BRIDGE BUILDERS (January 14, 2018 Second Sunday after Epiphany)
Text: I Samuel 3:1-10
1 Samuel 3:1-10 Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the LORD under Eli. The word of the LORD was rare in those days; visions were not widespread. (2) At that time Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see, was lying down in his room; (3) the lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the LORD, where the ark of God was. (4) Then the LORD called, "Samuel! Samuel!" and he said, "Here I am!" (5) and ran to Eli, and said, "Here I am, for you called me." But he said, "I did not call; lie down again." So he went and lay down. (6) The LORD called again, "Samuel!" Samuel got up and went to Eli, and said, "Here I am, for you called me." But he said, "I did not call, my son; lie down again." (7) Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD, and the word of the LORD had not yet been revealed to him. (8) The LORD called Samuel again, a third time. And he got up and went to Eli, and said, "Here I am, for you called me." Then Eli perceived that the LORD was calling the boy. (9) Therefore Eli said to Samuel, "Go, lie down; and if he calls you, you shall say, 'Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.'" So Samuel went and lay down in his place. (10) Now the LORD came and stood there, calling as before, "Samuel! Samuel!" And Samuel said, "Speak, for your servant is listening." (NRSV).
What is a priest? One way to think about what a priest does is to compare them to being a bridge builder. Why that analogy? A bridge connects pieces of land that are geographically separated, much like a priest helps people connect with God.
The following story can illustrate how a priest is like a bridge builder.
In 1907 (111 years ago) there was an engineer named Theodore Cooper, who had a stellar reputation as an engineer and bridge builder. He had even written a book on the topic in 1884. In 1907 there was his latest project the Quebec Bridge which spanned the St. Lawrence River [which according to Wikipedia in modern day is 13,238 feet long and 95 feet wide]. A riveter noticed a problem with the rivets snapping in two. Before he could report the problem to his foreman there was the sound of crashing metal as the bridge began to collapse and fall into the water. The sound of the collapse carried for miles. People in Quebec felt earthquake like tremors from the crashing bridge. 75 of the 85 workers catapulted into the air lost their lives that day. Some of them died on the shore because they were trapped within the metal debris and could not be rescued before the tide came in. Many watched helplessly.
One author (Kim Wedel. The Obligation: A History of the Order of the Engineer.) concluded about the failure of Theodore Cooper like this: “he had ignored too many warnings, shrugged off too many doubts, and as investment mounted and construction advanced, it only grew harder and harder for him to contemplate his errors. Perhaps by the time the massive project fell, he had decided it could not fall because he had designed it”.
(Vince Molinaro. The Leadership Contract. [quoting Kim Wedel] Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley and sons Inc., 2013, pp. 85, 86). As alluded to earlier, a priest is like a bridge builder who has built a faulty bridge because the people who need the bridge suffer when it fails.
Do we ever make light of our calling and service in God’s kingdom? In the aftermath of the Quebec Bridge tragedy a ceremony evolved to remind engineers of how lives of others depend on their work! “… a ritual which has become known as the Iron Ring Ceremony recalls the events of the Quebec Bridge disaster. This ceremony is “conducted in universities across Canada”. The ceremony entail the placing of an iron ring on the pinky finger of the dominant hand as a reminder of the obligations of being an engineer. The ring is meant to rub against every design they make as a reminder. It brings to mind that “humility, obligation and deliberateness” go with the territory of being an engineer. (Vince Molinaro. The Leadership Contract. [quoting Kim Wedel] Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley and sons Inc., 2013, pp. 85, 86,87 & 108). Eli’s sons Hophni and Phineas failed as priests for God’s people.
They were not building according to God’s design! They both abused their positions on two counts. They sinned against God by treating the Lord’s food offering with contempt and and they seduced women who served at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting (I Samuel 2:12 - 22). “Cleanliness is next to godliness” (Wesley).
How can anyone succeed in marching to the beat of their own drum? Consider what I Samuel 2:12 says about the sons of Eli: "Now the sons of Eli were sons of Belial; they knew not the Lord" (KJV). The name Belial means worthless, useless, wicked and was often used of ungodly men. (Wilson's Old Testament Word Studies. Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, no date, p. 35). How could they honestly lead God’s people as God’s priests because they did not know the Lord.
How well do we handle what God has entrusted to us? When we hear the words “the word of the Lord was rare in that time” (I Samuel 1:1) we can see that it was rare because it seems that there were many along the way who had been irresponsible with what God had entrusted to them prior to the priestly leadership of Hophni and Phineas. Does God’s call of Samuel teach us anything? Do we ever need tough love? How do we view our role in God’s vision for our call?
Have we ever encountered people who lacked vision? Just because someone has a role in God’s kingdom it does not mean that things happen by default! The job of all priests is to help others connect to God. They (Hophni and Phineas) seemed to think that righteousness and piety came automatically with the office of the priests. They paid no attention to doing what was right as if to believe that their faithfulness would happen by default. Obedience to God enables us to see His vision!
How do we heed God's call of us? We are a chosen people, a royal priesthood (I Peter 2:9). God chose us to be active in the priesthood of all believers which means that God has something for each of us to do---a calling to heed, a mission fulfill. If there is anything that I Samuel 3:1-10 tells us it is that we cannot serve God in a vacuum! Hophni and Phineas were busy about their own business rather than God's business. We have to be at work at God's business. "One often sees a sign on the highway, "Danger---Men at Work". However, the real danger is in men not working. …. Without work, men decay and die early; unless men work, the world has economic depressions and loses every good and desirable thing. A man's work is his witness in life". (Leonard Cochran. Man At His Best. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1952, p. 121). There is always work for us to do because there is always a harvest that is waiting for the opportunity to be reaped. The harvest is plentiful and laborers are so few (Matthew 9:37). In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen.
