What do you do when God calls your name? How do you respond?
You might be tempted to protest, just a bit, “Well, God just doesn’t speak to me very often or at least so dramatically. I really wouldn’t know to respond.” If you responded that way to the question, you’d be pretty typical, I believe. And, in fact, in our Old Testament reading from the 1st Book of Samuel, it says that “the word of the Lord was rare in those days” as well.
But the Psalmist had no such reticence or reluctance to speak about God. Listen again those familiar words from Psalm 139:
LORD, you have searched me out and known me; *
you know my sitting down and my rising up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.
You trace my journeys and my resting-places *
and are acquainted with all my ways.
Indeed, there is not a word on my lips, *
but you, O LORD, know it altogether.
You press upon me behind and before *
and lay your hand upon me.
The Psalmist claims a relationship with God, a relationship which may be more difficult for some of us to claim. And the implication of that relationship, which may be a bit disconcerting, is that God knows us before we know God. Today’s scripture readings are filled with that theme that we are known by God often before we know God or can recognize the call of God.
The boy Samuel, about 12 or 13 years of age, serving with the elderly Eli in the temple, had the experience of God knowing him before he was able to recognize God. God actually spoke to Samuel at night, awakened him from sleep, three times. And Samuel, rather logically it seems to me, thought that he was being called by Eli. But it was not Eli who called. It took the wisdom of Eli, the experience of dealing with God which Eli had, to prepare Samuel to hear and respond to the call of God. Note that: it took someone else to help the boy recognize God’s call.
Here is something else which is especially important and might have some meaning for the rest of us as well: “The story of Samuel illustrates that a call [from God] is not dependent upon age or a previous relationship with the Lord.” Simply put: God chooses whom God will when God will. “God knows us and calls out to us long before we know God; and sometimes the insights of a wise friend or mentor is necessary in our recognizing God’s movement in our lives for what it is.” 1
Other people in our lives serve as God’s agents, as those who help us learn to recognize God’s call in life. Happily, many of us have been blessed to know truly committed Christian people who have been influential in helping us to know Jesus better. They have not only taught us the faith, but they have showed us the faith as well in the way they’ve lived, in what they’ve said and done and thought.
The best teachers, the ones who have the most profound influence on others, are the ones who live what they teach. I saw somewhere recently the memorable quote, “Good teaching lasts forever.” Those who lead us into the paths of righteousness are the people who “live the words they pray,” as one hymn says it.
A 19th century pagan philosopher said, “I might believe in the Christian Redeemer if Christians looked more redeemed.” 2 That is a problem, isn’t it? We can talk about Jesus although sometimes we don’t act as if he has changed our lives.
In contrast to the story of the boy Samuel, we have Jesus’ encounter with Nathaniel. Nathaniel was the ultimate skeptic, it seems. He knew – as everyone with any intelligence knew – that nothing good and certainly no one important could come from dusty, backwater Nazareth.
Yet, in one brief encounter with Jesus, his entire life changed right before his eyes. He went from being the ultimate skeptic about Jesus to becoming (almost) the ultimate believer in Jesus. Jesus told Nathaniel that he “knew” him, saw him before he ever met him, and told him where he saw him. You might be able to hear Nathaniel echo the Psalmist, “Lord, you have searched me out and known me.”
Personal experience with God: in Samuel’s case, responding to God’s voice – “Speak, Lord, you servant listens.” In the case of Nathaniel, it was meeting Jesus and having Jesus confront him. “You are the king of Israel!”, he responded in awe and wonder.
Personal experience changes things from the abstract to the concrete. One of the problems most people have with theology is that it seems so theoretical, so hard to grasp in every-day terms.
This past week our church calendar celebrated the life of Hilary of Poitiers, a 4rth century bishop. One of things Hilary is best known for is his battle with Arian bishops around him. Now right away, I know that your eyes will start to glaze over and you may be planning the rest of your day as I continue to speak. Listen to me for just a moment more, please.
For its boring sound and seemingly complex name, Arianism is very simple to understand. It says that Jesus is not truly divine, was not with God from the beginning of eternity, and was really little more than a special creature. In other words, Jesus was not God. And if you think that’s just a dusty old battle from far-distant times, in today’s religious life and culture, many Unitarians and Jehovah Witnesses are Arians. Jesus was essentially a nice man with perhaps a special relationship with God.
I think there are a many people out there who call themselves Christians who feel pretty much the same way; that Jesus was not really God. They are modern day Arians. But they are wrong, as wrong now as they were in the fourth century. They are wrong now and they will be wrong for all eternity.
They need an experience with the Living God. Better yet they need an experience with the Living Christ. But if they have such an experience will they know how to respond to it? Will they even hear when God calls them from the din of society around them and the distractions of wealth, money, prestige, and power?
Too often we are easily distracted. What often passes for faith in Christ today is often little more than a walk in the park on a sunny day when all is well. When we are not challenged by life’s difficulties – poor health, unfilled ambition, unfaithful relationships, or the loss of job, family members, or friends – then it is fairly easy for most of us to believe. But when the distractions of the world begin to take over our existences, belief becomes more of a challenge.
Some years ago, a friend of mine lost his job and was unemployed for a number of months. When he had found a new position and had a steady income again, we spoke about his struggle during the time he was unemployed. He made an interesting comment, which I remember vividly. He said, “From this experience I learned that it is a lot easier to pray when I have money in the bank.” Possibly most of us would say the same thing.
Here’s really what’s at the heart of today’s scripture readings. What happens when God speaks through adversity, through confusion, through difficulty of faith and belief, through illness, through loss? What happens when God prompts us in ways that make us uncomfortable and maybe unhappy? What happens to us when the familiar is threatened?
Can the voice of God be in such events?
What do you do when God calls your name? How do you respond?
File that question away for a bit, and we’ll come back to it.
The Very Rev. Theodore W.Bean, Jr.
Dean of the Cathedral
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1 Synthesis, January 15, 2012.
2 “Have We Found the Messiah?”
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