Sermon for Epiphany 2 Year B 2012 Listening for the Call It s so corny but I just couldn t help it... The lessons today just had me thinking over and over Can you hear me now? Can you really blame me? Come on, admit it at least a few of you were thinking the same thing? No? Yes? I knew it! Even if you weren t thinking it while listening to our first lesson this morning at least most of you not only know the commercial I m referring to, but you ve experienced it! Can you hear me now? the line goes in the commercial. You re not listening to me, says the aggrieved spouse. Don t you see it, the frustrated teacher says. Samuel and Eli, a polarity of blindness and sight. Samuel (which ironically means in Hebrew God hears ) is destined to be a prophet, a seer, but as a boy he has trouble understanding what or, more accurately, who he is hearing. Nearly-blind Eli certainly hears the boy awaken him in the middle of the night. However, eventually, even blind Eli figures out who is actually calling in the night. The prophet Samuel was called by God when he was just a young boy, during the time of his apprenticeship to Eli, the priest at the temple at Shiloh. One evening after they both retire to bed for the night, the young Samuel hears a voice urgently calling, "Samuel! Samuel!" Thinking it is his elderly mentor in need, Samuel jumps up out of bed and runs to Eli. 1
"Here I am for you called me," he exclaims. But Eli has not called the boy and sends him back to bed. This sequence of calling to Samuel, his running to Eli's side, and Eli sending him back to bed occurs three times before it dawns on Eli that Samuel is not having nightmares, or seeing the boogeyman under his bed, but is being called by God. And so Eli sends Samuel back to bed with instructions as to how to receive God's call. God's call is not always easily recognizable. Why is that? Doesn't God want to communicate with us clearly? Wouldn't life be a whole lot easier if God would just let us know exactly what he wants us to do? Why does God seem so ambiguous, even cryptic, in communicating with us? In the days of God's call to Samuel, we are told that, "the word of the Lord was rare... and visions [from God] were not widespread." God's silence and the absence of any prophetic visions led the people to conclude that God had ceased to communicate with them. But can this be true? Is God ever silent? This period of God's seeming silence and absence was a time of political and religious anarchy in Israel's history. A time, the scripture tells us, in which, "everyone did what was right in their own eyes." (Judges 17:6). A time during in which the two sons of the priest Eli, named Hophni and Phinehas who were priests themselves were, "wicked men who had no regard for the Lord." (I Sam. 2:12) In fact, Hophni and Phinehas' disregard for the Lord was so great that they spent their days as priests stealing from the temple and, to use today s politically correct term, sexually harassing and oppressing the women of their community demanding sexual favors. The text refers to Eli's sons as "scoundrels," which would appear to be somewhat of an understatement! 2
This immoral state of affairs led many of the people to believe that God was so angry, that God just withdrew himself from the life of the people, refusing to communicate with them. That is something we might term "the silent treatment," whereby one person in a relationship punishes the other by refusing to speak to them. (I m sure there are several spouses who know what I m talking about.) It is also classic passive-aggressive behavior, which we all know is not a healthy thing. And because I do not believe God is passive-aggressive or would engage in unhealthy behavior of any sort, I think that this could be considered a misunderstanding of God s character. The United Church of Christ has a slogan that states, "God is still speaking." I say, amen! Not only is God still speaking, but God has never been, or ever will be, silent! Just like the all-too-familiar Verizon Wireless commercials, where the Verizon man walks around speaking into his cell phone, asking, "Can you hear me now? Can you hear me now? Can you hear me now? " Corny or not, I think that is what God does. God is always calling us and asking, "Can you hear me now? The problem is never with God being silent. The problem is with our being able to receive God's call. The problem is most of the time, even if we hear, we re not really listening. Well before the March on Washington, or his I have a Dream speech, there was a defining moment for Martin Luther King, Jr.; you could say it was his call from God. And it, too, came in the middle of the night, past midnight. Though not in a temple, but in the kitchen of his home on Jackson Street in Birmingham, Alabama. King was 27 years old, two years into his role as pastor of nearby Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. Over the past month, King had been leading the Montgomery bus boycott, a decision that set off a series of death threats delivered via mail and phone 3
to his residence as many as 30 to 40 calls day and night. Normally, King could put the phone down and go back to sleep. But on the night of January 27the, 1956, one call stood out. As King s wife and 10-week-old daughter slept peacefully nearby, the voice on the other end of the line threatened not only his death, but the death of his wife and his child. Shaken, King went to the kitchen, made himself a cup of coffee, but soon buried his face in his hands. He began to pray aloud: Lord, I m down here trying to do what s right But I must confess I m losing my courage. Later King explained what happened next: I could hear an inner voice saying to me, Martin Luther, stand up for truth. Stand up for justice. Stand up for righteousness. God calls each and everyone of us. God is asking you, "Can you hear me now?" Even blind Eli eventually comes to see and hear what is happening in this story of Samuel s call. God is calling the boy but Samuel doesn t yet know how to recognize the voice nor what to do. It take three tries on God s part to get through, not just to Samuel who is after all only a very young boy, but to Eli, who as an elder and a priest, who should have had some idea of what was happening. But, as Barbara Brown Taylor observes, There is more to knowing God, it seems, than being in church. Eventually, Eli instructs the boy to both listen for the voice and how to answer properly. The words were frightful ones both to hear and to speak, but as a prophet, scripture tells us, Samuel's words never fell to the ground. That is, they did not miss their mark. We are told in this story of Samuel that the word of the Lord was rare in those days. I admit I often wonder whether this is an apt description of our time. And, yet, as I also stated earlier, our God who desires relationship, does speak. 4
God leaves clues and traces of his divine presence all of the time. Even if it is not as dramatic for us as it was for Samuel or for Martin Lutheran King Jr. Still God speaks. But how to listen for God? One very reliable answer is consistent bible reading. Every time we listen to these sacred words, especially with the ears of our hearts, we can discover new depths in God and in our own character. Another way is to learn quiet contemplation with God s word, in the presence of God through prayer. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Lutheran pastor and WWII martyr observed about meditating on God s word, that: It is not necessary that we should discover new ideas in our meditation. It is sufficient, and far more important, if the Word, as we read and understand it, penetrates and dwells within us. Still another way is to listen carefully to each other. Dietrich Bonhoeffer has a wonderful chapter on this in his book, Life Together: The first service that one owes to others in the fellowship consists of listening to them. Just as love of God begins with listening to his word, so the beginning of love for our brothers and sisters is learning to listen to them. In fact, Bonhoeffer goes on to say that if we do not listen to one another, we are, in fact, not able to listen to God. Active listening to one another means that we are anticipating receiving a word from God to us from others. Perhaps, though, when all is said and done, do we really want to hear the voice of the living God? Are we afraid? Are we afraid that we will hear something or are we afraid that we won t? If and when we choose to hear and truly listen We will discover that God continues to speak to us and has decided to speak through a person, the person of his Son. God s words come to us through him in our persons, in our bodies, in all the events of lives, if only we can learn, if only we are willing to listen to what they are telling us. What is God trying, wanting, desperately longing to say to us? His message is different for each of us, as different as our lives. Yet our beginnings are the same, our first steps toward finding out, when we are able to summon all our courage, open our hearts and our mouths and say, Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. If you do, then I guarantee you that your ears will tingle with what you hear! 5