Speak Lord

Preached at Christ Episcopal Church, East Tawas, MI by the Rev. Daniel Cannon on 1/18/09

Friends as strange as it may seem to some in our culture today, the Bible portrays a God who speaks to us. Even when God’s voice becomes rarely heard as in the time of Samuel, the Scriptures show us that God is still speaking…it is just people had forgotten how to listen.

Samuel, a young boy who later became the prophet who wrote the biblical books of 1^st and 2^nd Samuel, had to be taught how to listen to God by his mentor Eli.

The Bible tells us that the boy Samuel heard a voice in the night crying his name, “Samuel, Samuel!” So he got up and ran to his mentor Eli, and said, “here I am you called me.” Eli was probably mad being awakened late in the night but he kept his calm and said, “I didn’t call you my son; lie down again.”

That happens to me occasionally, I’ll hear Chrissy call and go in ask what she wants just to find out that she didn’t call. It makes you wonder what the sound was that was playing tricks on your ears. Usually it’s the TV or the wind or something. But in Samuel’s case it happened again… “Samuel!”

Again he ran to Eli and he said, “Here I am, for your called me.” Again Eli responded that he didn’t call, ‘go back to bed.” Samuel must have been feeling crazy this time, perhaps thinking Eli’s playing a trick on him. I’m guessing he stayed awake listening on his bed. And sure enough a fourth time, “Samuel!”

This time he runs to his mentor and says again perhaps with exclamation, “Here I am for you called me.” It seems that Eli finally got the message this time. Ah ha, maybe there was someone else speaking, maybe even God. This time Eli says, ok go back to bed, and if he calls you, you shall say, “Speak Lord for thy servant hears.”

Now this time if nothing happened Samuel would probably been feeling a bit crazy…so I’ll bet he listened his heart out for what he heard next. It said the Lord came and stood forth and said: “Samuel, Samuel!” Notice that the Lord came and stood there perhaps in the form of an angel. Or perhaps this is more the invisible presence of the Lord was now made clear to Samuel, since he was listening and waiting for him.

Perhaps this is a lesson for all of us. That we need to be eagerly waiting and listening for the Lord’s voice in our lives before we will actually perceive his presence with us. And when he finally recognized God in his midst, Samuel replied, “Speak for thy servant hears.”

I believe that this is the response that that each of us is called to make personally in our lives. You see it seem that God speaks to us most clearly when we are listening for his voice and anticipating his presence. He doesn’t often speak in audible words but he often speaks with thoughts that pop into our minds…or a feeling that tugs at our hearts. Those words from God are easy to overlook if we are not listening.

But I believe that we have some evidence that at Christ Church, many are listening. Look at the amazing ministry of Angel Food that was started at Christ Church because two of our members heard God calling them.

Richard and Lora Broussard felt called by God to share with others the blessing that they had received, through Angel Food. And when they told the ladies of the ECW and the vestry of Christ Church they wanted us to be a host site…they were listening too. It seemed that the whole congregation began to hear God’s call to feed people. And so many of you began helping out with Angel Food.

In our Church meeting last spring we made assisting people with food our mission focus. And people from the congregation suggested that we add to Angel Food, fresh produce perhaps from a Church garden. This spring that garden is expanding with the addition of a community garden for the Tawas area, where families can grow their own food.

Isn’t it amazing how each of us listening to that voice of God in our lives can lead us all as a parish into wider and wider circles of ministry. And it doesn’t stop here. We are called to keep listening, with anticipation that the Lord is near…that he is speaking to us even today, telling us what’s next in his plan for our parish and our lives.

Let us say together the words of Samuel found in the last words of our

first reading, “Speak for thy servant hears!”