Pay Attention: God is Faithful
A Sermon by the Reverend Mother Crystal J. Hardin on The Second Sunday after the Epiphany (A), January 15, 2023.
Isaiah 49:1-7; Psalm 40:1-12; 1 Corinthians 1:1-9; John 1:29-42
The winter months tend to call my attention to the poetry of the late Mary Oliver. At this time of year, her instructions for living a life are particularly welcome:
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.
What if we lived this way? Patient. Observant. Expectant. Wandering and wondering. Delighted. Seeing the grace in all things.
The season of Epiphany is a time for Oliver’s words; a time to watch for, and to witness to, God’s faithfulness. Epiphany, from the Greek word meaning “intense appearance,” in the words of Bishop Robert Barron, is not about “just getting our attention but revealing something of enormous significance” [1].
To the magi, a star appeared -an extraordinary appearance to be sure; and yet, had they not been watching and had they not then been moved to action by their astonishment, they would have missed the real epiphany: the Christ child.
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.
Epiphanies await.
In Frances Hodgson Burnett’s beloved novel, “The Secret Garden,” Mary Lennox, a stubborn, somewhat sour, and emotionally neglected 10-year-old, moves to her uncle’s estate in Yorkshire, England, after her parents die from cholera. Her uncle, still grieving the death of his wife, leaves her to her own devices, and she spends much of her time exploring the grounds of the estate.
On one of these outings, she discovers a hidden garden (a garden that her uncle locked after her aunt died). It appears dead, completely uncared for and left in ruin. With the help of friends, Mary begins to spend time in the garden, tending and nurturing it back to life with attentiveness –from root to bud to flower.
“And the secret garden bloomed and bloomed, and every morning revealed new miracles [2].”
As the garden is slowly resurrected, the lonely, grief-filled hearts of those who experience it grow warmer, more open, and less alone.
“If you look the right way,” writes Burnett, “you can see that the whole world is a garden.”
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.
Epiphanies await.
Listen closely, as the prophet Isaiah shouts into the wind, “Pay attention, you peoples from far away! . . . Because of the Lord, who is faithful” (49:1, 7).
Pay attention; the Lord is faithful.
Isaiah understands that attentiveness is the appropriate posture when walking through a world created by a faithful God.
Because God is faithful. As Christians, we are called to believe in, and to rely upon, the faithfulness of the one true God, a faithfulness that does not falter, even if our own belief wanes. In the psalms, God’s faithfulness is spoken of twice as often as our own. We need only look to today’s appointed psalm, Psalm 40.
I have spoken of your faithfulness and your deliverance, promises the psalmist,
I have not concealed your love and faithfulness from the great congregation.
Let your love and your faithfulness keep me safe for ever (Psalm 40:11-12).
Even where we have not been faithful, God is faithful. Even where we have misplaced our trust, God trusts in us. Even when we have attempted to go our own way, to have faith in and to trust only our own devices, God stoops to meet us in the person of Jesus the Christ.
God is faithful; by him you have been called (1 Cor. 1:9), writes Saint Paul.
In response to God’s faithfulness, we in turn are called to be faithful. Because we are people of faith due only to the grace of God; his faithfulness begets our faith; his faithfulness is the soil from which all other faithfulness blooms.
In the Gospel, we see God’s faithfulness at work. It is God’s faithfulness that brings Jesus to the River Jordan. God’s faithfulness that descends on the newly baptized Jesus in the form of a dove. God’s faithfulness that rings out in John’s cry: “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!” (John 1:29). For to be sure, God’s faithfulness will be on stunning and terrifying display on the Cross.
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.
Let us look to John the Baptist this morning. The Gospel is drenched in the language of attention; astonishment; and testimony. And it begins with John:
John saw Jesus coming toward him and declared: Here is the Lamb of God (John 1:29).
And later he proclaims, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven. I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God (John 1:32, 34).
Look, here is the Lamb of God! John tells the disciples. John is paying attention, shining a light on the Word made flesh (John 1:36).
Jesus [then] turned and saw them (those same disciples) and asks, What are you looking for? (John 1:38).
Because attentiveness is the appropriate posture when walking through a world created by a faithful God.
So, what are we looking for?
This question is at the heart of our lives of faith. It is a question assuming an active wandering and wondering. A desire, no a need, to commune with the source of all that is good and true.
Looking. Seeing. Testifying. In the words of Debie Thomas:
These are the things we are called to do, not once, but over and over again as Christians. This is the heart of discipleship –not to hasten to end our search, but to pursue it ever more deeply and intentionally. To cultivate a willingness to look. A willingness to see and be seen. A willingness to tell the truth about what we have found. A willingness to venture forth again and again [3].
Jesus beckons us, “Come and see.” Epiphanies await.
God is faithful; evidenced in the manner that Jesus pays attention; sees; is astonished; testifies. Jesus with his way of looking that pierces the veil. He looks at the disciples and recognizes their deep hunger, curiosity, hope, and trust. In the words of Thomas, “He looks at Simon and sees Peter, the Rock. He looks at us and sees what lies beneath the fumbling, the fear, the mixed motives, and the doubts” [4].
God is faithful; always extending another look and endlessly seeking after us, the true us. –no matter how far we wander; no matter how dire things may look. All we need do is pay attention.
One morning, in the hidden garden, Mary and friends look out upon the abundant new life revealing itself to them in all directions: “buds which were opening . . . bits of twig whose leaves were just showing green, . . . the empty shell of some bird just hatched,” [5] and one of the faithful friends cries out, “It’s magic!” and then bursts into song: “Praise God from whom all blessings flow, praise him all creatures here below, praise him above ye heavenly host, praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost” [6].
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.
Epiphanies await.
How could they not, when God’s grace permeates all things. In the words of Madeline L’Engle:
Everything is contained in the mind of God, all that we can see, all that we cannot see, all that is visible . . . and all that is invisible. All the laughter, all the pain, all the birthing and living and dying and glory, all our stories, without exception, are given dignity by God’s awareness and concern [7].
Even where we cannot quite see it, God’s redemptive love is present. And because of God’s faithfulness, we can trust that we are in God’s hands, forevermore, empowering us to go forward into the world to look for Epiphanies. To be aware of God’s hand in all that we see; to look closely and then to look again. What may at first seem small and devoid of significance may very well be what saves us.
After all, what is of more enormous significance than the incarnation of Christ; and yet he came not as a king, but a baby, small and vulnerable. Epiphany!
Every life made precious through the grace of God; every moment made possible through God’s faithfulness.
Amen.
[1] Bishop Robert Barron, sermon, “Be Attentive to Epiphanies,” 8 January 2023, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAYaf60pIUA.
[2] Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden, (Phillip’s Pub., 1910), 328
[3] Debie Thomas, “What Are You Looking For?” Journey With Jesus, 12 January 2020, https://www.journeywithjesus.net/essays/2503-what-are-you-looking-for.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Burnett, The Secret Garden, 270.
[6] Ibid., 344.
[7] Madeleine L’Engle, Sold into Egypt: Journeys into Human Being (Convergent Reprint Edition 2017).