Service on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/100064617886792/videos/822035123702527 and YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTcjSW7nI8o
PROLOGUE The Word of the Lord was rare in those days and there were not many visions. One might read the opening lines of this morning’s passage and be tempted to think that God had stopped talking to his people. But God had not stopped talking; God’s people had stopped listening.
Centuries had passed since God delivered the Israelites from Egypt with a mighty hand and outstretched arm. Centuries since they became his covenant people at Mount Sinai. Centuries since wandering in the wilderness. During those days, the Word of the LORD was not rare at all. In those days, God spoke to his people daily, and they listened (for the most part).
You have to understand, this was long before the time when Israel understood that their God was everywhere and could be spoken to in any place. In those days, to speak to God, you had to go to special places where he promised to be present. In the wilderness, this place was called the Tabernacle. The Tabernacle was a tent-temple that housed the Ark of the Covenant, God’s throne on earth. The Israelites called the Tabernacle ‘the tent of meeting’ because the Israelites knew that was where God was faithful to meet with them and speak with them. So whenever the Israelites set up camp in a new place, they put the Tabernacle in the center of the camp, so God’s presence could be at the center of everything they did together.
In the days of Joshua, once the Israelites had conquered the land, they put up the Tabernacle one last time in Shiloh, and worshipped God there. Then each of the tribes were assigned their land, and they left to go settle it. From that time on, the Tabernacle and the Ark out of sight and out of mind— no longer the center of daily life. Over the centuries, a permanent house was built over the Tabernacle and it was run by a small family of priests. It was a place people came once a year to offer sacrifices and pray. In those days, it was one shrine site among many. How could God speak to a people who showed up once a year, made their sacrifices, said their prayers, and left? No wonder the Word of the Lord was rare in those days. No wonder there were not many visions.
Yes, you might ask, but what of the priests? What of those whose life calling it was to spend time in prayer listening to God on behalf of the people? The opening chapters of 1 Samuel tell us exactly how far the priesthood had fallen by the end of the period of the judges.
The High priest, Eli had two sons, named Hophni & Phineas who were the high priests in waiting. They were scoundrels who had no regard for the LORD (the Bible’s words, not mine)! They took much more than their share of the people’s sacrifices, often by force, making themselves fat and rich in the process. They also seduced the young women who ministered in the temple. If God had anything to say to Hophni and Phineas, they weren’t listening.
As for Eli, himself, he was kind-hearted but he was also weak and ineffectual. He knew everything his sons were doing and was unable to stop it. Eli was old and his sight was dimming. But not just his physical sight. He was slow to see when God is at work. Once, Eli saw a woman in the temple who was praying so fervently that she was weeping and muttering to herself. Eli didn’t assume that she was a distressed soul pouring her heart out to God; he thought she was drunk! The high priest of Israel, the man who was supposed to speak and hear God for the people, didn’t know what true prayer looked like when he saw it right in front of him. Yes, the Word of the Lord was rare in those days. Sure, there were not many visions. But it was not because God had stopped speaking. No. His people had stopped listening.
Then one night, just before dawn, as the lights were beginning to go out in the Tabernacle, a young boy was sleeping next to the Ark of God. It was the boy, Samuel. He was sleeping deeply and peacefully— blissfully unaware that he was about to be startled awake… and all of Israel with him.
But Samuel didn’t know God’s voice. I think of Samuel as like maybe 11. Everything he knew about being at the Tabernacle everything he knew about God came through Eli. And no one had taught Samuel to even expect to hear God’s voice. It had become so rare. It wasn’t even an option in Samuel’s mind. So it makes a kind of sense that when Samuel heard God it sounded like Eli’s voice and Samuel cried out here I am as he ran to to Eli’s bed, like a child who had a bad dream.
You may or may not have noticed, but most of the texts that we have looked at over the last few weeks involve someone saying here I am. We had it when Esau came before his father, Isaac and when Jacob pretending to be Esau stood before Isaac Isaac said here I am my son. We saw it as Moses noticed the shrub on fire, And God says some version of it in last week’s text. When God says look I am is very similar.
This is the Hebrew word hineni: it means more than just here. I am like you’re raising your hand at attendance, but it is saying you’re all in or fully committed. It’s saying yes before the question was even asked.
Eli is Samuel’s mentor and guide everything for Samuel. The answer was always going to be yes. But he doesn’t know who he’s talking to.
I think sometimes we can be envious of the times in the Bible when it seems that the word of the Lord was abundant and that the visions were frequent. I imagine some of it is because we want the certainty that we imagine comes from The voice of the Lord. Though I think that is just optimistic. I want clear knowledge and direction. We want to know where to go and what to do.
But I wonder do we even know if we hear the voice of God or visions or prophecies? Are we open to hearing God’s voice? Do we have anyone to tell us what God’s voice must sound like? Have you ever really been taught? What to say or how to hear God?
Because I think we want to hear God. And sometimes the world is so loud, so busy, so anxiety producing, so full, so angry it’s hard to focus on anything.
Sometimes we might pray: Here I am, God… I will do what you say… You just have to say it… You have to tell me… I’ll do it as soon as you tell me I’ll go where you tell me to go… You just have to tell me are you going to tell me?… I promise I’ll do it…
THE HOLY HORN According to an new legend, when the shepherds watched their flock by night, and the heavenly hosts appeared and announced the birth of the Messiah, they did so shouting into holy ram’s horns which amplified their voices. One of the shepherds, after the wonderful events of that night, came back to the pasture the next morning and found one of the horns lying on the ground. Knowing that the horn was holy and special, the shepherd kept it, and passed it down from generation to generation. And it now resides in the Monastery of the Shepherds just outside of Bethlehem, a place just made up. (Not Bethlehem, the Monastery). It is said that this holy horn can amplify even the softest voice in prayer so that it can be heard across seven heavens.
The story goes, young pilgrim who showed up at this monastery hoping to make use of the holy horn. The pilgrim had grown frustrated by his prayer life. It seemed he prayed and prayed and not much happened. He felt unheard and that his prayers were ineffective, leaving him wondering if God cared about him or anything he had to say.
So he made the trip to the monastery and explained his trouble and the Abbot smiled and gave him use of the horn. “This holy horn can amplify even the softest voice in prayer so that it can be heard across seven heavens. Take it up on top of the hill behind the monastery in the morning and it will surely aid you in your prayers!”
So the pilgrim got up early in the morning and climbed to the top of the hill behind the monastery. Then he lifted the holy horn of Bethlehem to his mouth and began to speak his prayer. His words blasted forth with such force that the entire hill shook, the clouds parted, and the heavens opened to receive them!
It was amazing. But truth be told: once the novelty wore off, his prayers felt no different. God still felt cold and distant to him. His prayers still felt ineffective and unheard, just louder. So after a week of praying with the holy horn, the pilgrim returned it to the Abbot.
“Did it not work for you?” The Abbot asked, sensing his disappointment.
“It works just fine. It just doesn’t seem to do me any good. I guess God really is ignoring me.”
The Abbot asked him to describe his experience. So the pilgrim told him how he went to the top of the hill every morning and held the horn up to his mouth and how the heavens opened to receive his prayers but it didn’t make much difference.
The Abbot laughed. He laughed and laughed. His belly was shaking and there were tears in his eyes, he was laughing so hard.
“Why are you laughing?” The pilgrim asked.
“Oh you fool!” said the Abbot, “God can hear YOU just fine! You’re supposed to hold the horn up to your ear!”
~ My own parable https://open.substack.com/pub/sermontelling/p/is-anybody-listening?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=49c7v
When Eli finally wakes up enough and understands enough and helps Samuel discern that it is God’s voice, Eli gives Samuel the words to say, ” speak, your servant is listening.” That’s it. No prayer, no song. Just listen.
In the United Church of Christ we say and we believe that God is still speaking. Yes it was a marketing campaign but it is so much more
It expresses the reality that God is much more mysterious and far-reaching than we can understand. While the Bible continues to serve as the primary source of revelation for Christians, God is still being revealed to us in this world, in a culture the ancient world could not have imagined.
If God is still speaking, we need to find a way to listen deeply, to “listen with the ears of our heart,” as Saint Benedict of Nursia has said.
Teresa Blythe
At the 33rd General Synod of the United Church of Christ in 2021, the Synod adopted the Resolution: BECOMING A CHURCH OF CONTEMPLATIVES IN ACTION calling the church, local churches: to become churches of “contemplatives in action,” remembering the essential disciplines modeled by Jesus of silent prayer, meditation, and practices to commune with the Divine Mother-Father, and letting contemplative depth inspire our forming and sustaining of life-giving, spiritually-generative community and our church’s action in the world through works of charity, social justice, peacemaking, earth-stewardship, and making disciples on the path of God’s unconditional, agape love;
Within the “Whereas” they wrote: “Contemplation without action fuels narcissism, and action without contemplation is a recipe for bitterness and spiritual depletion.”
Contemplation, reflection, discernment, listening to God is vital for who we are as followers of Christ who went away in prayer, in quiet listened, and did as God called.
But do we stop and listen? Do we let God do what God will do and say what God will say and are we open to the new things that might be brought forth?
And it’s not always easy. It wasn’t easy for Samuel to tell Eli what God had said, and it couldn’t have been easy for Eli to hear it. But there was Eli, with wisdom to teach and there was Samuel with the openness to hear the new thing.
Are we listening to what God is calling each of us, and us as a community, into? What God might be calling us to do, to be, to give, to serve, to lead, to grow?
As we hear God calling throughout the stories of the Bible, from burning bushes to lakesides, we see God is calling people from their experiences, with opportunities to learn and grow, with a calling for the good of the community. The Words of God and the Visions of God are for all the people of God. Moses was called to grow, learn, and advocate for the liberation of his people; Jeremiah was called to bring a word of hope to people in exile; the disciples were called to bring good news, heal the sick, feed the hungry–even when we talked this summer of Julian of Norwich’s visions, she wrote them down so that they might be a blessing and comfort to all people, and they continue to be so.
We find God in those places in our life where we experience:
Deep love
Longing
Transcendence
Insight
Life
Presence
Gratitude
Patience
Kindness
Joy
Peace
The list could go on, but you get the idea. When we pay attention to the attributes of God, we develop “eyes to see and ears to hear” where God’s Spirit is moving in the world.
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/spiritualdirection101/2024/11/finding-god-in-everything/
But how? And how do we know what is a spiritual experience, an encounter with God, and not just in my mind… How do we know what God is trying to say? And I can’t say there is a specific answer, there isn’t, that’s not how this works. But we’re given guides and words to discern what we think, we feel, we discern, we discuss, we imagine.
- God’s desire is planted in our hearts. Deuteronomy 30. This chapter not only explains the covenant between God and Israel, but it offers some guidelines for righteous living. Choose life over death. The word is in your heart to observe. I (God) am with you through it all.
- Pay attention to the little voice. Isaiah 30:21. When you turn to the right or when you turn to the left, your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”
- The nature of Wisdom. Wisdom of Solomon (Apocryphal book) 7:22-8-1. The Wisdom of God is described in this listing of virtues (Wisdom, in biblical wisdom literature, is personified as a woman). Some of the virtues useful for discernment: holy, clear, humane, steadfast, free from anxiety, penetrating through all spirits.
- Matthew 5–7. The Sermon on the Mount (or Luke’s Sermon on the Plain) includes excellent benchmarks for discernment. Is my choice merciful? From a pure heart? Just? Does it contribute to peace?
- Fruit of the Spirit. Galatians 5:22. You can test your choices by this list. Even though it is not an exhaustive list, it gives us a pretty good picture of what God is like. Jesus frequently spoke of knowing what is holy by the “fruit produced.” Love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.
- Think on these things. Philippians 4: 8-9. Another list to help you make choices and test “spirits.” Whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, pleasing, commendable, any excellence, anything worthy of praise — keep your mind on these things.
- Wisdom from above. James 3:17-18. God’s wisdom is pure, peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace.
Teresa Blythe
We can say Here I am. We can pray without ceasing, but prayer, like a good conversation, allows for all to listen and all to speak. Because, is the Word of the Lord rare and there are not many visions, or are we filling every silence, every moment. Are we explaining away the presence of God? Are we missing the Word that is for each of us, and for all of us?
And look! God has to give us a new word because God is doing a new thing in each generation. Not to eliminate the past, but to raise up those who are going to hear the Words of God now, and next. So we listen, and we help each other listen, and we help each other discern and understand.