Jan
Feedback
1 Samuel 3:1-10(11-20) 1 Corinthians 6:12-20 John 1:43-51 Psalm 139:1-5, 12-17
Feedback! Do you get impatient with incessant feedback? Is there someone in your life who has a negative or argumentative comment to everything you say??
Feedback permeates our society and shuts down our conversations – arguments, opinions, elitist political talking points, finger pointing, labeling, narrowly-focused mindsets – the steady din of crippling verbal assault on those from a “lesser place” so far beneath our own moral high-ground. Never-ending feedback, like being locked for hours in a room with a loud staticky radio. Sometimes we just want to cover our ears and scream to block out the banging clatter.
We thought the magic of 12:01 a.m. January 1, 2021 would bring glimmers of relief from the pandemic and the nasty political bloodbaths. Now, we find that that was just another day and the battles and the argumentative feedback continue.
Our ongoing requirement of physical distance and lack of social contact within the muck of our nasty political climate exacerbates our animosities. Not being able to exchange conversation as we look into each other’s eyes drives us further apart. Social media giants seek to control our thoughts. We are too easily crippled by our lack of the mystical experience of kneeling side by side at the Communion rail at the foot of the Cross. So, the divisive feedback grows louder.
Nathanael, in our Gospel account, is best known for his divisive feedback. “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”
Isn’t it uplifting to observe these frailties among the original disciples of Jesus? Was Nathanael a social bigot? That’s a pretty narrow perspective from someone who was in the selection process for becoming one of Jesus’ closest followers.
Even Nathanael has bought into the class warfare. Yet, his companion Philip did not bow to the cynical feedback; Philip simply said, “Come and see.” And, Nathanael did just that.
Like the eager young Samuel of our Old Testament lesson, Nathanael stepped forth in faith. Living into God’s call means turning away from our narrow mind-sets and stepping forward into the unknown, stepping out with faith alone – faith that the voice that draws us even amidst the din of the deafening static is the powerful voice of God. Listen along with the young Samuel. Come and see along with Nathanael.
God leads us from the negativity-driven feedback that divides us into the calm of our common ground as people of God united in the mission of Jesus Christ.
The Episcopal Church is launching a new campaign on Martin Luther King’s birthday, which we observe tomorrow. Quoting from the website: “The campaign is a conversation called “From Many One: Conversations Across Difference.” The initiative comes from the Latin phrase E Pluribus Unum (from many, one) and hopes to teach, model and foster conversations with those who think differently from us.”
However formally or informally you might choose to participate in this campaign, I invite you to focus on the four vital questions that are highlighted as conversation starters particularly with those who we perceive as thinking so differently from us. Consider and share these four questions:
1. What do you love?
2. What have you lost?
3. Where does it hurt?
4. What do you dream?
Conversations focused on these four questions allow us to hear God’s unifying call to see Christ in one another – the greater good – from many, one.
Fortunately, as always, Jesus saw the good in Nathanael. Fortunately, Nathanael could not resist his friend’s gentle nudge to come and see. To see the good in one another requires opening our hearts, our ears, and our hands as well as our eyes.
Away from the negative clatter that divides us, through the mercy of Christ we find unity with one another in our loves, our losses, our hurts, and our dreams. Come and see.
The Rev. Anne Dale
January 17, 2021
The Episcopal Church of the Advent, Norfolk, VA
At home
