Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening
1 Samuel 3:1-10
Has God spoken to you lately? Come on, you can tell me. When people say that God has spoken to them, we tend to look at them sideways, or otherwise hesitate to have a discussion with them about such things. It's a very private matter.
God does speak to humans. Or at least he used to, right? Right. And our Old Testament lesson for today gives us a prime example. This lesson is a slice of the life of Samuel, the last judge and first great prophet in ancient Israel. Samuel was a small child when God first spoke to him, and yet he had the wisdom to check in with Eli, the older, wiser, servant of the Lord. Eli had the wisdom to know that Samuel was hearing the voice of God.
Upon first reading this text, we might wonder why a small boy was an understudy to a Jewish priest. Here is a thumbnail sketch of the story. Samuel’s mother Hannah had no children for the longest time. But she faithfully made the annual pilgrimage with her husband to sacrifice to the Lord at Shiloh. Once during this event she could stand her sorrow no longer. She wept and prayed right in front of Eli the priest, who thought she was drunk and told her to go away. She insisted that she was sober and told him she was just praying. Eli prayed that God would grant her request. Actually, Hannah had made a vow to God that if God would give her a son, she would dedicate him to God for life.
Well, He did and she did. When the child Samuel was old enough to toddle around, Hannah brought him to Eli. If you want to know where Mary the Mother of Jesus got her song that we call the Magnificat, turn to 1 Samuel chapter 2 and read Hannah’s prayer. It will look more than vaguely familiar to you.
As Samuel was growing up in Shiloh, Hannah and her husband Elkanah had other children. She still visited Shiloh once a year and brought Samuel a little coat. So, the only life the boy Samuel really knew and remembered was life in the presence of God in Shiloh. Samuel would learn through this experience to know when God was speaking to him. Samuel would learn to say, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.” Samuel would also learn that God would reveal to him things that he would be afraid to pass along. In the present story, Samuel had bad news for Eli and his sons, and he was scared to tell it.
This started Samuel off on a life journey of speaking for God as God’s prophet. We’ll meet Samuel again in other scripture readings, but today I would like to hold up his example of checking out the source of the Voice he was hearing.
Some time ago, when I told my priest that I wanted to explore becoming a priest, he told me two things. First, he said, “Don’t get ordained unless you can’t stand NOT to.” Second, he said they would send me out for psychiatric evaluation. This, he explained, was because when someone said God was calling them to be a priest, they had to be sure it was really God calling. It was routine procedure. Further confirmation of my calling would have to come from committees, Commissions on Ministry, and the Bishop. The church carefully, prayerfully decided whether God was calling or whether I was calling myself. This is what happens in our Church when individuals say they hear the voice of God.
Quite another thing happens on Sundays and other days of worship in Churches around the world. We all, collectively, hear the voice of God through the reading of Holy Scripture. In his wonderful book, And God Spoke, Christopher Bryan says this: “What then if God has chosen to address us through the Bible? . . . . We are saying that through scripture God invites us into God’s heart.” The church has long believed that through scriptures, God reveals Jesus Christ to us.
The Book of Hebrews tells us that long ago God spoke to us through prophets, but now God speaks to us through Jesus Christ. Jesus, the Living Word, had followers who had the good wisdom to write down his sayings. They wrote down his story. As we read scriptures we begin to identify with the characters in scripture. We begin to weave our own story into the collective story of all believers for all time. One day we might identify with Thomas the doubter or Judas the betrayer of Jesus, or Peter, who denied Jesus three times. Another day we might identify with Mary of Bethany, sitting at Jesus’ feet and learning to be a disciple.
We begin to weave our own story into the story of Jesus. We find ourselves walking in the way of the cross because deep down we have identified with Jesus as revealed in scripture. We have heard God’s voice somehow through those readings. The church reads the scriptures privately and publicly so that they become part of the fabric of our lives. We are marinated in Scripture.
As with most other important topics, we have a prayer about this:
“Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.”
God also speaks to us through the holy sacraments. In these holy mysteries, God proclaims God’s love for us and commands us to love ourselves and others.
If you think God is speaking to you, check it out with scripture. Does what you are hearing and thinking comport with the Gospels? Does it cause you to love your neighbor as yourself? Does it cause you to abide by your baptismal vows, respecting the dignity of every human being? If we think God is speaking to us, it becomes important for us to read the Gospels and meditate on them. We also need to remember that no scripture is of private interpretation. The church is corporate. We are all a part of the Body of Christ and we are all in this together. We read scripture and preach in community.
For your private devotional time, I commend to you daily Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer . Christians around the world are reading these same scriptures. You will not be alone in your reading and praying. If we follow the prescribed scriptures we will read parts of the Bible we might not have chosen. It amazes me how often the scriptures appointed for a particular day speak to the events and problems of that day. It amazes me that I can read a passage I thought I knew and find something I had never seen before. The scriptures really can come alive for us. As we read them and hear them read, I hope we will practice saying, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.” Amen.
Linda+
The Rev. Linda McCloud
Vicar, Holy Cross Church Episcopal
Billings, Montana
406-208-7314
http://www.holycrosschurchbillings.org/
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