We have all heard the phrase, “Put your best foot forward.” The meaning of this phrase is: when you begin a task or start a new endeavor in life, we should give it our best, that is, exert all our efforts to the success and completion of what we started. Often, we begin with our best effort, but over time we start to become apathetic. Time takes its toll and we become weary. In other words, we lost the “passion” and “fire” that we started with. We came with “guns-blazing” but now we only have a “single flame.” What happened to what we started?

The Gospel Reading today, taken from Luke 12:32-48, Jesus teaches us that “to whom much is given, much is required, and to whom much is committed, much will be asked of that person.” (Vr. 48) Jesus says this within the context of the faithful and evil servant. The faithful servant fulfills the responsibilities that his Master has handed over to him. On the contrary, the evil servant does not faithfully execute the responsibilities handed over to him. This story is similar to the Gospel Reading from last week because both speak about a servant who is faithful/responsible and a servant who is unfaithful/irresponsible.

There are three terms used to describe the character of God, namely, omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent. Omnipresent means God is present everywhere. There is no place that He is not. Omniscient means that He is all-knowing. In other words, God knows all things. Omnipotent means He is all-powerful. That is, God has power over all things. Here, we will deal with the idea, or rather the fact, that Jesus is omnipresent.

When we think of Jesus Christ, we imagine a man, who within human history was born miraculously to a Virgin. But have we ever thought about the time before the Incarnation? How was Christ before his birth (with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit)? Let me explain. The Holy Trinity always existed. There is no time or place of beginning. God was always there. He is limitless and boundless. God the Son and God the Holy Spirit were “eternally begotten” of the Father. In other words, it was the “first birth” of God the Son. In due time, in order to bring glory to God’s name, God sent His Son into the world to become a man—the Man, Jesus Christ—who is fully God and fully human. This was the “second birth.” So for God the Son there are “two births.”

In the Gospel reading today Jesus is in the region of Galilee. He called his future disciple Philip to ministry. And in turn, Philip called his friend Nathanael, otherwise known as Bartholomew, to meet Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah long awaited by the Jewish people.  In response, Nathanael speculatively says, “What good could come out of Nazareth?” Phillip says, “Come and see!” As Nathanael approaches Jesus, Jesus says, “Look, a man who does not have deceit.” This is one area of the Bible where the character of a person is exemplified with great credibility because Jesus himself makes the character statement. In other words, it has to be true because Jesus said it. There are no doubts or second-guessing involved in this circumstance. Further, it’s as though Jesus looked into Nathanael’s soul and saw the details of his life. And he will forever be known as a person of honesty and integrity whom Jesus mentioned by name.