Trinity Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

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Sermons

January 2003 (click here to return to "January 2003 Sermons" page)

2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time (January 19, 2003)

“A Voice in the Darkness” Dr. Julie Adkins

Text: 1 Samuel 3:1-20

SERMON

Samuel’s story is an interesting one,

and one that many of us probably

aren’t very familiar with,

He’s kind of one of the second-tier heroes of the Bible:

he gets a lot of print

and he is around for a good long time,

but he’s not up in the top twenty along with folks like

David, Abraham, Noah, Moses, etc.

So let’s remind ourselves about Samuel this morning,

because there’s a lot in his life that continues to speak to us,

especially on a day when we ourselves are

ordaining, installing, and recognizing church leaders.

Samuel’s story is instructive for us on several levels.

Remember that Samuel’s story really begins with his mother, Hannah.

Hannah is married to Elkanah, who also has a second wife.

He loves Hannah more,

but Hannah has no children;

whereas the other wife apparently has no trouble producing babies.

So you know that’s a family full of tension!

Anyway, one year when they have gone up to make their sacrifices,

Hannah goes into the temple at Shiloh

and promises that if God will only give her a son,

she will give him back to God.

Eli sees her from afar,

and chastises her for being drunk – he thinks –

and besides, women weren’t supposed to be in the temple anyway.

But once he finds our why she’s really there,

well, then he says,

“[may] the God of Israel grant the petition you have made to him.”

So nine months later, sure enough,

along comes Samuel …

and as soon as the little boy is weaned,

his mother brings him back to the temple

to be raised and trained by Eli, the priest.

So, that’s why, at the beginning of our story today,

we find Samuel working alongside of

and living in the same house with Eli.

Thus, when Samuel first hears a voice calling to him in the middle of the night,

he assumes it’s Eli,

who’s growing old, and blind, and needs help.

Probably wouldn’t have been the first time

Eli had called out to him in the darkness.

The text tells us that “the word of the Lord was rare in those days,”

so even though Samuel was in the temple,

he probably wouldn’t have expected the voice to be God’s.

But there it comes a second time, and then a third:

“Samuel! Samuel!”

And Eli, who remembers how God works,

finally realizes what must be happening,

and so he tells Samuel to tell the voice,

“Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.”

So far, that’s a pretty neat story.

We could and would argue in our own time

that parents shouldn’t make that kind of promise

that’s binding on their children …

but even so,

we seem to be preparing for a

“they all lived happily ever after.”

Except that God – God, mind you! – throws a monkey wrench into the works.

Because what is the message that God gives to Samuel?

“Get ready,” says God.

“I’m about to do something that will make people’s ears tingle

when they hear about it.

Eli’s house – that is, his family –

is about to be punished forever,

because Eli’s sons – who are also priests, by the way –

have blasphemed God,

and Eli has not restrained them.

Their iniquity shall not be expiated forever –

that is, they shall never be forgiven.”

Boom!

Imagine that you’re a ten-year-old child,

and you get a message like that that you are supposed to deliver

to your favorite Sunday school teacher.

How much would you want to do that?!

This episode is indicative of

what Samuel’s life is going to be like.

He gets to anoint Saul as king over Israel,

but then, not too many years after that,

the Lord says,

Saul hasn’t been behaving like a king of mine should.

Go anoint one of Jesse’s sons to be king –

of course, that turns out to be David –

and then tell Saul that he has lost my favor and my support.

Doesn’t that sound like a charming way

to get yourself executed?!

Samuel spent much of his life

doing God’s dirty work:

passing along messages people weren’t going to want to hear,

confronting those in power about their misuse of that power,

telling people that they were being unfaithful to

the God who created and called them.

O joy.

There must have been days when Samuel profoundly wished

that he had slept soundly through that voice in the darkness.

Well, for those of you getting ready to take office

on the session or the board of deacons …

some of you know this already and merely have to be reminded;

some of you are new to your task and have yet to find it out …

but I can promise you, there will be days when you profoundly wish

you had slept through that contact

from a member of the nominating committee.

Sometimes it will be the routine things that get you down,

like the priests of old in the temple,

repetitively offering sacrifices on behalf of the people,

there are things that have to be done over and over again,

and they are important, but no one much takes great delight in doing them!

Even that, though, often seems preferable to

the more prophetic aspects of your role.

Way too often, I hear things like this:

“Well, we have to find out what the people want and then do that,

because we were elected to represent them.”

No, you weren’t.

When we ordain and install, a few minutes from now,

in that liturgy you will promise to serve the people;

they will promise to follow where you guide;

but nowhere will you hear the verb “represent.”

Like Samuel,

your job is not to tell people what they want to hear,

but what God wants them to hear.

The voice of God did not call you to do what the people want,

but to do what God wants for them.

You are not set above others in the congregation,

but you are set apart.

You have been called to work which

on some days will bring you great joy,

and on some days will bore you silly,

and on some days will cause you pain.

You’re in good company, with Samuel,

and other priests and prophets and elders of the people,

whom God has called at various times and in various places

to use their gifts for the upbuilding of God’s people.

You have an advantage that Samuel didn’t,

which is that you don’t have to do it alone.

Presbyterians have boards of people who govern and lead and serve,

so that you can support each other when things are difficult,

and share the tasks when they are boring,

and test out the messages you believe that you are called to speak.

Something else that Samuel’s story reminds us about,

which is also important to keep in mind.

Samuel was asleep when God’s call came.

He wasn’t looking for it,

he apparently didn’t even know such a thing was possible;

remember, “the word of the Lord was rare in those days.”

He didn’t volunteer.

I suppose you could say his mother volunteered him,

but even so,

the initiative came from God.

Compare this to the gospel story of this morning,

where Jesus simply goes to Galilee, finds Philip,

and says, “Follow me.”

Not, Philip found Jesus, but Jesus found Philip.

Then Philip finds Nathanael, who,

despite his skepticism, also responds to the call when it comes.

So, we can perhaps make ourselves available for God’s call,

but we can’t manufacture it or make it happen.

Thus, one of the vows that gets made today

is that the congregation affirms you are chosen

by God through the voice of this congregation.

In other words, it wasn’t you who chose to be an elder or deacon.

It wasn’t really even the nominating committee that selected you.

It was God,

using the nominating committee as an instrument,

and then using the congregation as an instrument to elect you.

What Samuel came to realize as he lived our his call was that,

even though his messages sometimes caused chaos,

and even though they sometimes caused pain to people he cared about,

he could no more remain silent

than he could flap his wings and fly.

Because his call came from God …

not from any king, not from Eli,

not even from his mother Hannah..

Incidentally, some of the people I know

who are the most miserable in the ministry

are those who did it not because of a call from God,

but because their mother pushed them into it.

The call has to come from God,

or we’ll never last in the work.

Conversely, in those times when we become careless about our call …

and we all do it at one time or another;

welcome to the human race …

perhaps we should be reminded now

that’s it’s not so much the congregation that we’re letting down

as it is God.

It was God’s voice that called us … and continues to call us …

it is God’s Spirit that claimed us in our baptism

and comes to claim us in new and different ways in our ordination.

Being in the church of Jesus Christ –

and especially being a leader in the church of Jesus Christ –

is not about whether we have “found God” –

it’s about whether, and in what ways,

God has found us.

Finally, and briefly,

the fact of the voice coming in the darkness

suggests to me that

it’s never clear to us at the outset

exactly what we’re saying yes to.

We simply say “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening,”

and then we respond to whatever it is we hear.

Unlike “Mission Impossible”

most of the time,

we don’t get to know what our mission is before we choose to accept it!

We have to say our “yes” on faith, in the darkness,

and then trust that God will shed what light we can bear.

Samuel had plenty of flaws,

just as we all have plenty of flaws;

and Samuel occasionally let God down,

just as we will occasionally let God down.

But he was God’s instrument,

and so are we.

May we respond in faith to that voice calling in the darkness,

and journey together toward ever more light.

Amen.