1 Samuel 3:1-10 [11-20]
Psalm 139:1-5, 12-17 (Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18 NRSV)
1 Corinthians 6:12-20
John 1:43-51
Year B
I.N.I. (In the name of Jesus)
Can you hear me now? Good.
Have you heard this joke?
Two psychiatrists shared office space in the same building, one freshly completing his medical school and residency, another just a year or two from retirement. Every morning the scene was the same: they would ride up the elevator to the same floor, bright and ready to meet with their clients. Every afternoon the scene was the same: they would ride down the elevator to the main floor, the young psychiatrist drained and tired, the experienced doc looking as bright and chipper as at the day's beginning. Finally, the younger one said: "I don't get it! Every day we listen to people's problems. They tell hair-raising stories, they are some of the most pitiable people you would ever want to meet, and we are to shoulder their burdens. It's exhausting, yet you never seem fazed at the end of the day? What's your secret?" The elder statesman replied: "Who listens?"
Indeed, who does listen?
Well, everyone, and no one. I've seen more gadgets hanging out of people's ears than ever before. More people are wearing what resembles my grandfather's hearing aids from the 1970's, with a plug in one ear and a wire coming out. Today's white wires coming out of two ears are connected to I-pods, which can download and save thousands of songs for your listening pleasure. Darker wires come out of one ear and have a speaking device, this for ubiquitous cell phone users who resemble Secret Service agents that are constantly connected and available for conversation and consultation with work and with home. I personally cannot complete a shopping trip without phoning Kari at home and asking, "what did you want me to get?"
Between cable TV and the World Wide Web, e-mails, Google and other search engines, and PDA's and GPS's, we are a globally hooked-up community, and have more access to and knowledge about things, stuff, culture, the marketplace, and other people than ten years ago. That's amazing, and efficient, compared with how I used to communicate (before cell phones and computer, when I used pen and paper, or only a land line) and how I used to research and plan (before the internet, using only books from a library), and how I used to shop and do my banking (before on-line services and finance software, when I had to go to a store and balancing the checkbook by hand, which never worked). These advances have improved my way of life.
But my deepest, richest experiences that hook me up with God, that make me pause to wonder how God might be at work in my technologically advanced world, all have to do with interaction with people in the flesh, and the rather basic human sense of hearing and encountering the Word.
With every advance that I'm grateful for, I wonder whether it pushes out our capacity to listen. With every advance that saves human interface and therefore money, I wonder where meaningful human interface can come in.
A woman named Hannah dropped off her baby named Samuel at the temple, the mother grateful for God granting her prayer that she would have a child. Hannah sacrificed her own relationship with her firstborn by dedicating him to the temple priest, Eli. As mentor of the elder priest, Samuel had temple duty guarding and keeping the ark of the Lord, which traveled with the Israelites wherever they went. The lamps in that sanctuary were to be lit during the day, but could dim from lack of fuel during the night. In the story told today, the lamp was not the only thing that was dim: the priest Eli himself was more in the dark. "Who listens?" It was said that "the world of the Lord was rare in those days; visions were not widespread."
So who hears God calling in the night? The wizened elder, or the newbie? Samuel, not from the line of the priesthood, gets the call. It takes three calls, a good biblical number, for God to get through to Samuel, but when it did, hear got an earful. What a nightmare! The news, according to the Lord, will make both ears of the listener tingle. Eli and his sons in particular are going to hell in a handbasket, because they are abusing the priesthood by swiping sacrifices from everyone and his uncle, and eating them up! And God is wise to this, and God has a mind to take care of this. And after this divine encounter, it is said that Samuel's own abilities are strengthened, that "the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground." "Who listens?" Well, apparently Samuel did. Then, after that, when he spoke, by golly, what he said had impact!
We must listen. We must provide space and time to listen. We must take care to craft our words, to check in with those to whom we speak, and open our ears wide to how God may be speaking to us.
It is the practice of the church, in Sunday's liturgy to dedicate a large chunk of what we do to the Word of God, as if to say that listening to God important to us. We posture ourselves by sitting. We use a lectionary book with big words. I encourage you to leave the printed readings aside while they are being spoken and refer to them perhaps when you arrive and then to take them home with you. And when it is time for the Gospel, we stand and give honor to that book and that Gospel, where Christ is at front and center of attention and as the book is carried into our midst it is if we are making space and time for Christ in our midst.
As we read the Gospel today, we see how how effective Jesus' call is! He speaks once, "Follow me," and Philip comes. Nathanael, Philip's friend, is not so convinced by his friend when he says "We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth," but when he comes to encounter Jesus declares "Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!"
Here's the pattern in this Gospel story from John: Each disciple, in listening to or encountering Jesus, discovers something about who Jesus is. And in the end, Jesus says, you think that's impressive? You haven't seen anything yet! It will be even better, like when Jacob had that crazy dream and saw angels climbing up and down the ladder.
And in the end, of the Gospel that is, we see the intersection of heaven and earth, the connection of God to the ways of this world most strikingly in Jesus, in his glory on the cross. There, he pours out his Spirit to his disciples and spilling out to all those who have ears to hear, and hearts ready for a life that is more than what meets the eye and ears, but that bears burdens, heals broken relationships, and brings the dead to life.
How does God speak to us? Look around you and consider how God speaks through a neighbor or a friend. Look around you and consider how our life, even technology, the crafting of a budget, and the words and work of Martin Luther King, Jr. become part of "the greater things" that Jesus spoke about. Look within you and consider how you listen and how you speak can draw others to Christ and to God. How are you inviting others to come and see?
And how can you stand in awe of the gift of Sunday morning, where we have the privilege to hear the Word of God, and to eat and drink in that Word?
Last words for those who still can listen, from Martin Luther: When we seriously ponder the word, hear it, and put it to use, such is its power that it never departs without fruit. It always awakens new understanding, new pleasure, and a new spirit of devotion, and it constantly cleanses the heart and its meditations. For these words are not idle or dead, but effective and living. -p 74 , A Graceful Life.
Can you hear me now? Good.
I.N.I.
The Rev. Timothy J. Keyl, Pastor
Christ the King Lutheran Church
