When the Calling Is Difficult 1 Samuel 3:1-10 Dr. Christopher C. F. Chapman First Baptist Church, Raleigh January 18, 2015

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1 When the Calling Is Difficult 1 Samuel 3:1-10 Dr. Christopher C. F. Chapman First Baptist Church, Raleigh January 18, 2015 Last week after I had preached about baptism being our passport to dangerous paths of ministry and while we were ordaining deacons to a kind of service that involves its fair share of challenges, Dr. Lolley said to me with a smile, We never know what s ahead when they come and lay hands on us, do we? Understanding what he meant, I replied, No, we don t, thank God! Ministry, whether performed by ministers, deacons or any one of us with the only required credential of baptism, includes many wonderful heartwarming tasks of sharing the Good News and caring for people, but it also involves a number of unknowns which are apt to prove challenging. When we begin, we don t really know all that our calling will involve. We just soak in the affirmation, take seriously our calling and make our commitment. But we don t really know everything that is involved in what we are saying yes to at the time, thank God! Such is the case for young Samuel in the story we have read today from 1 Samuel 3. It is a familiar story, one that is used to encourage young people to consider a calling to ministry. And it has much to teach us. The boy who has been dedicated to God by his mother Hannah before he was conceived, is in the temple at Shiloh, serving the Lord. He hears a voice calling but doesn t realize it is God until after the third time God speaks, the aging priest Eli realizes it may be God, even though, as the author says, the word of the Lord is rare these days, visions are not widespread. At this point, Eli tells Samuel that if he hears the voice again, he should say, Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. Samuel does this and thus opens himself to God s calling. It is all quite moving and instructive. We find a long list of ways we might learn to listen better to God as well as a reminder that God speaks to all of us, young and old, and God calls each of us to service, whether we are in a formal role of leadership like Eli or an ordinary 1

2 place of service and learning like Samuel. But if we stop where the lectionary stops, which is the last part of the story most of us remember, we leave out an important part of the story. What is God calling Samuel to do? It s all very nice to say that God calls a young boy to service and Samuel responds, but to what exactly is he responding? Is it just a general calling to follow in God s ways, as Philip and Nathanael are called to follow Jesus in the reading from John 1, or is there something more specific that God is asking this boy? In this instance, God s calling is very specific. Basically, Samuel is called to speak a word of judgment on Eli, his mentor and guide, his father figure in the temple. Samuel will replace Eli. The nation will benefit in the end, so this is ultimately good news, but the details of how to get there are tough and a young child must deliver the bad news to his mentor. Eli s sons, Hophni and Phinehas, are, in the words or the author scoundrels. To be specific, they take meat offered at temple sacrifices for themselves. They steal from God and people. Further, they sleep with women who serve at the entrance to the tent of meeting, providing yet more evidence that there is nothing new under the sun. Eli s sons are guilty of injustice and unrighteousness and Eli is complicit. He does not participate in the wrongdoing but nor does he do anything about it. He simply looks the other way, like leaders in some churches, businesses and academic institutions today. So, God will take the lives of the sons and the position of the father and Samuel will assume the position of leader. This is the message Samuel is asked to deliver, this is what God calls him to do. Philip and Nathanael will face their own challenges in following Jesus. It is a journey that leads to a cross. And Philip s first task is not easy, to invite his brother to meet Jesus and believe he is the one written about in the law and the prophets. Family members and close friends can be the most difficult people to share our faith with because they know us so well. Nathanael s first response is not to say, Wow, that s great! but rather, Can anything good come out of Nazareth? In other words, Are you kidding me? Philip has his work cut out for him on his first assignment, but Samuel, poor Samuel, really has a difficult task. 2

3 But we all face significant challenges somewhere on our journey. If it is God s voice we have heard calling us, then the road will not always be smooth and easy. Some of the time it will, and we certainly don t need to go looking for trouble, but somewhere along the way, if we are faithful, we all face challenges. Sometimes the difficulty will involve stretching beyond our comfort zone. We are called to grow throughout our journey, grow up into Christ in every way, and growth inevitably involves change, and change makes us uncomfortable. We may be called to try new things in the way of service and leadership. We may be called to enlarge our understanding of faith or scripture, God or the church. We may be called to form relationships with people who make us uncomfortable. But we are all called to stretch ourselves in order to grow. I think of two men in previous settings who became deacons with a fairly specific understanding of what it meant to be a deacon and what their gifts and interests were. Both were bankers and both thought that deacons were administrative leaders. Thus, both were resistant to the very idea of deacon ministry wherein they would be asked to serve people in some way, visit the sick and bereaved, help with outreach or prison ministry. But in the end, both overcame their resistance, stretched past their comfort zones and not only became gifted caregivers but found a deep sense of fulfillment in this new calling. I believe we should start with our gifts and interests, our concerns for the world and passions for ministry, with any group of leaders. Rather than force square deacons into round holes of responsibility, what new energy might the church experience if we started with where deacons are! But I also believe we have to be careful not to close ourselves off to new possibilities. As we all know, doing the same thing in the same way and expecting a different result is one definition of insanity. If we want to experience something different, we have to be willing to change, stretch and grow, and this can be challenging. Other times the difficulty may involve a willingness to speak a difficult word of truth to someone we love, like the word Samuel must speak to Eli. For some of us this might involve confronting some sort of 3

4 addictive or at least self-destructive behavior in another. To enable someone to continue in a self-destructive path simply because we feel like it would be unkind to present a hard truth is ultimately not an act of love. To speak a word of truth in such situations is not easy. I have been in this position not only in my role as a minister but also with family members. The closer to someone we are, the more awkward it can be. But genuine love requires honesty, authentic faith requires courage, real friends embrace the difficulty of our calling. But this sort of challenge applies to much more than confronting addiction and other self-destructive behaviors. From a faith perspective, it also involves a willingness to confront people who laugh at the expense of others, who accept various forms of prejudice and bigotry, who embrace, whether intentionally or unintentionally, various forms of racism, sexism, classism and all the other isms we can name. We need to be able to laugh at ourselves and at times we may feel like others are being too sensitive, but until we are a member of the group being put down, we cannot fairly judge when someone else has been too sensitive. So, sometimes the difficult part of our calling involves stretching beyond our comfort zone and sometimes it involves speaking a difficult word of truth. And then, sometimes it involves a willingness to engage important issues from the perspective of our faith. This weekend our nation celebrates the ways in which Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. did this. Some of us began the celebration with the service on Friday for State employees which was at the other half of First Baptist Church that meets on Wilmington Street this year. We will host again next year. It was, as always, a moving service. The keynote speaker was John W. Franklin, Senior Manager at the new National Museum of African-American History and Culture in Washington which will open next year But while we remember many things about Dr. King s ministry this weekend, including the quotes we have shared in liturgical form, it is easy to forget how difficult his calling was. It s not just that he faced resistance from those who did not want to recognize the full humanity of people of color. It s that people within the African-American church did not think it was appropriate to deal with issues in the public arena. 4

5 Some were afraid of the consequences, but others believed the church should deal only with personal faith issues, not those that might become political. King disagreed. He believed that our faith addresses all of life, that God is concerned with all of life, that the gospel speaks to both personal and social concerns, because God is God of the whole world. He paid a price for those beliefs, but it is difficult to argue with them. There is no scripture and certainly no Jesus material with which to do so. So, this sort of challenge remains. What are the issues the church cannot avoid, but rather must address with the resources of our faith, no matter how difficult it may be to do so? We have talked about a few multiculturalism, religious pluralism, religious liberty, sexual identity, human trafficking, poverty, the care of creation, immigration. It sounds like a list of what to talk about if you want to stir up trouble. Buzz Thomas wrote a book entitled Ten Things Your Minister Wants to Tell You (But Can t Because He Needs the Job). We have covered most of the bases. But it s really just the list of what people want to talk about, what any church that wants to be faithful and relevant must consider. I m not talking about partisan politics. The nonestablishment clause of the First Amendment is still effect, thank God! And I m not saying we will all agree on any given issue. Good people of faith address concerns like poverty and immigration in different ways. But there are issues that affect real human beings, all God s children. There are concerns the church must speak to out of faithfulness to the gospel. Doing so may be difficult but it is part of our calling. I have shared with some of you before these words of the Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth, a pastor in Birmingham, Alabama during the civil rights movement and colleague of Dr. King s (A Fire You Can t Put Out, Andrew M. Manis, p.220). [Religion] ought to have the same thrust that John the Baptist had when he went to tell Herod he was wrong and when Elijah went to Jezebel or Elijah when he challenged the 450 prophets [of Baal]. It s both/and. It has to do with your prayer life and your living life and it also has to do with how you live, whether you live under oppression. Whether or not somebody s 5

6 challenging the oppression. Because it was never God s will, in my estimation for oppression to be the order of the day anywhere I always remember what Dr. [William Holmes] Borders said, The book of Acts is an action book. The gospel will get you in trouble; but God will get you out. That s a true statement. And if you aren t running over somebody s feeling, making and overcoming enemies, then it s not the gospel. It may sound like an overstatement, but we have to remember the context of segregation and the means some were willing to use to preserve it. And somewhere deep down we have to recognize the truth in what Shuttlesworth is saying. The gospel does inevitably get us into trouble. Part of our calling is difficult in one way or another. Ambrose of Milan knew this. He lived in the fourth century C.E. He was an attorney with a successful practice and served as governor of Milan. When the bishop of Milan died around 374 C.E., there was a battle to decide who would follow him. The bishop had supported the Arian heresy which argued against the divinity of Christ and so, the Arian and orthodox factions were at odds as to who would lead the church. Ambrose walked into a church when the debate was raging and people started shouting, Ambrose for bishop! Ambrose for bishop! When it became obvious that this was a serious request, Ambrose objected. He had a successful career, in law, not religion. He hadn t even been baptized yet and he had no interest in giving up his work only to be cast into a controversy he was not equipped to resolve. At one point, he hid in a senator s home to avoid this calling. But in the end, he submitted and once he did, he threw himself into the work, giving away his property to the poor, studying theology and using his oratory skills to guide the church. He was a gifted leader with a ministry of great significance, but he had no intention of becoming a minister until God yanked him out of his comfortable life into a new role of service. Someone has said that this is why God s calling frightens us. We may be sitting on a back pew or looking at the ocean enjoying ourselves when the God who was in Christ yanks us out of our comfort zone and 6

7 sends us into a new life with all sorts of excitement. The challenges may vary, but that there will be challenges along the way seems inevitable. When Samuel is called by God to deliver a difficult yet important message, he does what God asks him to do. Amazingly Eli understands. He knows Samuel is speaking for God. He accepts the judgment, saying, It is the Lord; let him do what seems good to him. And when God calls Samuel to follow his mentor, even knowing the weight of responsibility he is being asked to assume, he does what God asks him to do. How will we respond when our calling is difficult? 7