Truth telling or doing what we know is right or just, can involve standing up to powers and people – that we may fear, are obligated to, or maybe it involves someone we care about or are accountable to, as it was for Samuel.  Following God’s call is often not easy.

God’s call to Samuel was persistent.  At even such a tender age, God knew Samuel, God had plans for Samuel well before he was even born.  God called him by his name and Samuel heard God’s voice.  We are all called by God into the service of God, through baptism.  We belong to God and each of us is intimately known.

Many people preferred to stay in the dark in Jesus day; they didn’t want to believe in something that challenged their expectations.  They accepted Moses Law – it made rational sense, it provided order and it separated power – those who enforced the rules and those who were to follow them.  In fact rules could be a tool of tyranny.  Darkness was justified.

Jesus came as the light of the world to bring truth and justice, to illuminate the dark places, to bring new life where there was death and decay – the suffering of humanity.  This would require change, possibly the need to review, share, adjust, a shifting of power, changing what is unjust to just.  Illuminating can show up things we might not want to see and areas for change where there can be a lot of resistance.  Transformation offers new life but it requires truth and effort.  We are never alone when we live into our truth.

John tells us that the Word became flesh and lived among us – the Word of God, the voice and breath of God that brought all things into being before anything was created.  Jesus, the living light that existed in the beginning was one of us.

Mary was so much more than what we might first think, she was an amazing young woman of faith and courage.  Women in Mary’s day and culture didn’t speak up for themselves yet here she responds to God’s call upon her with “here I am” echoing the responses of great people and prophets before her – Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Samuel, Isaiah.  She too felt inadequate and ill equipped but trusting God implicitly, simply said yes with her life and her body.  This young Jewish girl from a small rural community, a person of no great importance or status, with no power or privilege is chosen by God to bear God’s Son.  The One who the Hebrew people had been waiting for, for centuries – with hope for freedom and for peace.

Both John and Mary were such ordinary people.  They had no wealth, status or power but each had a deep faith in their hearts and an openness  to the message of God.  Neither questioned nor doubted, even when faced with situations that seemed impossible or inexplicable.  They heard God in their hearts and they believed.  May we too grasp the mystery of the incarnation with the faith of the heart. For the mind alone can never penetrate these things. It is not a matter of agreeing or disagreeing. We have to stand before God’s secret with reverent awe and experience in our own lives, this miracle of the incarnation.

We are told that the righteous will be blessed for having fed the hungry, giving water to the thirsty, welcoming the stranger, clothing the naked and visiting the sick and the imprisoned. We are told they have done all these things to Jesus. The King then condemns the goats on his left side for having done none of these things for Jesus.
Both the sheep and the goats have no idea what it is going on. They are clueless about when they did or didn’t do any of these things to Jesus.