15th January 2012 - Epiphany 2

Introduction

Many years ago, before the telephone existed, a telegraph company advertised a vacancy for someone who was familiar with Morse Code to fill a job as a telegraph operator. A number of people applied for the job and they were all called for interview. When they got to the telegraph office they were asked to wait. In the room where they sat they could hear the tap tap of the telegraph machine in the background. Suddenly one of the applicants stood up, crossed the room and walked into the supervisor’s office. The other applicants looked at one another and continued to wait. A few minutes later the supervisor came out of his office and told those who were still waiting, “You can all go home, the job’s been filled”. When they protested that this was not fair the supervisor explained, “Ever since you’ve been sitting here the telegraph key has been signalling, “Come straight into the office and the job is yours, but only one of you responded.” Each one of them had been called but only the one who had been listening was able to respond to the call.

Exposition

The theme that, for me,  emerges from our Bible Readings today is the theme of God calling people. The theme is apparent in the Gospel reading as Jesus calls Phillip and Nathanael but it’s the Old Testament reading that I particularly want to look at today. In this reading God called the young Samuel to deliver his message to Eli. For me this is a precious passage which I remember from my days as a child in Sunday School. That’s why I chose that Sunday School hymn about Samuel to follow it. I used to imagine myself as the young boy Samuel laying, half awake, beside the ‘sacred ark’ and hearing the voice of God calling to me. My fear is that through the passing years I may have become more like Eli, sleeping and unable to hear God when he calls because it’s too much effort to listen.

David Adam, the former vicar of Holy Island writes this about this passage:

The story of Samuel at Shiloh illustrates how the Church must often appear. Eli represents the Church; he is old and losing his vision. The light in the church has almost gone out. The sons of the ‘vicarage’, Hophni and Phineas, are not interested in following in their father’s footsteps. Into this situation is introduced a youngster and, as ever, he disturbs the church. Eli is trying to sleep. Samuel lies on his mattress listening to the sounds of the night. A voice calls. Samuel, who is about 12 years old, jumps up and wakes the old man. Eli and says, ‘you called.’ Tired, Eli says, ‘I did not call. Go back to bed my son.’ The Lord calls again, ‘Samuel!’ Once more Samuel jumps up and runs to Eli because he doesn’t know it was the Lord who was calling. Again Eli says, ‘I did not call. Go back to bed my, son.’ It is not long before the Lord calls a third time. For a third time Samuel disturbs Eli. This old priest, his vision fading, is able to guide the young man and send him back to his room, saying, ‘If he calls, you shall say, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.”’

The Church might be very old and find the young disturbing, but God speaks through new voices. At the same time the young will be lost without the guidance of the old.

Samuel heard the voice and said, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’ In this way God was able to speak to Samuel and through Samuel.

How often do we fail to hear because we are unwilling to listen? We are often too busy or too prejudiced to hear the voice of God.

How can we make room in our lives to hear the still small voice of God?

Application

Just before Christmas both and David Keble and I received a letter from a couple who told us they had felt called by God to begin a new church here in Stansted – the Stansted Family Church. My first reaction was to feel threatened. How dare they claim that God had called them onto my patch to set up a church in opposition to mine. But as I reflected on the letter, and discussed it with David, I began to realise that in fact I was responding from fear, not faith. Both of us have been told many times that the people of our two churches are so very busy that they don’t have time to proclaim the Gospel or reach out to those in the community who are different from the people in our churches. Both of us are aware that our buildings consume so many resources that there is little left over to use for our mission. God is not mocked. If we will not do his work he will use others to do it. If Eli can longer hear his voice then he will speak to Samuel.

In the Bible reading it’s too late for Eli. Had we read on and heard the words God speaks to Samuel we’d discover they were terrifying words of condemnation:

The time has come for me to bring down on Eli's family everything I warned him of, every last word of it. I'm letting him know that the time's up. I'm bringing judgment on his family for good. He knew what was going on, that his sons were desecrating God's name and God's place, and he did nothing to stop them. This is my sentence on the family of Eli: The evil of Eli's family can never be wiped out by sacrifice or offering."

(1Sa 3:12-14)

For us, I think, there is still time. I don’t believe that God sent me to this place for no reason. God is bringing about two new initiatives which will have an effect on us all. Next Saturday the Bishop of Chelmsford has called together over a thousand people from across the diocese to listen for what God is calling us to. Cheryl, Peter and Matthew from this congregation (together with myself) have been called to be part of that. We want to be listening not sleeping. When we come back we will try to share with you the things we believe God has said.

And also David Keble and I will be running a course on Mission starting on the 29^th of February. It is our hope that every single person from both this Church and the Free Church will attend to ask “What is God calling us to do here?” The next step is then to get on and do it.

Let’s not be like Eli and fall asleep, too tied up with our busy lives to listen to God. Let’s let our words be those that Samuel says, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.”