John 1

Some 50 years ago, Merton warned us about what can happen when “all words have become alike.”

Gothic cathedral. A gay couple approaches holding hands. “Step aside, please,” say the muscle-bound guards. They speak similar words to an African-American girl, a Hispanic man, a young man in a wheelchair. Then, just as we realize that the two large men are “church bouncers,” the scene fades to black and the tag line reads: “Jesus didn’t turn people away. Neither do we.”

John is trying to describe an event, an advent, an epiphany without parallel.

If you’re Eli, you’re not sleeping that well when the boy comes trotting in to disturb you with his nonsense.

Who am I? Who are you? Not the Messiah.

John stands on the frontier as the ages collide, destined to bear the impact.

Reading the call of Samuel, one wonders why the lectionary confronts us with such a dread epiphany.