January 16, 2000 1 Samuel 3:1-10
Sermon by Rev. Dr. John K. Luoma
Sometimes there are nights when
I can't sleep. Does that ever happen to you? I go to sleep for
three or four hours and then I wake up. Usually the cause is anxiety.
I'm worried about something that has happened or something that
might happen. It is like there are a number of voices in my head
and each voice whispers something that causes worry.
And I believe that is the way it was for little Samuel as he slept before the ark of the Lord at Israel's place of worship at Shiloh. Samuel was anxious. There was so much to worry about. And as you read the first chapters of Samuel, those things come quickly to mind. First, there were his relationship to his mother and father. The moment he was weaned they gave him away to be a servant in the house of the Lord. They visited him just once a year. Did he feel abandoned? Did he feel like an orphan? Was he resentful? Another source of worry must have been the family into which he was placed. His mom and dad must have believed that they were putting him in a context that was holy but, in fact, it was corrupt. Eli's sons, who assisted him as priests, are holy terrors. In fact, you wonder if that phrase wasn't coined to describe them. Read the story in 1 Samuel 2. They are called "scoundrels". They take for themselves the best of the sacrifices and give the leftovers to the Lord. And then it goes on to say that they were sexually abusing the women who served at the temple. Great role models for a young boy! And Samuel's third source of anxiety is that he has no one to nurture him. Eli, the high priest at Shiloh, should have mentored him, but he failed at the job just as he failed with his own sons. Eli knew how to know the Lord, but he didn't teach it to Samuel and his own kids.
Does that sound like enough causes for anxiety in the life of a young person? Surely, Samuel must have had a lot of troubling voices whispering in his ears as he slept.
So, here's the picture: this anxious young boy and this elderly priest Eli. The boy has lived almost his entire life in a house of worship, and yet he doesn't know the Lord. The elderly priest knows how to know the Lord, but he neglects to teach it to the children. But I don't think Eli is totally to blame. Why did the people put up with such a situation? They are complicit in the process. What is it in us that makes us cling so desperately to the status quo even if the status quo is corrupt and even if it is making us miserable?
Well, we may be willing to put up with the status quo, but God is not. God is kind and patient, but there is a limit even to his patience. These priests and these people were placed at Shiloh to serve him. They were not placed there for there own personal comfort. The word of God finally comes because there is a young person willing to listen and an adult who is willing to do his duty. In the darkness of the night, in the midst of all the voices that must have been troubling him, Samuel hears another voice. And the voice just speaks one word. It simply calls his name. He thinks it is the old priest Eli. The story doesn't say why Samuel draws this conclusion. But as one grows older, getting up at night becomes a common activity. Since Eli's eyesight was not good and it was dark, he probably needed help.
But Eli assures him that he didn't call him and he tells him to return to bed. But after the boy hears the voice two more times, Eli tells the boy precisely what to do. This one who knows how to know the Lord but does not teach it finally shares the knowledge. He tells Samuel to lie down. He says to him, "If he calls you, you shall say, 'speak, Lord, for your servant is listening'." And when Samuel does this the Lord does speak, and there is a word and a vision that changes everything.
And this isn't just Eli's story or Samuel's story or the story of the people at Shiloh is it? It is our story. Young people today are looking for a purpose. In fact, that is an essential part of the definition of adolescence-they are people looking for a purpose. And there are so many voices telling them what their purpose should be. And so many of these voices are demonic and disturbing and want to lure them to destruction. Evil is an aggressive force, and it desires to corrupt our children just as it corrupted the children of Eli.
How can we prevent this from happening? It is prevented when there are adults who are willing to teach children how to know the Lord. Adults are people who are interested in nurturing the young. That's an essential part of what it means to be an adult. Adults are people who are interested in generativity, i.e. they are people who are interested in nurturing young people and sharing with them the good things that they have received. Adults don't spend their time asking, "How can I increase my own personal comfort?" Adults spend their time asking: "How can I nurture the young in such a way that they will know the Lord?" Eli had failed in this regard. But as irresponsible as he had been, he still knew how to know the Lord and he taught it to Samuel. His lesson is short and to the point, but we need to take it to heart. It may be the most important lesson that we will ever learn.
First, Eli says to Samuel, "Go. Lie down." Which is to say, "Quiet yourself." In his wonderful book, Adventure Inward, Morton Kelsey talks about how to create a spiritual journal. In that book he says that the first thing he learned about spiritual discernment or learning how to know the Lord is that we must quiet ourselves. We need to find a quiet place. We need to calm ourselves down. We need to separate ourselves from all distractions.
Second, Eli tells Samuel that if he hears the voice again, he is to say, "Speak, Lord , for your servant hears." Which is to say, "Lord, I am listening." Again, Morton Kelsey shares that one of the biggest breakthroughs in his spiritual life occurred when he shared with his spiritual counselor that he was anxious and he was waking up every night after three or four hours of sleep. His counselor suggested that maybe God was trying to speak to him. He says that seemed foolish to him. But the next time it happened, he took pen and paper and said, "God, here I am. What did you have in mind?" That was the beginning of a lifelong dialog that has resulted in the many sermons, articles and books that he has written. Of course, we need to remember that this is a man immersed in the word of God and his listening takes place in relation to this word.
Third, Eli tells Samuel to respond to the voice. Which is to say , God wants a dialog with us. Leonard Sweet comments that if God was only interested in companionship, he would have stopped his work of creating with dogs. Dogs are great companions. But God is looking for relationship as well as companionship. And relationship requires dialog. That's why God hesitated after each time he called Samuel. He was waiting for his response.
If we want to know the Lord, this discernment process that Eli taught Samuel needs to become the process of our lives. Every Sunday we practice it on a corporate level. We quiet ourselves. We listen to the word. We respond, i.e. we enter into a dialog. And this process we follow on a corporate level is also the process we need to follow in our individual lives. Daily we need to quiet ourselves, listen to the word of God, and respond. It is incredibly simple, but only as we do this, do we develop a vision of what God wants us to do in life. As adults it is our purpose to teach this process to the young who are so desperately looking for purpose. If we don't do that job, God is not going to be mocked. There will be a word of judgment for us and that word of judgment may well come from the very young people that we neglect. That's the scary part of this story.
Having said that, I also want to say that I feel privileged to be part of a congregation that cares for its young. It is good to be among adults who want to teach their children how to know the Lord. There are many congregations and many adults that neglect that responsibility. It is also good to be part of a congregation that is intent on discerning God's will for its corporate life. The fact that we have created one long-range plan and have completed it is testimony to that. The fact that last week we began that process again is additional proof. And I think the most wonderful part of the planning process that we have begun is that it is a spiritual process. We are asking our congregation to quiet itself before God, to listen to God's word, and to enter into a dialog. We are asking that of you as individuals, and we are going to invite you to several events in this next year that will allow you to do that process together as God's people. And all of this is pretty scary because you never know what God is going to ask you to do. And yet it is also glorious because it is the only way we find life.
Copyright 2000 by Rev. Dr. John K. Luoma