Speak, Lord

Robert E. Hall
Tarrytown United Methodist Church

January 18, 2008

In the days of Hannah, Eli and Samuel, “the word of the Lord was rarely heard, and there was no outpouring of vision.” The Book of Judges ends with a similar sentiment: “In those days, there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his [or her] own eyes.”

When nobody hears God and there is no clear authoritative voice, we humans feel like we are on our own.

We treasure our freedom to make our own choices, answering to our own consciences, our own sense of what is permissible. Our story becomes narrowed to me and mine. But to live this way we have to ignore the fact that we are social creatures: that we are unavoidably in some kind of community, we depend on others and others depend on us, and it matters to all of us how we choose to live.

For example, it matters to all of us the choices we make with regard to air pollution. We and our families cannot live in a clean air tent.

And, if we needed the reminder, choices some investors have made affect people around the world----not only other investors or lenders, but people who had no money in the market (that they knew about!)

No word, no vision. If God is dead, all things are permissible, a philosopher once said. But even atheists can’t get by long marooned on an island of unbridled freedom. We all live in communities kept alive by promises made and covenants kept for the common good----or we don’t live well or long.

Social cohesion was at a low ebb in ancient Israel. Yes, they were in the promised land, but there were no pillars of fire, no holy smoke, no more parting of the seas or rivers. “Long gone were the days of manna from heaven….Moses and Joshua were just a memory. These were dark times.” (Scott Hoezee, “Second Sunday After the Epiphany,” Lectionary Commentary, The First Readings)

And Eli, God’s man who was supposed to keep worship on an even keel, could not discipline his own sons. Persons would bring sacrifices to be offered to the Lord and they would take the meat and have their own barbeque. And women who came to the temple were not safe from their sexual assaults.

“Everybody did what was right in their own eyes.”

God, where are you? We need a leader whom we can trust to listen and to tell us what God wants from us. This was the prayer of the people.

Hannah was childless in a world which did not know why. She went to the temple and poured out her feelings to the Lord, asking for a son. If she and her husband have a son, she will dedicate him to the Lord----he will be “lent to the Lord.”

She and her husband Elkanah are blessed with the birth of a son. They named him Samuel. After he was weaned, she took him to the temple to serve the Lord under the tutelage of Eli, the priest.

I know of men who grew up being told that they had been dedicated to God to be a priest or a pastor. Not always a good thing for someone to hear, if their gifts do not lend themselves to the work of a pastor. (I know families that have been surprised when it was their daughter who experienced the call to ordained ministry!)

But, in this case, Samuel, whose name means “God Has Heard,” does become a priest/prophet/judge.

Which is to say: God sees and hears the plight of God’s people when they cry for someone who will hear and speak the Word of the Lord with faithfulness and courage.

This is the context for the story for today.

Eli, almost blind, is sleeping in the temple precincts; Samuel, just a boy, was sleeping in the temple itself, where the Ark of God was. (A chest, ornately decorated, in which the ten commandments were kept.) The lamp, “a sign of God’s abiding presence in the temple [and with God’s people],” had not yet done out. (Hoezee)

Now this  reference to the lamp could mean that it was in the wee hours before dawn. But it could also be a signal to us that the lamp of God----and God’s enlightening presence---- had not yet been defeated!

In the deep south, in the days before and after the Civil War, slaves were permitted to worship on their own. They would usually gather in the open, or under an arbor they had built. And they would read and sing the stories of Moses and Joshua and Jesus. Into the night they would meet. And the Word of God was light upon their path. They heard the music from beyond the river, and they knew that God was real and would deliver them. The lamp of God had not gone out. It was Friday in their lives, but Sunday would come!

We lose perspective so easily. The Word of God is still sharper than any two-edged sword; and the light which God has given in Jesus Christ has not and will not be extinguished----for God yet lives and acts in our lives and raises up God’s people from slavery in all of its forms: discouragement, cynicism, despair as well as outright persecution.

Samuel is awakened three times with the calling of his name: “Samuel!” He wakes up and goes to Eli: Here I am; you called me? Eli tells him twice: I didn’t call you; go back to bed.

I have sympathy for poor old Eli! I am not alert in the early hours. I would have supposed that Samuel was dreaming. But there is something a little disappointing in Eli’s responses. After all, where would you most expect to hear God’s voice than in the temple! Had the temple become a museum instead of the home of the living God? (Lawrence Wood, “I Samuel 3: 1-10, in Feasting on the Word, Year B, Volume One)

We come here and do our services, and are we aware that this, too, is consecrated ground? Do we expect God to speak to persons here? Call persons to ministries here? Is anyone here except us?!

We are told that “Samuel had not yet come to know the Lord, and the word of God had not yet been disclosed to him.” Knowledge of God? Yes. But knowing and knowledge are not the same. He had not yet met the Lord.

The third time, Eli perceives that it is God who is calling Samuel’s name. Even in his infirmities and failures, he is a priest and he knows what to say to Samuel. Go back to bed, and when you hear your name again, say, “Speak, your servant is listening.”

And Samuel does as he is told. And God does speak to him. The message he gives is a hard saying; it is a message of judgment on Eli and his sons and their failure to keep faith with God, to worship and serve the ways of God. Samuel is afraid to tell Eli what God has told him. But he does. And Eli says, “The Lord must do what is good in his eyes,” quite a contrast to the view that “everyone does what is good in his or her own eyes.”

“As Samuel grew up, the Lord was with him, and none of his words went unfulfilled (fell to the ground.)”

It is through Samuel that Saul is chosen, and then deposed. And it is Samuel who, when interviewing Jesse’s sons, chooses the young shepherd-boy, whose name was David. It is Samuel who warns Israel all along that having a king may not be such a wonderful thing!

What do you think? Neat story? Or hopelessly un-modern?

But what do you make today of the accounts of the experiences of so many children, youth and adults who hear God call their names?

Some experience a call to ordained ministry: most, not through hearing with their physical ears, but they hear with their hearts God calling them to serve. Those who are charged with the daunting task of hearing God’s always fresh word and speaking it; those called to serve at the table and the font; in the classrooms and in the roles of counselor or musician? Using their gifts for these ministries to equip the saints for the work of ministry?

And other members of the body of Christ are called to be ministers themselves: in public schools, in finance, in insurance, in community development,  through prayers of intercession, or in generous giving?

Even if our mothers or fathers did not dedicate us to the Lord before we were born, God can and does call us:

Through preaching
Through music
Through prayer
Through a word shared from a caring adult who sees in us that which we cannot see;
Through working to relieve suffering
Through the needs of our planet for survival; through building a more just and merciful social world;
And in a thousand ways which cannot be catalogued!

Young women and men: Is God calling you to ordained ministry? Or to the ministry of the Laity, addressing some specific need?

These times are in many ways similar to Samuel’s. “The word of God is rarely heard (too much static, too much other noise); and there is no outpouring of vision (the future looks bleak and the problems insurmountable).”

But the lamp of God has not yet gone out!

S, when you hear God speak your name, do as old Eli instructed. Say,

Speak, Lord, I, such as I am, such as you know me to be, I am listening.”