Do You Hear What I Hear?

a sermon by Rev. Rebecca Segers 

I Samuel 3:1-10

John 1:43-51 

Do you know what God’s plan for you is?  Do you maybe have an idea, but you’re not exactly sure?  Do you sometimes wish that God would speak out loudly and clearly in ways that are plain so that you could respond with immediacy and joy?  Do you wonder why God seems to speak to everyone in the Bible, but not so much to those around us anymore?

Well, take heart.  It’s not that simple and you are not alone.  Our scripture lessons that Lynne read so beautifully this morning lift up encouragement and guidance for us.  Let’s take them in order.

The young boy Samuel has been dedicated to God by his mother, Hannah.  Hannah was old and barren and devastated by the lack of children in her life.  She cried out with deep anguish and longing to the Lord, promising that if she were to have a child, she would dedicate him to God.  God did grant her not one, but many children, of whom Samuel was only the first.  Around the time Samuel was three years old, Hannah took him to the high priest, Eli, to fulfill her promise.  Now Samuel wasn’t of the priestly clan.  He didn’t have the bloodline, God’s credentials as it were, to become a priest himself.  He wasn’t ever supposed to be anyone important.  When Hannah took him to Eli she didn’t expect anything more in response to her promise to God than that he would be a servant to the priests, perhaps cleaning or cooking or doing other similar type chores for them.

Our story today opens with the lines, “the boy Samuel ministered before the Lord under Eli.  In those days the word of the Lord was rare; there were not many visions.”  Did you hear that?  First of all, the scripture says: “The boy Samuel ministered before the Lord under Eli.”  Samuel is doing God’s work with Eli as his guide.  Later in this same passage, in verse seven, the Bible tells us that “Samuel did not yet know the Lord: the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him.”  So Samuel was doing God’s work, verse one tells us.  But he didn’t even know it, verse seven says.  So you may already be out there doing God’s work and not realizing that you are already in the right place at the right time doing the right thing; it just hasn’t yet been revealed to you.

Secondly, the scripture tells us: “The word of the Lord was rare; there were not many visions.”  People back then were just like you and me.  They were wishing God would write God’s plan for them in the sky (even though they didn’t have such a thing as sky-writing back thenJ), just like we do today.  They didn’t necessarily feel God’s presence, God’s call on their life in tangible, visible ways either.  We think, “Oh, back in Bible times, God was wandering around touching people right and left and it’s just different now.”  But it’s not.  God probably was and is wandering around touching people right and left telling them what to do, but people were not any more likely to recognize it back then than they are today.

So Samuel is lying down in the Holy of Holies, the center room of the temple, next to the ark of the covenant so that someone might be there to make sure that the lamp did not go out.  This is the same lamp of God whose light is celebrated during the festival of Hanukah.  Perhaps this act of making sure that the lamp remains lit is part of Samuel doing God’s work.  And he didn’t even know it.  Later on in the story, he doesn’t even realize that God’s voice is speaking to him until God called over and over and over again and finally, Samuel’s master, Eli, recognized God’s call and told him to answer: “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.”

How does Samuel recognize God’s call?  Through the mediation of another.  An older, wiser, more experienced person in the service of the Lord is the one who tells Samuel what’s happening and Samuel listens to him first.  Who do you have in your life that you trust that can help you discern your call?  Is there someone that always seems to cut to the chase with you?  Someone who seems to know where your talents and interests and longings lie and always manages to point it out when you’re heading the wrong direction?  It may be a friend or family member.  It may be a teacher or coach.  It may even be a child.  But we’ve all got them.  People who tell us the truth in love in ways that we are able to hear.

There is another minister in town that I meet with once or twice a month to check in and speak about what’s going on in my life and my work here at the church.  She is amazing at pointing out where I am on track and where I am not.  In such a way that I can hear it.  I pray that I am also performing the same function for her in our meetings.

Who is the person in your life who sits in the bleacher seats and cheers you on?  Who watches and sees when you’re not quite on target?  Who you respect and trust enough to tell you the truth?  Maybe as you think about it, there was someone in the past, but not someone right now at this moment in your life.  What would they say about your direction right now?  Can you hear their voice in your head?  Can you invite them or another person to get together with you every once in a while just to chat about direction?

Another pertinent point to this story is that even though Samuel was doing God’s work, ministering in the way that God could use him, he didn’t know it until God called him.  He was simply doing good works – the things that Eli told him to do – and then in this passage it comes to him the meaning of his work.  If you are doing something you love, something you’re good at, something that gives you and those around you joy, I guarantee that you are doing God’s work.  You see, God breaks in to us and through us in the deeds that we accomplish.

I was visiting Marion Beller in the hospital last week, and while I was there Mattie Bauser stopped in for a moment.  Now Mattie was already there because she volunteers regularly at the hospital.  So she was doing what she already does, she hadn’t driven up and made a special visit to come see Marion on the one hand.  But on the other hand, she had taken the time out of her hospital volunteer duties to check in on her.  And even though Mattie didn’t stay, just seeing her face did Marion good.  We all may very well be doing God’s work, shining God’s light, sharing God’s presence with those around us without even realizing it, just as Samuel was.

In our other Bible story, Jesus is walking along on his way to Galilea and he finds Philip and tells him to follow him.  The Bible says that Philip is from Bethsaida, the same town from which Andrew and Simon Peter hail.  Now the passage directly preceding this one, Jesus calls two people, Andrew and an unnamed disciple.  Andrew goes and gets his brother Simon and brings him to meet the Lord.  Jesus looks at Simon and says, “You are Simon son of John.  You are to be called Cephas.”  Now Cephas is Aramaic, the language Jesus frequently speaks, the language of those in his region.  Cephas is translated in Greek as Petra or as we now know it, Peter.

So the day after he calls these three, Jesus is heading to Galilea with these three new disciples, the unnamed one and Andrew and Peter and he finds Philip.  He finds him.  The Greek word here is heuriskw and means “to find something sought, to find by enquiry, examination, thought.”  There can be an element of chance of chance in falling upon what is found, but I wonder.  Was Jesus looking for Philip in particular?  What does it mean, specifically, that the Bible says he finds him?  Not he meets him, he sees him, he comes upon him on the road, but he finds him.  Jesus finds Philip and what does he do?  He tells him, “Follow me.”

Now imagine that you are Philip.  Remember, Philip is from the same hometown as two of the disciples that Jesus has walking along with him.  They are known to him, perhaps even his buddies.  This might even have looked like one grand road trip with all his best friends.  You’d think if he was inclined to go, he would say, “Yippee!  Let’s do it!” and leave with them.

But he doesn’t.  He hops up and runs to find Nathanael – this same base word heuriskw is used again.  The same word that was used when Jesus found him.  We know that Philip knows Nathanael.  He went looking specifically for him.  So is it possible that Jesus, too, knew Philip, even though Philip did not know him?  Could it be that Jesus went specifically looking for Philip, even though Philip was not aware of it?  Could it be that Jesus is looking specifically for each and every one of us in this room and we are simply not aware of it?  That God in Jesus Christ is searching for us at this very moment and we are sitting under our own particular fig trees not even paying attention?

This same pesky verb, the finding verb, heuriskw, is used again in this scripture lesson.  This time it’s in the past tense, when, after Philip finds Nathanael, he tells him, “We have found” the one about whom Moses and the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth.

Nathanael is naturally skeptical of this claim.  Wouldn’t you be, if someone came to you and told you that Jesus had returned today – even if you saw it plastered on the front of Newsday?  Maybe especially!  Anyway, Nathanael asks rather sarcastically, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”  That piddly, unimportant, one-donkey town?  Puh-leeze.  Give me a break!

But believing or not, he goes to meet Jesus.  When Jesus sees him, Jesus says, “Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false.”

“How do you know me?” asks Nathanael.

“I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip came and got you,” Jesus answers.

Well, Nathanael is blown away that Jesus recognized him and this is enough to make him cry out, “You are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel.”

Jesus tells him if he thinks that’s a big deal, he ain’t seen nothing yet and our story ends there today.  But what I want us to look at is that all three of these disciples of God who were called in our two stories read today – Samuel, Philip and Nathanael – all three were not looking for God.  God went looking for them.  God found them.  God knew them, God found them, God called them.  They were all simply doing what they were doing, working, hanging out with friends, sitting under the fig tree – and God went looking for them.

What was required of them?  That they hear the call.  They each responded to a different call, too.  Samuel heard God’s voice crying out his name.  Samuel, Samuel, Samuel.  God called Samuel by name and Samuel responded each time, but each time until he was guided otherwise, he responded in the wrong way, to the wrong person.  So maybe you are hearing God’s call, but you haven’t quite got it right yet?  Maybe you see it heading a particular direction in a particular way and God’s got other plans?  Maybe there is someone out there who is trying to help you discern God’s call and telling you which direction you ought to head, but you’re not listening?

In Philip’s case, he’s simply hanging out and sees this guy with all his best buds when he agrees to follow.  He’s going along with the crowd, but the right crowd.  The crowd that is following Jesus.  What kind of crowd do you hang out with?  Are they a crowd that are focused on God’s vision and God’s works?  Are they a crowd that encourage you to be the best you can be?  A crowd that inspires you to love the Lord your God and your neighbor as yourself?

Philip gets so enthused that he runs and finds his buddy, Nathanael.  Nathanael is a doubter, a skeptic of the first order, but he goes to check it out.  And God in Jesus Christ shows him what he needs to see in order to believe.  Are you a Nathanael?  Would you like a sign?  An omen?  Physical, tangible proof that you’re heading the right direction?  Chances are it’s right in front of you.  Open your eyes to see what’s in front of you.  And then trust that that’s only the beginning.

Because believe you me: Jesus is looking for each one of us.  Even those who do not know of him.  Even those of us who think that we know him, but are not always accurate in our perceptions of who Jesus is or what he would do.  Jesus is looking for each and every person in this room.  Do we want to be found?  Do we want to hear what God in Jesus Christ has for each of us to do?  Because each and every one of us has special gifts and talents and words and abilities and foci that can be used to further the coming of the kingdom.  There is no doubt in my mind that this church is filled with the grace of God and the ability to share it with our community and the world.  It is simply a matter of listening.

Do you hear what I hear?  Do you hear what Samuel heard?  Or Philip?  Or Nathanael?  Probably not.  Because God calls each of us in our own particular, special way that is unique to our own abilities, situations and personalities.  We can take heart from the stories that we heard read today, because these ordinary people, who probably didn’t listen very well themselves, were all called and all heard the call.  We can, too.  If we look and listen.  Pay attention to what we do and do well.  When you are doing something that makes your heart sing, trust me, God has found you in that moment.  When you are in those moments, listen.  And listen to those we care about – or maybe don’t even know very well – as they share their insights into our abilities.

God is looking for each of us, each of you and trust me, God will find you, maybe has found you already.  What will you hear?  And how will you respond to God’s call?  Only you can answer that question…Amen.