“Can You Hear Me Now

̶= 0;Can You Hear Me Now?”

1 Sam= uel 3:1-20

Providence<= /st1:City> United Presbyterian Church=

Janua= ry 18, 2009 (Ord 2B)

Rev. = Dr. Mary Jane Hitt

&= nbsp; It strikes me as ironic that today, the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, ushers= in one of the most extraordinary w= eeks our nation has ever seen. On Tuesday we will witness something that, to be honest, I didn’t think I would see in my lifetime. The inauguration of Barack Hussein Obama as the 44^th President of th= e United States is one of those moments that we all will remember as long as we live. We will tell our children and our grandchildren and even our great-grandchildren about this Tuesday – a= bout this time, this turning point, in our nation’s history.

&= nbsp; Coming just one day after the national holiday celebrating the life and legacy of = Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the inauguration of President Obama reminds us that when we have a dream – when our dream is God’s dream – wh= en we pursue that dream – when we are willing even to risk our life for that dream – then our dream really can come true.

But how do we make God’s dream our own?&= nbsp; It’s as simple, and as difficult, as this: We need to listen to the vo= ice of God, which calls us to be co-creators of the world as it was created to be.= When we listen to God’s voice – when we pay attention to where that voice sends us and what that vo= ice is calling us to do – then, day by day, year by year, and decade by deca= de, we embrace God’s dream for all humankind.

And so today’s lesson from the Hebrew Scriptures about a boy who learned = to listen to the voice of God is timely for us today. It’s a familiar story –= ; the story of a boy named Samuel, whose parents had sent him to serve the old, b= lind priest Eli in the temple. It = was Samuel’s job to be attentive to Eli’s needs, 24/7, and so he probably wasn’t surprised when he heard his name called out in the night. “Samuel, Samuel,” a voice said, and when he heard it, Samuel did what he always did when he heard his name in the night.&n= bsp; He ran to Eli to see what he needed. But Eli hadn’t called him, s= o he sent the boy back to his room to lie down.

&= nbsp; Samuel went back to bed, but before he knew it he heard that voice a second time.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> Once again, he ran to Eli to see w= hat Eli needed, and once again, Eli sent him back to bed.

&= nbsp; But when it occurred a third time, Eli realized what was happening. He told Samuel that it was the Lor= d God who was calling him. He told = him what to say if it happened again. And you know what happened. The Lord did speak to Samuel again, and this time Samuel responded as Eli had instructed him: “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.”

&= nbsp; So what does this story have to do with us, you ask? First, it is a reminder that God c= alls ordinary people to do God’s work.&nb= sp; That is a fundamental tenet of Presbyterian theology. We all are called by God. We all are chosen. We all are given work to do.<= /o:p>

But also the story of Samuel reminds us that, much Christian mythology to the contrary, God’s call to us is usually not entirely obvious at first, = just as it was not obvious to Samuel the first time he heard his name called out= in the night. It took an old pri= est to help Samuel sort it all out.

And so it often is with us. God&#= 8217;s call to us “in the night” often is not, at first, a voice that comes with complete clarity. = It often is simply a voice that keeps us awake just as it kept Samuel awake, restless and unsettled, until our own “Eli” can help interpret = it for us. In other words, we ne= ed other people to help us recognize God’s voice in our lives. Often it is a Christian friend, or= a spiritual director, or a pastor, or an elder who helps us discern that it is indeed G= od whose voice we are hearing call out our name. It is important for us to have the= kind of relationships with one another where we can test the voices we hear R= 11; and there are SO MANY of them, aren’t there? – and discern whic= h of them is the voice of God.

&= nbsp; But be prepared to be surprised when God’s voice calls your name, because what God has to say may just turn your life around. It may take all of your perfectly = good plans and turn them upside down.

That’s what happened to Samuel. He started out as a boy servi= ng the priest, and ended up as the spiritual leader of the Israelites for for= ty years.
That’s what happened to a man named Saul, = when his encounter on the Damascus road changed him from a persecutor of the early church to a leader in the church – the man we know as the Apostle Paul.
And that’s what happened to a young semina= rian named Martin.

All Martin wanted to do when he finished his doctorate at Boston University was= to be a faithful pastor and college professor. But as a young pastor, Martin was = thrust into the forefront of a bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama. One night, in the heat of that cha= llenge to the inequalities of American society in the 1950’s, Martin receive= d a telephone call that threatened his life, and he felt fear and uncertainty r= ise up within him. But then he he= ard a voice say to him, “Martin, you do what’s right. You stand up for justice. You be my drum major for righteousness. I will be with you.”

Now, some folks who heard Martin’s story thought he was crazy, but others validated the voice he heard as the voice of God. And you know the rest of the story= . Martin Luther King, Jr.’s li= fe was forever changed. And through = his life, and the lives of so many other who marched and wrote and went to jail= and refused to accept second-class status in the Land of the Free and the Home = of the Brave, our nation and our world were changed, as well.

&= nbsp; Now, I’m not Martin Luther King, and neither are you. That’s pretty obvious, and that’s okay. Because God doesn’t only call extraordinary people to do what’s right ̵= 1; to stand up for justice, to stand up for righteousness, to stand up for freedom. God is calling our n= ames, too, in the night.

The Rev. Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, once said that when he gets = to heaven, God will not ask him why he was not Martin Luther King; God will ask him why he was not Rowan Williams. <= /span>[Jonathan Marlowe, “Martin Luthe= r King Jr. and me,” Theolog, The Blog of the Christian Century, 01/20/2008.]= And that’s true of all of us= . When we show up at the pearly gate= s, God won’t ask us why we weren’t Martin Luther King, or Billy Graham= , or Rick Warren, or Joel Osteen, or whoever it is that you most admire for their Christian witness and service. The question just might be, Why weren’t you you? Why didn’t you do the things= God called you to do? Why didn= 217;t you do the things that you were uniquely equipped to do?<= /p>

This week, as we remember the life and legacy of Dr. King, I hope we will be challenged to do the things that we can do, ordinary as we are:

· We may not lead a civil rights movement, but we can stand up for people in our community who are treated unfairly.

· We may not win the Nobel Peace Prize, but we can live peacefully with our neig= hbors.

· We won’t be called on to give a speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memor= ial, but we each can use our voices to speak the truth.

[Adapted from Marlowe, above]

In two days, our nation will have a new President, who will be reminding us and challenging us to live together as one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. As you listen to the inaugural address, perhaps you will hear the vo= ice of God calling out your name.

Dr. King once said that “[he] decided early to give [his] life to somethi= ng eternal and absolute. Not to = these little gods that are here today and gone tomorrow, but to God who is the sa= me yesterday, today, and forever.” [“Rediscovering Lost Values,” 2/28/54] M= ay we make that same decision. As w= e hear God’s voice calling out to us in the night, let us listen, and then l= et us give ourselves freely to the one who makes us free.

Thanks be to God. Amen.