1 Samuel 3:1-10
When God Speaks
James Sledge January 15, 2012
I’ve read this passage from First Samuel many times, and I think that every time I do, I’m struck by the line that says, The word of the Lord was rare in those days; visions were not widespread. The biblical writer could easily have left this line out. It doesn’t really advance the story at all. If it wasn’t there we would still have heard a story about the young Samuel hearing God calling but not realizing that it was God. It’s almost a throw-away line, and yet there it is, and it never fails to grab my attention.
As a child I thought it would have been great to live in biblical times when God was showing up all the time, talking to people, giving them visions. It must have been exciting to live when God actually appeared in burning bushes and carved commandments onto stone tablets. Not like today when God can seem awfully quiet.
But our Scripture reading for this morning sounds a lot like today. The word of the Lord was rare in those days; visions were not widespread. There it is, straight from the Bible. God could be awfully quiet back then, too.
God was quiet, and visions were rare. I sometimes wonder if I would get the message if God sent me a vision. I’m one of those people who almost never remember their dreams. I’ve read that whether I remember them or not, I do dream. But most of the time, you couldn’t prove it by anything I recall. Which makes me wonder; if visions are like dreams and God appeared to me in a vision, would I remember it?
Of course it isn’t as though God hasn’t spoken or given visions in my lifetime. Many of us recall a prophet who heard God’s voice and shared the word of the Lord with us. I was only six years old when he spoke some of his most famous words. I think I may have heard them on the news, but I’ve seen the speech so many times since that I can’t really trust my memory.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was a prophet if there ever was one, and God had called him and given him a vision to share. Maybe it was because he was a prophet that he used the phrase, “I have a dream” over and over in that speech. That part of the speech is pretty far in, near the end. And if you lived in the South when Dr. King shared this vision, you know well that it was only a vision, a dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today.
I know that there are some who may not have thought of Dr. King as a prophet. Strangely enough, it doesn’t occur even to some who admire him. You’re probably aware that a memorial to Dr. King opened last August in Washington, DC, located on the Tidal Basin between the Jefferson and Lincoln Memorials. Before the dedication ceremony was cancelled because of the approach of Hurricane Irene, it was scheduled for 11:00 a.m. on Sunday, August 28th. I understand the desire to hold the dedication on the 48th anniversary of the “I Have a Dream” speech, but the 11:00 a.m. times makes me wonder how many of the planners remembered that King heard God’s call as a church pastor. Perhaps they’d forgotten the last line of the dream, which is a quote from another prophet, Isaiah.
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.
But just how was it that the prophet Martin heard the word of the Lord that called him into a struggle that would eventually get him killed? How did he glimpse the vision that he shared in his I Have a Dream speech? Perhaps he was better at remembering his dreams than I am, but how did he know which dream was from God? How did he recognize God’s voice, especially considering how that voice called him to a task that would put his life in danger?
Samuel doesn’t recognize God’s voice in our reading today. Our story depicts God repeatedly speaking to Samuel, but Sam didn’t know what God sounded like. And so he assumed it was someone else, Eli. Eli apparently did know what God sounded like, but even Eli took a while to figure out what was going on. Who knows how the story might have turned out if Eli hadn’t been familiar with God. What if Eli had just gotten upset and screamed, “Go to sleep and quit bothering me!”?
Have you ever heard God speaking to you? Has God given you a vision, a dream that you are supposed to share with the world? Most people I’ve asked such questions tell me, “No.” Many of them think, like I did as a child, that the God who was forever speaking to biblical folks doesn’t really operate that way any longer. We simply assume that God isn’t speaking now. We think of biblical times as being different, like fairy tale times. We imagine Bible stories opening with “Once upon a time when God was a lot more active.” And we assume that the word of the Lord is rare, even nonexistent, to us.
But then here comes Samuel, who lived in those “Once upon a time” days, and yet the word of the Lord was rare then, too. And he would not have recognized it at all had someone not told him how to do that. And then there is Martin Luther King, Jr. In a day when many assume God no longer speaks, he heard the Lord and saw a vision.
I’m thinking that Samuel and Dr. King shared something in common. Both of them had mentors who instructed them in how to hear the voice of God, how to be attuned to divine dreams. Samuel had Eli. Dr. King had many mentors, some whom we’ll never know. There were Sunday School teachers, his parents, and wise elders in the church where he grew up. These folks had tutored him in deep practices of prayer, time spent with God, time listening for God. And of course there was Scripture itself. Dr. King grew up listening to God in Scripture and was so deeply immersed in the Bible that the voice of God must have sounded almost familiar when it called him to be a prophet.
Who taught you to listen for God’s voice? Did you recognize God’s voice when you first heard it? Who taught you how a vision from God would look and feel? And if you’ve not heard God, do you think that voice will sound familiar when God calls you? God is still speaking, you know.
There is a quote I share so often that many are likely sick of hearing it. I can never recall who said it. It may have been Ed White or Roy Oswald from the Alban Institute. One of them was talking about the difficulties facing Mainline congregations such as us Presbyterians, and he said, “People come to us seeking an experience of God, and we give them information about God.” Perhaps I may paraphrase, “People come to us longing to hear God’s voice, and we give them information about God.”
Even in a culture that seems more and more secular, people do long to hear God’s voice. And who should be better at helping them than us. After all, we say that we have been joined to Christ in baptism, that whenever two or three of us are gathered, Christ is here with us, and that each of us is given gifts from the Holy Spirit so that together, we become the living body of Christ. Surely we should be able to help those who long to hear God. And if not, then perhaps we need to be helping each other hone our own listening skills.
“Jeremy, Pat, Stephanie, Becky, Mary Ann, Bob, Adam, Carol, James…” Speak Lord, for your servant is listening.
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