TEXT: 1 Samuel 3:1-21; John 1:43-51

1 Samuel 3:1-21
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 me. May God do so to you and more also, if you hide anything from me 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.21 The LORD continued to appear at Shiloh, for the LORD revealed himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the LORD.

John 1:43-51
43 The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, "Follow me."44 Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.45 Philip found Nathanael and said to him, "We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth."46 Nathanael said to him, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Philip said to him, "Come and see."47 When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said of him, "Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!"48 Nathanael asked him, "Where did you get to know me?" Jesus answered, "I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you."49 Nathanael replied, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!"50 Jesus answered, "Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these."51 And he said to him, "Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man."

"TAKING UP/LETTING GO"

TEXT: : 1 Samuel 3:1-21; John 1:43-51

MESSAGE:

"The word of the Lord was rare in those days (1 Sam 3:1)" That's the context of our story from the First Testament for this morning. That's the context of our lives as well. Now, as then, there was a lot of preaching, there was a lot of religious activity, but religious commitment seems to be slipping out of people's consciousness. The story begins with the establishment, those who are mature and in power. There was old Eli, the head priest, who had spent his entire career handling the word of the Lord. He had dedicated his whole life to dealing with holy things and listening for God, and interpreting God to the people so that they too could listen to God in their daily living.

He had been listening and it had not been easy for the word of God was rare in those days-at least not as vivid as they would have liked for it to have been. And then, when one night it finally does come, while everyone else is asleep, it is not to old Eli but to that teenaged Samuel. God does not prod Eli awake. Eli who has been studying Theology all his life, who has been maintaining religious order, who has been praying and listening. No, God comes to Samuel who has not yet gotten his feet good and wet in the religious protocols of his day. Why?

Other passages of scripture inform us that Eli has attended far too many Sabbath dinners of fried chicken, mashed potatoes, biscuits and pie-not really. It just lets us know that he had become overweight and begun to lose his eyesight in a day before eyeglasses much less trifocals. Eli represents the establishment, the upholder of the faith, the prescribed belief system. As one writer states: "Complacent, fat, content with what it's got, settled down with whoever shows up on a Sabbath-established religion."

Now I ask, "With whom do you identify in this story?" Up until I began preparing for this message, I had that answer down pat. "Samuel!" However, I confess to you that this time around I found that I had made a rather frightful move. I have liked this story since I was in Beginner's Sunday School. Because I was a child, and this was about a child, just like me! Then I liked it because I came to know what it was like to be like Samuel, the one to whom the Lord speaks, calling, disrupting my life and the lives of those around me, changing my plans, giving me vocation. I was the agitator, the change agent, the gad fly, the young Turk, moving around on the perimeter of the establishment.

But at some point, I am afraid that I have become more like Eli. I don't know when, not at a specific age for sure, but at some point to some degree, I have kicking and screaming, denying all the way, become establishment. I have made my way to mid-town across deserted streets to this place, wondering if anyone was going to show up, not wanting to preach because the word of God was rare and not at all convinced that the word that I had to share was worth preaching. I attended meetings where no longer was I the young Turk challenging the rigidity which I took to be the morbidity of the establishment, but rather I felt as though I was under attack by the voices of a new generation.

I have been told that the word for Samuel in Hebrew means "a person who is from infancy to about forty." I've now passed the big "5" "0". Yikes, I am Eli. Unable to see, getting fat, the religious professional in danger of becoming complacent.

Our story recalls for us a power shift and those are never easy. Our own day evidences the turmoil which accompanies such shifts. Some things we have held dear are being brought down and some new things are being brought up. As we have experienced within our own denomination some old institutions have been transformed forever, some would say restored, others of us (including me) would say brought down. The denomination as some of us cherished it is no more. New structures, some of which I have been instrumental in forming, are taking shape, and even they are weak and under constant challenge to change or be passed over.

Is the word of the Lord going elsewhere? And if so, what is wrong with me, I ask. But a better question would be, "If so, how am I (are we) to help Samuel hear the voice and respond?"

First we need to tell them, to LISTEN. To get themselves in a place to hear.
We need to encourage them to SPEAK. To acknowledge God. "Lord"
We need to train them to HEAR. To open themselves to be "Servant"
We need to model for them OPENNESS. To be willing to "follow"

Those hearing the word of the Lord need the roots, the traditions of those of us who have gone this way before to provide the context of a faith community in which to grow, test and be strengthened.

And those of us who are now establishment, need the vitality and yes even what we may regard as the unruliness of younger Christians and younger churches. They serve to remind us of our own call, of our own pilgrimages, of our own styles, and at times of our own entrenchment in traditions at the expense of the gospel.

Even though the word of the Lord may be rare, God in Christ continues to call folk, young and old, to follow. Just as God had called Eli, Samuel, Esther and Deborah, (John the Baptist's father) and Mary, Peter and Phillip, God calls women and men to follow.

A contemporary Christian musician on the West Coast has recorded it this way:

FOLLOW ME
"Am I following Jesus, or just believing in Christ
'Cause I can believe and not change a thing
But following will change my whole life
Jesus never said, com, acknowledge my existence
Or believe in me I'm the 2nd person of the Trinity
But 87 time he said…..follow me.

I met this preacher from Australia
He read the Bible searching for its dominant themes
And he counted 87 times that Jesus said, "follow me"
Well you know, that got me thinking
Maybe that's the bottom line of what "Christian" means
'Cause "I follow Jesus" means more than "I believe"
'Cause it don't take much to mentally agree
With a set of beliefs written down in some creed
Now don't get me wrong,
We need to know what we believe
But lately I've been wondering…

Am I following Jesus, or just believing in Christ
'Cause we can believe, and not change a thing
But following will change our whole life
Jesus never said, "come, acknowledge my existence or believe in me,
I'm your first class ticket to eternity"
But 87 times he said, "follow me."

In 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered a sermon to his congregation at Ebenezer Baptist chruch in Atlanta following his birthday and two months prior to his assassination entitled Then My Living Will Not Be in Vain, in which he stated:
I'd like somebody to mention that day that Martin Luther King Jr. tried to give his life serving others. I'd like for somebody to say that day that Martin Luther King Jr. tried to love somebody. I want you to say that I tried to be right on the war question. I want you to be able to say that day that I did try to feed the hungry. I want you to say that day that I did try in my life to clothe those who were naked. I want you to say on that day that I did try tin my life to visit those who were in prison. And I want you to say that I tried to love and serve humanity.

And that is all I want to say. If I can help somebody as I pass along, if I can cheer somebody with a song, if I can show somebody he's traveling wrong, then my living will not be in vain.

If I can do my duty as a Christian ought. If I can bring salvation to a world once wrought. If I can spread the messages as the Master taught. Then my living will not be in vain."

But what of us? Martin Luther King Jr.'s contemporaries are now old men. Those of us who recall being a part of the student protests, the marches for racial equality in society, the agitators for the church to be change agents for peace and justice, are now over fifty. We who challenged the establishment to hear a word from God, to follow the radical spirituality of Jesus are now the establishment. Is this call to young Samuel a depressing story? Maybe it depends on where you are in your journey when you hear it. Or perhaps, by the on-going Grace of God, despite our age, in a time like then when the word of God is rare, and maybe that has always been our time, we can celebrate that, by the love and power of God, God still speaks. God still calls. Jesus still comes to those who are little and to the lowly and lifts them, lifts us?, so that God's dream for us all might be fulfilled in our age, as in ages past, and for ages to come.

If I say, "Speak Lord, for your servant is listening," and then follow the Christ who calls us to join in his good news, turn the world right side up, kingdom transforming, salvation offering family of faith, "If I can do my duty as a Christian ought. If I can bring salvation to a world once wrought. If I can spread the messages as the Master taught. Then my living will not be in vain."