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Walking in the Light of His Glory: Part 2 – We Hear His Call!
Walking in the Light of His Glory: Part 2
We Hear His Call!
1 Samuel 3:1-10
† Jesus, Son, Savior †
May the grace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ be a call in your life that you always answer with great joy!
- A poor night’s sleep….
As I read the reading about the young Samuel learning to interact with God, I felt terrible for Eli, the prophet-priest.
The poor guy has gone blind, his kids have turned their back on God and on him, and this little kid keeps leaving the tabernacle to come to wake him up.
Eli, Eli, did you call me?
imagine you have had a long, long day, you just get to sleep, and you hear this voice…
Eli, Eli, wake up, did you call me?
and then, just as he went back to sleep,
Eli, Eli, wake up, did you call me?
He might have been thinking, “Go back to bed, you little brat!”
If only they had recognized where the young man was resting…
if you and I only recognized where we find our rest….
If you and I only could recognize the Voice calling out to the world.
- In the Presence but not knowing it…
If you were all Old Testament Scholars, you might pick up where little Samuel was sleeping. He is sleeping in the sanctuary to ensure the oil lamps on the Lamp of God do not go out. That puts him over in the corner of the Holy Place. He was probably not far from the thick curtain which separated the Holy Place from the Holy of Holiest places.
That is the place where God’s glory sat, over the Ark of the Covenant and its seat of mercy. This is where God promised Israel that He would be…. For them.
Even so, Samuel didn’t recognize the Voice of the Lord. He is sleeping just a few feet from the glory of God, hidden behind the curtain…
He didn’t recognize the Voice… and the Bible explains why…
7 Samuel did not yet know the Lord because he had never had a message from the Lord before.
Someone forgot something! Eli had never taught the young child to listen to God.
Eli was getting that repetitive message because he sinned. He didn’t teach the young man how to listen to God. Here was the man of God, whose own sight was failing, wasn’t preparing the future generation to see God.
That is the priest’s job to make sure young believers, whether 4, 54, or 94. And we are all part of God’s priesthood! We need to be the people that God uses to draw others into the presence of God and help them learn to hear His Voice.
not Bob’s, or Chuck’s, or mine
We need to help them hear God’s Voice.
Samuel would learn to do this, as he would help all of Israel hear God, and then he would try to help King Saul and the then King-elect David hear the Voice of God.
But first, Eli needed to realize that God was calling Samuel. He had to wake up and notice this. He needed to look past his own blindness and see what was going on in Samuel’s life.
That means we must get by what blinds us, what causes us to go to sleep…
We must know we dwell in God’s presence as well. For then, we realize that their annoying cries are simply a misguided attempt to answer the call of the Voice of God.
They hear His Voice, but how will they recognize it unless we help them come to the point where Eli guided Samuel.
“Go and lie down again, and if someone calls again, say, ‘Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.’ “
We can help them be still, to know that God is God…. Help them find the rest that replaces the stress and anxiety in this maddening world.
But we have to be there, in the place where we are listening to God, where we hear His Voice cry out to us…even as we respond, “Speak Lord, your servants are listening.”
- How is calling you to do? How will you serve?
I can see parallels for everyone here.
We are like young Samuel, trying to understand Who is calling us.
We are like tired old Samuel, with eyes tired that no longer want to see 2020…yet God has called us to guide others to dwell in His presence and to hear His Voice.
The thing that they had in common, that you and I share with them, was the call of the Voice of God.
The call that draws us nearer to Him, that draws our attention to the altar, to the places where He has told us He will meet us, places where He reminds us of the cross, and the resurrection. Places where He pours out His mercy, and His forgiveness
Come and listen… and then help others hear Jesus call….
And hearing the Voice of God…telling you He loves you…and inviting you to partner with Him in your life and ministry, you will dwell in His peace.
For Jesus keeps you there.. your heart and mind. AMEN!
The Purpose of Christian Education & Catechesis
Devotional?Discussion Thought of the Day:
1 So, my son, throw yourself into this work for Christ. 2 Pass on what you heard from me—the whole congregation saying Amen!—to reliable leaders who are competent to teach others. 3 When the going gets rough, take it on the chin with the rest of us, the way Jesus did. 4 A soldier on duty doesn’t get caught up in making deals at the marketplace. He concentrates on carrying out orders. 5 An athlete who refuses to play by the rules will never get anywhere. 6 It’s the diligent farmer who gets the produce. 7 Think it over. God will make it all plain. 8 Fix this picture firmly in your mind: Jesus, descended from the line of David, raised from the dead. It’s what you’ve heard from me all along. 2 Timothy 2:1-8 (MSG)
9 As you are going through life, disciple people of every ethnicity, of every nation. Do this by uniting them to Christ in baptism in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, 20 and teach them to treasure everything I have commissioned life to be.. And I will be with you always, to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:19-20 (my own paraphrase)
14 “It’s very difficult”, you exclaim, disheartened. Listen, if you make an effort, with the grace of God that is enough. Put your own interests to one side, you will serve others for God, and you will come to the aid of the Church in the field where the battles are being fought today: in the street, in the factory, in the workshop, in the university, in the office, in your own surroundings, amongst your family and friends. (1)
I was asked the other day, what I thought Christian Education is about.
I thought for a moment, and replied that it is about discipleship. About teaching people what they need to know about Jesus Christ.
It can’t just be about getting them to memorize scriptures, or creeds, or even Luther’s catechism. For memorization often is simply being able to regurgitate on command. This isn’t about imparting facts and forms, about lessons of history and systematic theology. Discipling them, teaching them is far more. It is helping them know Christ, and His word. Knowing personally the Lord who cares for them, even tot he point of dying for them. it’s not about bringing forth stuff we’ve memorized but don’t get, it is about seeing the Spirit at work in our lives, pouring out of us to affect the lives of others by bringing them to the cross.
But there is a part of Christian Education and discipleship that is often overlooked – the bringing up of people to take on teaching and preaching, to replace us as we get older, or are called to other places. To pass on what we know of Jesus, His love, His mercy, and especially His faithfulness. men who will respond with this message as it resonates in them to others. Men who will sacrifice what is needed, to focus on the ministry (reminder – we are called to do that as well) St. Josemaria talks of this as well, for some we train will serve God as clergy, but many more will serve him from their places of work, reaching people we cannot reach, reaching people we will not reach. For that is our ministry in discipling other, seeing them gathered into Christ, united to him, then reaching out to gather others in form their lives.
There is something special in this as well, as we gather men and women together in Christ, as we see them grow and minister to others in return. Such is an incredible blessing it is, when we see men that a congregation raises up to minister start to serve. But we need many more such servants, deacons and pastors, Sunday School Teachers, Bible Study leaders, who invest in others the time, so that they might know Jesus, so tht they might walk with Him, So that they may go throughout all the world, in their workplaces, in their schools, in the doctor’s offices and walmarts, That they may go into the inner cities and rural areas, To every corner, bringing and revealing Christ – for such has been invested in them.
That’s what Christian Education is about,
So shall we engage in it?
Lord have mercy… we must!
(1) Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). Furrow (Kindle Locations 294-298). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
