The Second Sunday of Epiphany Year B
Taken from Twelve Months of Sundays Year B
Description
The Second Sunday of Epiphany
1 Samuel 3.1–10 [11–20]
Revelation 5.1–10
John 1.43–51
The word of the Lord was rare in Eli’s day. The scroll remained sealed until the Lamb appeared. Nathanael sat under his fig tree, unknown, undisturbed. Not because God couldn’t speak or didn’t care, but because his foolishness is wiser, as always, than human wisdom. A voice in the night at Shiloh. A man from Nazareth, the town from which no good comes. A Lamb that had been slain. The strange stamp of authenticity.
Eli, old, blind and no longer in control, still recognizes the source and the method, even though the new word brings judgement on his family. ‘It is YHWH; let him do what seems good to him.’ The previous chapter chronicles the disobedience of his sons, the growth of Samuel, and the earlier warnings. Now the scene is set for the new thing Israel’s God will do, and it will begin with the word, initially misunderstood...
Taken from Twelve Months of Sundays Year B by N T Wright
Published by SPCK