LISTENING FOR YOUR CALL
A Sermon preached by
Rev. Dr. Randle R. (Rick) Mixon
First Baptist Church, Palo Alto, CA
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Text: I Samuel 3:1-11
There’s an old camp song that goes something like this:
When He calls me, I will answer,
When He calls me I will answer,
When He calls me I will answer,
I’ll be somewhere listening for my name.
As songs so often do, this one popped into my head as I thought about this morning’s text. In considering this old and dramatic story, I invite you to think about when, where and how God has called you, whether or not God is calling you still and what has been and will be your own response.
In the ancient word, we find the boy, Samuel, somewhere listening for his name. Like a good scout, he is ready and willing to answer the call when it comes. Eventually, Samuel will become a very important figure in the history of the people of Israel and part of the point of including the stories of his birth and childhood in the biblical canon is to establish firmly his special relationship to God and God’s people.
Samuel is born to Hannah and Elkanah after Hannah, who has been barren, pledges to God that, if she can have a child, she will dedicate the child to God and give him over to God’s service. So we find Samuel serving at the holy shrine at Shiloh, apprenticed to the old priest, Eli. At the point of this morning’s reading, Samuel is probably about 12 years old, based on the kinds of duties this story records him doing. Here we find him sleeping in the temple as a kind of guardian before the Ark of God. In his youthful slumber, he hears a voice - “Hush, hush somebody’s calling my name.” “Samuel, Samuel.”
The boy is quick to respond, “Here I am,” as he runs to see what old Eli needs. “Here I am, for you called me.” Eli, perhaps a little irritated at being awakened from a sound sleep, tells the boy, “I did not call; lie down again.” Samuel, certain that somebody has called his name, returns to the inner sanctuary, trying to puzzle out the mystery. He knows what he heard. Is old Eli slipping so badly he can’t remember something for two seconds, or is someone trying to trick the boy?
He is drifting off once more, his puzzle unsolved, when suddenly he hears it again, clear and insistent. “Hush, hush somebody’s calling my name.” “Samuel, Samuel.” Again he gets up and goes to Eli. “Here I am, for you called me.” Eli, barely back to sleep himself, is gentler this time. His own curiosity is piqued by the repetition of this midnight disturbance. “I did not call you, my son; lie down again.”
Once more Samuel returns to his mat on the temple floor, scratching his head and wondering. “Is there something wrong with me? I’m sure I heard a voice, somebody calling my name. Was it just a dream? Maybe old Eli is trying to teach me some lesson about being alert and watchful.” Once more his young eyes grow heavy with sleep and he has just dozed off when he hears it a third time. “Hush, hush somebody’s calling my name.” Somebody IS calling his name. “Samuel, Samuel.” He starts up and goes straight again to Eli. “Here I am, for you called me,” he repeats the now all too familiar litany.
This time Eli is ready for him. This time Eli has not gone back to sleep. Over the intervening moments – or were they hours? - he has been in prayer and meditation, for he knows that this is not a boy playing games to irritate an old man. Something serious is happening here. Eli remembers his own experience of hearing God’s call and he realizes that Samuel does “not yet know the Lord and the word of the Lord has not yet been revealed to him.” This is a teaching moment, the moment for which Eli has been waiting, the moment he can begin to pass on the mantle of his priestly role and his leadership of the people to the successor God has chosen for him.
He instructs the boy, “Go, lie down; and if he calls you, you shall say, ‘Speak Lord, for your servant is listening.’” Samuel’s spiritual training now takes a great leap forward as Eli introduces him to the Lord whom Samuel is to serve above all others. To this point, Samuel has thought he was serving Eli. A new, more powerful and demanding service is about to unfold in his life.
Obediently, Samuel returns to his place and lies down, but this time he does not sleep. Instead, he lays there with eyes wide open, waiting for the voice, in eager and fearful anticipation. The Lord does not disappoint. This time the Lord comes and stands in the holy sanctuary and clearly calls the boy’s name, “Samuel, Samuel.” Though he is just a boy, frightened and trembling in the presence of God, Samuel now knows the right response, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”
Had that response been there all his life, waiting for this moment to be uttered? Was it implanted in his soul from the moment his mother pledged his life to God? Or is it the response God is looking for from all of Her children, regardless of position or wealth or education or occupation or ability or circumstance - “Speak, for your servant is listening”? When God calls you, will you answer; will you be somewhere listening for your name?
For those who are tuned into the God who calls, there is the blessing of hearing your very own name called by the One who made you and loves you with infinite love, the One who invites you to share fully in the work of the redemption of all creation. “See,” God continues speaking to the boy, Samuel, “I am about to do something in Israel that will make both ears of anyone who hears it tingle.” What a promise! And to think, a 12-year-old boy is invited to be part of this new thing. God offers each of us promises and possibilities like this, if we have eyes to see and ears to tingle.
There is a sense in which we may recognize, honor and pray for two other significant calls on this particular Sunday. This is the weekend in which we celebrate the life and legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr., Baptist saint, martyr to the cause of nonviolent change in a racist and war weary world, American hero, and, like Samuel, a man of God. Martin heard God call and responded, “Speak for your servant is listening.” God said, “I am about to do something in the United States of America that will make both ears of anyone who hears it tingle. I want you to work with me to blaze a trail for full civil rights for all your people. I want you to prophesy against racial injustice. Let’s see if we can’t turn some things around.” Well, we know some ears tingled indeed and some ears burned and the struggle was on.
Still, after several substantial civil rights victories, God wasn’t done with Martin. He called again. This time he added to the responsibilities for the young preacher. “Listen, Martin, it isn’t just racism that bothers me; there is still materialism and militarism to be addressed along with racism. I need you to speak out against all these evils and call my people to accountability.” Martin took up the mantle and, with God’s help, he broadened his challenge to turn the world around and set it right. This morning’s Words of Preparation are an example of how he took on this expanded call. In the end, Martin’s responsiveness to God’s call and his faithfulness to God’s message cost him his life, much as had happened to the one whose disciple he was. But his legacy lives on.
On Tuesday, history will again be made in the USA when a small part of God’s and Martin’s dream is realized with the inauguration of the first president of African American heritage. As Barack Obama claims his calling, may we pray with the ancient writer, “Give the president your justice, O God, and your righteousness to this son of the American people. May he judge your people (himself included!) with righteousness, and your poor with justice” (Psalm 72:1-2, paraphrased.) We cannot yet know the outcome of President Obama’s calling, but we can let him know that what is needed in this time of enmity, war, famine, economic collapse and planetary danger is a leader who will be girded in righteousness and on fire for justice. And we can pledge to stand with him if he will respond like this.
You know I don’t believe the USA is the heir of ancient Israel as God’s chosen people, but I do hope and pray for leadership who may be listening for God’s call, who may respond, “Speak for your servant is listening,” and who may hear God say that “with your help, I am about to do something in the world that will make both ears of anyone who hears it tingle.” I am not suggesting that a strong commitment on the part of a new US president or his government to righteousness and justice will usher in the second coming or even change the world overnight, but I do believe that a commitment to righteousness and justice, yes God’s righteousness and justice, can set us on the way toward a different, better kind of world, one characterized ultimately by the reign of God.
God’s call goes out and it goes on, from generation to generation, from brother to brother, from teacher to disciple, from God to the whole creation. It is a call to faithful following, it is a call to a deeper relationship with God, it is a call to a new, more powerful and demanding service to God’s people and God’s world. “See,” God says, “I am about to do something that will make both ears of anyone who hears it tingle.” What a promise! And to think, that we, you and I, are invited to be part of this new thing. God calls us to new life, God offers each of us promises and possibilities, God empowers us to service - if we have eyes to see and ears to tingle.
“Speak, for your servant is listening.” Has that response been there all our lives, waiting for this moment to be uttered? Was it implanted in our souls from some moment when our parents pledged our lives to God? Or is it the response God is looking for from all of Her children, regardless of position or wealth or education or occupation or ability or circumstance or age - “Speak, for your servant is listening”? Is it a call that comes over and over again, even when we seem to have forgotten that still small voice and have lost our way? Where will you be found when the call comes? Will you be somewhere listening for your name? When you hear it, will you answer? How will you answer?
“Hush, hush somebody’s calling my name.” Are you listening for your call?