My sermon today...

It's been a while since I've written out a sermon in it's entirety, but I had fun with this one. The punctuation is all wrong I'm sure as I wrote this as I preached it in my head. The main text for the sermon was 1 Samuel 3. Melissa said that I really broke out the preacher voice on this one...

This morning we have before us a text from 1 Samuel; the fascinating story of God’s call on the life of a young man, no more than a boy really, who heard the voice of God. Who was Samuel, and why did God speak to him? What does his story have to offer us as Christians today? How did his story resonate with the people of his day, who lived at a time when the Hebrew people were still a series of loosely connected tribes with no central government, no Jerusalem, no temple. The center of gravity for the Hebrew people remained the Ark of the Covenant and the priests tasked with protecting it and leading God’s chosen people in worship. Unfortunately, the Hebrew people, who, as possessors of the Promised Land, should have known better, too often turned their backs on Yahweh; the one true God and turned toward the worship of the false idols and gods of the people whom they had conquered and now living among. In the years preceding the story in this passage, a series of Judges, male and female, had called upon the Hebrew people to repent, and for a time, they would and God once again smiled favorably upon his people.

But, as people are wont to do, the Hebrews soon slipped back into the pattern of their old ways and soon forgot the God who had led them out of bondage in Egypt. So, we arrive at today’s story, where God’s voice is rare; where he is most noted, not for his presence, but for his absence. We enter a world where the priests have become fat, where Eli and his sons have grown rich from the offerings presented by the people to God. Like too many religious leaders before them, and like too many who would follow after them, even those in our own day, the Hebrew priests had abused their position; had exalted in the power and glory of their position, instead of offering all praise to God. Now the people are once again forgetting God; his voice but a distant memory; those who had seen his power at work in Egypt and in the desert wanderings and in the entrance into the promised land; those who had returned to God and repented when confronted by God’s messengers, by his judges; they are all dead now, joining their forefathers and mothers in the grave and a new generation slips in to darkness.

In that darkness one light remained. The lamp of the God had not yet gone out as Samuel settled in for a night’s rest next to the Ark of the Covenant while the aged priest Eli slumbered in another room. Suddenly a voice called out, “Samuel, Samuel!” “Here I am,” Samuel cried out as he dutifully got up and ran to see what Eli needed. But it was not Eli who called him, so once again Samuel returned to his slumber. Two more times the voice called out, “Samuel, Samuel,” and two more times Samuel went to see what his master needed. You see, Samuel did not recognize God’s voice; the Bible tells us that the “word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him.” But that third time, when Samuel entered Eli’s room; Eli, the old priest, the one who was blind, the one whose family had become corrupt; who had grown fat and complacent off of the offerings of the faithful; Eli, this frail old man in whom yet the light of God still burned deep; he knew whose voice Samuel heard. “Go back and lie down,” the old man said, “and when you hear that voice again, you let him know that you are his servant and that you are ready to listen.” And so Samuel did and the voice spoke again, and wide awake now, and perhaps trembling in fear before him, Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”

And so God speaks, but his message is a hard one; one that will “make the ears of everyone who hears it tingle;” it is one of judgment, of death for Eli and his sons, who because of sin, have “made themselves contemptible,” who’s guilt “will never be atoned for by sacrifice or offering.” Wow, what a message to give a young boy! Can you imagine what he must have thought when Eli asked him the following morning, “what was it he said to you?” And yet, Samuel was faithful to his message, and, this is key, I don’t want us to miss this, Eli was faithful in his response. When confronted with his own sin, when reminded of the punishment that was due him, Eli responded, “He is the Lord; let him do what is good in his eyes.” May it be so! May it be so! On that day, God spoke to a little boy a message that would bring the Hebrew people to their knees, a sobering reminder that not even the high priest and his sons were exempt from the judgment of God. As it says in Romans, “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”

So where is God today you ask? Where is his voice? Does God still speak? What is his message for us? It is the same message that he gave to Samuel; and it is a message that we desperately need to hear today. For, if we are to be honest with ourselves, we must acknowledge that we are sinful men and women, in desperate need of a Savior. As we look to the cross and see a broken and battered man hanging on it, we need to recognize our sinful state. When confronted with our sin, we need to be like Eli and contritely respond, “may it be so, Lord, do what is good in your eyes!” It is only then, when we have admitted the reality of our own brokenness—it is only then, when we have turned our faces toward God and asked for his forgiveness—it is only then, as people renewed and made whole, filled with the presence of the Holy Spirit that we can become a light for a darkened world and speak out against the sinful nature of our country, our culture, our world. And we do so not as ones who cower in fear of God’s judgment, of his impending wrath, for we know that Jesus did not remain on the cross as an ordinary man, but that three days later he arose from the grave, God himself providing victory over death, and defeat to all that is evil in this world. That is the message that we must loudly proclaim until it shakes the very foundation of the earth!

In two days millions of people around the world will tune in to hear the vision of our new president. Many of them are eager to hear what he has to say to us during this time of war and economic depression. They, like we want answers and a way out of troubled times. And yet we who are Christians know that no politician, no man, no woman, can lead us in to the Promised Land; that though our retirement accounts may be smaller, our coin purses and wallets thinner, our salvation remains secure and our hope for the future unshaken. As servicemen and women we may be called to enter once again into the fray as we fight for freedom and justice in the Middle East, or are called to maintain peace elsewhere in this troubled world, but we know that ultimately it is only in God’s Kingdom where we will find peace and rest for troubled souls.

And so our nation celebrates the election of a black president, as we pat ourselves on the back for being such an enlightened culture for electing a minority as our leader, we can stand up and say, “what about the thousands of young black men and women who are growing up in broken homes, who do not know their father?” As our politicians debate which bailout plan will best restart our economy and end the vicious cycle of home foreclosures and job losses, we can stand up and say, “it is because of our own greed that we bought more than afford, our own-selfish desires that led us to borrow that which we could not repay.” As the new administration struggles with war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and molds its response to the violence in Israel, and Africa, and elsewhere, we can stand up and say, “what about the violence that happens in our own homes, where families are broken by alcoholism, and drug abuse and selfish desires; where fathers beat their wives and sexually abuse their children; where mothers heap emotional and verbal abuse on their children, or worse, abandon them to the streets.” We can stand up and say, “What about the violence of abortion, of a culture that believes that unborn children can be disposed of with yesterday’s trash?” These are the messages that our world needs to hear, but does not want to hear.

Are your ears tingling? Do you hear God’s voice?

And yet, if all we have to offer to this world is a voice of condemnation, if we offer a prophetic voice of change but do so out of the bitterness of our own hearts or with an self-righteous, holier-than-thou attitude; if we, as it says in 1 Corinthians 13 “speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, we are only resounding gongs and clanging cymbals. If we have the gift of prophesy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, if we have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, we are nothing. If we give all we possess to the poor and surrender our bodies to the flames, but have not love, we gain nothing.

Love one another, said Christ Jesus our Lord and our Savior. Love your neighbors, love your enemies! The love God calls us to is not trite, it cannot be summarized on a Hallmark card; it cannot be popularized in song. The love God commands us to share with all whom we meet is a radical, life-changing, world-transforming love; a love that takes our righteous concern and puts it in to action. When we as Christians possess this love, we join with Jesus as he stands there on the mountaintop speaking to his disciples.

Blessed are those who are poor, because we have welcomed them as brother and sister in their time of need; blessed are those who mourn, for we have comforted them; blessed are those who are meek, for we have stood up for them when others would do them harm; blessed are those who hunger and thirst for we have fed them and shared with them the bread of eternal life, blessed are the merciful for we have joined with them in offering care for those who are hurting; blessed are the pure in heart for we have not mocked them for being naïve and innocent; blessed are the peacemakers for we have offered forgiveness and a hand of reconciliation to those who hate us; blessed are those who are persecuted, for we have not abandoned them.

Are your ears tingling? Do you hear God’s voice?

When we, as Christians, are not afraid to stand up for Truth; when we are not afraid to resist evil; when we commit ourselves to living kingdom lives; when we learn to love neighbors and stranger alike; when we treat our enemies as we treat our friends, then we have begun to fulfill God’s Great Commission. As we live Kingdom lives, we stand against our culture in loving critique. While the world around us becomes more and more self-centered; while people try to grab an ever bigger piece of the pie, we live and proclaim a message of self-sacrifice and service. In doing so, we are a faithful witness to God and our sincerity and humility will attract disciples of all nations, not for own glory, but for the glory of God; as we “baptize them in the name of the Father, Son and of the Holy Spirit,” into a new life where “God is with us always, to the very end of the age.”

Are your ears tingling? Do you hear God’s voice?

As we prepare to leave this place today, I pray that we would go out in to this world not as ones who wonder where God is today, not as ones who fear that God has once again fallen silent; but as believers who recognize that God is alive and active in our world. That his voice calls us, just as it called Samuel, to be obedient to his word; faithful to his message. A message that yes, requires us to acknowledge our own sin and to speak out against the evils of this world, but a message that also inspires to offer hope to others and compels us to reach out a hand of peace, of forgiveness, of grace, of hope, of love to people who so desperately need to be reminded that in today’s uncertain age, that they are not alone; for God is with them and with us and we are their brothers and sisters. In our actions, in our words, in our very beings may we be a people, who in the midst of our humanity, in the midst of our sinful nature; it can still be said of us, “we are ones in whom the light of God has not yet gone out.”