Scripture Readings:
Your word O Lord is a lamp to our feet,
A light to our path.
1 Samuel 3:1-20
This is the Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
Reflection:
Samuel was one of Israel’s greatest prophets sitting alongside the likes of Moses and Elijah. Today we hear about God’s calling of Samuel the child, a story that most of you probably know well. It is one of my most loved narratives in the bible; reminding me of how God makes Godself known, calling each of us into his divine plans for our lives and our world.
We often don’t even notice or hear God’s voice, do we? We are busy, preoccupied with our own thoughts, emotions, worries. We spend time planning where we are going or what we need to do. We expect God to speak to us when we are praying, when we are open and keen to hear the voice of God. Maybe, we haven’t heard the voice of God in a while, like the priest Eli. We are told that Eli was losing his vision – not just his sight but also his prophetic ability. Eli’s connection to God had gone cold mostly because his sons had been running amok, desecrating God’s house and Eli had done nothing to stop this.
Samuel is a small child that was given into service with Eli by his mother Hannah, in thanks to God for having given her the child she so desperately wanted. Samuel lives at the temple and Eli is his teacher and proxy parent.
One night while sleeping, God’s voice is heard again at Shiloh, not by the older, more experienced priest Eli, but by Samuel. The old religious order is revoked, instead God works through the new, the young, the small. As is often the way, God chooses to engage with the world by raising up the small and vulnerable, overturning the old and established power structures. New life, vitality, encouraging new ways, young voices – are these ways that God speaks of to us, to our church? Are we open to hear God’s voice? How do we respond?
In our reading, Samuel was called to announce that God was going to clean up God’s house, a prophecy of doom for the priestly house of Eli. Not a message you would want to be given, especially for young Samuel. Not something you would want to know about or to have to tell someone else. We don’t always like or want to do some of the things, God asks of us.
Truth telling or doing what we know is right or just, can involve standing up to powers and people – that we may fear, are obligated to, or maybe it involves someone we care about or are accountable to, as it was for Samuel. Following God’s call is often not easy.
God’s call to Samuel was persistent. At even such a tender age, God knew Samuel, God had plans for Samuel well before he was even born. God called him by his name and Samuel heard God’s voice. We are all called by God into the service of God, through baptism. We belong to God and each of us is intimately known.
But do we hear God? Some of you might say ‘yes’ but I imagine many of you like me, well we never actually hear God’s voice, we aren’t woken at night by a voice calling out to us by name.
Yet, I can tell you that I am certain of times in my life where God has called me into action, or to make a change, take a new step. And like Samuel, there have been occasions where I haven’t wanted to go along with God’ request, for a lot of reasons – primarily though fear, because I felt inadequate.
Have you ever experienced this? Maybe you feel drawn to do something for the church or for a cause or just for someone in need, and you think, no I can’t do this, I don’t have any skills, why would God ask me, it is too hard, I’m not good enough and so on. Have you ever turned to God in prayer seeking answers, a sign? Are you sure God? Is it really me you’re calling?
Or maybe you find like I did, when I looked into the Placement here at Healesville, that things just happen along, as if they were meant to. What you don’t expect, just seems to happen when God is involved.
We may not be destined to be great prophets like Samuel, but God continues to reveal Godself in our lives. God continues to call ordinary people to be part of God’s divine purposes in the world. We are all called by nature of our baptism to serve God through discipleship and mission; this is role of the Church and the way we live out our faith.
As we hear so powerfully in Psalm 139, God also knows each of us intimately, he knows when we sit down and when we rise up; God discerns our thoughts from far away, and God already knows the lives we are to lead.
He knows our lives before we were made. This amazing mystery is that God loves us and wants to connect with us. God speaks to our hearts, we have only to be open to listen and to trust in God’s voice calling us. God is with us always so let us be like the small child Samuel and say ‘speak for your servant is listening’. Amen.