The boy Samuel ministered before the Lord under Eli. In those days the word of the Lord was rare; there were not many visions. One night Eli, whose eyes were becoming so weak that he could barely see,was lying down in his usual place. The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the house of the Lord, where the ark of God was.Then the Lord called Samuel. Samuel answered, “Here I am.” And he ran to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.” But Eli said, “I did not call; go back and lie down.” So he went and lay down. Again the Lord called, “Samuel!” And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.” “My son,” Eli said, “I did not call; go back and lie down.” Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord: The word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. A third time the Lord called, “Samuel!” And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.” Then Eli realized that the Lord was calling the boy. So Eli told Samuel, “Go and lie down, and if he calls you, say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’” So Samuel went and lay down in his place. The Lord came and stood there, calling as at the other times, “Samuel! Samuel!” Then Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”
(1 Samuel 3:1-10)
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A few years ago one of our sisters denominations - the United Church of Christ in the United States - adopted a new slogan. It’s still in pretty wide use and it’s not uncommon, if you happen to pass by a United Church of Christ congregation, that you’ll see a banner hanging on the outside of the building with the words “God Is Still Speaking” on it. I like the message. I think there are a lot of people out there who wonder if God really is still speaking. If they haven’t become atheists, some people are nevertheless still stuck in the 1960’s with the whole “God is dead” movement. People see things happening in the world that don’t at all match what believe a loving God would want, and so the natural tendency for some, even if they’re believers, is to assume that God has stopped speaking, that God has abandoned us and left us to fend for ourselves as best we can. “God Is Still Speaking” tries to reach out to those folks; to convince them that God still has a word to be shared with us.
I started thinking about that problem and that United Church of Christ slogan when I read the opening words of our passage today. “In those days the word of the Lord was rare.” Why would that be? Why would God suddenly stop speaking to his people whom he had led out of slavery and out of the wilderness and into the Promised Land? And not only was God’s word rare, “there were not many visions” either. It was as if people were not only convinced that God wasn’t speaking to them anymore; they had stopped seeing God. They had stopped dreaming their dreams. God was simply not a part of their thought process anymore. And God took the blame. “The word of the Lord was rare.” It sounds as if God was being accused of no longer caring for his people. But is that really what was happening? If we have trouble hearing God’s voice today and developing our own visions for what God wants of us and dreams for us and offers to us - is that God’s fault. I appreciate the slogan “God Is Still Speaking” - and I believe it as well. But I wonder if it’s a slogan that’s answering the wrong question. Perhaps the question isn’t “is God still speaking?” Perhaps the real question is “Are we still listening?”
That strikes me as a valid question. Too often, I think we fail to hear God, even though God speaks clearly in many and various ways. But when things don’t go our way, or when things happen that don’t seem consistent with what we believe about God or when we find ourselves confused and torn in different direction about this or that our immediate reaction is to deflect the blame - it’s to assume that God isn’t present, or that God has abandoned us, or that God has simply stopped speaking to us. It seems to me that it’s not very often that we look at ourselves and wonder whether the real problem we face is that we have simply stopped listening for God; stopped believing that God is there for us.
This is what was happening to the people of God as our passage opened this morning. Last week we talked about light and how important it is to us, and that light really meant the revelation of God. In Israel in Samuel’s day the light had almost gone out. People weren’t hearing God, they weren’t receiving visions, and the whole problem was symbolized by the old priest Eli, whose eyes “were becoming so weak that he could barely see.” It isn’t a positive picture. God’s people are groping in the dark, feeling as if they’ve been left without guidance. In the biblical chronology, the events in 1 Samuel come right after the events of Judges - and the very last words of Judges were ominous: “In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.” In other words, chaos had begun to erupt because the people were no longer trusting God to guide them. But was that true? Again - had God stopped speaking, or had the people stopped listening? This whole interplay between Samuel, Eli and God seems to sum up the problem that existed. God kept calling - Samuel kept thinking it was someone else calling - and Eli kept denying that anyone was calling! And it just kept going over and over. God speaking, but people refusing to listen; people refusing to understand. When darkness moves in, it’s easy for us to simply turn away from God.
So, let’s fast forward a few thousand years. It’s easy to see how darkness can move in and take hold of us and of our society. It’s easy to see how God and God’s ways can be pushed away, and the problem, as I’ve been saying the last couple of weeks, is that when we push God and God’s ways aside, we have nothing to replace them with except our own petty prejudices, with some claiming God’s sanction for the chaos that ensues, and others claiming that the chaos itself shows that God isn’t there anymore. We’ve seen more than enough evidence of that in the last couple of weeks alone. But the real problem isn’t that God isn’t there or that God isn’t speaking. The real problem is that we simply aren’t hearing. We don’t hear the angel chorus singing “peace on earth, good will to all.” We don’t hear the Bible telling us that “God is love.” We don’t hear the words of Jesus telling us to love unconditionally - a love we’re to extend even to our enemies. We just don’t hear. Maybe we’ve stopped listening. I wonder how many times God speaks and we become like Samuel - assuming it must be someone else. I wonder how many times God speaks and we become like Eli - denying that anyone is speaking at all. Just in these ten verses, Eli and Samuel seem to become great examples of how easy it can be to give up on God.
With all due respect to our friends in the United Church of Christ - and I have lots of friends in the United Church of Christ - the real question isn’t whether God is still speaking. God is always speaking. The real question is whether we’re still listening. And all too often I think the answer is that we’re not. I’ve referred before to one of my favourite editorial cartoons - with God looking at the earth, a tear falling, and saying “What part of “thou shalt not kill” did you not understand? We understand well enough. We just choose not to listen! But there’s hope. There’s always hope. Because there’s God, there’s always hope. If we go back to the story of Eli and Samuel, we discover that for all their refusal to accept that God might be speaking, “the lamp of God had not yet gone out.” It still hasn’t. The light still shines; God’s word is still there; God’s voice can still be heard; God’s will can still be understood. A call to peace. A call to love. It’s not hard to hear. We just have to listen!
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