Hearing God’s Voice

Ann Beaty
Tarrytown United Methodist Church

November 15, 2009

Text: Samuel 3:1-10

Our scripture story today is one of few in the Bible about a young person. 

It’s a beautiful story that reminds us that messages from God can, and do, come to us from our youth and children.  We adults may think we are here to teach the faith to them – and we are – but God also speaks through them to us.  Anyone who has worked with children probably already knows this to be true.

The young person in our scripture today is Samuel and he is about 12 years old when this particular event takes place.  The story goes something like this:

Samuel’s mother, Hannah, had taken Samuel to live in the temple to be trained as a priest.  This was not uncommon in those days.  Eli, an old man, was the priest in the temple.

One night, Samuel and Eli were both sleeping.  The only light in the temple was the light of the candle, hanging high up in the ceiling.  Samuel was just a little boy.  And Eli was an old man - blind, and getting ready to die.

On this particular night, the voice of God spoke out to Samuel calling, “Samuel.  Samuel.”  Samuel went to find the old priest Eli and asked, “What do you want?”  Old Eli said, “I didn’t call you.  Go back to sleep.”  Samuel went back to sleep. 

In his sleep, God called to Samuel a second time, “Samuel.  Samuel.”  Samuel got up and went to Eli again and said, “You called?”  Old Eli said, “I didn’t call you.  Go back to sleep.” 

A third time the voice of God called, “Samuel.  Samuel.”  A third time the boy Samuel went to Eli and asked, “You called?”  Old Eli finally figured it out and said.  “I sense what is going on.  My boy, you go back to bed and if the voice speaks to you again, answer, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.”

God’s voice again called out, “Samuel, Samuel.”  Samuel finally replied, “Speak Lord for your servant is listening.  Speak to me.  My heart is open.  I am ready to hear.  My spirit is open.  Talk to me”. 

And God spoke to Samuel with the following words:  “The two sons of Eli are bad priests.  They are bad men.  They have stolen from the offerings of the people.  These two sons will be killed in battle.” 

Young Samuel, hearing this unpleasant message from God, then went back to sleep.  The next morning, Eli was standing near the bed of Samuel and Samuel woke from his sleep.  The old priest, anxious to hear if God had spoken to Samuel questioned the young boy.  “Samuel, did God talk to you last night?”  Samuel answers, “Yes, God talked to me last night.”  But Samuel did not want to tell Eli the contents of the conversation he had with God.  Eli sensed Samuel’s reluctance to tell him what God had said, so Eli gently persisted, “Samuel, even though it is painful for you to tell me, I want you to tell me what the Lord God said to you last night.”

Breathing deeply with reluctance, young boy Samuel answered, “Well, what the Lord said is that your two sons have committed terrible sins and have stolen from the people’s offerings and they are going to be killed soon.”  The old man Eli nodded and replied, “I understand.”

The story basically ends there, but the scriptures go on to tell more about Samuel as he grows and learns to follow God’s call in his life as a faithful servant.

It seems to me that we can learn something from this early part of Samuel’s faith journey.  I want to focus today on 2 aspects of the story that particularly speak to me at this time.  The first is the value of practicing the spiritual discipline of listening in our prayer life.  And, the second is the importance of the community of faith in revealing God’s messages to us.

First…about prayer and the importance of listening for God.  In our prayer life we tend to talk to God a lot – but do we really take the time to listen?  And what does it mean to “listen” for God?  How does God’s voice come to us?  Is it an actual voice speaking words that we hear in our head?  Is it that nudge we feel to do something?  Is it that confirmation or grumble in our stomach when we are trying to make a decision?  Is God speaking to me through my friend in Bible study when she talks about how she is dealing with something and I think, “oh…that’s it for me too.”

And is “listening” something that can come to us in our sleep or times of rest (like Samuel)?  Sure.  These are all some of the ways I have identified over the years that I think God speaks to me.  What about you?

Last weekend I attended a 3 day silent retreat in south Texas at Lebh Shomea house of prayer with a group of 10 others from our church.  Lebh Shomea is Hebrew for “listening heart.”  This is a retreat center devoted to hospitality and listening – offering a place for people of faith to come and slow down, rest, and listen for God.

For some people, the thought of 3 days on a silent retreat is heaven.  For others, it is totally unimaginable!  While it is primarily silent – there are times during the weekend when we gather as community and share our experiences of being in the silence.  We have worship and Holy Communion together every morning and then we gather again each evening as a group to talk about how it is going in the silence.

In-between the morning and evening gatherings people walk on the nature trails, sit in the chapel, sleep, sleep, and sleep some more, visit the wonderful library they have filled with devotional and spiritual classics, work on their Bible study, read their novels or do whatever they feel called to do in that moment with God.

In the evening when we gather we focus on these questions:  How is it going in the silence?  What are we noticing about ourselves?  What are we finding easy?  What is difficult?  And, what can the group do to support our time there?

On Friday night of this particular retreat, the focus of our conversation seemed to center around the value of slowing – slowing enough so that we could practice being in the present moment.  The more we practiced being in the present moment, the more we were aware of God’s presence.  The more we were aware of God’s presence, the more we were able to listen and recognize the many ways God might be speaking to us.

During our retreat time God was indeed present through people, through the sacred presence in the retreat place itself, through the hospitality of Father Kelly and his staff, in nature, through sharing the sacrament of Holy Communion in worship, through hearing the scripture read and sharing a word with another person about it’s meaning, and in whatever we were doing.

We also recognized that it’s relatively easy to do this when we leave our regular lives behind and go away for a 3 day silent retreat, but most of us do not practice this presence of God in our daily life as regularly once we return home.  We all know the key is to find ways to put it into our daily living.  Remember your mother or your piano teacher or somebody saying “practice makes perfect”!  It’s true in our prayer life too.  The more we practice listening in prayer, the more we are likely to perfect the art of hearing God.

Monday after returning from the retreat was a particularly busy day for me.  I found myself about 2:30 in the afternoon with 20 minutes in-between things to sit at my desk and gobble down my lunch.  Normally, I would have opened my email and used the time while I was eating to respond to emails that had come through since I last checked.

But, Monday was different.  I had the “idea” from somewhere (!) to put in a new CD someone had given to me called “Sanctus – Music for Quiet Contemplation.”  And rather than read my email, I simply sat at my desk for 15 minutes eating my lunch and listening to the beautiful sacred music.  Did I hear directly from God in that moment?  No… but did it open a space in my heart to be more aware of God’s presence… yes.  That is practicing my prayer relationship with God.

Lastly… how does the community of faith help reveal God’s messages to us?  Samuel was hearing the call of God, but he did not recognize it on his own.  It was Eli who recognized that God was calling to Samuel and helped him realize this so he could get the message.

Again, on the silent retreat, even though most of the focus of the retreat is on our personal relationship with God in the silence, we are there supported by community.  I can’t tell you how many times over the years of my attending this retreat somebody has shared in our discussion time some awareness they have had in the day about themselves or God that has revealed some truth to me that I absolutely believe God intended for me to hear.  Maybe they felt a nudge from God to share their experience never even knowing it was me who needed to hear it!  We never know how often God might be using us to get a message to someone else.

If any of you have been in a small group Bible study or prayer group you know what I’m talking about.  You study the lesson on your own and there is a value in what you learn.  But, when you come together with the group, there is a collective wisdom that is shared and your learning is deepened even further.  I am convinced that God speaks to us through community and that is part of why we are called together to be the church.

Today, we are especially reminded of how God’s call comes to us through children and we give thanks to the children in this world and in our church and in this room who help us know and listen to God’s call in our lives.  Amen.