Listening to God 1 Samuel 3:1-10; 1 Corinthians 6:12-20; John 1:43-51

 

Grace, mercy and peace be with you, from God our Father, and our Lord, Jesus Christ.

 

We’re going to talk about listening to our Lord, and doing what He calls us to do, and being what He calls us to be… 

 

… based on our Old Testament, especially verse 10:  10 And the Lord came and stood, calling as at other times, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant hears.” 

 

It’s one thing to hear, but it’s another thing to listen. We can hear what’s being said, but to understand, we need to listen… actively listen…

 

… which can be hard work… it requires self-discipline, especially if we’re in the middle of a disagreement… 

 

… we want to get our point across, and so we might be thinking about how we’re going to respond, what we’re going to say next, rather than focusing our attention and our energy on listening to what the other person is saying, so that we can accurately hear and understand it.

 

Listening is a part of loving and respecting our neighbor, so that we don’t misunderstand or misrepresent what our neighbor is saying… 

 

… as the 8th commandment teaches us to in not bearing false witness, but  trying to communicate accurately and honestly and benevolently, with and about our neighbor.

 

Ephesians 4:15 teaches us to speak the truth in love. The same is true in our listening… to strive for truth, and listen in love, for our neighbor’s good.

 

Listening to our neighbor, in truth and love, begins by hearing and listening to God, which brings us to our Old Testament lesson. 

 

Samuel was the last of the great judges or leaders, that God raised up for Israel before the time of the kings.

 

God called Samuel to serve Him while he was still a very young man. God works through people of all ages.

 

And it was quite a thing that God called him to do, to correct and rebuke and replace his master and mentor, Eli.  

 

Our Old Testament tells us that Samuel was sleeping and was awakened by a voice calling for him. 

 

Thinking it was Eli, Samuel went to him and asked what he wanted. Eli said: “I didn’t call you; you’re hearing things. Go back to sleep.”. 

 

A little later it happened again, and again Eli said to Samuel, “Quit bothering me. Go back to sleep.”

 

And then it happened again. 

 

That third time, Eli figured it out. He told Samuel, “Go back and lay down, and if you hear it again, say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant listens.’”

 

Samuel went back to his bed and laid down, and it says, The Lord came and stood, calling as at other times.

 

The Lord came and stood there, delivering the message in person. He said, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant hears.”

 

And Samuel heard something that maybe he wished he hadn’t heard, because it wasn’t going to be easy to do.  

 

The Lord said: “I am about to do something in Israel that will make the ears of everyone who hears about it tingle… in other words, something that will shock everyone, will get everyone’s attention.

 

The Lord told Samuel that He was going to follow through on the warning He had given to Eli and his sons.  

 

Eli’s sons were godless hoodlums. 1 Samuel 2:12 says they were scoundrels with no regard for God. 

 

To understand what they were doing that was corrupt, the people would bring their offerings and sacrifices to the tabernacle, and the choice parts were to be given to God as a burnt offering by the priest. 

 

Instead, Eli’s sons demanded that the people give the choice parts to them, which they ate, or sold and made money on. 

 

And it gets worse: they were using their positions of power to get the young women who served as attendants at tabernacle, to sleep with them… 

 

… and possibly, we don’t know this for sure but it wouldn’t be surprising, they may have been hiring them out as prostitutes.

 

Whichever it was, God knew, and He was not happy with them. 

 

Eli found out about it and told his sons to stop, but they ignored him, they treated him with contempt, just as they treated God with contempt… they had no respect for anyone.

 

Eli, for whatever reason, failed to hold his sons accountable, and so for the sake of His people, God intervened.

 

He sent a prophet who warned Eli that God had taken His blessing away from him and his sons…

… and that their descendants would not replace them, there would be no dynasty…

 

… and God would punish them – both of Eli’s sons would die on the same day. 

 

And as for Eli, he would be replaced by a godly leader, who turned out to be Samuel.

 

And so in the middle of the night, God called out to Samuel, and told him that He was going to punish Eli and his sons, as the prophet said God would. 

 

In the morning, Eli asked Samuel what God had said to him, and Samuel had to tell his boss, his teacher and mentor, that God had told him that He was going follow through on the words of the prophet, and severely punish him and his sons… 

 

… which did happen sometime later, as Eli’s sons were both killed in the same battle, and the ark of the covenant was captured by the Philistines. 

 

When Eli heard about it, he fell off his chair, broke his neck, and died.

 

It surely wasn’t easy for Samuel to deliver the bad news to Eli, but Samuel had heard God speaking to him, and had listened, not just with his ears, but with his heart, and mind… with the Holy Spirit in him, and so he did it.

 

It’s the Holy Spirit in us through holy Baptism and the holy Gospel, that opens our minds and hearts to truly hear what God tells us in His Word, and to believe and embrace it, and practice and obey it, even if it may go against what the world is believing and doing.

 

A spiritually healthy relationship with God is one in which we truly want to hear what He has to say to us… what He can teach us… how He can make and mold and form us to be like His Son, to better know Him, and make Him known.

All this drives us toward God’s Word, which is His personal voice to us.

 

He has words for us, words we need to hear… words of comfort, words of correction, words that sustain us, and words that challenge us.

 

So let us hear and take to heart, what God speaks to us in His Word.

 

In this world where there is a lot of talking and a lot of noise, but not necessarily a lot of listening, let us first, listen to God in His Word, with an open heart and mind…

 

… and then, listen to one another, not with stubborn arrogance that hears only it wants to hear, but with humble love and respect, seeking to understand and to help and serve others, so that, in the name of our God, we might make a difference in this world.

 

And then, when we, like Samuel, must confront what’s wrong or evil or false, may we, with the help of God, do so with wisdom, and boldness, and with strong but gentle love.

 

And when others approach us with correction, may we have the courage to listen and hear, so that it might be profitable to us and to others, in making us more like our Lord, whose Word is the treasure we hear and believe.

 

And as we hear our Lord calling our name, to serve and follow Him, may His peace, which passes understanding, guard our hearts and minds, in Christ Jesus, to whom we respond, “Speak, O Lord, your servant listens.” Amen.