Grace, Mercy, and Peace to you from the Holy Trinity. Amen.
The word of the Lord was Rare in those days. If you're interested in Biblical history at all, this passage is the only time the combination of Hebrew words used to make that phrase is ever used. If you're not interested in Biblical history, I'm sorry to have just wasted one sentence of time...
Anyway, I was trying to think of a time when the word of the Lord was NOT rare...I mean, really...God spoke through the prophets, God spoke to the world through Jesus, the early church fathers who were determining what went in the bible and what didn't presumed that God spoke through Paul, though some people might disagree. God spoke to Sara and Abraham, Moses and Miriam, Eve and Adam...and spoke to them directly. But if we believe that the Bible isn't a complete history of the world, there had to be many many people who did not hear God speaking directly to them, and the ones that got it were included because it would be pretty boring to read through the first several chapters of the Bible with several hundred stories like "Melthese lived his whole life never hearing God speak to him, and that made him sad"
But the reality is...the word of the Lord is rare. And I'm often times wary of people who claim to have heard God speaking directly to them...because it really just seems like they're generally using their own voice, but projecting it larger and calling it God. Preachers of the prosperity Gospel are famous for this....Give "god" money and you'll be blessed is the message on the big screen at the satellite campus. Yet the man behind the curtain is living in a $15 million mansion and effectively telling people that he is God. And that CERTAINLY isn't the voice of God.
Or preachers who tell you that they heard from God that they could cure you if you believed hard enough, or prayed with them (for a fee, of course) and yet you still died.
I don't even think this claim to hear the word of God is relegated to those theological traditions we disagree with. In this church, both sides of the aisle on the decision to ordain clergy in Publically Accountable Lifelong Monogamous Same Gender Relationships claimed that they heard the voice of God telling them that their convictions were the "right" ones. Or when the ELCA entered into the "call to common mission" with the Episcopal Church and people were divided in the name of God...or any number of other things that are just projections of people's already held biases onto God.
The word of the Lord was rare in those days. So rare, in fact, that Samuel thought it was his teacher Eli calling him in the night. And like a dutiful and obedient student he goes to Eli 3 different times saying "here I am". I'm certain this confused Eli the first couple times, because he knew he didn't call Samuel. But, since he was a holy man, he finally had the good sense to realize that it was God who was calling to Samuel...after all, they were in the place where the ark of the covenant was kept...they were literally in the presence of God according to how they understood God's presence. So Eli figures this out and tells Samuel to respond to the Lord the next time.
And here's where things take a crazy turn. Samuel has been obeying the command of his teacher and responding correctly with "here I am".
Yet, once he learns that it is God, his response changes. No longer does he boldly say "here I am". Instead, he says to the Lord "Speak Lord, for your servant is listening."
And this week...that line just killed me.
Because it changed my perception of God in a way that is going to force me to grow. Which is a good thing, but man is it painful. I've always been pretty good at showing up and saying "here I am" to things....which just dumps me right in the lap of pridefulness....I'm good at saying Here I am. Good at talking. Good at projecting my voice on to God. Good at believing the word of the Lord was rare in these days.
Several months ago, when it came into the public consciousness that the North Miami Beach police department was using pictures of real African American people in their target practice, I joined in with other clergy sending our pictures to them via twitter and postal mail with the message and hashtag #usemeinstead to send the message that it is harder to shoot a (white) clergy person than it is to shoot a young black man, because we are so blind to the system of racism that pervades our country. This project started out from a dialogue between anglo and African American clergy, but quickly took on a life of its own. A good friend of mine made several critiques of us (the anglo pastors participating) which were, quite frankly, hard to hear. We were accused of once again co-opting the struggles of black life and bringing our whiteness to focus, pushing the lives of the people who were being shot at in the photos to the back of the bus.
Those were hard words to hear for someone who just wanted to show support, and to point out the double standard many of our police forces operate under. All of a sudden my "here I am" became an act of violence against African American lives through my blind use of privilege and the expectation that my voice be heard.
Through many conversations after that moment, I learned an important lesson from my colleagues and friends of color. Shut up and listen.
Like Samuel needed his teacher to tell him his earnestness was nice, but wasn't what was expected of him, we all have teachers in our lives who have told us to shut up and listen. We all need to hear God's voice more often.
And this week...it killed me to read that the voice of the Lord is rare, because maybe it's not rare at all....maybe the voice of the Lord is rare because we just won't stop talking. Maybe the word of the Lord is really incredibly prevalent but we drown out the noise of it with our talking, with our facebooking, with our cynicism, with our vapid optimism, with our blindness to our own power and privilege, with our desire to get to the top of the ladder, with our glorification of busy-ness, with our lawn mowers and car engines and oil rigs, with our excessive consumerism and rampant individualism....maybe these things are so loud that they literally drown out the voice of the Lord....that they make us think it's rare because WE rarely stop and listen.
Because if we stop to listen....if we finally learn to shut up and say "Speak Lord, for your servant is listening" we may hear the voice of the Lord all around us.
We may say Speak to the woman who has to commute to work an hour every day to two low wage jobs because she can't afford to live in the place she works....speak, for your servant is listening.
We may say Speak to the homeless man we pass on our daily drive yet know nothing of his condition. Speak, for your servant is listening.
We may say Speak to the woman in the detention center who came to the United States out of necessity because our trade agreements have pushed our neighboring countries further into poverty. Speak, for we, your servants are listening.
To the border patrol agent, who thinks that detaining people is the most human thing possible....speak, for we are listening.
To the wind as it blows around houses in places where wild grasses used to purify the air, Speak....for your servants are listening.
To the earth itself which begs for water in some places, and roars with flood waters in others, thanks to global climate change, Speak.....for we, your servants, are listening.
Speak! People of color who's voices we oppress.
Speak! People in poverty we'd rather ignore.
Speak! People who grate on our nerves at work
Speak! earth and seas
Speak! Wind and sun
Speak! Our own hearts.
Speak for your servants are listening.
Listening for God in the cries of injustice and in the still beating of our own hearts
Listening for God in the sounds of this building and in the breaths we each take.
Listening for God in the silence, and in ourselves.
Amen.
