1 Samuel 3:1-20
Psalm 139:1-5, 12-17
John1:43-51
The lesson we heard today from the Hebrew Scriptures is usually referred to as “The Call of Samuel.” It’s a wonderful story that almost preaches itself.
Just to review: The young boy Samuel and his mentor Eli are working in the Temple. It is their job to ensure that the rituals and worship of the Lord in the Temple are maintained. It’s night. Both have gone to bed. Samuel hears someone call his name and he runs to Eli, but Eli says it wasn’t him. Samuel definitely heard someone call his name. They both go back to bed. The same thing happens two more times before Eli begins to wonder at what might be going on. Following Eli’s advice, the next time Samuel hears his name he recognizes that it is God who is calling, and he stops to listen.
There are a number of points to note in this story.
First, even people in the professional religion business did not immediately recognize God’s voice. They heard it, but thought it was someone else. And that’s something to highlight. They heard God’s voice… they clearly heard it, but thought it was someone else.
We should also note that God persisted. God called again and again and again and again, until Samuel recognized him and stopped to listen.
And, finally, God called Samuel by name. God did not post a general notice on Craig’s list: Prophet Wanted. God called Samuel name. God wanted to talk to Samuel, about Samuel’s vocation.
In Samuel’s case, the vocation God called him to was not an easy one. Samuel was called to a lifelong vocation as a prophet, and his first task was to condemn the iniquity of his mentor Eli.
The adult Christian Education class this week asks the question: What is the purpose of your life? In the class, the context is a study of God as creator. God doesn’t create casually or capriciously. God creates for a purpose. What purpose were you, as an individual, created for?
The general answer is to fulfill God’s call for you. Your personal call.
God knows us individually. We are baptized by name. We do not baptize Christian number 4 trillion thirty seven. You are sealed and marked as Christ’s own forever, by name. The psalm appointed for today speaks of how God knows us. Lord you have searched me out and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up. Lord, you know me. This psalm is a source of great strength and comfort to many people. In times of need or longing, it is nice to know that God knows and cares for us individually, that God responds to our personal, individual needs.
The Gospel also highlights how God knows us. Jesus knew Nathanael, even though they had not yet met in the flesh.
God knows us individually. This is a comfort when we think of God responding to our individual needs. But it also means that God calls each of us to our own individual vocations.
God called Samuel by name.
And God calls us individually by name. Sometimes to grand life vocations. Samuel’s call was to a lifelong vocation of prophetic witness. Here in the U.S., we remember the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. this weekend. He, too, was called to an all-consuming life of prophetic witness on behalf of civil rights. Jesus called the disciples call to leave behind everything else to fulfill their calls to discipleship.
God’s calls are often not easy to follow—witness Samuel and Dr. King. Scripture is full of stories of people who answered reluctantly when God called them by name, feeling unwilling or unable to respond to God’s call.
But when God calls us by name, it is not always to a grand and challenging life vocation. Sometimes God calls us to smaller tasks of everyday life or life within the church. Think about the stories in the Gospels. On several occasions a particular individual was called to host a dinner or offer hospitality. There’s the young lad who shared his lunch. Just one day, one lunch, a loaf and a few fish. Someone was called to offer his colt when Jesus needed it to ride into Jerusalem. We are called, as individuals, to everyday tasks like these, too.
We hear this particular Old Testament story and this Gospel story during Epiphany because Samuel and Nathanael had epiphanies. Within the context of these stories, they recognized that it was God who was speaking to them. The voice Samuel heard in the night calling him by name was God’s voice. The person Nathanael saw across the way was Jesus, Son of the living God. Voices, people that were there, a part of their lives. Samuel and Nathanael came to recognize God’s presence, God’s voice with them.
Similar Epiphanies await us all.
God knows you personally and calls you by name. You have a roll to fulfill, a call to respond to as part of God’s action in the world. Maybe it’s a grand vocation or maybe it’s an occasional task in the midst of daily life.
Remember Samuel’s story. God will call you by name… persistently until you stop to listen. God may call while you’re trying to sleep, or while you’re just standing under a fig tree, or while you’re at soccer practice with your kids, or this Sunday at coffee hour. Sometimes God speaks directly; sometimes through other people.
So consider…. Everytime you hear your name… Every time you are directly spoken to… Consider the possibility that God is speaking to you. Consider that this might be an epiphany moment for you. A time for you to recognize that it is God’s voice, God’s presence, with you in your life. It’s not always easy to tell at first—remember Samuel and Eli—but God will persist until you have your epiphany.
And when that epiphany comes and you say with awe: Oh, my God. Oh, my God. It is you. When you have that epiphany of recognition, remember Samuel and follow his example. Stop whatever else you’re doing and say: Speak to me, Lord, for your servant is listening.
