Second Epiphany
I Samuel 3:1-20; John 1:43-51; I Corinthians 6:12-20
So the voice of the Lord called to Samuel in the middle of the night...
Each moment in cultural history is marked by certain conventions that become almost second nature to the society. There was a time when all men wore hats but always removed them upon meeting a woman or entering a building. There was a time when swords and other weapons were checked at the door. There are societies to this day where the shoes are always removed before entering the house. In our 21 st century world there is the mantra that now precedes nearly every public event where an audience will be listening, be it concert, play, movie or lecture. We all know the words, "If you have not already done so, please turn off your cell phone now." And then there is the anxiety of trying to remember if you really did turn your phone off.
As connected as we are, we also recognize that there actually are times when we do not want the phone to go off either out of respect for others or our desire to finish the moment before us. No one really wants a movie or concert or classroom or sermon disrupted by the sound of a phone coming to life (notice, I did not say ring since there are very few cell phones that ring any more). One of the amazing things about our world today is that there is hardly a moment that goes by in our lives that we are not engaged in some form of communication decision. Deciding whether or not to be open to the possibility of communication, deciding whether or not to receive information in some form, be it television, internet, radio, CD, MP3. There are some who have become overwhelmed by the possibilities and yet our society seems to just keep finding more and more forms through which to communicate.
The voice of God speaking in the night.
There is rarely a moment in our modern world when we are not somehow available to communication, some form audio stimulation. We are constantly reminded that our lives are no longer lived in some few block area of a neighborhood. Our children, and we along with them, are globally connected in ways that no previous generation could even begin to imagine. The other day I was caught in traffic going into the city so I used my hands free cell to talk to a son in Ohio, my parents in Minnesota and Chris back at the church. In any given day I may communicate with others by using my cell phone, text messaging, instant messaging, e-mail, voice mail, fax, snail mail, and any number of delivery systems like UPS or FedEx. I have even been known to talk to people face to face. It takes up to five weeks for a letter or package to reach our son Timothy in Togo, West Africa but he sends his brother text messages and we talk to him each week by cell phone. After reading our lessons for today in which God calls Samuel and Jesus calls his first disciples, I couldn't help but wonder what form a divine call would take today. Would we be able to recognize it for what it was? In our first lesson God speaks and the voice sounds to Samuel like the old priest Eli. History is filled with the stories of those who failed to rightly recognize the voice of God calling or worse yet, falsely identified a too worldly voice with that of God.
So the voice of the Lord called to Samuel in the middle of the night. Calls in the middle of the night are not usually good news. When the boys were in high school and the phone rang I could almost be certain that it was not going to be a happy nights sleep. If I was lucky the problem was a car that wouldn't start or a request to stay at a friend's house. There were, of course, a few calls that began with the words, "First of all, I'm okay." That was usually followed by a less happy report about the condition of the car or some other materially replaceable object.
If a call from one of your children in the middle of the night is bad news, I guess we should not be surprised by Samuel's experience with God. God called Samuel to deliver a difficult message of judgment on his mentor and surrogate father, the old priest Eli. Samuel's first challenge, of course, was to actually hear the word of the Lord. The delightful quality of this story when told to Sunday school children is the challenge Samuel has in recognizing the voice that calls to him in the night. We all catch the sense of a smile on the story teller's face describing the young boy Samuel rushing into Eli's bedroom time after time proclaiming "Here I am" and the groggy priest telling Samuel time and again to return to his bed. And then there is the wonderful "ah-ha" moment when Eli realizes whose voice is actually calling the young boy. For many of us the story recalls our own journeys through life, answering various callings while wondering exactly which voice is the true voice intended for our lives.
Is this what God intended for me? Living the good life that most of us have found would seem to affirm us. Yet the question always haunts us. Is the job I'm doing the purpose of my life or is the job I'm doing intended to provide resources or preparation for something God really wants me to do? The members of this congregation are very gifted and blessed. Why?
The one thing that is clear from the story of Samuel is that the voice in the night is not a voice intended to lull one back to sleep. The voice in the night was a wake up call for Samuel. When God speaks and is truly heard life changes. Samuel would become the last judge of Israel and the prophet who would anoint the first two kings of Israel. His hand would pour the oil on the head of a young shepherd and in so doing establish for ever the house of David whose linage would ultimately lead to a stable in the town of Bethlehem. There are voices in the night that change lives. Telephone calls that announce illness, doctor's words describing the unexpected diagnosis. There are words that change the way we see life, words like cancer, downsizing, heart attack. But there are also words of grace and miracle, that open the future, words like "marriage", "it's a girl", "the surgery went well". Too often we expect the worst from the word of God. All those "do nots" limit our vision. We know too well the sorts of things God is capable of saying: "Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love..." or "Arise, go to Ninevah, that great city, and cry against it..." or "You lack one thing; go, sell what you have and give to the poor..." One solution to such night time voices is day time busy-ness. We are drawn to the church of meetings, programs, budgets and activities where we can get rid of the voices in the night for the safe and happy programs.
But there are other words from God that open to us a new vision of the world and our place in it. Words like: "Your descendants will be as many as the stars of the night sky..." or "Your sins are forgiven, arise, take up your bed and walk" or "She is not dead but only asleep"
The voice of the Lord. At the beginning of our first lesson we are told that the word of the Lord was rare in those days. What we actually come to discover by reading the story of Samuel is that God's word was ever present but only a few were open to hearing it and following its leading. In our Gospel lesson we find a similar situation when Jesus comes to his first disciples. The word is offered but those who hear it are skeptical, unsure about what to believe. "Can anything good come from Nazareth?" Jesus extends an invitation to share in his ministry but the disciples hesitate. They are busy with other matters. Unsure that anything all that important could come in such a common form to such common folks.
Times have not changed much. People still struggle to discern God's calling. Invitations to be a part of God's vision for humanity come regularly from the church and our community, but most times the opportunity struggles to be heard. I know that each year the nominating committee of the church council seems to have at least one position that is not easily filled. There is always one Sunday School class seeking another teacher, always one more seat in the choir that is empty. There are so many other voices in our world today that we are sure no one voice is talking to us in particular. We believe and know that God calls people in many and various ways. We know that. Not everyone is called to serve God the same way at the same time. But the one thing that seems to be absolutely true is that God calls people. God calls all humanity to callings of love, grace, mercy, healing, prayer and service. Yet there are very few who hear the call--answer the call--accept the call. The problem may be the same challenge that Samuel had. The first time God called Samuel, Samuel heard what he expected to hear, a familiar voice from the other room, a voice he assumed was Eli's. The second time God called Samuel things did not go a whole lot better although he began to sense that something was different about this voice. The third time God called Samuel a light was turned on. Eli told him what was happening although even then Samuel was not able to hear what God wanted of him. We come to God a lot with our requests, wants, needs, desires, hopes and dreams.
What Samuel had to learn was to set his requests aside and open himself to God's word. This is no easy task. Eli had to guide him. The fact is that understanding God's word is no different than any other part of our lives. We know that we will not understand great music unless we prepare ourselves. The other evening I attended a performance of a Shakespeare play which I knew I could not possibly understand without preparation to the plot and text. No one practices medicine without studying anatomy and pathology. No one attempts to build a bridge without knowledge of engineering. Samuel needed Eli. Nathanael needed the help of Philip to hear the call of Jesus. The mission of the church is to provide the moments and places through which we can learn to hear God speaking. This is not just a place to bring our expectations of God. The commitments we ask members to make reflect their discernment of how God has blessed and called them. There are voices all around us and some of them are the very voice of God. To hear God calling, sometimes it takes a very long time.
For years I served on the Synod Missions Committee planning and assisting in the development of new congregations. I remember Clara Hawkins. Clara was an 82 year old widow who had always wanted to be a missionary. As a young girl she had been fascinated by the stories of missionaries working in distant places and she felt a strong yearning to spread God's word and build the church. She always believed that that is what God wanted from her but school, marriage, work, family and finally her husbands illness always seemed to get in the way. There was never a good time to answer the call. She was resigned to having an unfulfilled dream until one day she heard her pastor mention plans for a new church being organized some 70 miles away. It seemed the plans for the mission church had come to an abrupt halt because the cost of the land in the suburbs was simply too great. It had been decided that no new church could begin with so great a debt. Clara said she couldn't stop thinking about the land, about the need to plant the congregation. You know what Clara decided, because you know how God works. One day the phone rang and it was Clara calling to say she had a gift, a deed to the land for a new church. Clara was a missionary planting a church at 82.
Sometimes it takes a long time to answer a call. A voice in the night. A disciple's invitation, an opportunity listed in the bulletin, a need no one has noticed. The voice of God takes many forms. The one thing we can be sure of is it changes lives, moves us in new directions. God's direction. The service will soon end. It will be time to turn on our cell phones once more. Time to check and see what messages we missed. Time to wait for the next call.
So the voice of the Lord called to Samuel--calls to us.
Amen