We begin a four-week message series today entitled Called. The reality is we’re all called by God. Each of us is called to salvation and to service. If God has called us to salvation, then God has also called us to service in the Kingdom. This message series will explore God’s calling in three of the early leaders of Israel—Samuel, Saul and David, and hopefully we’ll discover how to hear, answer and not answer God’s call in our own lives. Maybe along the way we’ll learn to live fully into our own call, be it salvation or service. We start this series by taking a look at one of the most distinctive calls in the Bible. It is the calling of the Old Testament prophet Samuel.
Samuel was born to his mother, Hannah, in answer to Eli’s prayer. The priest Eli had seen Hannah weeping at the door of the Tabernacle. She was crying because she had no child. Eli prayed on Hannah’s behalf and God answered her prayer. In response to God’s faithfulness, Hannah dedicated Samuel to life-long service to God, and when he was old enough, she took him to the Tabernacle at Shiloh to serve with Eli, just as she promised she would do. That’s where we picked up the story this morning.
Verse one says, “the word of the Lord was rare in those days.” It’s like Israel was living in a dead spot. You know what I’m talking about, right? It’s like cell phone companies spend millions if not billions of dollars erecting towers all over the country, but when you really need your phone, you can’t get coverage. A dead spot is that place where the signal doesn’t reach. It was into that dead spot that God’s call came to this young man, Samuel. He would become the spokesperson for a new generation. But, Samuel was having a hard time figuring out what this call was all about. He knew someone was calling him, but apparently, there was a lot of interference in the dead spot. What might have been causing that interference?
The first issue may have been sin. Eli, the priest, was a devout and compassionate man, but he had problems at home. Actually, what he had was a couple of problem sons. His sons were in the family business—they were priests just like their father. Now, that’s not the problem. Actually, Eli was of the priestly line of Aaron. Aaron was the first to wear the priestly mantle in the nation of Israel. That mantle had been handed down from generation to generation, so it was a natural progression for Hophni and Phineas to go into the family business. The problem was they soon discovered they could get rich off of the offerings the people were making for sacrifices. They also enjoyed the companionship of the women who served in the Tabernacle. They were in the family business, but it was for all the wrong reasons. Day in and day out, Samuel witnessed this leadership in the Tabernacle, and maybe Samuel didn’t expect God to speak in the middle of all that. Sin may have been creating some interference for Samuel as God came calling.
Another issue may have been weariness. Verses 2 & 3 say that the Lord spoke to Samuel before the Lamp of God had gone out. That simply means it was probably the wee hours of the morning when the Lord came calling. You know how it is when you get suddenly awakened in the middle of the night. It takes a moment or two to get your wits about you. Perhaps Samuel couldn’t hear the Lord because he was just tired.
Yet another issue that causes interference in distinguishing God’s call is anger or abandonment. Think about this: Samuel had been left as a little boy by his mother…literally, right after he was weaned. She would only visit him once a year when it was time for the yearly sacrifices. How do you explain to a little boy year after year that he can’t go home with you after your yearly visit? It must have been confusing to Samuel, and confusion, as it often does can lead to anger. Maybe Samuel was just angry, and that anger was causing his inability to distinguish God’s voice.
Another issue we could explore is simple ignorance. Verse 7 seems to indicate there was a little ignorance involved. Samuel is young and he’s been around the sanctuary for a long time, but he had never experienced God. He knew he could serve God, but he didn’t realize God wanted a personal relationship with him. He didn’t quite understand that God was a personal God who desired to use him in a special way.
Three times God called out to Samuel. Each time, Samuel ran to Eli thinking it was Eli calling him. Finally, Eli said to Samuel, “Next time you hear the voice, say ‘Speak Lord, for your servant is listening’.” That’s exactly what he did and his life was changed forever. He became the judge over Israel, and had the great privilege of anointing two of Israel’s kings, not the least of which was its most famous, King David. He finally heard God’s call and it made all the difference in the world.
God is still calling people today. God is calling people to the Kingdom…to salvation. He is calling people to healing and wholeness. He is calling people to reconciliation. The problem is that too many people are living in dead spots. Like the old Verizon commercial, God is walking around saying, “Can you hear me now?” There’s a lot of interference obstructing God’s call. Oh, we can catch bits and pieces of it here and there. We hear stories of what God is doing “somewhere else,” never realizing God might be wanting to do the same thing here. We look into the face of a newborn, and what we should see as a shout of God’s continuing power and faithfulness seems only, amidst the interference of our lives, to be a faint whisper that God is still around, somewhere, doing something.
Maybe it’s our own ignorance. Many of us have been around the church for a lot of years, and have come to equate service to God with a relationship with God. We’ve heard lots of sermons, sung lots of hymns and even served in official capacities, but we never understood that God wants a personal relationship with us. How do I know? Because that’s exactly how I was. I grew up in church…had a drug problem…drug from one church to another, but not until I was 27 years old did I realize that God wanted a personal relationship with me. I was ignorant!
Is anger keeping us from hearing the call of God in our lives? Sickness or tragedy strikes us or those we love. We go through a bitter divorce. We lose our job and financial security. We’re left with questions and confusion. We get mad at others, and we get mad at God because, after all, God should have done something. Our anger may keep us from hearing and understanding the only thing that can bring healing and wholeness to our lives.
Perhaps we’re just too tired to hear God calling. We live in such a fast-paced world with families, jobs and social activities that we’re just worn out. Hey? We even get tired working for God. Why does God want me to do something else? It is possible to weary in well-doing, you know? In our weariness, we may miss the call of God. He may be calling someone here today saying, “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.”
Then, again, it might be a matter of some sin that keeps us from hearing God’s call. Sin surrounds us, friends. It might be our own sin, or it may be someone else’s, but sin casts a dark shadow obscuring the light of God’s love. Whatever sin you or I may be struggling with, we can know God has built a cell tower in our dead spot. It’s called the cross of Jesus Christ. Jesus shed his blood to forgive our sins so that we might be reconciled to him and to each other. Friend, each time you and I receive this bread and cup, it is God calling…calling us to salvation, calling us to wholeness, calling us to service.
Sometimes we need help hearing that call, though. Samuel would never have understood God’s call without Eli. That’s the reason the church is so important. The sacraments of baptism and holy communion make us aware of God’s presence, and the community (fellowship with other believers) is imperative to understanding and clarifying God’s call. God will use others to help us, and he will use us to help others so that we might all find our way out of the dead spots.
I needed someone else to help me clarify God’s call in my life. For months I wrestled with the possibility that God was calling me to vocational ministry. I wasn’t certain. I mean, I read the Bible, I prayed and I listened. I’m sure there were many times God said, “Can you hear me now?” Not until Vanessa and I were walking through Pecanland Mall one summer afternoon in 1990, was I able to distinguish His voice.
We ran into a former pastor and his wife. She had never been very active in the congregation in the time they were there. Sometimes we wondered did she even exist. She would show up on a rare occasion, but there was really nothing that made her stand out in my life or the life of the congregation. As we chatted that afternoon, she looked at me as asked if I was still with the Sheriff’s Department. I replied that I was, and she responded so matter-of-factly, “Well, I figured you’d be preaching by now.” At that moment, all the wrestling of the past several months became crystal clear, and I was able to say, “Speak Lord, for your servant is listening.”
God is calling you, too. He is calling each of us to salvation and to service. But, He is not calling us for ourselves. He’s calling us for others, to help them hear His call in their lives. As we come to receive the elements of Communion, as you take the bread and cup, simply say, “Speak Lord, for your servant is listening.” Hear God’s call in a new way.
