Second Sunday in Ordinary Time
January 18, 2009
I Samuel 3:1-20

　Word in Season

There is more than one way to listen to a Biblical story. If we were about to enact a baptism or ordain new leaders in the church, we might hear today’s Old Testament reading as the archetypal "call story." If so, the narrative would run like this: Samuel was just a child, but God had a word to speak to him, and a job for him to do. The same is true for each of us. God knows and calls us by name.

As we say in my trade, "That will preach." Indeed, I seem to remember more than one sermon along those lines, preached from this very text. If I were to preach such a sermon, it would probably end like this: What was true for Samuel is true for you and me. We are to listen for God’s call, saying "Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening."

We could then sing "Here I am, Lord," take up the offering, and go out the door, having, in good Preschool fashion, "put on our listening ears."

If we were to do that, we we’d be faithful to the text, but that’s not what we’re going to do today. There is another way to hear this text – not as comfortable, perhaps, but just as faithful. We must begin by paying attention to the setting of this story.

Things are not going very well for the people of Israel. Their system of government – if you can all it a system – isn’t working. Every now and then a charismatic leader called a "judge" arises to get them out of a crisis, but it’s not long before they’re back in the soup. You could say that the nation is suffering a "leadership vacuum."

"What we need is a king, just like our neighbors," some are saying. "If we had ourselves a king, we’d be a lot better off."

Few at this moment in Israel’s history anticipate what monarchy will bring. With kings will come palaces, armies, and, of course, taxes. It will be a lot harder to hear the word of the Lord with kings holding press conferences, issuing edicts, and making state-of-the-union speeches. A king could make matters worse for God’s people.

But a king in the bush sounds pretty good compared to the leaders Israel has in hand.

The old priest Eli is a prime example. Eli has made a terrible mess of things. His two sons Hophni and Phinehas use their status as priests to exploit and bully. They gorge themselves on all the best cuts of meat being offered as sacrifices to the Lord. They send their servant with a three-pronged fork to thrust into the sacred pot and fish out the tastiest morsels. They force themselves on the vulnerable women who, like Samuel’s mother, come to worship at the tent of meeting.

Nothing is sacred to the sons of Eli. They use their public office for personal gain. They ignore all ethical cannons. They behave as though they are above the law, and when challenged, they refuse either to reform or to resign.

That’s the setting of today’s story. The people ache for new leadership. The current administration is corrupt and ineffective. The whole system is falling apart, and God doesn’t seem to be doing anything about it.

Israel’s predicament is summed up neatly in one sentence, "The word of the Lord was rare in those days; visions were not widespread."

It is in this context that we that we encounter this wonderful story about the young Samuel and his call to become God’s prophet. Twice he hears a voice calling his name. Twice he goes to old blind Eli and says, "Here I am. You called me." At last the penny drops for the old man. It occurs to him that it just might be the Lord who is calling his young protégé.

"Go lie down," he tells the boy, "and if he calls you again, you shall say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’"

If we were to stop at this point, we would have a lovely story perfect for a child’s illustrated Bible. My Aunt Mae gave me such a Bible for my fifth birthday. In fact, I vividly remember the illustration in that Bible of this very scene. Samuel is in his nightshirt, tugging at Eli’s sleeve as he lies in bed. I used to study that picture as I lay in my own bed. Unable to read the caption, I thought Samuel was asking Eli for a drink of water.

Would that the story were so idyllic. In fact, the message that Samuel receives from the Lord is so painful that he is reluctant to deliver it to his beloved mentor. " . . . I am about to punish Eli’s house forever . . . because his sons (are) blaspheming God."

To his great credit, the old man insists that Samuel deliver God’s word. One gets the feeling that Eli knows what is coming, but he insists that Samuel fulfill his call.

Samuel delivers his message: Eli is finished, and so are those two scoundrels he has raised. It is too late to redeem them now. The old order is fading. A new order is on the way. In time, Samuel himself will anoint Israel’s first king.

Now, I have refrained, as you may have noticed, from drawing analogies between the situation facing ancient Israel and the current situation as our newly elected President assumes office.

You must make your own judgments about ineptitude in high places, about short-sighted leaders, about those who use their office for personal gain, and about those who are so stuck in established patterns that they cannot see the profound harm their policies have wrought.

We all must make those judgments for ourselves.

Whatever judgments we make, will, of course, apply equally to us. We will be measured by the same standards we apply. That’s how Biblical judgment works. "For with the judgment you make you will be judged," warned Jesus, "and the measure you give will be the measure you will get" (Matt. 7:2).

Before we judge we should also note that, although his call was dramatic and memorable, Samuel, too, had feet of clay. His own sons were scoundrels, no less than Eli’s. Samuel became a kingmaker only after having failed as a father.

We must, therefore, be very careful when applying this text to our current situation. Eli is not George Bush and Samuel is not Barak Obama. Still, I think this story has a word for us today.

First, this story reminds us that the prophet’s calling is to speak the truth, even at the risk of personal alienation. If the Church of Jesus Christ is to speak the truth to power, it risks hurting feelings and losing friends – even old and dear friends.

Growing up in the Civil Rights era, I watched members of my father’s church walk out of worship when he spoke from the pulpit in support of racial integration. People he had known for years never spoke to him again. Prophets from Samuel to Martin Luther King, Jr. have learned the truth about God’s truth: it will set you free and it break your heart.

Second, this story is a summons to accountability. Eli was a failed leader – a disaster. He knew it, and so did everybody else. He could have gone to his grave clinging to the illusion that he had been faithful to his own calling, but he didn’t. Instead he insisted that Samuel deliver the whole word of God, including God’s judgment upon Eli. By opening himself to judgment, Eli proved faithful after all.

Third, this story suggests that God has a word to speak to failed leaders, to fledgling followers, and even to those who have lost hope. The failure of one generation does not diminish God’s faithfulness to all generations. Our failures do not make God less than God.

"The word of the Lord was rare in those days; visions were not wide spread," says the text. Perhaps the problem was not that God had stopped speaking. Perhaps the problem was that the people had stopped listening.

These days, a lot of people are listening to, and pinning their hopes upon, the President-elect. You and I need to be careful about that. Our hope does not rest on a man from Chicago, but on a man from Nazareth.

Nevertheless, I hope you will join me in praying for Mr. Obama – and for all those in authority – that they will hear and follow the voice of the God who judges and who saves, the God whose word is life, the God whose love never ends.

That God still has a word to speak. Pray his servant is listening.

 

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