01/14/2024 ~ Second Sunday after the Epiphany ~ 1 Samuel 3:1-10, (11-20); Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18; 1 Corinthians 6:12-20; John 1:43-51 ~ The Weekend of Martin Luther King Day on the Secular Calendar ~ VIDEO OF FULL SERVICE: https://vimeo.com/showcase/7960701/video/903771446

Listening for the Word

“Yahweh called again, ‘Samuel!’ And Samuel got up, went to Eli and said, ‘Here I am, for you called me.’ But Eli repeated, ‘I did not call; lie down again.’” — 1 Samuel 3:6.

I have already mentioned this here: I served as a part time Associate Pastor at a five church cooperative in Waldo County. The obvious question: five churches— how does preaching at five churches work on a Sunday morning?

The Senior Pastor, the Rev. Mr. Jim Wood, and I took turns. One week I would preach at three churches; Jim would preach at two. The next week we switched and rotated.

Of course, since the largest distance from one church to another was about 40 miles, if you want to start services within a time frame say of 8:45 a.m. at the earliest and 11:15 a.m. at the latest and lead three services, logistics, knowing the back roads, the shortcuts between the churches, becomes critical, especially in Waldo County.

Another pastor I knew, the Rev. Dr. Chuck Maxwell, was the sole pastor at a five church cooperative. How could he get to all the churches in one morning?

These five churches were on a Native American Reservation in North Dakota. When Chuck went from church number two to church number three, East to West, he crossed over a time zone, Central to Mountain Time. Gaining that hour gave enough time to start all the services in the morning, at least in terms of locally calculated time if not time calculated by Chuck’s own body clock. (Slight pause.)

When I served in Waldo County I was not yet ordained but licensed for the position. On occasion the Rev. Mr. Wood, would embarrass me by pointing at me and saying to another ordained pastor, “We should ordain him right now. After all,” Jim would insist, “he’s been involved in church all his life. He knows what this pastor stuff is about.”

That was not just embarrassing. It was not true. While Jim appreciated my skill set, that is what it was and that is all it was: a skill set, unvarnished, untested.

To learn and understand how to do anything takes not just talent, a skill set. It takes time, training, work and an exploration of the emotional challenges involved. A skill set needs experience, needs testing to become adequately developed. (Slight pause.)

We find these words in the work known as First Samuel: “Yahweh called again, ‘Samuel!’ And Samuel got up, went to Eli and said, ‘Here I am, for you called me.’ But Eli repeated, ‘I did not call; lie down again.’” (Slight pause.)

In a Seminary class one professor asked this question: “Why did it take 4 years to get a Bachelor’s Degree? After all,” she said, “if you worked hard at it for 8 hours a day, five days a week, 52 weeks straight out, it’s likely you could do all the necessary work to get a degree. So why does it take 4 years?” (Slight pause.)

The class members looked at each other with blank stares. The professor reasoned it this way: you need time to become acculturated into this group who holds a degree in a specific area and you want to join. You may already have a fine skill set. It will help.

But you need time, training, involvement, work, an exploration of the emotional complexity involved. There is even a need to be tested, a need for that skill set become adequately developed. Any skill set needs to be honed.

In short, just a degree will not suffice. Work in the field is a necessary component, a part of honing a skill set.

As I am sure you realize professional Baseball has minor leagues and professional Football and Basketball rely on college programs. Why? These are places where skill sets are honed. Honing takes time. (Slight pause.)

Question: does it take time to discern the voice of God? My answer is ‘yes.’ I think it is unwise to ignore the witness of Scripture about this. Scripture is clear not just in this passage but over and over and over again: the voice of God needs to be listened to, absorbed and what is heard needs to be processed and pondered.

Equally, when it comes to listening for the voice of God I maintain we all have that skill set. We can all, probably in different ways, hear the voice of God. The voice of God is available to each of us because God endows us with that skill set.

But as the Apostle Paul suggested when discussing gifts, none of us has a skill set that covers everything, all the gifts we need. We all have different gifts and talents.

I think that is precisely where this turns back to what my Seminary professor said about it taking 4 years to get a degree. Both learning and listening to God happens over time and in the context of a community. The thing people often miss about honing a skill set is it is not about the individual. Honing happens in the context of community.

And as Paul states, the voice of God in its fulness is not the sole possession of any one individual. No single person, alone, has access to, can hear in a complete way the voice of God in the entirety of the message being rendered.

This is also to say the voice of God needs to be listened to in community. I would even say the skill set we broadly identify as listening to the voice of God has always and historically been done only in the context of community. I know: that is very Congregational of me.

In fact, here’s something we do not get about the Hebrew Scriptures because our tendency is to read what we find there with 21st Century eyes. Our modern eyes constantly search for outstanding individuals rather than outstanding groups.

But a basis of the Hebrew Scriptures, the Hebrew people, is the community, not the individual. You see, the word for prophet in Hebrew is Nevi’im. The word is not singular but is always plural. And the word means guild of prophets, a group of prophets. So even when one prophet stands alone, all the other prophets surround that one even if they are not present.

This leaves an obvious question: how is the voice of God discerned in our modern context? (Slight pause.) I think the voice of God needs to be discerned within the community. And for the community to discern the voice of God the community needs time, training, involvement, work, an exploration of emotional life and testing in order to have that skill set become developed, honed within the community. (Slight pause.)

I need to be clear about this. Part of being a member of the community in the Congregational tradition involves what some might label as ‘compromise.’ That is not a popular idea in modern times.

The word compromise even sounds counter cultural in today’s society. My way or the highways seems to be our response. But what some call compromise others call listening to the voice of God in the context of community and listening for the voice of God in its fullness.

Why do I say that? These words are in First Samuel: “Yahweh called again, ‘Samuel!’” And as you know, Yahweh called and called and called.

And finally, finally, Samuel relied on what Eli said. And Eli was, of course and by definition, not an individual prophet. Even when Eli was alone a group of prophets stood with Eli, a member of the guild of prophets, the Nevi’im— plural, not singular.

And Eli, a member of the Nevi’im, the prophets, said this (quote:) “‘Go, lie down; and if you are called again, say, “Speak, Yahweh, God, for your servant is listening.’”

You see, it does take time, training, involvement, work, an exploration of emotional life and testing in order to hone a skill set. And this is not just true of an individual. This is especially true within and for a community. Amen.

01/14/2024
Elijah Kellogg Church, Harpswell, Maine

ENDPIECE: It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Choral Response and Benediction. This is a précis of what was said: “Some people insist church growth is about more people in the pews. That’s 200% wrong. Developing a relationship with God is like developing any relationship. Unless that relationship for one and for all is worked on daily— note, not just at Sunday services, not just at committee meetings— unless that relationship is worked on daily it will wither and die. Also, I think we all know what a three legged race is— you know— two legs tied together for two people. Well, in a Congregational community it’s more like a thousand legged race. The idea is we all move forward together. How? We rely on one another.”

BENEDICTION: We do not always know where the voice of God will lead us. But when we hear the call we need to follow. May the voice of God be open and clear. May our sense of God’s purpose be keen and true. May we be aware of God’s promise to be with us in our journey. And may the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, and the presence of the Spirit of Christ which is real and available, keep our hearts and minds in the knowledge, love and companionship of the Holy Spirit, this day and forever more. Amen.