourself." There also is a voice that says, "Nobody really cares about you," and one that says, "Be sure to become successful, popular, and powerful." But underneath all these often very noisy voices is a still, small voice that says, "You are my Beloved, my favor rests on you." That's the voice we need most of all to hear. To hear that voice, however, requires special effort; it requires solitude, silence, and a strong determination to listen.

That's what prayer is. It is listening to the voice that calls us "my Beloved."

Let us pray,  Lord, we ask you by your Holy Spirit to help us trust that we are never alone, despite challenges too numerous to mention, sighs too deep for words, and all the other hurdles we face. May we all rejoice in being known and being seen, and being loved in every moment. May our inward and outward thoughts be love this day, knowing that You abide with us in everything we do and say.  Amen