Our readings this week are 1 Samuel 3.1–10 and John 1.43–end.  At the moment we're making our way through the season of Epiphany - which is part of Christmas (the reason you will still find decorations and trees in many of our churches!).  It's a season that's all about Christ becoming known.   That's precisely what we find in our readings this week - God making himself known.

In Samuel we have that wonderful story of the young man hearing the voice of God waking him in the night, and responding with 'Speak, for your servant is listening.'; in the gospel reading we watch as Nathanael meets Jesus for the first time, and blurts out 'Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!'

Both of these are extraordinary responses, and perhaps they ought to challenge us on our readiness to respond to the presence of God around us.  Are we ready to drop everything, and jump in, and follow him when he shows up? 

I'm going out on a limb to suggest probably not.  First of all, I suspect God pops up more often than we have a tendency to notice so we miss the opportunity to get on board. Secondly, even if we do notice that something is going on, He perhaps is not our first thought for cause or explanation.  Maybe we notice His presence a bit too late - often after the event, when the penny drops with a bit of reflection that maybe that is why that happened.  Thirdly (dare I go here?), perhaps at times we do notice what He's up to, but, frankly, right now is a bit awkward, or we'd do anything for love, but we won't do that...  Fourthly... no, that's probably enough - either you're an A* in holiness, and have no idea what I'm talking about, or you've recognised at least something in this paragraph already.

I don't, though, want us to walk away from these readings discouraged if those are our experiences, because if we read the whole of them and not just the endings we pretty soon realise we're in good company.  Samuel, after all, didn't get to responding the right way until the fourth time God called him; and in order to do so then he needed the help of a someone with a lot more experience of God to point out what was going on.  And the really brilliant thing?  That older, wiser, holier priest of a man - Eli - also didn't cotton on until the third time.  Notice this too - when Samuel does finally reply, he doesn't use the words Eli told him to; Eli's instruction is to say 'Speak, LORD, [capitals to represent the name of God] for your servant is listening.'; Samuel instead says, 'Speak, for your servant is listening.'  It's perhaps only a minor difference, but where did the 'LORD' go?  Is it reading in too much to think that Samuel's faith and confidence isn't quite yet where Eli's is?  That he's not yet - even four mystical voice events in - quite ready to accept that this is God talking to him?

What about Nathanael? Sure, he responds pretty enthusiastically in the end - but when Phillip first tells him about Jesus he couldn't be less interested! 'Can anything good come out of Nazareth?' is his cutting reply.  Jesus, of course, greets Nathanael, who has been persuaded to come and look, with enthusiasm, 'Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!', to which Nathanael first responds somewhat cagily and cynically, '‘Where did you come to know me?’

What I'm suggesting is that Eli and Samuel - the servants of God in his temple night and day - didn't recognise God when he came a-knocking; and when they finally do, it looks to me like Samuel responds with something a little less than 100% confidence.  Similarly, Nathanael has to go from dismissive incredulity, through cynical wariness, before finally arriving at his incredible statement of faith.

And God still uses them.  He could have given up - but He didn't. 

The remarkable thing isn't really that Samuel took four attempts to respond, nor that Nathanael made it through to belief.  The remarkable thing is that Jesus met Nathanael in precisely the right way to overcome his suspicions, drawing him gently through them with precisely the right words at precisely the right times.  The remarkable thing is that God bothered calling to Samuel a second, third, and even a fourth time.  It raises the question of when He would have stopped, and I'd suggest that he wouldn't - if he'd had to ask 7 times, 70 times, or even 70 times 7 times before Samuel realised what was going on, I'm sure he would have done.  

What gives me that certainty?  The fact that these are not isolated incidents. Repeatedly through scripture and history we find people who are distracted, stubborn, cynical or belligerent won over by a God who just doesn't give up, because he knows that we only become what we are created to be - fully and perfectly - when we are in relationship with him, and he will not give up on giving us that possibility.  God will never give up on his children, and that means that God will never give up on you.

So maybe the time has come to respond; maybe the time has come to invite him to speak, by name.