1 Samuel 3:1-10
The boy Samuel ministered before the LORD under Eli. In those days the word of the LORD was rare; there were not many visions. One night Eli, whose eyes were becoming so weak that he could barely see, was lying down in his usual place. 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. Then the LORD called Samuel. Samuel answered, "Here I am." And he ran to Eli and said, "Here I am; you called me." But Eli said, "I did not call; go back and lie down." So he went and lay down. Again the LORD called, "Samuel!" And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, "Here I am; you called me." "My son," Eli said, "I did not call; go back and lie down."
Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD: The word of the LORD had not yet been revealed to him. The LORD called Samuel a third time, and Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, "Here I am; you called me." Then Eli realized that the LORD was calling the boy.
So Eli told Samuel, "Go and lie down, and if he calls you, say, ’Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.’" So Samuel went and lay down in his place. The LORD came and stood there, calling as at the other times, "Samuel! Samuel!" Then Samuel said, "Speak, for your servant is listening."
And the LORD said to Samuel: "See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make the ears of everyone who hears of it tingle. (NIV)
John 1:35-47
The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, "Look, the Lamb of God!" When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, "What do you want?" They said, "Rabbi" (which means Teacher), "where are you staying?"
"Come," he replied, "and you will see." So they went and saw where he was staying, and spent that day with him. It was about the tenth hour. Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, "We have found the Messiah" (that is, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, "You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas" (which, when translated, is Peter). The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, "Follow me."
Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. Philip found Nathanael and told him, "We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote-- Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph."
"Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?" Nathanael asked. "Come and see," said Philip. When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, "Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false." (NIV)
In Alcoholics Anonymous, there is the well-known 12 step program that alcoholics move through to improve their lives.
Step 8 is to make a list of those we have harmed.
Step 9 is to make amends to them.
If I were to ever live my life with the 12 step program, and I were to arrive at step number 9, I would have to try to find my 11th grade chemistry teacher.
I’m sorry for what I did to her.
I did not mean to start the fire in chemistry lab – but I really don’t think she should have given me a Bunsen burner and a flask full of chemicals.
I did not mean for her to be so close to my Bunsen burner when the incident took place.
Most of all, I am sorry that day after day, I drove her nuts because I never paid any attention to her.
I just couldn’t help myself.
After all, I was 16 years old. And it was the last class of the day. And I just had other things to think about than the Periodic Table.
And then, on one warm Spring Day – I think it was a Friday – I was lost in thought, dreaming about – well, I think it had something to do with girl.
Anyway, my teacher reached her limit with me.
She picked up her chemistry book, threw it on the desk, pointed her finger at me and said, “That’s why! That’s why the low grades. Wake up!!”
I’ll never forget what happened next.
The kid sitting behind me woke up and said, “Who? Me?”
We all left the class that day wondering, “was she talking to me? I thought she was talking to you?” None of us had been paying any attention.
I sometimes have the feeling that God is like my chemistry teacher. Trying desperately to lead us, guide us, call us, but we aren’t paying any attention.
Our Old and New Testament lessons have a common theme – God calling and trying direct individuals.
There is something wonderfully comic about the Old Testament lesson.
There is young Samuel, asleep, and God calls.
He wakes up, goes to his guardian Eli and says, “Here I am, what do you want?”
Eli says, “Aw, you’re dreaming, go back to bed, leave me alone.”
It happens again.
Samuel hears the voice of God and he gets up and goes to Eli and says, “Here I am, what do you want?”
Eli sends him back to bed.
Finally, a third time is the charm. Eli figures out that it is the voice of God.
One of the strange elements of this story is that it takes place in the holiest place of the Sanctuary, where the Ark of the Covenant was kept. It’s as if Eli and Samuel are thinking, “the last place we would ever encounter God is in the church.”
God calls, and no one pays any attention.
No one is listening.
When the voice of God breaks through to us, we don’t recognize it as God.
And the sad thing is that this is not chemistry class. This is life. We desperately want to hear the voice of God. We earnestly seek his guidance in our life.
But we are not listening.
We are not paying any attention.
You want to hear the voice of God in your life? The first thing you have to do is to believe that God will speak to you.
You have to be willing to open the Bible and be attentive to His Word. You have to be willing to listen in Sunday School, and listen in your meditations and prayers, and even in sermons.
Live in the expectation that God could say and do something wonderful in your life.
In the Old Testament lesson, Samuel finally responds to the call of God, and God speaks: “I am about to do something in Israel that will make the ears of everyone who hears of it tingle.”
Something wonderful is about to happen.
Something amazing.
Most of us live lives in which we don’t really believe anything amazing or wonderful can or will happen.
God is not going to do anything in my life.
God is not going to speak to me.
God is not going to lead me.
God won’t inspire our church, grow our church, heal my family, or restore my life.
God doesn’t need me.
We live pessimistically.
But…
God is always, always, calling us to live in the expectation that he is going to do something with us and to us and through us.
In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus tells a parable about his Second Coming.
Mark 13:33-37
33 Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come.
34 It’s like a man going away: He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with his assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch.
35 "Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back-- whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn.
36 If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping.
37 What I say to you, I say to everyone: ’Watch!’"
In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus tells us to always live in the expectation that we might hear the call of God, and witness the work of God in our lives. “Be ready for service,” Jesus says. “Be ready for service.” (Luke 12:35-37)
A friend of mine once taught a confirmation class to a very small group. In fact, there were only three young girls in the class. In one session, the minister was teaching them about the festivals and seasons of the Christian year, and when they came to the discussion of Pentecost, the minister asked them if they knew what Pentecost was. Since none of the three knew, the minister began to explain.
“That’s when the church was sitting in a group and the Holy Spirit landed on them like tongues of fire on their heads. Then they spoke the Gospel in all the languages of the world.”
Two of the girls took this information in stride. But the third one looked astonished. Her eyes grew as big as saucers. Finally she spoke up and said, “Gee Reverend Long, my family must have been absent that Sunday.”
The beauty of that moment was not that she misunderstood Pentecost, but that she understood something about her life, her church and her God. In her mind, there was the possibility that God could do something wonderful, even in the church.
Are you awake?
Are you listening?
Are deaf to the voice of God?
God is calling all of us to roll up our sleeves and get to work. But we like to sit back and do nothing.
The reason may be that we have a large enough church that if we sit back long enough, somebody else will respond to God’s call for us and we won’t have to do anything.
Somebody else will feed the hungry.
Somebody else will volunteer to work at Habitat for Humanity.
Somebody else will chair the Mission Committee.
Somebody else will take care of the nursery.
Somebody else will sing in the choir.
Somebody else will buy things for the food pantry.
One of the members of our youth group was telling me about a high school sociology class he was taking.
His teacher talked about social responsibility.
If you are driving down the road and you see someone in a wreck, injured, do you stop and help? Or pass them by?
If you are driving downtown in Atlanta on a busy city street – the tendency is to pass them by. After all, there are hundreds of others passing the injured person, let one of them stop. You don’t respond because you convince yourself that with 1000 others passing by, you have only 1/1000th of the responsibility.
But if you are in a remote part of Alaska, and you are the only person who drives by the injured person, you tend to stop. Why? Because you know you have 100% of the responsibility.
In the church, we are not alone. There are lots of others around. We don’t feel the burden of responsibility. So we think, perhaps even pray, “don’t ask me to walk in the CROP Walk to fight hunger.” Or we think, “the church needs volunteers to help with the youth program. I wish someone else would pitch in, I don’t have time.”
What we misunderstand is this – we have 100% of the responsibility to respond to God’s call.
We have a hundred opportunities every day to respond to the call of God.
He is calling us to love, to help, to be kind, to be generous.
But we act as if we are asleep or deaf.
In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus says (Matthew 25:31 ff): “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
"Then the King will say to those on his right, ’Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
"Then the righteous will answer him, ’Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
"The King will reply, ’I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’”
How many times during the day does God call us, but we act as if we are asleep? We ignore the call of God. We let the opportunity to live out the Christian faith pass us by.
I was at Presbytery office the other day with several other ministers and elders from various Presbyterian Churches in the community. One of them shared a story of a congregation that had, as one of its ministries, a group devoted to drama. Every year they would put on 2 or 3 major productions for the community.
Several years ago, during the Christmas season, the church performed A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. To the delight and amusement of the congregation, one of the kindest, most generous and gentle souls in the church was cast in the unlikely role of the stingy, unloving, Ebenezer Scrooge.
You know the story.
Scrooge on Christmas Eve goes through a series of terrifying and life-changing encounters with the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future. These experiences cause him to repent of his cold heart and lack of generosity. As the light of Christmas Day dawns, Scrooge is a changed man.
To show this transformation on the stage, the script of the play called for the actor playing Scrooge to throw open his bedroom window and to stick his head out into the light, and to act as though he saw a lad walking along the street and to beckon with joy and excitement to the imaginary boy, “Hey boy, boy, you there. Come up here. I have something for you to do.” Then Scrooge was to distribute the gifts for the poor of London.
In the actual performance, though, when the actor thrust his head through the window of the set and said, “Hey boy, boy, you there…” a young boy in the fellowship hall, sitting with his parents and watching the play, obediently got out of his seat and walked onto the stage. Suddenly and unexpectedly, there in the middle of the play was a child from the audience. At that point, the actor playing Scrooge began to depart from the script in a wonderful way.
He spontaneously went over to the boy and hugged him saying, “Yes, indeed, you are the one I need. The very one! I need you to help me distribute my gifts to the poor.”
When the play was over, the audience applauded enthusiastically. The boy also took his turn at bowing to the audience, and it was this three year old who received the standing ovation. (Tom Long, Beyond Worship Wars)
God throws open the windows of heaven and calls out to us, “Hey, you there. Come here. I have something for you to do.”
Most of us, however, sit back, do nothing, and think, God could never use me. Never speak to me. Nothing is going to happen.
Wouldn’t it be something, I mean really something if we suddenly said, “Here I am Lord, Here I am.”
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Written by Maynard Pittendreigh
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