“The word of the LORD was rare in those days; visions were not widespread.”
This phrase from I Samuel sets the context for Samuel’s call to ministry. Today’s Hebrew scripture speaks about a turning point in the story of God and God’s people. This is that moment when one story ends and another story begins.
Two parallel stories lead up to this turning point. One is the marvelous story of Samuel’s birth. As you’ve noticed, having a miraculous birth is one of the things that points us to special people in scripture, and Samuel was no exception. He was a special child, the son of Hannah, a woman scripture names as barren. She had prayed for a child, promising that if she were given a son, she would raise him as a nazirite, a person consecrated to God. A son was born, and when he was old enough to be weaned, she took him to the temple and gave him into the keeping of the Eli, the priest.
The second story points to the problems in Israel. As Samuel was growing to young adulthood in the temple, Eli’s own sons had become notorious for their scandalous behavior. Priesthood was an inherited role in those days, and Eli’s sons used their position and power in ways that cheated the people and made a mockery of the laws of Israel. Eli spoke to his sons, but they didn’t change their ways, and Eli gave up any attempt to make them turn away from evil.
The turning point in these stories begins with a description of Eli sleeping
in the temple. The boy Samuel is also sleeping, but he hears a voice calling
him. Eli is apparently unable to hear the call, and at first – doesn’t
even seem to understand who it might be that is calling Samuel.
Eli’s sleep no longer holds dreams for God’s people. He is no longer
able to hear God’s voice.
He is no longer able to hear God’s call to bring justice into the world.
Twice Samuel hears a voice that he believes to be Eli’s summons, and
he goes to the old man’s side, only to be told that Eli had not called.
After the second occurrence, Eli finally understands that it must surely be
God’s voice that Samuel is hearing and instructs him to return to his
bed, to listen for the voice and to respond when he hears the call again. Samuel
obeys, and when he hears the call the third time, he makes a simple response:
“Speak, for your servant is listening.”
Samuel’s ministry as the judge who brought God’s word back to the
people of Israel begins with a dream. It begins with listening to the voice
that comes in the night. It begins with listening to God and saying, “Here
I am.”
A little more than fifty years ago, another man heard God’s voice. Tomorrow, we celebrate the life and ministry of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I don’t know how Dr. King heard his call to ministry. Perhaps the knowing was always there. Perhaps he knew when he was a little boy, sitting in Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, listening to his father preach. How did the word of God come to him? Did he hear his call in the Bible verses about God’s justice for the poor and the oppressed? Did he hear his call in his father’s preaching – or his grandfather’s preaching – or was his heart simply moved by the pain he saw in the lives around him?
Like Samuel, he spoke God’s word. And he had a dream. He had a dream. A vision. And he told us about that dream – a dream that all people would live as children of God. And he lived that dream, and he died for that dream. Dr. King named the evil in our world. He engaged the evil in this world, and the campaigns he led were instrumental to the passage of the Civil Rights Acts of 1964, 1965 and 1968.
The way wasn’t easy. Dr. King lived in constant danger. His home was dynamited, he almost lost his life to a stabbing, and death threats were a daily occurrence. He was jailed 30 times. Through all this, his faith sustained him.
And then came a night in 1957. Late at night, the phone rang. It was another vicious threat. Alone in his kitchen, Dr. King wept and prayed. And he heard God’s voice speaking to him: “Martin Luther, stand up for righteousness, stand up for justice.” And he heard the voice promise never to leave him alone, “-no, never alone.”
Eleven years later, Dr. King was killed. He was 39 years old. Dr. King was killed for speaking the truth, for naming and engaging evil, for believing that each of us has a part in bringing the reign of God into our reality. Dr. King was killed, but the work he did lives on. And the spirit he shared lives on. And the dream he dreamed lives on and leads us.
Samuel and Martin were special men, each called by God to be a prophet, each called to serve in his own time, to name the evil in the world, to engage the evil in the world, to bring goodness into the light and to help us move a little closer to the kingdom of heaven.
We are also called. Each of us is called by God to to serve in his own time, to name the evil in the world, to engage the evil in the world, to bring goodness into the light, and to help us move a little closer to the kingdom of heaven.
The way will not always be easy, the way will not always be clear,
But we can trust in one thing. No matter what happens, we will never be alone
– no, never alone.