Tuesday, January 30, 2018

Horton Hears the Holy

1 Samuel 3:1-11
2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

   The other day, I was talking with Sherry—and I’m not sure how it came up—but I was talking with her about the vision God has given me for this church.  She said, “You need to tell people this.” 
   And I said, “I do, it shows up in every sermon and I talk about it all the time.” 
   She said, “No, you need to tell them you’re telling them.” 
   Of course, she’s right so I’m telling you.  As we set our course into this New Year, a year we turn one hundred and twenty years old as a church, I intend for us to see together the new thing God is doing among us.  I want to be clear: it can’t just be my ideas; it is God’s Spirit that brings the vision.  It isn’t just a thing I’m doing, it’s our thing to do and discern together. 
   And to begin this year of growth and discovery, we’re going to start with a somewhat underappreciated role in the church: the role of prophecy.  I see the church set in this world to be a prophetic voice to it; an underappreciated role but so desperately needed by those around us.  A role in this world so vital that we’re about three sermons into an entire sermon series about prophecy.  And again, one might suggest that I maybe should have told you about this series a couple of sermons ago. 
   But here’s the cool thing, a thing that makes an important point about prophecy: I did not realize I was preaching a sermon series on prophecy until this week.  After Christmas, I had my Scripture texts picked through to the start of Lent; I had clever titles written; I even drafted the central point I thought each lesson was saying to us; but I didn’t notice, until this week, that they were all about prophecy.  I didn’t notice until this week that I had started talking about prophecy two weeks ago.  God did that.  To those who have eyes to see it, the Voice of God spoke this into being in a surprising and unexpected way; as the Voice of God will often do.  It turns out that, sometimes, I’m slow to tell you what God is doing because surprises me to; and I think that’s just wonderful. 
   I have an all-in-one printer at my house.  It is a fax machine, it is a scanner, and most importantly, it’s a printer.  Only it doesn’t print.  I’ve tried everything I know: I’ve run diagnostics and self-cleaning programs, I’ve changed the ink cartridges, I’ve even turned it off and back on again (which usually works for most things) and it still won’t print.  It thinks it’s printing, but it’s not.  The one thing it’s reliably supposed to do, it is unable to do.  It is not called an all-in-one fax machine, not an all-in-one scanner; it is called an all-in-one-printer.  It seems that sometimes, when you try to get a thing to do too many things, it stops being good at the very thing it was made to do.  This might have been where Eli broke down too. 
   The historical context of our story today is between when Joshua led the people into the Promised Land and before the leadership of the kings of Israel.  This was that in-between time when the people were led by, what the Bible describes as, “judges.”  Scripture calls them judges, but really they were the all-in-one leaders of the people of God.  Sure they settled legal disputes between people, but they did so much more than that: they led the people in military campaigns; they corrected the people when they disobeyed God; and they served as priests, the religious intermediaries between the people and God.  So the Bible calls them judges, but by the way they are described, they could just as easily have been called “ruler,” “general,” or “prophet.”  Interestingly, in 1 Samuel, Eli is also called a “priest,” but we don’t get the sense that he is any good at it.
   In those days, it seems that the role of judge was a role that was passed along their children.  Unfortunately, Eli’s children were worse at it than he was.  That is partly what God showed up to say: that Eli and his children were out and that God was going to do something new.  God’s new thing is always good news, but not always for everyone.  God’s new thing decidedly did not involve Eli or his sons: if you keep reading in 1 Samuel, you’ll see how it does not end well for Eli and his family.  Now, I wouldn’t go so far as to say Eli had it coming, but I can see where God was coming from on this.  Eli was in the way of what God was doing and God needed someone else to take his place.  Eli had stopped listening for the Voice of God, if he had ever even listened; heck, it seems that Eli didn’t even read the Bible.  I’m not going to say that Eli had it coming, but he had no business leading the people of God; certainly not as judge, ruler, general, prophet, and priest. 
   A giant clue to this comes in verse three: it is past bedtime so Eli was sleeping in his room, but notice where Samuel was.  “Samuel was lying down in the temple of the LORD, where the ark of God was.”  This is not a bedroom!  Moses was very clear about this.  This was the “Holy of Holies.”  Those who entered were expected to be properly-prepared and only on appropriate days.  You don’t just throw down a cot and let children sleep there.  This was thought to be the dwelling place of God Almighty.  Does Eli not expect God to show up?  Does Eli not expect God to speak?  Does Eli even expect that God is at work in a room down the hall?  Not at all.  What kind of leader is that?  God can do better.
   Have you ever heard of the “Rule of Three”?  It’s a literary term that suggests when things come in threes they tend to be more satisfying somehow.  Like the one about a Catholic priest, a Presbyterian minister, and a rabbi compete to see who’s best at his job.  They’re challenge is to go into the woods, find a bear, and attempt to convert it.  Later, they all get together. The priest begins: “When I found the bear, I read to him from the catechism and sprinkled him with holy water. Next week is his first Communion.”
   The pastor goes next: “I found a bear by the stream, and preached God’s holy Word. The bear was so mesmerized that he let me baptize him.”
   They both look down at the rabbi, who is lying on a gurney in a body cast. The Rabi says, “Looking back, maybe I should not have started with circumcision.”
   See, better in threes.  It is thought that, not only does the rule of threes make jokes better, they help us learn our lessons better too.  We see in Scripture God employing this technique from time to time as well; our story today is a good example.  Three times, God calls out to Samuel and three times, Samuel thinks that Eli calling.  Good set up, but this is no joke.  Samuel should have known this was the Voice of God because Eli should have taught him this sooner.  As I mentioned earlier, our lesson begins by pointing out that, “The word of the LORD was rare in those days; visions were not widespread.”  It begs the question: why?  Was God hiding?  Is there ever a time that God gets distracted and can’t tend to Creation?  Is there ever a time that God stops loving us; a time that God stops wanting to be in a relationship with us?  So where was God’s voice?  Where was the vision that only comes from God?  I suspect it was a problem in all-in-one leadership.  Samuel didn’t know to listen for the Voice of God because Eli never told him. 
   Thankfully, our church is not run by an all-in-one kind of leadership.  I’m going to tell you to listen for the Voice of God anyway, but I know it’s not just up to me.  I am going to tell you (as I am telling you now) to listen for the Voice of God as you seek it in Scripture.  I am going to tell you (as I am telling you now) to listen for the Voice of God as you turn to God in prayer for the future of our church, for one another, and for the world around us.  I tell you this because this is how we join in God’s new thing.  We begin by having ears that are eager to listen. 
   God called Samuel a third time and Eli finally gets it: he perceived finally that the voice of the Lord was back.  Finally, he told Samuel something that he probably should have been telling him all along; something maybe Eli should have told himself: listen.  Say to the Voice, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”  Something tells me that, when the Voice of the Lord is rare, that one prayer will make it surprisingly less rare. 
       Friends, God is not hiding from us; in fact, I think God is doing something new among us.  As we should always do, let us listen.  Let us listen to God’s Word, let us listen as we pray, let us listen for God’s Spirit speaking through one another.  Let us pray that God would speak, that we God’s servants might listen.  And let us look for God’s new thing, a thing that God will do through us that will make both ears of anyone who hears of it tingle.

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