The Voice Among Many Voices
January 15, 2006
Ralph DiBiasio-Snyder

1 Samuel 3

Introduction to the Reading:

Wouldn't it be nice if God talked right out loud to us? Or would it? We just might not want to know what God would say . . . Well, that's the issue for today: How are we to listen for, and discern among all those very loud voices in the world, the "voice of God?" The story we are about to hear makes it sound pretty simple. The young boy Samuel is asleep, and the very old high priest Eli - he is Samuel's mentor, teaching him how to be a priest - old Eli who can barely see, and we can guess his hearing isn't so hot either, Eli is asleep too.

Then God calls to Samuel, right out loud. Now, he's never heard from God before, and apparently the voice of God sounds a lot like the voice of Eli to him. Who else would call for him in the middle of the night if it weren't Eli?

Note the curious introduction to the story: This was a time when the revelation of God was rarely heard or seen. That seems to imply that there had been a time when the revelation of God - God speaking to humankind - had been pretty common! I don't know when that was! Be that as it may, we could say of our time, that the revelation of God is rarely heard or seen . . . And that is the challenge we want to think about today.

Let's listen to the story of the prophet Samuel's call from God to ministry . . . .

We all heard this story one Sunday last November, on that day when we asked you to try to see in three Bible stories reflections of our life together as a church. Where is each story did we show up in some way . . . and how did each story challenge us, or ask questions of us?

You did a wonderful job thoughtfully reflecting on this story of Samuel and Eli. Many of your observations had to do with hearing the voice of God. You said that we are a congregation that tries to discern that voice . . . . but perhaps we are not always successful in hearing it. We are not a people who think that all of God's revelation is over and done with, for all time sealed in the pages of the Bible. "God is still speaking," we want to affirm. And the story of Samuel's call fits that idea very well.

But you said that, just as with Eli and Samuel, it is not always easy to tell just what God is saying. In fact, it's usually not easy, is it? But just because it's not easy, that doesn't mean we should give up trying to hear that voice.

Some of you took comfort in that we, just like in the story, have to hear something a number of times, repeated perhaps from different sources, before God gets our attention. The persistence of God's call is encouraging; it doesn't come just once, and if you missed it, too bad, Samuel, I'll try someone else.

You saw too in this story a wonderful example of a child teaching an adult. The call is not to the veteran priest Eli, perhaps stuck in his ways. The call is to youth - for it is often youth who are open to a fresh invitation from God. We as a church value our children and young people, and have listened to them, at times from this very pulpit. But the challenge is to us "older people," who, it seems sometimes, can barely see the working of God, as sure as we are that we know how the world works, and what God will and will not do. Are we so asleep to the possibility that God could call us to a new and challenging ministry, that we miss out on it? Do we say to the prophets among us, "Go back to sleep; we didn't call you." But scripture tells us that "A little child shall lead them."

The year-long planning process in which we are engaged begins with an assumption. That assumption is that we can as a group of faithful people listen for, discern, and follow the direction of God. To people outside - and maybe a few of inside as well - that sounds crazy. Who are we to think that God would lead us? Who are we to think that we can sort out from all the voices of the world, that single Voice, "talking" to our church? As crazy as it may sound, and as unprovable it will be when we say by faith that we have sensed God's direction for us, we need to affirm that God is still speaking to us. We need to affirm that God cares about what we do, and if God cares what we do, then God will lead us.

Let me offer today three principles of guidance - three ways in which we can as individuals and as a group hear God's voice - not out loud like Samuel, but nevertheless discern what God would call us to be about.

First, and most obviously, we have listen. That is, we need to learn to be deliberate about listening for God. God's voice is seldom overwhelming, loud and clear. Sometimes circumstances call us up short, grab our attention, and force us to be quiet for a change, and listen to God. But most of the time unless we are listening for it, we won't notice God.

There is a great story about Elijah who one day was trying to hear a word from God. And a great wind came up, as powerful as a hurricane, and passed over Elijah. But the story says that God was not in the wind. And then a great earthquake rumbled all around Elijah. But the story says God was not in the earthquake either. And then fire came over the mountainside, but, says the story, God was not in the fire either. And then came "a still, small voice," and it was in this "still small voice" that Elijah discerned the presence of God.

Listening, then is essential. We can do things to practice this lost art of listening. We can sit and be quiet, alone or in a group. We'll be having a time of silence in just a few minutes, where we can practice listening!

But listening too is not just a deliberate practice, but an attitude. An attitude of openness, that says that God could in fact speak if we are willing. An attitude of expectancy - that says we are not left alone by God to our own devices, that we should expect God to lead us, and encourage us, and correct us. If we begin by saying God would never speak, we can be pretty sure that the heavens will be silent, just as expected. That's the second principle of guidance: an attitude of expectancy.

So we listen, with expectancy. And thirdly it really helps in this project if we've had some experience in the past in discerning that Voice above the rest. Many of you remember the trademark of the RCA Victor record company, one of the most famous trademarks of all time. It is a painting of a dog, his head tipped intently to one side, as he peers down the sound horn of an old gramophone machine - an early record-player, that's what people in the 1890s had instead of ipods! The dog's name is Nipper, and the painting was done in 1884. It's called His Master's Voice. The implication is that Nipper is hearing the voice of his owner coming out of the sound horn, and Nipper knows that voice above any voice on earth. He knows it because he has heard it again, and again, and again. He has experience listening for that voice, and he knows it, even if it comes out of a very strange machine, the gramophone. Listening for the Voice . . . of God helps if you some experience.

And just how does the voice of God sound? What has been our experience in hearing it before so that when it comes again we will know it to be God's voice? If God is still speaking, as I believe it is, how will we tell it?

God's voice is invariably the voice of grace, of mercy, of humility. It is the voice of wisdom, of truth, of peace. It is also a voice of judgment, calling us to honesty and justice, to change and to action. The voice of God is the voice of respect, of reconciliation, of peacemaking. It is the voice of Christ as we know him in our Gospels.

If you hear a voice claiming to be from God, but it is a voice of proud defiance, of violent confrontation - it is not the voice of God. If it is a voice that demeans and belittles, a voice of disrespect, that separates and divides people rather than reconciles and unites, it is not the voice of God. If that voice claiming to be God's voice is arrogant and boastful, graceless and unmerciful, parochial and small, it is not God's voice. If it is a voice that exalts the rich and the powerful, without concern for the poor, the lonely, the oppressed, it is not God speaking.

On this Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday weekend we of course think of him, a prophet of modern times who spoke truth to power, who paid for it with his life. His voice was recognized by many as the call of God to this nation to rid itself of our shameful segregation, a voice who challenged us all and confronted us with the sinfulness of our ways, but yet insisted on non-violent means to change our country. He of course was not perfect; the voice of Martin and the voice of God were not synonymous, just as every prophet's voice is a mixture of the human and divine. But where he spoke the truth about who we were as a people, he spoke the word of God. And where he spoke words of reconciliation, of non-violence, of understanding, he spoke the word of God.

We discern the Voice of God only if we are listening for it, daring to expect leading from God. And through our own experiences, then, and those of others, we learn what are the distinguishing marks of the divine Voice.

Our planning process is called Holy Conversations. For very often it seems God speaks to us not directly, as with Samuel, but through other people, as we talk together sharing our hopes and fears, our dreams and our worries. As we converse with each other in this process, certain ideas will come up again and again, from different sources. Those emerging directions will be shaped as others evaluate and define more closely what is being heard. Through prayer, through rational analysis, through supposed lucky circumstance, a vision will form out of those conversations. It's impossible to tell how the process will go. "The wind blows where it will," said Jesus, talking about the unpredictability of the Spirit. This is an open-ended process we're in!