What a joy to be able to preach on Psalm 139! Tucked away in the middle of the Bible this gem brings hope and comfort to so many. It is a stock piece for youth workers when comforting teenagers unsure or who they are or struggling with anxiety and self worth; it is a comfort for those who are grieving, that however far away their loved one seems to be to them, they are still kept safely in God’s presence; it is a gift for children being baptised, a promise for the whole of their lives. More than that, though, it is key to the Christian faith.

Now of course, the resurrection is the real heart of Christianity, but within that is this Psalm, written by David who had fallen far short of God’s expectations on so many occasions and yet had received God’s grace and mercy and continued commission to reign over Israel. David was fully aware that God knew him inside and out, and still he was loved.

The heart of the Christian faith is that God KNOWS us. God knows us inside out and still loves us. God knows us back to front, and still sent Jesus to die for us. God knows our hopes and fears, our strengths and weaknesses, and still calls us into new adventures of faith, trusting us in ways that we wouldn’t trust ourselves.

you discern my thoughts from afar…
and are acquainted with all my ways.

Psalm 139:1,2

God doesn’t just see the person we are, God sees the person we are capable of being, God views us as a parent views a new born child; full of possibilities and hopes and dreams. God doesn’t see us as the tarnished people we may have become, tired, and weary, and browbeaten. It was God who knitted us together in our mother’s womb, and knows therefore what we are made of, knows that we are made in God’s own image.

This is why God could call to Samuel, a child who had been miraculously conceived by a woman who was despairing that she would ever become a mother, a child who was dedicated to working and living in the temple under the tutelage of Eli, one of the greatest of prophets. God knew Samuel and called him by name. God knows us too, and calls us by name.

What is so amazing is not that God called Samuel, but that Samuel heard God. Samuel heard God and responded, his answer being ‘here I am’. God calls each of us in such different ways, after all God knows us and knows that we need to be treated as individuals. I wonder how many of us, when God comes calling, pretend to be out. How many of us seem to go deaf in our spiritual ear, or when the call becomes too clear for us to deny, find so many reasons why we can’t respond?

Then the Lord called ‘Samuel! Samuel!’ and he said, ‘Here I am!’ and he ran

1 Samuel 3:4

Samuel doesn’t run away from God’s calling, he runs towards it, or rather he thinks he is running towards where the voice has come from. He is mistaken in, quite understandably, thinking it is Eli who has called him, but all the same his heart is running towards serving God. If God called me in the middle of the night I would pull the duvet over my head so that I couldn’t hear and try to go back to sleep.

How do I know this? Because when I heard God call me to ordination I did indeed run. I didn’t immediately reply ‘Here I am’ I replied, ‘no God surely not.’ I then asked for 10 signs, and then began counting in halves and quarters and dismissing signs until it became quite clear that God was speaking to me and I had to respond with a yes. God knew me and didn’t give up. God knows me and loves me and as my ministry and calling change shape I know to trust and listen and try to respond as positively as I can.

I wonder if the man in the gospel passage set for today also wanted to run away. Jesus is being his usual contentious self, at least as far as the Pharisees are concerned. He allows his disciples to feed themselves by plucking grains of corn on their way to worship, or ‘farming’ as the law-keepers chose to see it, and now he performs the role of a doctor. Jesus is breaking the 4th Commandment, he has worked on the sabbath. Jesus sees the man with the withered hand, sees his inability to work, sees his uncleanliness and calls him forward. Jesus doesn’t go to the man, but calls him. The man has to respond. Although it sounds like a command, it is actually an invitation, and a dangerous one at that. Jesus knows that this man wants to be well, to be able to work, to be fully part of his society and community. Jesus calls him and he comes forward to receive the gift that Jesus has waiting for him, he comes forward to play his role in unveiling the presence of God in the midst of the synagogue.

And he said to the man with the withered hand, ‘come forward’.

mark 2:

God knows each and everyone of us, knows the role that is unique for us to play in the building of his kingdom here on earth, and knows what it will take for us to say yes. What will it take for you to say yes to God today?

Read Psalm 139 here, read about Samuel here, and the man with the withered hand here.