Before we Know it.

Before We Know It from Joseph Taber on Vimeo.


1 Samuel 3:1-10 (307)
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.

2At that time Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see, was lying down in his room; 3the 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. 4Then the LORD called, “Samuel! Samuel!” and he said, “Here I am!” 5and 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. 6The 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.” 7Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD and the word of the LORD had not yet been revealed to him. 8The 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. 9therefore 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.

10Now the LORD came and stood there, calling as before, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”

This is the Word of the LORD
Thanks be to God

John 1:43-51 (112)
43The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” 44Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. 45Philip 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.” 46Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” 

47When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said of him, “Here is an Israelite in whom there is not deceit!” 48Nathanael asked him, “Where did you get to know me?” Jesus answered, “I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.” 49Nathanael replied, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!”

50Jesus answered, “Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these.” 51And he said to him, “Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened up and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”

This is the Word of the LORD
Thanks be to God.

“I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.”

The most famous sermon in American history didn’t start out as a sermon, it started as a speech at a political rally. It began as a refusal to return to normalcy, a demand that normalcy change to a more righteous, and equal form. The speech looks to the promises of the past, lives in the reality of the present, and reaches towards the hope for the future.

Toward the end of the speech, someone from the crowd, a gospel singer named Mahalia Jackson, called out to the man on the podium and reminded him that he was not just a political speechwriter, but a preacher blessed with a prophetic voice.

“And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.”

Mahalia speaks: “Tell them about the dream Martin.”

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. forsakes his notes, and lets the dream speak for itself. The dream stands up and carries a nation forward because the people who heard about the dream dared to try and make it a reality.

“Jesus answered, ‘Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these.’” We share a vision of a far-off hope, made near through Christ. Before we know it, we will see greater things than these.

Dr. King’s dream is still out there, parts of it have been realized, but we’re not all the way there yet. Racism and White Privilege still have a choke hold over many parts of our culture. All people are diminished while those injustices stand.

But we know that it will not stand forever. We share a vision of a far-off hope, made near through Christ. Before we know it, we will see greater things than these. We live in a World come of age, ready to take the step of putting Christ at the center of our life together, a world where suffering is replaced by redemption. Where despair is redeemed to amazement.

We share a vision of a far-off hope that even though the church’s walls may be crumbling, the foundation is strong, and God is rebuilding her so that she will glorify him and enjoy him forever.

We share a vision that even though the word of the LORD is rare in these days, and visions are not widespread, that our dim vision will be made light, because the lamp of God has not yet gone out in this world.

But it seems so far off. Our vision, like Eli’s, has grown dim. We struggle to see the promise of God through the fog of an anxious culture. We struggle to see the work God is already doing among us through the smoky haze of violence, burning around the world and chasing us back to our living rooms on the evening news. We struggle to remember the hope God has given us through the gloom of soul-emptying despair that threatens to take us.

But the hope we have is more than nebulous, more than wispy, more than misty. The gloom will not take us, the violence will not consume us, the fog will not overwhelm us. We share a vision of a far-off hope, made near through Christ. Before we know it, we will see greater things than these.

The hope that seems so far-off is brought near through Christ.

Two thousand years after the pivotal moment of human history, it’s obvious to us that Jesus is so much more than just a man from Nazareth. Those who lived and walked alongside the incarnate Word did not have have the advantage of our perspective.
"Jesus has presented no proclamation about the reign of God that could excite the imagination of Philip or anyone else. Philip has no evident reason to find Jesus to be remarkable.” Yet Philip does find himself amazed at the person who invites him to join the Gospel that is already written, but is still being spelled out.

“He found Philip and said to him, ‘Follow me.’ Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.” He sees something in this man called Jesus of Nazareth that compels him to do more than just follow, he has to find his friend Nathanael bring him along. Before he even known this man, he has to share, and he makes powerful claims about who this Jesus is.

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.”

Jesus is a truly human man from Nazareth, on his way to Galilee. Philip is just a human from Bethsaida. If John’s Gospel goes out of its way to reveal these origins, it’s no wonder that Nathanael jumps to conclusions based on the neighborhood Jesus grew up in. “[John] presents most of Jesus's contemporaries as making he same mistake as did Nathanael in appraising Jesus and his message. They assumed that Jesus's origins could explain who he was.” But we know from the beginning of John’s Gospel that although Jesus’s human origins may begin in Nazareth, Christ’s origins as the Word of God go all the way back to the beginning.

Jesus Christ, the man from Nazareth who is also the Word made Flesh, brings us close to God, and brings the kingdom of God near to the people of God. "[Jesus is] the means by which human beings can have an authentic encounter with the divine.” The vision of far off hope, about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, is shown in the person and work of Christ Jesus.

We share a vision of a far-off hope, made near through Christ. Before we know it, we will see greater things than these.

Nathanael’s honest question about Jesus’s humble origins show that God does not require us to be great in order to work through us. God works in our lives before we can respond in faith. God called Samuel even before he knew the LORD, Jesus was creating in the world even before the world knew him. Philip saw that the law and the prophet’s pointed to Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth.

Jesus reveals that he knew Nathanael even before Philip found him. “When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said of him, ‘Here is an Israelite in whom there is not deceit!’ Nathanael asked him, “Where did you get to know me?” Jesus answered, ‘I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.’” Perhaps a minor miracle, knowing someone’s heart before meeting them in person, not a big thing compared to raising the dead.

Nathanael responds to being known with praise, “Nathanael replied, ‘Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!’” "The overwhelming shock is that this person whose earthly origins can be identified, this Jesus, elicits a response appropriate to God.” Nathanael gives a testimony about the nature of this son of Joseph from Nazareth, he speaks of the far-off hope knowing that he’s standing right in front of him.

We share a vision of a far-off hope, made near through Christ. Before we know it, we will see greater things than these.

Jesus turns towards this response in faith, and promises that even greater things are coming.

“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 up and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.’”

In that second part, from “Very truly” on, Jesus is talking to all of his followers, even us reading it today. A more southern translation might say, “Very truly, I tell y’all, y’all will see heaven opened up and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.’” Or even more colloquially, “Really, y’all, you ain’t seen nothing yet.

I wonder how we will respond to that promise of hope? I wonder how we will answer God’s call to follow him, how we will extend the invitation to “Come and See.” I know that God works in our lives before we can respond in faith. I know we will answer God’s voice, calling in the night. I know that Christ has brought us close to God, and brought our hope close to us.

We share a vision of a far-off hope, made near through Christ. Before we know it, we will see greater things than these.