The idea of calling or vocation outside of the priesthood is a protestant idea that came with the reformation. It was believed then, as at now, that we are called to different vocations in life and whatever we do is a result of our obedience to a divine plan. Therefore the carpenter was in service to God and fellow human as was the teacher, the blacksmith and the mason. We all were called to serve God through the works of our hands and our intellect. This idea of calling survived the reformation and led to a concept known as the dignity of labor in our own time. No matter what we do, we are responding to our calling and we are in obedience to what God called each of us to do.
This morning, we encounter another call literally: the call of Samuel. It is the story of a young boy in service in the temple under the supervision of an old priest named Eli. The priest is old and the historian in Ist Samuel tells us that the old priest had poor eyesight. It is about midnight because the oil in the lamp had not yet gone out. Samuel, the boy under the tutelage of the priest had gone to bed when he heard a voice calling his name, Samuel! Samuel! The voice called. Samuel did what all good boys do when they are not looking at their cell phones or tablets. He ran up to Eli, thinking that the old man was calling him only to find out that the old priest, with poor eyesight, did not call him. He returned to bed and then the voice came a second time, but the priest denied calling the lad. Then the voice came a third time. “Samuel! Samuel” The old priest might have been old but he knew enough that God may be calling the boy and so he instructed the young man V.9 ‘Go lie down, and it shall be if He calls you that you shall say, “Speak, Lord, for thy servant is listening” The young boy returned to his bed and then the voice came again and he did as his master had advised and that is when he got a message from the Lord.
To understand the background and the context of that call and to appreciate the seriousness and enormity of this voice of God to a little boy, the historian took the time to narrate the times and issues involved. First we are told that “the word of God was rare in those days” V. 1. There was prophetic inactivity. There was an abandonment of religious duties and beliefs. Folks thought that they had better things to do and so they had abandoned God. There was apostasy in the land. The priest did not seek God in the day to day decision-making. The historian further adds that as a result of this apostasy, visions were not common. I am sure Eli had excuses. He was old, weak and could not see again. His children, despite being of the house of Levite were not interested in true worship and were corrupt. The priest still enjoyed the perk of his office. He lived in the temple, and made his living there but there was not much going on there. With no direction from the priest, religion just became a routine with no conviction for justice and mercy. Yet, despite all these God sought out a little boy so that through him he can fulfill his will.
This morning I want us to think about Samuel and the call. He must have not been more than twelve years old. He lived with the old priest in the temple having been left there by his mother, Hannah, to serve in the temple. He had learnt to read and copied the scriptures and had become familiar with the routines of the temple. He had learnt about holiness and had accepted his duties of opening and closing the doors of the temple. On this particular night in question, he must have just finished reading a part of the law and was on bed settling in for the night. That is when he heard the voice of God. What are you doing when you hear God calling you? Is God still calling us in our postmodern society? If God is calling you what is God telling you to do? You see there are people who write and who speak that the call of God is ancient myth and that God no longer calls us in our own time. I stop by hear this morning to tell you that God is still calling us to serve God’s people every day. The problem is not that God has stopped calling us, we just are not in the mood to listen. Take a look around at what is going on in the world and in your life and you will realize that God is calling us to respond to oppression, injustices, hardship and poverty in the world. There are several reasons that we do not hear the Lord calling us.
1. Sometimes we mistake God’s call for humans. God may be calling you but you mistake God’s call for that of your neighbor, your children, and your spouse. We do that all the time. The young Samuel in the temple did that and ran to the old priest. three good times. “Did you call me?” he asked each time. How many times have we had a casual conversation with a friend and the suggestion to do something we have been thinking about comes up multiple times? Have you thought about going back to school? We may be asked. Have you thought about starting a business? Have you thought about getting married and settling down? Have you thought about going to the seminary and studying to become a pastor? Oftentimes God passes through others to us and lays the call right in front of us. Yes it was God calling Samuel, but it took the old Priest to inform the young man on how to respond to the call. God passes through others in his call to us.
2. When a door closes, perhaps it is a message from the Lord for us to look elsewhere where we belong. Stories abound of individuals who struggled at a dead end job with no future getting fired, and the firing opened up opportunities and new ideas that bring wealth, satisfaction and fulfilment. The story of Chris Gardener portrayed in the movie The pursuit of Happyness is an example of this. Laid off from jobs, homeless with a child to care for, Mr. Gardener did not know what to do. But that hardship was a call from God that he needed to pursue a different path. He eventually joined a brokerage firm, studied and get a brokerage license and eventually formed his own company and became a millionaire. He was laid off and that hardship was a call from the Lord. Are you struggling with a situation now? What you are going through may be a call from God to wake up and chart a new path. A story is told of the author of the famous Harry Porter series J. K. Rowling. Miss Rowling was broke and on welfare and struggled every day to make ends meet. In the midst of this struggle she had the idea to write a novel and as usual some publishers did not find her story interesting and so she got rejection letters like all struggling writers are familiar with. It took tenacity for her to continue knocking on doors. Her novel was eventually accepted and made into movies. Today, she is one of the wealthiest writers of all time. It goes to prove that sometimes God calls us through hardship into a life that God kept for us.
3. WE do not hear our call from the Lord because we do not speak to God in a humble tone. Notice the response to the call that Eli asked Samuel to give in verse 9 “Speak Lord, for thy servant is listening” The speech and tone was humble. You cannot call fire for your enemies and ask God to rain down destructions on those you hate. The word used for our English “listening” is shema in Hebrew. It means listening with an intention to obey. It is active listening which will lead to action. It is more than hearing. Most of our prayers lack humility. We tell God what we want and when we want it and like a child who cannot wait we get angry when we do not get it. We are so loud that we have not acquired the contemplative spirit and so cannot hear the still small voice from God. Our ability to be obedient and to be humble can lead to a message from the Lord. In the Movie Color Purple the character Shug, singing at a bar but recalling her past life came to a great realization and sang one of my favorite Gospel songs “God is trying to tell you something”. Maybe God is trying to tell you something in your trials and tribulations. Maybe God is trying to tell you something in your hardship. Maybe as you struggle from day to day, perhaps God is trying to tell you something. Have you quieted your mind to listen to what God is trying to tell you? Are you humble enough to say “speak Lord for I am listening?” Are you willing to do what God is trying to tell you?
4. Now note what the old priest tells Samuel. The old man told the child ways of listening to God. Most of us walk around and we have not cultivated the sedated spirit. The Old man told the child “go and lie down”. Quietness and time to collect your thought and be in communication with God allows you to hear a message from the Lord. You cannot get a message if you are drunk or high on some drugs. You cannot get a message from God If you are jumping up and down with loud music. No I am not saying do not listen to music, but I am saying take a lesson from what the bible says “Go and lie down” Have time alone with God once in a while. Take time to commune and collect your mind. That is how to listen to the call from God. Be silent and listen to the voice God. There is something about silence that allows us to be in tune with the universe and with God. There is something about silence that allows us to listen to other voices and sounds around us. We live in a world where so many things can distract us. You may be worried about the bills or members of your family. You may be worried about the job and the boss. Common phenomenon around you may present a distraction. When you are distracted, it is hard to listen to the Lord; and so to hear and put ourselves in the mood to get a message from God , we need to focus on God as much as possible without other distractions.
I want to leave you this morning with the story of Fanny Crosby. Born in 1820 in New York and blinded as a child she wrote so many songs that there is no hymnbook in the world today that does not include at least one of her songs. In a song she wrote in 1900 called Balm in Secret Prayer she wrote:
Tho’ the cross is hard to bear,
There is balm in secret prayer;
Go and tell thy sorrows there,
And leave it all with Jesus.
Is your cross hard to bear? Do you have tears? Is there anguish in your heart? Hold on to the eternal balm that our God provides and wait for God in his own time. Wait in quiet contemplation. Wait and be in prayer. Wait and be ready to respond when God calls. Thanks be to God. Amen
