2nd Sunday after Epiphany
1 Samuel 3:1-18a
Now the boy Samuel was ministering to God under Eli. The word of God was rare in those days; visions were not widespread. At that time Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see, was lying down in his room; the lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of God, where the ark of God was. Then, God called, “Samuel! Samuel!” and he said, “Here I am!” and ran to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call; lie down again.” So, he went and lay down. God called again, “Samuel!” Samuel got up and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call, my son; lie down again.” Now Samuel did not yet know God, and the word of God had not yet been revealed to him. God called Samuel again, a third time. And, he got up and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” Then Eli perceived that God was calling the boy. Therefore Eli said to Samuel, “Go, lie down; and if you hear the voice, you shall say, ‘Speak, God, for your servant is listening.’” So, Samuel went and lay down in his place. Now, God came and stood there, calling as before, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”
Then, God said to Samuel, “See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make both ears of anyone who hears of it tingle. On that day, I will fulfill against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end. For I have told him that I am about to punish his house forever, for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them. Therefore, I swear to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be expiated by sacrifice or offering forever.”
Samuel lay there until morning; then he opened the doors of the house of God. Samuel was afraid to tell the vision to Eli.
But, Eli called Samuel and said, “Samuel, my son.”
[Samuel] said, “Here I am.”
Eli said, “What was it that God told you? Do not hide it from me. May God do so to you and more also, if you hide anything from me of all that was told to you.”
So, Samuel told him everything and hid nothing from him.
King’s Legacy
The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was born to Michael and Alberta King, the second of three children, on January 15, 1929. His father was a minister, who was sent to Berlin for the Congress of the Baptist World Alliance in 1934. With Nazism on the rise, The Congress Baptist World Alliance issued this resolution: “This Congress deplores and condemns as a violation of the law of God the Heavenly Father, all racial animosity, and every form of oppression or unfair discrimination toward the Jews, toward colored people, or toward subject races in any part of the world.”
Across the street from King’s childhood home was a business owned by a white family, and King befriended their son. But, when it was time for the boys to start school, King had to go to the school for black kids, and his friend was sent to a whites-only school. A short time later, his friend’s parents told King he was no longer allowed to play with their son. They said, “We are white, and you are colored.” When King told his parents about this, they talked with him about the history of slavery and racism in America. This eventually caused him to say that he was “determined to hate every white person.” But, his parents told him that it was his Christian duty to love everyone.
In high school, he honed the craft of public-speaking, joining the debate team. He gave his first public speech at an oratorical contest in 1944. On the way home to Atlanta, he was forced to give up his seat to a white passenger, and had to stand the rest of the way home. He later wrote, “That night will never leave my memory. It was the angriest I have ever been in my life.”
King went to Morehouse College, a historically black college, and then to Crozer Theological Seminary in Upland, Pennsylvania. While there, he fell in love with the daughter of a German immigrant, but ended the relationship after six months on the advice of his father, who told him that marrying her would invite hostility from both blacks and whites, and that he would never pastor a church in the South. His friends have been quoted as saying that Betty was “the love of King’s life” and that “he never recovered.”
He began doctoral studies in systematic theology at Boston University in 1951. At age 25, in 1954, he was called to serve as pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, and then earned his PhD the following year.
His colleagues in ministry asked him to take a leadership role during the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955, sparked by the arrest of Rosa Parks when she refused to give up her seat. It was a call to action. King had been preparing his whole life for this. God had been preparing him his whole life for this. The word of God was a fire inside of him, yearning to be spoken into the world.
We are all called by God at some point in our lives, usually at many points in our lives. Sometimes we hear and understand. Sometimes we don’t, which is case of poor Samuel in our reading today, woken up in the middle of night by God calling, “Samuel! Samuel!” Samuel runs to his master Eli, saying, “Here I am! For you called me.” But, Eli tells him to go back to bed, because Eli had done no such thing. God called again, “Samuel!” So, he went to Eli, but Eli tells him to go back to bed, again.
It’s interesting that God is calling to Samuel instead of Eli, because Eli is the priest, and Samuel is just a boy who doesn’t even know who God is. Eli was an important man in the community, he had status, he performed the rituals at the temple. But, God needed someone new. Eli had failed, Eli’s sons had failed, so this message isn’t for Eli. It’s for Samuel.
A third time, God calls to Samuel, and finally, Eli realizes what’s going on. He remembers a time when God used to speak to people in that place. So, he tells Samuel to go back to bed and lay down, and if he hears the voice again, he tells him to say, “Speak, God, for your servant is listening.” Samuel went back to bed, and when God called his name, “Samuel! Samuel!” he said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”
Speak God, for your servant is listening. Like Samuel, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. answered God’s call. The Montgomery bus boycott lasted for over a year, during which time, King’s house was bombed. Then, he was arrested for speeding, which drew national attention, increasing his stature. The United States District Court eventually ruled in Browder v. Gayle that racial segregation on Montgomery public buses was prohibited, and King became a national leader in the civil rights movement.
God spoke to King and rose him up to change the world. King used organized, nonviolent actions to protest the Jim Crow laws of the south. His participation in a mass sit-in in Atlanta highlighted how the presidential campaigns ignored civil rights. He went to another sit-in at a department store, and was arrested. Throughout his life, King would be arrested 29 times. Organized and nonviolent does not mean obedient and deferential.
King helped to organize protests in Birmingham, Alabama, where police used high-pressure water jets and police dogs against the protestors. Footage of the event made the news, shocking the nation, and solidifying the movement. Once again in prison, King wrote his now-famous “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” In the letter he writes about how the now-celebrated Boston Tea party was illegal, while everything that Adolf Hitler did in Germany was legal.
He delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech to over a quarter of a million people at the March on Washington on August 28, 1963. The March, and in particular King’s speech, helped to get the Civil Rights Act passed in 1964. And, he went on to do so much more, until he was killed on March 29, 1968.
Tomorrow is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Streets and schools have been named after him, as well as restaurants, choirs, and little league teams. We honor Martin Luther King Jr. as a modern-day prophet. He heard God’s call, and he answered.
God is still calling. God is still speaking. Every day, God is calling out to us. God called out to Samuel to bring a new thing into the world. What new thing is God calling for you to bring? Sometimes we cling so hard to the old ways that we can’t hear what God is saying. But, God can bring goodness out of anything. In this story, Eli represents the past, and Samuel represents the future. But, we need the foundation, and the understanding, and the wisdom of what came before us. If it wasn’t Eli, Samuel would still be wondering who was calling out to him in the night.
The Rev. Jason Byassee of Timothy Eaton Memorial Church in Toronto, Ontario wrote that “in a religious world where we often cling to the husks of things long dead,” the fact that God can “raise up faithfulness in the debris of human unfaithfulness” “is good news. There is a new generation coming. God will not let its words fall to the ground. The best days of God’s people are not behind us, with the exodus and Sinai and the promised land. No, the best are still to come, with yet more prophets, and an entire world redeemed. God’s people cannot be known for our nostalgia. We must be known for our hope.”
God is calling for us to bring that hope into the future. As we look ahead in this new year, we know that God is going to challenge us. God is going to push us out of the places where we feel comfortable. God is going to draw us out and ask us what we’re doing. We need to be ready. We need to be listening. What new thing is God calling for you to bring?
Amen.
~ Rev. Charles Wei
