{"id":67,"date":"2016-03-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-03-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/2016\/03\/01\/2nd-sunday-after-epiphany-you-are-known-and-called\/"},"modified":"2016-03-01T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-03-01T00:00:00","slug":"2nd-sunday-after-epiphany-you-are-known-and-called","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/2016\/03\/01\/2nd-sunday-after-epiphany-you-are-known-and-called\/","title":{"rendered":"2nd Sunday after Epiphany &#8211; You are known and called."},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div style=\"margin: 10px 0 0 -10px\"> <a href=\"https:\/\/theword-this-week.weebly.com\/\/uploads\/4\/1\/5\/2\/4152650\/epiphanyplustwo.mp3\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/\/www.weebly.com\/weebly\/images\/file_icons\/wav.png\" width=\"36\" height=\"36\" style=\"float: left; position: relative; left: 0px; top: 0px; margin: 0 15px 15px 0; border: 0;\"><\/a><\/p>\n<div style=\"float: left; text-align: left; position: relative;\">\n<table style=\"font-size: 12px; font-family: tahoma; line-height: .9;\">\n<tr>\n<td colspan=\"2\"><b> epiphanyplustwo.mp3<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr style=\"display: none;\">\n<td>File Size:  <\/td>\n<td>10086 kb<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr style=\"display: none;\">\n<td>File Type:  <\/td>\n<td> mp3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/theword-this-week.weebly.com\/\/uploads\/4\/1\/5\/2\/4152650\/epiphanyplustwo.mp3\" style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Download File<\/a><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<hr style=\"clear: both; width: 100%; visibility: hidden\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"paragraph\" style=\"text-align:left;\">The Word This Week:<\/p>\n<ul style=\"\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<li style=\"\"><a href=\"http:\/\/lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu\/texts.php?id=61#psalm_reading\" style=\"\" title=\"\">Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/li>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<li style=\"\"><a href=\"http:\/\/lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu\/texts.php?id=61#epistle_reading\" style=\"\" title=\"\">1 Corinthians 6:12-20<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/li>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<li style=\"\"><a href=\"http:\/\/lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu\/texts.php?id=61#gospel_reading\" style=\"\" title=\"\">John 1:43-51<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"\">Let us Pray: In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, AMEN.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"\"><\/span><br \/><span style=\"\"><\/span>  <span style=\"\">\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"\">Good Morning again everyone!<\/span><br \/><span style=\"\"><\/span><br \/><span style=\"\"><\/span>  <span style=\"\">\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"\">We live in a world where privacy is becoming increasingly less and less present in our lives.\u00a0 People share all the trivia of our day to day existence on Facebook and twitter\u2026 yet there is still that part of us that we keep secret, our inmost thoughts, feelings and desires, that we don\u2019t share with the world, that we keep hidden.\u00a0 Sometimes we keep it hidden because it is embarrassing, sometimes we bury it because it is painful, but we all have those parts of our lives, those parts of ourselves that we hide away, that we don\u2019t share.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"\"><\/span>  <span style=\"\">There is one however that knows our deepest darkest secrets. There is one who knows our hopes and our dreams, our fears and our joys.\u00a0 There is one who knows every good deed we have done in secret, and every wrong we have committed.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"\"><\/span>  <span style=\"\">God knows us.\u00a0 You will note the theme present in our readings today, speak of God\u2019s intimate knowledge of us.\u00a0 Our psalm starts us off with the psalmist speaking of God\u2019s intimate knowledge of our inmost being.\u00a0 God knows our thoughts, our hearts, he knows every detail of us for it was he who created us, it was he who knitted us together in our mothers womb.\u00a0 More important than that, the psalmist says \u201c<strong style=\"\">In your book were written<\/strong><\/span><strong style=\"\"><span serif mso-fareast-font-family: roman style=\"\"> <span style=\"\">all the days that were formed for me,<\/span> <span style=\"\">when none of them as yet existed.<\/span><\/span><\/strong><span style=\"\">\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"\"><\/span>  <span style=\"\">God already knows us, he already knows the mistakes we will make and the sin we will commit before we are born\u2026 and yet he loves us. So much does he love us that he was willing to come to earth as one of us. Jesus was willing to become a human being, and die on the cross for us so that we could be brought back into full communion with the God who created us \u2013 this God who has known us since before time began.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"\"><\/span><br \/><span style=\"\"><\/span>  <span style=\"\">And make no mistake brothers and sisters, that is what Jesus death and resurrection is about.\u00a0 This God, who is the creator and sustainer of the entire universe wants to be in relationship with you and me.\u00a0 So great is his love for us, despite our tendency to reject him, despite our inclination to sin. This God who formed the stars, and planets and who created life from nothing \u2013 calls us.\u00a0 He calls you and me to relationship with him. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"\"><\/span>  <span style=\"\">This is what St Paul is speaking of in his letter to the Corinthians when he says that we are united to the Lord and become one in spirit with Him.\u00a0 God calls us to unity with Him, to be at one with him in our very souls. He calls us to join our hearts to his heart and our thoughts to his thoughts, so that just as when Nathaniel looked at Jesus and saw God revealed, we can be those who reveal God to the world. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"\"><\/span>  <span style=\"\">I want you to notice something about how Nathaniel became a disciple of Jesus Christ, about how he came to recognise Jesus as the Son of God, and his Lord.\u00a0 Nathaniel wasn\u2019t directly called by Jesus, as other disciples had been, Jesus didn\u2019t walk up and say follow me as he had other times\u2026 no, it was Philip who Jesus called like that\u2026 and then it was Philip who brought the revelation to Nathaniel.\u00a0 He told Nathaniel that Jesus was the fulfilment of the Hebrew scriptures \u2013 that he was the promised Messiah\u2026 Nathaniel as you might expect living in a period of time where there had been more than a few false Messiahs running about, has a healthy dose of scepticism\u2026 can anything good come from Nazareth? he says\u2026 <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"\"><\/span>  <span style=\"\">Here is the clincher\u2026 are you ready? Philip doesn\u2019t launch into a long exegesis of the Hebrew scriptures to explain how this poor son of a tradesman from the tiny village of Nazareth &#8211; \u00a0in Galilee of all places &#8211; could be the promised Messiah. He doesn\u2019t deride Nathaniel for his scepticism\u2026 what does he do? <\/span><br \/><span style=\"\"><\/span><br \/><span style=\"\"><\/span>  <span style=\"\">\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"\">\u2026 He says &#8211; Come and see.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"\"><\/span><br \/><span style=\"\"><\/span>  <span style=\"\">Philip has much to teach all of us about evangelism.\u00a0 It is not our role to argue people into the kingdom. It is not our role to be the moral police for society.\u00a0 Our primary role is to live in unity with the God who created us, and to say to those who question why\u2026 come and see.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"\"><\/span>  <span style=\"\">We are called not to do God\u2019s work in transforming lives, but to invite people to the place where they can experience God\u2019s love and intimate knowledge first hand. When Nathaniel came face to face with Jesus, and realised that Jesus knew him, that he knew him before he had even seen him\u2026 it was then that he came to faith \u2013 not through argument or reason, but through experiencing God first hand.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"\"><\/span>  <span style=\"\">So how do we do it? How do we be people who say come and see? Well it might sound silly to our ears\u2026 but why not just start with those words\u2026 come and see\u2026 when was the last time we invited someone to come to church with us? The worst they will say is no\u2026 the best that could happen is that they could experience their own meeting with God and have their lives transformed! <\/span><br \/><span style=\"\"><\/span><br \/><span style=\"\">We also need to live our lives as those who have been transformed, as Paul says all things are lawful for me \u2026 but not all things are beneficial.\u00a0 All things are lawful in the sense that we are saved by the grace of God and not by anything we do\u2026 but there are many things which we can do which are far from good for us\u2026 and which also draw us and those around us away from God. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"\"><\/span>  <span style=\"\">If we are living as disciples of Christ. If we are seeking to be beacons of Christ\u2019s love and hope in the world then our very lives will be inviting those around us to \u2018come and see\u2019.\u00a0 If we are merely Sunday Christians who live the rest of the week as if God doesn\u2019t exist \u2013 then the message we send to the world is one of hypocrisy and people will turn away.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"\"><\/span>  <span style=\"\">So you\u2019re thinking\u2026 OK Daryl you\u2019ve had a big long rant, what does it all mean to me here and now\u2026 <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"\"><\/span>  <span style=\"\">It means that we who have placed our faith and hope in Jesus have a God in whom we can trust.\u00a0 It means we have a God on whom we can lean in the hard times and with whom we can rejoice in the good times.\u00a0 It means that we can have confidence that we are truly known, truly called and truly loved, and that we can boldly live our lives as his disciples. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"\"><\/span>  <span style=\"\">It all means that if you are someone who has not ever freely given yourself over to Jesus \u2013 now is a good time to do it.\u00a0 God already knows you, he created you and he is calling you into relationship with him.\u00a0 He loves you so deeply that he went to the cross for you, he conquered death for you and is offering you a new way \u2013 a way that leads to life in abundance.\u00a0 Are you sceptical? That\u2019s OK\u2026 why not just come and see?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"\"><\/span>  <span style=\"\">The Lord be with you\u2026<\/span><br \/><span style=\"\"><\/span><br \/><span style=\"\"><\/span>  <span style=\"\">\u00a0<\/span><br \/><span style=\"\"><\/span><br \/><span style=\"\"><\/span>  <span style=\"\">\u00a0<\/span><br \/><span style=\"\"><\/span><br \/><span style=\"\"><\/span>  <span line-height:150 style=\"\">\u00a0<\/span><br \/><span style=\"\"><\/span><br \/><span style=\"\"><\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>epiphanyplustwo.mp3 File Size: 10086 kb File Type: mp3 Download File The Word This Week: \u00a0 Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 1 Corinthians 6:12-20\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 John 1:43-51 Let us Pray: In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, AMEN. \u00a0Good Morning again everyone! \u00a0We live in a world where privacy is becoming increasingly &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/2016\/03\/01\/2nd-sunday-after-epiphany-you-are-known-and-called\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;2nd Sunday after Epiphany &#8211; You are known and called.&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}