Sermons for the Month
Coming to know God is not always easy.
DATE: January 19, 2003
SERVICE: Second Sunday After The Epiphany
TEXT: 1 Samuel 3:1-10“To all of you Saints here this morning, grace and peace to you from God our Father, from His Son, Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit. AMEN One of you sent me this e-mail tidbit this week. It seems that three pastor met and were talking over conditions at their churches. The first pastor said, "You know, since summer started, I've been having trouble with mice in my church. I've tried everything - noise, spray, cats - nothing seems to scare them away. The second pastor said, "Yeah, my church too. There are hundreds living in the basement of the church. I've set out traps and even called an expert to get rid of them, but nothing has worked so far." The third pastor said, "I had the same problem, so I baptized all mind and made them members of the church. I haven't seen one since. Now, obviously, that's not true of everyone; you are here today, after all. But, it is one of the dilemmas of the church. Those of you who heard Pastor Crouch from Open M speak last Sunday will recall that with baptism comes responsibility; it falls on the parents, if the one being baptized is a child, or on the baptized person if he or she is a teenager or adult. And that responsibility is, in part, to recognize God's presence and to respond to God's call. In other words, to know God. We'll get back to that idea in a moment, but first let's review today's first lesson. In it we meet Samuel, the son of Hannah, who gave birth to him late in life after years of earnest prayer. She believed that Samuel's birth was an indication of God's special favor. So, when he was a young child, Samuel was offered into the service of the Lord in thanks to God. That's why Samuel, who was a young boy at the time of today's story, came to live with and serve as a kind of apprentice to a priest named Eli. Samuel lived and slept right there in what was called the Tent of Meeting, which served as a center of worship before a permanent temple was built. So, he grew up there under the influence of the old priest. Today's lesson tells us that the Lord called Samuel early one morning. It's a rather humorous story. Young Samuel heard his named called - "Samuel, Samuel." Thinking that Eli had called, the boy obediently ran to him saying, "Here I am." But Eli declared that he had not called, and told him to go back to bed again. Once again Samuel heard himself being called and once again he ran to Eli, but Eli had not called. Samuel and Eli probably were both annoyed at this point, since they had been startled out of sleep, and each one blamed the other for the disturbance. And yet a third time it happened. This time it dawned on old Eli what was happening. He perceived that the Lord was calling young Samuel, so he instructed the boy how to respond. This time the scripture makes reference to more than just a voice. It says, "Now the Lord came and stood there, calling as before." This time Samuel answers, "Speak, for your servant is listening." And, do you know what happened? God speaks. We did not continue reading beyond Samuel's response, but as the chapter continues God reveals some surprising things about his future. Thus, Samuel was called to be a prophet. Many years later, Samuel is directed by God to anoint Saul as Israel's first king. I like that story, there is, though, one verse in it that we tend to overlook. Did you note verse 7? It indicated that Samuel did not yet "know the Lord". Samuel did not know the Lord? How can that be? He was raised in the midst of religious ritual. He assisted the priest, who served as his mentor. It anyone would know the Lord, it would be Samuel, wouldn't it? It's hard to understand why the text says that Samuel did not yet "know the Lord." That's why I looked up the Hebrew word for know, which is "yada". (Keep in mind that the Old Testament was written in Hebrew.) I learned that knowledge of God, for the Hebrews, had nothing to do with thought, it had to do with experience. Samuel, no doubt, had thought a lot about God. His head was filled with knowledge of the divine; he understood the religious practices of his faith. Yet, he did not know God because he had not done two things. He had not recognized God's presence with him, and he had not responded. But when those two things occurred, there was no end to the ways that God would use him. Hmm…let's think about that for a moment. When Samuel recognized God's presence and responded to God's call there was no end to the ways that God could use him. The same is true for us; which certainly bodes well for the continuing ministry of Jesus Christ. For children, parents/sponsors and the church take responsibility for teaching and guiding in such a way that the young ones recognize God's presence in their lives and respond to God' call. But that does not end at confirmation, or when people become adult members of the congregation, it's a life-long process of coming to know God, of recognizing God's presence and responding to God's call. That's why developing spirit-filled worship that encourages people to attend and participate is so important. That's why the church must focus on the areas of spiritual growth and development - through small groups, through assessing spiritual gifts and encouraging their use - so that people of all ages are better able to experience God and live out their faith. This is going to be a major focus of discussion here at Faith in 2003 as we strive to garner the necessary funding to support a full-time staff person whose focus will be on there very things. And, I believe the witness of scripture, that as we strive to know the Lord, there is no end to the ways God can work through us to bring the light of Christ to the world. But, making that happen requires commitment, vision and those two nasty words that I talked about last fall - risk and change. In other words, coming to know God is not always easy. If you read on in I Samuel you will find that Samuel's first mission, given to him by God, was not an easy one. He had to tell the priest Eli, his own mentor, that because his sons disobeyed God, and he did not hinder them, his household would be punished - forever. Now, I would guess that most of us would have said, "no thank you", to such a call. But, Samuel did what God asked of him, and a very interesting comment follows. It says in verse 19, "As Samuel grew up, the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground." And, we are told, that people knew he was a trustworthy prophet of the Lord. That's the dream of every preacher! From this vantage point it's not too difficult to imagine words coming out of the mouth, bouncing off people's heads, off the walls, off the ceiling, and then falling useless to the floor to be swept up by the Sexton. But that didn't happen to Samuel because he recognized God's presence and responded to God's call. So it is that our goal is to be like Samuel, to turn our intellectual, perhaps distant relationships with God into intimacy. In other words, our goal is to know the Lord, to recognize his presence right here and right now, and then to listen for the call and respond. And then, get ready for all that we do to make a difference in our lives and in the world. There will be no bouncing of words here, however, the mice may be present in abundance.
AMEN