Today’s question is about games for kids. And, no, it’s not about action games you play on an X-box 360. It’s about real games, not virtual ones. It’s a physical game. My question is this: how many of you remember “Hide-and-Seek?” How many of you played “Hide-and-Seek?” In fact, do they still play it?
Back in my day as a kid, it was probably much easier to play. There were a lot more trees and bushes around in my hometown. And you needed a lot of them! There was the “home tree,” of course. The tree where the one who was “it” had to hide his face and count at least to ten (or more, sometimes,) while everyone else ran to hide. Of course, you counted as fast as you could; and you didn’t peak – at least most of the time – before you yelled: “Ready or not, here I come.” Then you had to find all of the kids who were hiding behind those trees and bushes and run back and tag the home tree before they could. Yes, it involved a lot of running.
Running around, trying to make it home. Which brings me to another question, perhaps a more important one. How many of you have stopped playing “Hide-and-seek?” A game of hide-and-seek not only with other adults, but with God – with Father, Son and Holy Spirit?
How many of us feel that God is hiding from us? That the Father has hidden himself behind some huge tree in a vast forest? That Jesus is laughing quietly at us from behind the shrubbery? That the Holy Spirit doesn’t need to be invisible because he, too, is hiding behind a pile of rocks. Yes, God, for some of us – appears to be hiding from us and we are “it.” Our daily task is to run and find him.
Two thousand years ago, Jesus was walking along a road and was being followed by two of the disciples of John the Baptist. They were searching out the Lamb of God. Had they, too, thought that this Lamb of God was hiding from them? But he wasn’t. He was there in plain sight. He turned to them and asked a question. He said: “What are you looking for.” Do you believe he’s asking you the same question. “What are YOU looking for?” What are you searching for? What do you want out of life? What do you want IN life?
Do you desire a new car? A new house? A new job? A new spouse!? Do you need the latest electronic gadget to make you happy? Do you need more excitement in your life? Or perhaps, less excitement – more stability? Yes, he asks us the same question he asked those two followers long ago: “What do you seek?” And how did they respond? They asked their own question: “Where are you staying?”
“Where are you staying?” It’s a question that does not mean – “Where are you hiding?” Instead, it’s a question with a deeper meaning. It means: “Where are you abiding?” Where are you “living?” Where do you draw your strength, your comfort, your very being?
And his response? What did he say? “Come, and you will see.” He invited them to come with him. To experience how he lived. To be in his presence. To see and to be. This is what it means to become a disciple, a true follower. To observe the master in his totality and to become like the master by doing what the master does.
And what did the disciples do that day? They stayed with him. And when did they do this? According to the gospel we heard: “It was about four in the afternoon.” The end of the day was approaching. Yet, it was not too late for them to follow him. They listened and observed. They experienced the Lord, himself, – the life of the Lord, himself. It was not too late in the day for them to “come and see.” It is not too late for us, either, “to come and see” – to listen to the Lord, to experience him.
Our first reading tells us the same thing. It is never too late to hear the word of God, to hear his call – perhaps even for the first time. Samuel, the boy who served his master, Eli, was sleeping in the temple of the Lord and yet he had never experienced the Lord God. Nevertheless, the Lord God called to him. But, the young Samuel needed the help of his master, Eli, to respond: “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.”
And the Lord God did speak to Samuel. He continued to speak to him throughout his lifetime. He spoke to him when Samuel anointed Saul as the first king of the Israelites and when, later, Samuel anointed David as Saul’s successor. Having answered the Lord God, having experienced the Lord God, Samuel became one who called others towards the Lord God.
And the same was true for Andrew, one of the disciples who stayed with and experienced Jesus the Christ on that long afternoon and evening. One who then rushed home to his brother, Simon, to tell him that they had found the Messiah.
Or had the Messiah found them? Who is “it” in this game of hide-and-seek? Perhaps, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, our God, is not hiding behind trees, bushes and rocks. Perhaps he calls us to become, like Simon, the Rock itself. Perhaps it is we who are hiding from him?
Do you remember how the game of “Hide-and-Seek” ends? It ends in one of two ways. Either the kid who is “it” finds all of the hiders – or one of the hiders reaches the home tree and shouts: “Alli, Alli, in free.” It’s safe; come on in from hiding. Come home. It’s up to you to decide. Are you seeking God or is God seeking you? And who is the one who cries out: “Alli, Alli, in free?”
Second Sunday in Ordinary; January 15, 2006
1 Sam 3:3b-10,19; 1 Cor 6:13c-15a, 17-20; Jn 1:35-42