Listen...God is Calling!

Try to picture this for a second. You’re at home, watching television, and all of a sudden the picture goes dark and you hear a voice that sounds one hundred times clearer than the high definition sound you were listening to, and it’s speaking directly at you. Or, it’s an average day at work, and the phone rings and there’s this majestic voice speaking over an angel choir, addressing you by name and asking if you’ll hold for a call from God. Maybe it happens as you’re sitting in the classroom, scribbling furious notes about the Pythagorean theorem when the pen flies out of your hand and begins writing all on its own. Then, when you read the words, they are spelling out a message from God to you! What if this happened? What would you say? What would you do?

This is exactly what happens to Samuel. He’s minding his own business one day, when all of a sudden, he hears it: “Samuel! Samuel!” He hears it loud and clear, and he does what you and I might do. He starts to wonder: “Who’s behind this?” He runs to the only other person there, his mentor Eli… “I’m here, I’m here!” But it wasn’t Eli who called. Three times this happens and three times Samuel does the same thing, jumps up and runs to Eli.

You and I would do the same thing. We’d turn off the tv and look around the house. We’d sit on the line and try to figure out which one of our friends concocted this elaborate prank. We’d search the classrooms for the hidden cameras. “This has got to be a joke, right?”

God calls Samuel three times to put down the remote control, put all of his other calls on hold, stop writing theorems, and instead start speaking to the people. God’s call is clear: “I made you to be a prophet, and now I’m asking you to get started.” Samuel, this is what you’re here for.
Who could blame Samuel if he didn’t figure this out the first time? Who can blame him if it takes three separate calls :

“Samuel…Samuel…Samuel!”

After all, this little story begins by telling us that “the word of the Lord was rare in those days…” (1 Samuel 3:1) Things like this just weren’t happening.

Some people would say that the word of the Lord is rare today…that the things that happened to Samuel don’t happen at all any more.

I met someone this past Sunday, though, who would argue with that, and I happen to think that she would make a case that would be very convincing. She’s less than a year old, yet if you asked her, she would say that God is still speaking, and things are still happening. She won’t use words to tell you about it today, but give her some time and one day she’ll let you know all about it.

On Sunday, she had a Samuel-esque experience. She was held by the people she knows best as she listened to a lot of words. There, in the mix of them, she heard one word that she already recognizes: her name. “…child of God, you have been sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked with the cross of Christ forever.”

Right in the middle of this, something strange happened to her. Amid the swirl of words she felt a sudden and cool rush of water trickle over her forehead as she was baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Like Samuel, she may have wondered: “Who’s behind this?” Like you and I, whenever something unusual happens, she may be asking “Is this a joke?” Later, she’ll learn just as Samuel did, and just as you and I do…that God is behind this, and it’s no joke…because in the water God spoke her name, God called to her, and God made her His own child.

I can almost hear you asking the question, though. Thinking about an infant and wondering: “How do you know she’ll remember any of this?” “How can you be so sure that she will know?”

Why will she remember it? Because she’ll have plenty of people to help her to remember it. How will she know that God spoke on January 18 2009? Because her mom and dad and her baptismal sponsors: will tell her about it. She and her brother will get used to hearing the story of how God spoke to each of them. When she’s older, she’ll hear all about how the people who loved her most bundled her up on a very snowy day and brought her to the font because the God who loves her more than anything had something special to say to her. Samuel had Eli to point him in the right direction. She’s got people who will do the same thing.

Nathanael had a similar experience. When his friend Philip told him that God was in their neighborhood, he was skeptical. Then Jesus walked up to him and told him that he had been there the whole time, that he knew him better than Nathanael had ever dreamed. Then, he told him, this is just the beginning, there’s a whole lot more to come… “you will see greater things than these.” (John 1:50)

It’s the same with us, God meets us first in the waters, but then follows us every day of our life. At work, in the classroom, even when we’re lounging in front of the tv. God comes to us and calls us by name…always inviting us to be a part of what He’s up to in the world, always inviting us to share his message of love and forgiveness with a world that sometimes thinks he’s stopped speaking altogether.

Jesus called the world with his life, every bit of it. He did things for God that no one else could ever, or would ever do. He gave all that he had, and trusted that God would call his name even when things seemed dark and hopeless. He gave everything, He gave all that he had to meet you, to meet me, and this past Sunday to meet a little girl who he’s known before anyone else.

God comes just to tell us that He loves us, and He has a very special plan for each of us.

If you heard God’s voice, booming loud and clear through the speakers on your television or the receiver on your phone, you’d listen, right? If God’s own hand started writing a message in your notebook, you’d read it, right? If God interrupted your life to tell you what He wanted you to be and do with the rest of your days, you’d do it, right? It’s ok if you’re not sure…it took Samuel three times before he got it. It took Nathanael a little while before he heard. It will take you, and I, with the help of God most of our lives to hear it…but if we listen, we’ll find out sooner or later that God is here, and he’s calling us.