Holy Ghost Stories, part 3

Today for our third Sunday of our Holy Ghost Stories, we are back in the Old Testament talking about one of my favorite old school prophets:  Samuel.  There’s so many interesting things about Samuel and his life that it would be impossible to detail them out in one sermon, but I do want to give this morning’s lesson some context, so I’m going to hit the highlights of Samuel’s life to frame up this morning’s story.

From the story of Jacob last week, we skip forward roughly 19 generations directly down Jacob’s lineage to a man named Elkanah (the third Elkanah in this genealogical line descending from Levi).  Elkanah lived in Israel during the rule of the High Priest Eli, who sat as judge interim after Samson (more on Eli in a minute).  Elkanah took a wife, named Hannah.  We are told in the earlier chapters of Samuel that Elkanah loved his wife Hannah more than anything…however, she was unable to conceive and bear a child.  In this day and age, that was a big problem, because marriage wasn’t based on the same principles we hold to today; in this time frame, marriage was more of a business transaction that resulted in offspring.  Not that love didn’t play a part in marriage, it just usually wasn’t the basis of it.  We know Elkanah took a second wife (not in succession but simultaneously) and her name was Peninnah.  We are told that Elkanah continued to love Hannah more, even though Peninnah bore him children, so there was an immense amount of jealousy between these two ladies, as you could imagine. 

More than anything, Hannah wanted a child.  The dreams of her childhood hinged on her becoming a mother; dreams that remained unfulfilled.  We are told that her grief drove her to the temple, where she began to pray and weep before the Lord.  She wept with such vigor that, when noticed by Eli, the High Priest, he assumed she was drunk.  After spending a little time with her, he quickly realized that this was not the case.  He heard her pray to Yahweh, promising that if she could just bear one son, that she would promise to keep in a Nazirite (which was the same as Samson…couldn’t cut his hair, couldn’t drink alcohol, and could never be ritually impure).  Previous verses tell us that Eli blessed Hannah and sent her on her way.  Shortly after, she conceived and bore a son, and his name was Samuel, which means “I have asked him of the Lord”.  Faithful to her promise, when the time came that Samuel was weaned, she took him to Eli at the temple at Shiloh to be trained as a Nazirite being that he had been consecrated at conception to the service of Yahweh (or God) (you and I may view “weaning” being around age one, but in the day and culture of Samuel, weaning typically didn’t occur until around 4-5 years, and some Rabbinical Scholars protest that it could even have been upward of 12 years). 

So now we’re up to today’s text in our timeline.  Our current description of Samuel utilizes the term “boy”, meaning he would be under the age of 13.  The people of Israel were in a famine; not of food, or water, or any other physical shortage, but they were in a famine of Word.  That’s important to remember as we approach what is about to happen.  It’s night, and both Eli and Samuel are in their places in the temple.  Samuel suddenly hears his name called.  He runs to Eli and proclaims “here I am”.  Eli, who’s eyesight is failing, awakes from his slumber, confused, and sends the boy back to bed.  This happens again; Samuel hears his name, and this time with a little frustration I’m sure he wakes Eli up again to find out why he keeps calling his name but again Eli tells him he didn’t call him…and to go back to bed.  Then, the third time; Samuel hears his name called with great haste, and he runs to Eli and again, proclaims “here I am”.  Samuel has to be a little aggravated at this point…or maybe a lot mad.  I really don’t like being woke up before I get my 8-10 hours in (I do enjoy sleep), and to get woke up 3 times, for no reason by someone who claims they didn’t wake me up?  Samuel is a better person than me because I would have made a scene; a bad scene for sure. 

The much older, and wiser Eli started to realize what was really going on here.  Eli suspected that the Lord God was calling out to Samuel.  Remember, Samuel wouldn’t have any idea what this is like; for the Word of the Lord had become scarce in this time, but Eli, being a High Priest, would be able to recognize what was happening.  He tells Samuel to go back and lay down and the next time the voice calls out to him, to respond “Speak, for your servant is listening”.  And in this space, Yahweh began to speak.  And what The Lord says to Samuel wasn’t easy to hear.  He was told that the house of Eli would fall; that Eli and his sons would meet their end because of the sins of the sons.  Samuel was told that the Lord is about to do something that will make the ears of everyone who hears it tingle.  These are some difficult things to hear, and even more difficult to express.  When approached by Eli who is eager to hear the Word that was revealed to Samuel, Samuel was hesitant to speak.  And who wouldn’t be; I wouldn’t want to be the one to tell someone that God was not happy with them and not only their way of life, but their actual life, is coming to an end. 

Today’s text, although occurring in the 11^th century BC, speaks to us in some amazingly relevant ways in the 21^st century AD. 

Does anyone here ever hear voices?  Don’t raise your hand…because hearing voices is what crazy people do.  Or, at least that’s what we’ve been told.

We all hear our own voice in our head…sometimes we’re telling ourselves not to do something, or we’re reasoning something out.  I have a running commentary going in my head at all times.  I’d venture to say most of us do.  But, stick with me here.  Have you ever heard a thought in the 2^nd person?  That voice, instead of being “I” focused, presents itself and its views in the “You” format, speaking to you and not from you?  If we’re all being honest, we could all probably answer yes to that.  So what did you do with that?  How did you respond?  Did you dismiss it, did you reason it away, or did you give it the space it needed for discovery?  Did you ever consider that, possibly, you were hearing from the Spirit of God in that moment? 

We know that God communicates with us in a variety of ways; Samuel actually heard the voice of the Spirit of God speaking directly to him, trying to demand his attention.  It was so concrete and so audibly clear that he immediately assumed, as any of us would, that it came from the only other person occupying the space adjacent to him.  It was when Samuel’s response changed from the active to one of receiving that he created that space of openness and that posture of authentic listening that the Spirit began to reveal. 

Every single one of us here have heard a Word from the Spirit.  I guarantee that at least one person will contact me after this sermon and say “pastor, I ain’t never heard from God”, and I’ll respond, “oh, but you have…you just weren’t listening”.  And that’s true for all of us at times.  I’ll be honest and say that sometimes I listen to respond, and sometimes I listen to understand.  This is, also, true for us all.  So when we’re not listening to understand, what’s the stumbling block that provokes us to respond to the Spirit, asking “what is it”, instead of “speak, for your servant is listening”? 

Sometimes it’s pride.  You know…I’m on my path, I’m doing things my way.  Even in the church, as the church, we’re “doing God’s will”, you know.  We’ve got a food pantry, and we give people a few dollars for gas when they stop by.  We have our Sunday School and weekly service.  We’re doing alright.  We’ve done it this way for years and it works out because we’re doing what we affirm we need to be doing.  But, could it be that because of that, we’ve stopped listening? 

Or, sometimes we mistake the human voices of authority around us as the voice of the Spirit of God.  And that’s an easy one to do if we are being honest with ourselves and each other.  Even here, the Word was given to Samuel, and it was Samuel in Samuel’s words that then relayed the Word to Eli and the people of Israel, and there are times (many times) that the Spirit will use others to communicate with us.  And then we allow things like trust, and blindness, and personal gain, and what we want to cloud our judgement and discernment (because, let’s face it…if someone is saying what we want to hear, then surely that is the Word of the Lord, because it’s what we want to hear and it’s totally compatible with our own personal values, our own personal convictions, and our own personal desires). 

And sometimes we’re just plain closed off to God and we don’t want to hear from the Spirit, so we take on a posture of trying to crowd God out of the space where the Spirit dwells in an effort to muffle the Word, because we aren’t in a place where we are willing to say “speak, Lord”. 

The voice of the Holy Spirit can be a frightening thing; frightening to hear, and frightening to listen.  The Word challenges us, transforms us, and it places high demands on us.  And for these challenges, transformations, and demands, we say “thanks be to God”.

This week I want you to do two things:  I want you to think about when you have heard God speak and what helped you to know it was God speaking.  I also want you to, every day, set a timer for 5 minutes, and go to a peaceful place, and allow the world whirling around you to stop.  Stop, and for that 5 minutes, listen for God.  Create a space for the Spirit to speak, and when you hear, listen.