Speak Lord
January 18, 2009
1 Samuel 3:1-10
Last week, we talked about our baptisms as signs of God's call to us and our saying yes to that call. And so today is the first in a series of sermons looking at what it means to be called by God and faithful (and unfaithful) ways of responding to God's call.
One of the amazing things about the Bible is that it has preserved so many wonderful stories of God's calling of people and the many ways in which they struggled with that call and how they lived out that call in their lives. I especially love the stories in the Old Testament because they are the kinds of stories you don't make up: stories of real, less-than-perfect people who struggle with identifying who is calling them, what they are being called to do, and their worthiness and ability to do what they are called to do. So today, we will look at the call of the prophet Samuel.
But, first, let me share a bit of background about this story. Samuel was the only child of Hannah and her husband. For years they had longed for a child, but year after year passed and no child. So finally, Hannah went to the temple and before the Lord fell on her knees and begged for a child and God granted her request. So in her old age, she gave birth to Samuel, whose name means "God heard." And in grateful response to God for giving her a son, she did a remarkable thing. She gave her son back to God. As soon as he was off the bottle and toddling around, she took him the chief priest, Eli, and left him there so that Samuel could serve God in the temple.
Then when he was perhaps around twelve, Samuel experienced something that changed his entire life. Samuel, the boy named "God heard," heard the voice of God.
1 Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord under Eli. The word of the Lord was rare in those days; visions were not widespread. 2 At that time Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see, was lying down in his room; 3 the lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was. 4 Then the Lord called, "Samuel! Samuel!" and he said, "Here I am!" 5 and ran to Eli, and said, "Here I am, for you called me." But he said, "I did not call; lie down again." So he went and lay down. 6 The Lord called again, "Samuel!" Samuel got up and went to Eli, and said, "Here I am, for you called me." But he said, "I did not call, my son; lie down again." 7 Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. 8 The Lord called Samuel again, a third time. And he got up and went to Eli, and said, "Here I am, for you called me." Then Eli perceived that the Lord was calling the boy. 9 Therefore Eli said to Samuel, "Go, lie down; and if he calls you, you shall say, 'Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.'" So Samuel went and lay down in his place. 10 Now the Lord came and stood there, calling as before, "Samuel! Samuel!" And Samuel said, "Speak, for your servant is listening." 1 Samuel 3:1-10
These were sad days for the people of Israel. The word of the Lord was rare. Visions were not widespread. Everyone was doing what was right in their own eyes. And the chief priest was a fat, nearly blind, old man who let his sons run wild. They took advantage of their positions. They made a mockery of the priesthood. They defiled holy places and holy things. And Eli let them.
Furthermore, Eli was not a model high priest himself. In fact, I pointed out Eli's size not to make a comment about the size of his appetite, but to show that while Eli wasn't exactly following the rules either. You see priests were supposed to be like Jack Sprat-they could eat no fat. The meat that the people brought to the temple were theirs to eat, but they were supposed to burn the fat as an offering to God. Faithful priests were eating a low fat diet of lean meat, fruit, and grains long before the food pyramid was developed! So to be fat, Eli had to be dipping into that which was God's. So it wasn't just his sons who were behaving badly! And I can't help but wonder how a priest could raise a boy who did not know who God was? How could a boy that slept beside the Ark of the Covenant-the very place where God was believed to live among the people and to speak to them-not know the Lord?
It was a sad, dark time for the people of Israel. Thankfully, the lamp of God had not yet gone out. And in the middle of the night, in the middle of that dark time, God spoke and a young boy heard.
Jesus said, "I chose you, you did not choose me." And one of the first things we can learn about God's call from the story of Samuel is that God calls us even before we know God ourselves. Samuel slept by the very throne of God and didn't know him. Moses was a secular Jew-not even circumcised-when God called him. Cyrus, the king of Persia, never did know God by name and yet God used him to ensure God's people returned from exile to the Promised Land. Long before we know him, long before we understand, long before we recognize his voice, God calls.
That is why I think some people actually find God through service. The way we usually think of the Christian journey is that someone has an encounter with Christ, they decide to repent of their sins and follow him, and then they enter into Christian service in grateful response and obedience to God. But sometimes, the journey is works different-sort of backwards. A person plays in a praise band, or works at a soup kitchen, or teaches a bible study and in the process of serving a God they don't really know, they begin to hear his voice, and then they respond by believing in him and committing their life to him. And when I see that happen, I am reminded yet again that even before we fully understand God, God calls us.
So in the middle of the night, the God Samuel did not know called him and he responded. Granted his first three responses were misguided but he responded and he responded immediately!
As a mom, I can really appreciate Samuel's attempt to be obedient. I think about the times, I've called my kids with no response. Then when they finally acknowledged my call, they said, "Oh . . . we're you talking to me?!" Not Samuel, he may not have known who was calling but he knew what to do when called . . . you answer!
How many times have you felt a nudge telling you to do something? You are sitting with your prayer list in front of you and someone's name jumps out at you and you think, "You know I should give her a call!" or "I should drop by and visit him." But then you close your bible with your prayer list inside and go about your daily routine, forgetting all about that person until the next time you pull out the prayer list.
Or how about the times you hear about a ministry or event and you feel a nudge to go and participate? Or you read a notice asking for volunteers to do something and you think you should respond? Then you think about it again and decide you don't have the time, or the talent, or the experience to do it, so you forget all about it.
Samuel knew better than to ignore a voice calling to him. Rather than thinking, "Oh I must have been hearing things!" and falling back asleep, he jumps up, runs to Eli and says, "Here I am!"
Calls are meant to be answered!
Three times God calls and Samuel runs to Eli. Finally on the fourth call, Samuel gets it. He knows who is calling and responds appropriately! One of the things we can learn from Samuel is that when a call is from God, the call will not go away. God is both patient and persistent and God gives us more than one chance to respond.
I found this to be very true in my own life. My first call to the ministry occurred when I was about 11 or, soon after I went through my confirmation class and made my first public confession of Christ and joined the church. I was so sure I was being called into the ministry that I wrote the pastor who had confirmed me and told him about it. By then we had moved from Texas to Georgia and I no longer attended his church. I never knew if he received my letter or not. All I know is that he didn't respond. No-"Go lie down and if God calls again listen" . . . just silence.
This was the early '70s and while I had never been taught that women couldn't be preachers, I had never seen or heard of one. And after a year or two, I decided I must have been confused about the call. Then I proceeded to get so caught up in my life and so busy that I didn't really stop long enough to hear from God again until I was in my mid-30s. I had been on my Emmaus Walk and what resonated in my heart from that weekend was this: "By baptism, we are all called to ministry." A few months later, Laura was born and I quit work to stay home with the kids. And I began to spend a lot of time studying the Bible and listening for God's voice and, much to my surprise, I heard the same call from God I had heard at age 11.
For quite some time after I quit fighting the call, I still wouldn't talk about my experience at age 11. I guess I was embarrassed that it took me
years and years to respond to God's call. But what I learned was that one of the ways we know God's call is that God's call does not go away. You can try to ignore it. You can even run away from it. But if it is God and you continue to listen for God's voice, the call will not go away!
We also can learn a lot from Eli in this story. For all Eli's faults, without Eli's help and advice, Samuel may not have recognized that the voice he was hearing was from God. As God's people and fellow travelers, we are called to help one another discern the voice of God in each other's lives. When we see someone with a gift for ministry, we can help them by pointing out that gift-and that includes identify people among us who have the gifts to be pastors as well. I don't know if my own story would be different if the pastor who had confirmed me had replied to me letter. I do know that part of the reason I am in ministry now is the result of faithful, loving Christians who affirmed and encouraged my gifts for ministry. In this respect, we are all called to be Eli's and to listen for God's voice speaking to others and to affirm their calls.
Eli also gave Samuel some very important advice perhaps the most important lesson in this story: If God calls, you need to listen!
The truth is that not every nudge we feel comes from God. Sometimes the nudges come from a sense of guilt that we aren't doing enough or a sense that others think we aren't doing enough. Sometimes they come from our own needs and desires. We say "yes" to a hundred different things and we are so busy being busy that we are too tired to do what God is actually calling us to do. Or we are so busy responding to everyone else's voices that we can't determine which voice is God's.
One of the miracles of life is how even before a baby is born, the baby knows the voice of his or her parents. Dad can come home from work and say something and a quiet baby begins to kick and move around in his mother's belly. Or a baby is kicking and rolling around and her mother begins to sing and she settles down.
The more time we spend with God praying, studying, and worshipping and most especially stopping to listen, the better we recognize his voice. We become like an unborn baby who can't see her parents but knows their voices, we recognize the voice of our Heavenly Father. We read the Bible and suddenly a story about a 12 year old boy who lived over 3000 years ago becomes our story and we hear God calling. Someone calls asking us to do something we are scared to do and we recognize God's speaking through him. We struggle with whether to sign up for the new bible study or to work in the nursery or teach a class. So we stop and ask God for guidance, then we quit talking and we listen for God's response and then suddenly we know whether or not we should do it.
If you think God may be calling, you must respond and your first response should be to ask God to speak then stop and listen!
I can't emphasize this enough because we aren't very good at listening.
First, listening requires time and most of us are very busy people. Truth is I don't know a lot of people in the church who are suffering from not enough to do. Sloth may be one of the seven deadly sins but I don't know a lot of people who have time to indulge in it! We are busy.
Second, listening requires that we can actually hear God over the noise of our lives. Have you ever stopped to think about the number of noises you are supposed to respond to each day? The car beeps at you when you don't put on your seat belt or turn off your lights. You walk down the mall and turn every time a child calls, "Mom." And you reach for the phone on your belt whenever you hear a cell phone ring. Every time you hear something buzz, you check your purse to see if you have a text message. On the television you hear voices telling you that the economy is a mess, the world is at war, people are bad, and if you buy this product your life will be perfect. And in this cacophony of voices and noises, we have a very hard time figuring out if God's word is rare or if we simply can't hear it over the din!
Strangely, we aren't even very good at stopping to listen in church. We count on hearing God through the music, the prayers and the sermon, but all too often we struggle to focus on what is being said. Granted sometimes that is the fault of those leading worship, but often it is our minds wandering to our problems at home or work, where we are going to eat after church, the thing we need to tell our friend before we leave today, whether that boy or girl really likes us or not, or how mad we are at someone for what they did this morning.
That is why taking notes during worship is such a wonderful spiritual discipline. Not because I am brilliant and you need to write down what I say, but because taking notes allows you to focus on what is being said so that hopefully you can hear what God has to say to you in it. In fact, that is why I don't like those fill-in-the-blank sermon notes that some preachers use. I think they may be help you hear what I say, but what we really need is help in hearing what God is saying.
So to hear God's voice, we have to take Eli's advice. We have to find a quiet place. We have to stop. And we have to be intentional about listening. After all, listening is hard work. It requires attention. It requires engagement. And it requires being willing to hear something we don't want to hear.
After Samuel stopped and asked God to speak, he did listen to what God said-and it wasn't good news! God told Samuel that judgment was coming to Eli's house. And Samuel had the unfortunate task of sharing that bad news with Eli. And thus began a lifelong ministry of listening to God and responding by sharing good news and bad with people in power. His ministry would have high moments, such as when he anointed David king of Israel, and it would have low moments when he had to tell the King God wasn't pleased. But for the rest of his life, Samuel would listen for the word of God and then obediently respond.
What brought you here today?
Some of you are like Samuel and you don't yet know the Lord. If that is you, my prayer is that you can sit in the presence of God and hear God's voice calling your name, calling you to listen, and calling you to respond.
Others came here today with the hope of hearing a word from the Lord. If that is you, my prayer is that you will be able to quiet your heart and mind long enough to hear God's voice and that you will then have the courage to respond.
Today, let us all learn from Samuel what it means to hear God's call and to respond.
Speak Lord, for your servants are listening!
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