2nd Sunday after the Epiphany
January 21, 2018
1 Samuel 3:1-20; Psalm 139; John 1:43-51
The history of caller ID goes back to 1968 in Athens,
Greece, where a communications engineer named Ted Paraskevakos began trying to
figure out how to transmit a telephone caller’s phone number to the phone of
the called receiver.[1]
From 1969 to 1975 he received twenty different patents related to this process, including this one:
A Japanese inventor, Kazuo Hashimoto, built the first prototype of a device to
display the caller ID number in 1976; it’s on display in the Smithsonian. In
1984, BellSouth held the first market trial for caller ID in Orlando, Florida,
and it was the marketing department of BellSouth who first coined the phrase “caller
ID” to name this service. My parents did not pay for these services and I did
not have caller ID until my first cell phone. These days, however, you can’t
buy a telephone, whether cell or landline, without caller ID. It has become
completely normal and ubiquitous. Today, we use caller ID to see who’s calling
and choose whether or not we want to answer. We use it to avoid telemarketers. When
the number comes up as unknown, we often don’t answer, or answer with a very
skeptical tone of voice. Our demeanor in how we answer a call varies depending
on who we believe is calling. I answer the phone a lot different when it’s CVS,
which is usually a robo-call telling me my “prescription is ready for pick up,”
than when it’s one of my parents calling.
In
this morning’s Old Testament story about Samuel, Samuel really could have
benefited from caller ID. God calls him, and he replies to Eli. Samuel didn’t
know it was God calling. As I mentioned last week, you can’t talk to someone if
they don’t answer the phone. God calls Samuel, and then waits until Samuel
answers him before giving him instructions. God invites Samuel to be present,
and then waits until he has Samuel’s attention and Samuel is present to hear
what God has to say. God’s call is an
invitation for us to be present.
Even
though we do it a lot, we don’t actually have to ask God to be present in our
lives. God already is present and active
in our lives. We don’t always recognize it, but God is already there. Take
a look at Samuel’s back story. His dad, Elkanah, had two wives. One wife,
Peninnah, had children; the other wife, Hannah, did not. Peninnah taunted
Hannah for being barren. Every year the whole family went to Shiloh to worship
and offer sacrifices to God. One year Hannah stayed longer in the temple, crying
out to God for a child and promising God, “If you will only look on your
servant’s misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a
son, then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life.”[2]
That’s quite a vow: if you will give me a child, then I will give him back to
you. The priest at the temple, Eli, saw Hannah praying and thought she was
drunk because she was moving her lips but praying in her heart. Hannah told him
“No, I’m not drunk; I’m just pouring out my soul to God. I’ve been praying out
of my great anguish and grief.” Eli answered her, “Go in
peace, and may the God of Israel grant you what you have asked of him.” Hannah
and Elkanah had a son, whom they named Samuel, which means “heard by God.” Once
Samuel was weaned, they took him to Eli and gave him back to the Lord. Samuel
stayed with Eli in the temple and got to see his parents on their annual
pilgrimage to Shiloh when they would bring him a new robe in addition to the
sacrifices to God. Even though “the word of God was rare in those days and
there weren’t many visions,” Samuel still had the faithful witness of his
parents. Even though before God’s call “Samuel did not yet know the Lord,” he
still would have seen the faith of his parents in their yearly trips to worship
and offer sacrifices and he would have known the story of his birth and why he
was at the temple at Shiloh. God was active in Samuel’s life even before Samuel
knew God. God was present. And then one day God invited Samuel to be present to
him.
The problem, of course, was that Samuel didn’t have
caller ID and he responded to the wrong person, he was present to the wrong
thing. He heard his name being called and went and found Eli, and said, “Here I
am. You called me.” And this happened three times before Eli figured out that God
was calling Samuel. Eli told Samuel, “If it happens again, say, ‘Speak, Lord,
for your servant is listening.’” You see, you
have to make sure you’re present to the right things. There are many, many things competing for your
attention, many voices that want you to pay attention to them. Just look at
your inbox for your email account: sales, promotions, appointment reminders, social
media notifications. We live in a world full of distractions and full of things
that want your attention. And just like Jesus tells Martha, “You are worried and
upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Your sister, Mary, has
chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”[3]
Only one thing is needed. Pay attention to God. When he calls, come into his
presence with praise and thanksgiving and a heart ready to listen. To do that,
you have to know who’s calling, which calls you can ignore (or unsubscribe
from) and which calls you should answer.
Sometimes
it’s easy to know who’s calling. You have caller ID. It’s simple to realize
that the voice telling you to eat more chocolate is not God’s voice. Or the
nudge toward the produce section in the grocery store is a nudge from the Holy
Spirit that you want to pay attention to. My Grandpa is a retired Methodist
pastor and he knew quite clearly when God called him that it was God calling
him. He used to be a banker on Wall Street; lived in northern New Jersey and
took the bus across the bridge each day. One day, on the bus ride home, he
heard his name being called, much like Samuel heard his name. Only my Grandpa’s
name is Eldrich, which is a bit more unusual name, and that’s how he knew it
was God calling him. No one else would ever have known his name or been able to
guess it. But God knows each of us, as we read in our psalm. God has searched
us and knows us. He knows when we sit and when we rise. He is familiar with all
our ways. He knows our names, whether they are unusual or not. Sometimes it’s
easy to tell when it’s God speaking.
Other
times, it’s harder to tell. Two people call you at the same time, which call do
you answer? It depends on your priorities. As you’ve probably guessed, I tend
to hang up when it’s an automated message on the other end. And I always answer
when it’s the kids’ school, because it usually means one of them is sick. But
what are your priorities of which voice to listen to? Do you watch TV more than
you read your Bible and spend time in prayer? Do you follow your friend’s
advice that “one more donut won’t hurt” instead of heeding your doctor’s advice
to watch your sugar? Where does God’s voice get prioritized? God, who says,
“Love each other as I have loved you.”[4]
God, who says, “Take care of the stranger in your land because you were once a
stranger.”[5]
God, who says, “I gave each of your gifts, and I expect you to use them.”[6]
God, who says, we are to offer him the first fruits of our work, not the
leftovers and the bottom of the barrel.[7]
These are not always things we want to hear God say. These are not always
things to which we want to give our attention. It is easy to give our attention
to other things, to the voices that say you need more, you need the newest, the
latest, the most up-to-date, the biggest, the best you can afford, you need to
go shopping! You need to be afraid. You need to worry that you’re not safe.
Those are the wrong things to pay attention to. Psalm 4:8 says that only God
keeps us safe. And on some level we know that more is not better and new is not
always better and might does not make right. It used to be said that you could
look at your checkbook to see where your priorities are. We don’t write checks
as often we used to, but it’s still the same idea. Look at your bank statement,
your credit card statement, Jesus says, “Where your treasure is, there your
heart will be, also.”[8]
Is your heart paying attention and present to God?
Being present to God means that you’re
paying attention and listening closely.
God tells Samuel he’s about to do a new thing, and both ears of everyone who
hears it will tingle.[9]
That’s usually what happens when God calls. He’s got something new in store.
Something that will make your ears tingle, tingle with excitement and
anticipation, and tingle with uncertainty, because new things always mean
something old is going to change. I’ve shared quite a bit about God calling me
to become a pastor when I was in Nicaragua. I don’t think I’ve shared the story
of how we moved to Maryland from North Carolina. My husband couldn’t stand his
old job and spent a solid year job hunting in the Triangle area (Raleigh,
Durham, Chapel Hill). Absolutely nothing opened up. We had always known he’d
enjoy a field position with the company, but most fields are so big that you’re
gone every night during the week. For example, the field that includes Raleigh,
where we lived, is all of North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Kentucky. He’d never be home. At the
end of that year of job hunting the field position for Maryland opened up,
technically, Maryland, Delaware, and Washington, D.C. In this field, most of
the customers are concentrated enough that he can drive out and back in a day.
We were given a weekend to decide whether or not to take it and move. It was
December, the season of Advent, and at all three worship services that Sunday I
read the same passage from Isaiah, which included this line, “Be strong. Do not
fear! Here is your God.”[10]
Fear was the biggest thing keeping us back from moving away from family and
friends. God said, “Do not fear.” Once we took fear out of the equation, it was
obvious that moving two states north
was the right choice. It hasn’t been easy. We’ve had to rebuild a support
network, make new friends, navigate ways Maryland culture is different from
North Carolina. Oh, and we moved while I was pregnant with our youngest. I do
not ever advise moving while pregnant! However, God called. Something about my
husband’s job had to change. We were present. God said, “I’m about to do a new
thing. When everyone else is moving south,
you’re going to move north.”
God’s
call is an invitation to be present, to pay attention. God loves to do new
things, but he loves our participation in his work, using the gifts we’ve been
given. Sometimes that gift is what Philip did for Nathanael in our Gospel
reading this morning. Jesus called Philip, “Follow me. Come, be present to me.”
Philip went and invited Nathanael to join him, “Come and see. Come and be
present to God with me.” God invites us to be present to him. We invite others
to be present to God. You have to make sure you’re actually being present to
God and not something else. God is already present in our lives. And when
you’re paying close attention to God,
all kinds of things happen: people are loved, the world is transformed, we’re
less tied to our stuff, we’re more open to see how God is moving in the world
and inviting us to be part of that movement.
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