Listening Opens us to God.
1 Samuel 3: 1 – 4:1a; John 1: 43 – 51
In my first sermon this year I shared my New Year’s Resolution: to make 2018 a year of the Holy Spirit. I have felt led by the Spirit to do so. My personal intention is to be more sensitive to the guidance and blessing of the Spirit in my life. Hopefully you will share that journey with me. Being sensitive to the Holy Spirit’s encouragement, guidance and empowerment is not easy. So it was with delight I saw that the lectionary texts set for this Sunday help us understand how we might be sensitive to the Holy Spirit. Our texts give us two wonderful stories of God’s guidance. I am going to focus chiefly on the Samuel text and its wonderfully crafted story of the call of Samuel: Israel’s great priest, prophet and kingmaker who lived in the 10th Century BC(E).
Remember the background story of his childless mother, Hannah. She prayed to have a son and said to God that she would give her son to the Lord. Hannah did have a son and she did give that son, when he was weaned at 4 – 5 years old, to the priest Eli at the Shiloh sanctuary.
We pick up the story when Samuel was probably in his late teens. He is serving in the sanctuary and helping Eli the priest, who is an old man and losing his sight. The story contains for us so many spiritual truths.
The story unfolds. Samuel has just gone to bed. Then he hears his name called. He responds. He doesn’t pretend to be sleeping. He gets up and goes to Eli. Who else would be calling him? Three times Samuel hears his name and three times he goes to Eli. On the third instance Eli realises that it must be God wanting to speak to Samuel.
Let us reflect on what we can learn from this. Samuel’s expectation is that if anyone is calling him it could be only Eli who, as his superior, would do so. No one else would be calling him. Why would he think it was God calling him? In the opening sentence of this account we are told that God’s ‘word’ was very rare in those days [1 Sam 3:1]. In other words the conversation between God and the people was formal and ritualistic: not dynamic and personal. To put it another way, the practise of faith was not personal but ritualistic. There were few instances of God interacting with people in those days – very few we are told. It would seem that there was a spiritual desert amongst God’s people. And we are told why in chapter 2 where we learn that Eli’s sons were doing bad things and Eli was not holding them accountable. And the people were following their own interests. Sounds familiar.
Now consider these days. The Church is in numerical decline. Our conversation with God is more formal than personal. Our faith is more ritualistic than dynamic. For example, we don’t hear of people hearing God speak to them or seeing visions. Our conversations about our faith are more likely to be intellectual rather than personal. And it is hard to distinguish between our secular friends and ourselves apart from church attendance.
It is no wonder that Samuel wouldn’t be thinking that God was calling him. In fact we are expressly told in 1 Sam 3:7 that Samuel did not yet know the LORD, and the word of the LORD had not yet been revealed to him. Samuel had to learn a lot about his relationship to God and how God works. He needed to move from a formal relationship to a personal relationship with the Lord.
The old priest realises that God may be speaking. Eli then directs Samuel to say, if he hears his name called again; ‘Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.’ [3:9] Samuel does hear his name called and now he says yes; ‘I am listening to you, God, speak.’ We come now to the second spiritual lesson for us today in this story. Samuel heard his name and was now ready to listen to God: Samuel hears and listens. There is a difference between hearing and listening. Hearing is simply the act of perceiving sound by the ear. If you are not hearing-impaired, hearing simply happens. Listening, however, is something you consciously choose to do. Listening requires concentration so that your brain works out what the sounds or words mean. Hearing naturally happens: listening requires concentration.
It is not easy to discern the voice of God and what God is saying to us. There are a variety of reasons why this is so. It is possible that God is not speaking to us because of our sin. God may be distant to us because we have moved away from God. But if we do hear God are we listening? Listening requires attention and effort.
Samuel’s readiness has several degrees.
Firstly, he is willing to be a servant. He is serving Eli in the sanctuary.
Secondly, he hears and attends to the voice, even if he is mistaken. Samuel hears and responds. Thirdly, he is open to receive a word from Eli and then from God. He listens.
Fourthly he is obedient to the instructions. Samuel is a humble person who is open and receptive.
He is open to a new possibility and he is receptive to a call to take up responsibility. So we learn that learning to listen, being humble and being receptive are important to our meaningful fellowship and ministry in the church.
This whole incident must have been very disturbing to someone whose life followed a certain regularity and routine. Regardless of the prophetic history of the prophets and priests, we are given no evidence for thinking that Samuel was an adventurous, freethinking boy. Rather he comes across as obedient, humble and willing to serve. He seems more of a conformist than a rebel. And he bravely told Eli what the God had said, even though he was strongly urged to do so by God and Eli.
The closing verses of this story tells us that Samuel grew up, that God was with him and that God blessed what Samuel did. We read; as Samuel grew up, the LORD was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground. The phrase ‘none of Samuel’s words fell to the ground’ indicates that people noted what Samuel said. The narrator tells us, and all Israel from Dan to Beer-sheba knew that Samuel was a trustworthy prophet of the LORD. These words are so telling. It had been a long time since such a ‘servant of the Lord’ had walked amongst the people. Samuel stands out so much so that he has become a household name – a trustworthy prophet. Shiloh remains a place of the revelation of God, because Samuel hears and listens, and then boldly speaks the ‘word of God’ to the people. Shiloh’s importance is because Samuel is trustworthy. Here lies another lesson that though we have holy places the holiest space … the holiest space is in our hearts. (No wonder Paul can talk about our bodies being the temple of God. [1 Corinthians 3: 16 & 6:19])
There is something similarly happening with Nathanael. There he is wondering about Philip’s enthusiasm about this Jesus of Nazareth. But Nathanael with his doubt does go along and is open to listen to Jesus. What
Jesus sees in Nathanael convinces Nathanael that Jesus is the Messiah. Nathanael too is open, listens and follows.
Listening is such a gift. The real truth of listening is to enter the world of another person. And this is always done for the benefit of the other and not for our curiosity. When we want to serve our curiosity or interest we are of little use to another, except to engage in idle chatter. To listen well is to enter the other’s space. Listening is an art that can be developed in all of us. We are often not good listeners because we are preoccupied with our own thoughts and concerns. We become good listeners when we do for others what they need and not what we want or think they want. When we listen to other people’s fears and hope, their concerns and needs, we listen with ears and heart that bless. Listening takes time and discipline and real listening is healing and restorative.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his book, “Life Together”, wrote: “The first service that one owes to others in the fellowship consists in listening to them. Just as love of God begins with listening to his word, so the bringing of love for our fellow Christians is learning to listen to them”.
But let the Jesus offer us the final word on this matter. When Jesus offers his disciples the Parable of the Sower he starts by saying, ‘listen’. He concludes the parable with the exhortation; “Let anyone with ears to hear listen!” [Mk4: 3 & 9]. In Luke 8:17 & 18 Jesus says; For nothing is hidden that will not be disclosed, nor is anything secret that will not become known and come to light. Then pay attention to how you listen; for to those who have, more will be given; and from those who do not have, even what they seem to have will be taken away.”
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Peter C Whitaker, Leighmoor UC: 14/01/2018
/ www.leighmoorunitingchurch.org
New Years benediction
May the God who gives us this year
and the Saviour who walks at our side each day
and the Spirit who fills us with life abundant,
grace this coming year with peace and hope and joy,
Amen.