Billy 4

"Are You Talking To Me?"
(1 Samuel 3:1-20)

[1] Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the LORD under Eli. The word of the LORD was rare in those days; visions were not widespread.

[2] At that time Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see, was lying down in his room; [3] the lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the LORD, where the ark of God was. [4] Then the LORD called, "Samuel! Samuel!"

and he said, "Here I am!" [5] and ran to Eli, and said, "Here I am, for you called me."

But he said, "I did not call; lie down again." So he went and lay down.

[6] The LORD called again, "Samuel!" Samuel got up and went to Eli, and said, "Here I am, for you called me."

But he said, "I did not call, my son; lie down again." [7] Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD, and the word of the LORD had not yet been revealed to him.

[8] The LORD called Samuel again, a third time. And he got up and went to Eli, and said, "Here I am, for you called me." Then Eli perceived that the LORD was calling the boy. [9] Therefore Eli said to Samuel, "Go, lie down; and if he calls you, you shall say, 'Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.'" So Samuel went and lay down in his place.

[10] Now the LORD came and stood there, calling as before, "Samuel! Samuel!"

And Samuel said, "Speak, for your servant is listening."

[11] Then the LORD said to Samuel, "See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make both ears of anyone who hears of it tingle. [12] On that day I will fulfill against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end. [13] For I have told him that I am about to punish his house forever, for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them. [14] Therefore I swear to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli's house shall not be expiated by sacrifice or offering forever."

[15] Samuel lay there until morning; then he opened the doors of the house of the LORD. Samuel was afraid to tell the vision to Eli. [16] But Eli called Samuel and said, "Samuel, my son."

He said, "Here I am."

[17] Eli said, "What was it that he told you? Do not hide it from oe. May God do so to you and more also, if you hide anything from oe of all that he told you." [18] So Samuel told him everything and hid nothing from him. Then he said, "It is the LORD; let him do what seems good to him."

[19] As Samuel grew up, the LORD was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground. [20] And all Israel from Dan to Beer-sheba knew that Samuel was a trustworthy prophet of the LORD. NRSV (c) 1989 NCC

INTRODUCTION:

This morning I thought about telling everybody to close their eyes before I asked a certain question so nobody would be too embarrassed. But I decided to let you keep them open. However, I'd like you to be brutally honest. How many of you have ever fallen asleep in Church? I have. Not while I was preaching but while someone else was preaching.

One of the funniest things I ever saw in Church was before I went into the Ministry. I was singing in the choir and could watch everybody. The guy next to me always fell asleep, though it usually took him longer than it did Sid. Sid sat on the outside left of the fourth pew from the back. And every Sunday, he was asleep before the preacher finished reading the Scripture. Sid was a fine Christian and a hard worker in the Church. I'm just not sure how he got that way because I don't think he ever heard a sermon. The preacher could read the shortest verse in the Bible, "And Jesus wept," and Sid would have been asleep before it was finished.

Sid also had a rather comical habit, while sleeping in Church. You see, when Sid would fall asleep, his head would fall back and his tongue would hang out. I was teaching Junior High Sunday School at the time and I don't know how many times I had talk to the kids about making fun of Sid. We didn't want to hurt his feelings. But it WAS funny.

This particular Sunday was the Sunday after a long, hard workday at Church and somebody had set the thermostat too high. It was too warm and the preacher was losing them left and right. It looked like a convention of "YES" people, as heads fell into their laps and then jerked up trying to stay awake.

Rev. Bob Core wasn't a pulpit pounder, but I guess all the nodding heads got to him. It might have been the snoring coming from the guy next to me too, I don't know. But all of a sudden Bob hit the pulpit with the flat of his hand. BOOM and said something to the effect: "And for all of you people who are sleeping!"

I honestly don't know what else was said. I started laughing as the guy next to me bounced his head off the wall two or three times and poor Sid nearly choked to death on his own tongue. I laughed so hard, Bob shot me a dirty look and shut me up. It was unusual, but he DID have everybody's attention for the rest of the service.

It's probably a good thing that God didn't try and get Samuel's attention in the same manner. It would have scared the poor boy half to death. Instead, God simply called his name.

I. CALLED BY NAME:

Last week we talked about how God has given us all new names through our baptism. Names like "Children of God," and "Friend of Jesus". Chief among those names is "Forgiven". We also found out that In Isaiah 49:16 God says, "See, I have your name written upon the my palm of my hand." God has named us and God calls us by name. God called Samuel by name, too. The Scripture tells us that at the time God called Samuel, "Samuel did not yet know the LORD, and the word of the LORD had not yet been revealed to him."

I think this passage points to God's prevenient grace. The grace that works in our lives before we know God. The grace that sets us apart from the animals and reminds us that we are created in the very image of God, the Creator of all that is. It is this grace that draws us back to God and allows us to hear God when God calls. Samuel didn't know God's voice because Samuel didn't know God yet. But through God's Prevenient Grace, Samuel was able to hear and listen to God's call.

And even more important, Samuel was enabled to answer God's call and become one the important figures in Jewish History. You see, it will be Samuel who brings proper respect and attitude back to the worship of his time. Eli's sons had made a mockery of their profession, using their position, not to minister to God's people but for their own personal pleasure and gain. Samuel will change all that. It will be Samuel who will be the last of Israel's judges. For it will be Samuel whom God chooses and uses to be a king maker. He will anoint Saul as the first King of Israel.

All of this simply by hearing, listening and answering God's call in his life. God called Samuel by name and through God's prevenient grace, Samuel was able to say: "Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening."

II. LISTENING TO GOD:

A. Remember the Robert Deniro movie, Taxi Driver? He played sort of a psychopath in that movie. I don't remember the connection to the plot but there's a famous scene where Deniro is looking in the mirror and practicing a line over and over: "Are you talking to me." That could have been Samuel's line.

But notice, that's not how he responded. After the third call, he didn't come back with, "All right, all right. I hear you!" And that's because the first two times, Samuel heard God's call but the third time, Samuel LISTENED to God's call.

Listening is more than hearing. We limit ourselves and God if we limit listening to just the physical act of hearing. We have members of this congregation who listen to God's Word every Sunday but they don't hear as you and I hear. They hear with their eyes as folks speak with their hands. But they listen. Listening is a set of the mind and heart. Not an act of the ears.

B. Sometimes we don't hear what God has to say to us because we don't listen.

This distinction between hearing and listening is spiritually important. Listening is at the heart of hearing. Hearing is exterior; but listening is interior. God's voice is heard without; but we listen to Go'ds voice from within.

We're all so used to noise, the noise of the television, music in the background, white noise or traffic noise. There's noise all around. Elevators announce the floor; greeting cards sing or play their message; the answering machine tells us who's calling. Because of the noise, some people can't stand the quiet. I know a woman who moved out of the country and back to the city because it was too quiet. She said she always felt too alone with herself in all that quiet. She needed more sound to distract her.

Two men were talking over coffee one day. One of them said: "I'm concerned about my wife. She talks to herself a lot these days." The other man said: "Mine does too, but she doesn't know it. She thinks I'm listening." That won't work will it. We have to learn to listen. To our spouses; and especially to God. (1)

Parents are fond of telling their children: "God gave you two ears and only one mouth, so that you would listen twice as much as you talk!" There is truth to that. It really is something we mustn't forget in our relationship with God. Like Samuel, we must take the time not only to hear God, but to listen to God.

III. GOD'S CALL:

A. What do you think God's voice sounds like? James Earl Jones? Clarence Oddbody, AS2? Your grandmother or grandfather? Cecil B. DeMille? Charleton Heston? Barbara Jordan? Martin Luther King Jr.? Jiminy Cricket? What do you think God's voice sounds like? Would you recognize God's voice, if God called your name like God did Samuel's.

It was a beautiful summer evening. We had loaded up and gone to the park. There were kids galore, parents, dogs, teenagers with jam boxes, voices, laughter, giggles, music, screams of delight, the squeak of playground equipment. The park was overflowing with a flood of fun filled noise.

I was cooking hamburgers and talking with friends, when all of a sudden, over all that noise, I heard a voice holler, "Daddy!"

Any one of the forty or fifty kids there could have hollered it, but I knew this one was mine. I knew that voice and I heard the pain in it. I dropped what I was doing and went to see what was wrong. Our oldest son Paul had fallen out of the swings and scraped his knees. Miraculously, above all the other noise, I heard that little voice holler, and I recognized it. I heard that familiar voice because it was one to which I was attuned. When we're tuned to God, we can listen with heart and soul and we're able to hear God's call.

B. And God DOES call. God has a place and a task for each of us, just like Samuel. We may not be tagged for the lofty position of judge and king maker. We may not even be the one, like Eli, who was called to train and mentor the king maker. But we HAVE been the ones called to help train and mentor our children in the faith. We are the ones who have been called to build and grow this Church. We are the ones who have been called to care for and love each other. We are the ones who have been called to help train and mentor the youth of this congregation by living a life of faithfulness and service. YOU may not be called into Ordained Ministry but we have one who has already declared her call and as a consequence we are called to train and mentor her in much the same way Eli did Samuel. You may not be called to Ordained Ministry but we are ALL called into the general ministry of service in God's Church.

CONCLUSION:

We are ALL called. And our response should be the same as Samuel's "Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening."

That's a dangerous thing to say to God. You never know what God will ask. Steve and Rick can attest to that? Maybe you can, too. "Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening."

You agree to take that first step but you never know where the next one will lead. I'm convinced God wanted me in Texas. You see, I wanted to go to Seminary at Duke or Candler. Duke had William Willimon and Candler had Fred Craddock both outstanding preaching professors. And I wanted to study with one of them.

Perkins had Albert Outler, the greatest Methodist historian that ever was, but he was no longer teaching. He preached a couple of times but that was it. I wound up going to Perkins because they offered better scholarships.

But Perkins and Dallas were just going to be a sojourn. I was going back to Missouri, where my family is and where all my ministerial friends and connections were. But every time I started making plans, God started shutting doors. I can only think of one struggle that was harder; and that was the struggle with my call to preach. The way I felt about it, I was going back to Missouri and there was nothing God could do about it.

Well, you see who won that argument, don't you. I had no idea of the adventure God had in store for us. Or the growth. Or the challenges. For whatever reason, God wanted us in Texas. It wasn't until I LISTENED to that part of God's call that my life and my ministry felt right.

Don't just hear the Word of God, listen to God. Listen to God's call in your life. What is it that God is calling you to? A deeper faith journey? A different level of commitment? An area of service? Don't fall asleep in church, either physically or spiritually. Listen to God's call in your life. And answer like Samuel: "Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening."

This is the Word of the Lord for this day. ____________________________________________________