Our text from I Samuel opens with this curious statement: "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." It is a bit refreshing to know that the people in Biblical times struggled with hearing and seeing God's presence. Especially since we are used to thinking of those times as when God spoke frequently and clearly to God's people. How many times have you wondered about the seeming silence of God in this time? Wondered where the rainbows, and burning bushes, and lightning bolts went…where are the whales that swallow reluctant prophets…in short where are the clear signs from God that we long for? It would be much simpler if God would be a bit more direct in letting us know what we are supposed to be doing. Could it be perhaps that we're not listening? But that's a story for a different day.
I Samuel is the first of four books that tell the story of Israel's monarchy. Up until the time of this book, the people of Israel had been governed by judges. When particular needs arose, God called out a person from the tribe to lead the people. For a time that worked, but as history unfolded the judges more often that not were corrupt. Israel is frustrated with the leadership God sends them, and calls for a drastic change. The people have fallen from following the Law, and strayed from God. In the midst of this they wonder whether the covenant God made with them is still valid. The story of Samuel is the word of God that god intends to intervene and change their present course. Through the boy Samuel this time is ushered in. Samuel will be the one to anoint Israel's first king, Saul. As Samuel is called we glimpse how sad the times are-Samuel is serving in the house of Eli, a priest. Eli's sons are corrupt and abuse their powers as priests. Samuel is faithful, having been dedicated to the life of a priest by his mother.
The call of Samuel announces that God is about to do something decidedly different. It also says that people will listen. The verse following our text this morning is an unusual expression: "Then the Lord said to Samuel, 'See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make both ears of anyone who hears it tingle." A Hebrew term that announces the divine word will be heard and understood. (Anna Grant Henderson)
We jump from that call to the gospel calling of disciples. We enter in the midst of Jesus calling the first followers. Andrew and Peter have become Jesus' disciples the previous day. Now there is Philip who goes off and finds Nathanael. (Nathanael is only mentioned in John's gospel and is probably named Bartholomew in the others.) Nathanael is skeptical and utters a proverb of his time: "Can anything good come of Nazareth?" After spending a few hours stuck in a traffic jam in that city, I can understand the sentiment! What follows then is a sarcastic exchange between Jesus and Nathanael, but one, nonetheless that leads to Nathanael becoming a disciple.
What strikes me in these two readings is the hearing and nurturing of God's call upon our lives. We may feel like we live in Samuel's time, when the word of the Lord is rare…or we may wonder with Nathanael: "Can anything good come from this time and place?" Yet I can not think that God is any less present and available to us today than God was in those days. The Psalm for this morning is Psalm 139 that speaks against the idea of God being absent. It is a reminder that God goes with us to the heights and the depths; and is present to us always. What I do think we are being reminded of in these two stories is that we need to be more open to hearing God, and to nurturing God's call. There is a story about a Zen Master who was washing his clothes in a river. He was approached by a man who would be his student. At the question, "Teach me the true meaning of life," the Zen Master grabbed the wanna-be student, plunged him under the water, and held him there thrashing for air for several long moments, he released him, helped him up, and said, "When you want the answer to that question as badly as you wanted air a moment ago, you can be my student." We are called to hunger and nurture God's voice in our lives and in the lives of others in much the same way-as much as we hunger for the air to breather and the food and water we need for living.
And we are called to be faithful as we hear and nurture God's call. That struggle for faithfulness is a life-long endeavor. I found myself struggling with that a bit these past few days, and with how easy it is to slip from what you know to be true. A few days ago, with great excitement, there was a news announcement that Al-Queda's number 2 man, Ayman al-Zawahri, had been killed in a bombing raid in Pakistan. For a few minutes, I felt a mix of relief and a bit of "justice is served"-it is worth the cost. A far cry from my belief that returning violence is never the way to ultimately resolve issues. It took a while before I realized the impact of those initial feelings. Then I looked at the pictures on our refrigerator-of the children whose lives were forever changed because of a bombing raid done in the name of justice. In the end, it just doesn't work. In a 1967 speech, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said: "the past is prophetic in that it asserts loudly that wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows."
In hearing and nurturing God's call upon our lives, it is fitting that we remember King's faithful response. When asked why he was doing the work he did, he responded: "Because I heard the word of God telling me to, and I could do no less." His response stands in the line of the calls we hear in scripture this morning. Examples for us as we seek the courage to listen for the word of the Lord in our own lives. Most of the time I suspect we hear ok, we just don't want to listen all that well. We're like our children, they hear what we say, it just takes a lot of repeating before they listen. One of King's concerns was the failure of the church to listen and respond. In his Letter from a Birmingham Jail when the church questioned his arrest, asking how he could disgrace the church he wrote this:
"There was a time when the church was very powerful. It was during that period when the early Christians rejoiced when they were deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was thermostat that transformed the mores of society. Whenever the early Christians entered a town the power structure got disturbed and immediately sought to convict them for being 'disturbers of the peace' and 'outside agitators.' But they went on with the conviction that they were 'a colony of heaven,' and had to obey God rather than man. They were small in number, but big in commitment. They were too God-intoxicated to be astronomically intimidated. They brought an end to such ancient evils as infanticide and gladiatorial contest."(Birmingham Jail)
Today we stand in the tradition of those who dared to listen for the call of God in their lives. Each of us is called, for God still speaks, even today. God's word yearns to find a place to rest in our lives, and to spur us to action, so that we might be the church described by King. It starts with you and with me…living lives open to the word of God, and living lives so that we not only hear but respond. May it be said of us as it was said of Samuel: "And all Israel from Dan to Beer-sheba knew that Samuel was a trustworthy prophet of the Lord."