Truth and the Ambiguity of Living - Good Samaritan Lutheran Church

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…from Worship at Good Sam on January 18, 2015

First Reading: 1 Samuel 3:1-20 (Click to go directly to the NRSV Bible Text) At a time when visions are rare and unexpected, the Lord comes to Samuel and calls him to speak the divine word. Though just a boy, Samuel responds to God obediently, as Eli the priest has taught him to respond. This marks the beginning of Samuel’s prophetic ministry.

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 6:12–20 Paul is helping the Corinthians understand that God has claimed the entirety of their lives through the death of Christ. Hence Christian relationships and conduct, including areas of human sexuality, are to reflect the reality that we belong to Christ and that the Holy Spirit lives within us.

Gospel: John 1:43–51 In John’s gospel, Jesus’ ministry begins with the call of disciples, who then bring others to Jesus. Philip’s friend Nathanael moves from skepticism to faith when he accepts the invitation to “Come and see.”

Pilate said to Jesus, “‘What is truth?’ With this he went out again to the Jews gathered there and said, ‘I find no basis for a charge against him.’” (John 18:38) There is a lot of rhetoric about truth these days. There are those who will say that truth is objective and knowable, that it is rational. Others will say that truth is personal and how each of us bestows value. Perhaps there is no objective truth that resides in the hands and hearts of humanity for we all shape the world we see through our own skewed perceptions. But perhaps from God’s point of view there is truth that is more objective. If there is any hope of humanity gaining or gleaning this reality, it will be because God makes it known. It will be found by those willing to receive it and not by those who wish to take the hill first and define it. This is the curious calamity in humanity’s search for truth.

Message for the day: “Truth and the Ambiguity of Living”