Your Servant is Listening
1 Samuel 3
The beginning of a New Year presents a wonderful opportunity to take stock of where we are, and where we would like to go. We make resolutions, and commit to new practices to improve our health or be a better person. In the Methodist tradition, it is common to hear a prayer written by John Wesley in the new year we call the “Wesley Covenant Prayer.” It goes like this:
“I am no longer my own, but thine.
Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt.
Put me to doing, put me to suffering.
Let me be employed by thee or laid aside for thee,
exalted for thee or brought low for thee.
Let me be full, let me be empty.
Let me have all things, let me have nothing.
I freely and heartily yield all things
to thy pleasure and disposal.
And now, O glorious and blessed God,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
thou art mine, and I am thine. So be it.
And the covenant which I have made on earth,
let it be ratified in heaven. Amen.”
This prayer has a beautiful and humble simplicity. It is a wonderful foundation for resolutions we might set for the New Year. The staff and I took some time last week to take a retreat for a day where we met to talk about 2024, did some bonding over lunch, and also took some time to visit the Mother Cabrini shrine for some spiritual reflection. I invited them (and myself) to set some intentions for 2024. Here are some of mine: in 2024, I want to slow down, to teach more, to turn to wonder and curiosity more than judgment or a quick answer, and to listen as much, if not more, than I speak!
Listening pops up in the scripture passage we will be looking at this Sunday: 1 Samuel 3. In this story Samuel, a child, is awakened by the voice of God. “The Lord called, “Samuel! Samuel!” and he said, “Here I am!” Samuel didn’t think that God was speaking. He ran to Eli and asked him what Eli wanted from it, but it turned out that Eli wasn’t speaking! It took two other times before Samuel was led to understand this as the voice of God.
Earlier in 1 Samuel we hear a description of the zeitgeist in the community: “The word of the Lord was rare in those days; visions were not widespread.” For some time, God’s word wasn’t heard by many during this time. God seemed silent. “Visions were not widespread” and the high priest of the faith himself was going blind.
Dare I say that, as a pastor of a Christian church in the United States in 2024, this all seems a bit too uncomfortably familiar? Hearing the voice of God or perceiving any of God’s vision for the future seems impossible. People in charge seem unable to perceive very clearly the way forward.
I wonder if there was as much anger and anxiety then as it seems to surround all of us now. How can we receive God’s word when it seems rare? How can we receive God’s vision for us when, today, visions are not widespread?
I think one of the most important points of this story is the kind of person that ends up hearing God’s voice: a very young child, not even a professional priest but an acolyte of Eli’s, named Samuel. When God spoke at that time, the only one listening was a child.
What can children teach us about listening, and how can children remind us to pay attention to what God is doing? We are going to explore that this week. And maybe then we can resolve this year to the humility of Wesley’s covenant prayer as we become aware of the call God has for all of us.
