Oak Chapel United Methodist Church

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 Jesus would have known the story of young Samuel's call,  how (while he was apprenticing at the Shiloh shrine under Eli, the high priest, in terrible times for Israel) -- how he heard God call him in his sleep, was actually awakened by the voice, but didn't realize it was God -- how blind old Eli, after being shaken awake twice by the boy, suggested that next time he heard the voice he might try answering.  And how, when he did, God said, "…I am about to do something in Israel that will make both ears of anyone who hears of it tingle."  That story was a thousand years old by Jesus' time.  Young boys and girls, in his day, would have come up familiar with it, as we came along familiar with the story of George Washington and the cherry tree or Abraham Lincoln returning the penny.  People remember from the past what they perceive as being important for the present.  The stories about Washington and Lincoln, for example, tell us that Americans, when we are true to our heritage, are scrupulously honest.  The story of Samuel's call told the Jewish people that God often comes at the worst of times, in ways we least expect…  that we should be ready to hear his voice, and that we need to be able to distinguish it from all the others voices making claims on our lives."

   Samuel is a pivotal figure.  One chapter of Israel's history is coming to a close, another is opening, and Samuel helps to turn the page.  Acknowledged by all the tribes as a true prophet of God, Samuel puts God's stamp approval on the changes.  When Samuel was young, Israel was really not a nation at all -- only a loose-knit confederation of tribes sharing a common religion, a religion (by the way) whose most popular shrine was at Shiloh.  (Jerusalem was just a dusty hill town in those days).  Less than a hundred years later, Israel was a full-blown monarchy, the center of a small empire (no less), with politics, religion, morality all centered in a new capital city: Jerusalem.  Samuel anointed Saul the first king, and then great David.  The kingdom of Israel, with all its royal trappings, has arrived.  Suddenly we are "downtown."  This is the golden age, Israel's moment in the sun.  It will never be this good again.  Ten centuries later, when the followers of Jesus want to speak of his kingship, they call him Son of David, and his disciples ask him, "When will you restore the kingdom to Israel?"

 We know, today, that the monarchy brought with it as many problems as it solved.  It strengthened the Jews against their outside enemies (nothing like central control!), but it weakened the old rule that Israel had no king but Yahweh.  The monarchs got puffed up in their own importance (as monarchs always do), and too often forgot the God who made them.  Many centuries later, William Penn said that  "…men would either be governed by God or they would be ruled by tyrants."  The story of Israel's monarchy is proof positive of that.

 If you want to know more about the kings of Israel, you'll have to sign up for Disciple I.  It's enough to say that the great kingdom of Saul, and David, and Solomon was soon divided.  The northern half (which took the name Israel) was eventually destroyed by Assyria, and the southern half (Judah), a little later, was carried off in exile to Babylon.  And that was it.  But, way back at the time of Samuel, the coming kingdom (the establishment of a monarchy) was seen as a wonderful promise, a sign of hope.  And, if the kings of Israel had remained faithful to God, it might have been truly so.

 God's word often comes to people (and to nations) at their lowest points, bringing hope when all other hope has failed…perhaps because (and not until) all other hope has failed.  We turn to God as a last resort, and even then he is faithful.  The sad words of the Bible writer, in this story about Samuel's call, tell us how dismal things were at the time: "The word of the Lord was rare in those days," he says, "visions were not widespread."  Think of it.  A people born of God and belonging to God, but totally out of touch with him (like America today).  And the consequences for Israel had been catastrophic:  her foes devoured her armies from outside, and her corrupt leaders (most notably the sons of poor old Eli) destroyed her moral fabric from within.  (Sounds familiar.)  God came, as he often comes, in the bleak mid-winter.  To a young boy,  who didn't even recognize God's voice when he heard it.  And did amazing things.  Made their ears tingle.

 The longer I live the more importance I place on expectations.  If we expect a child to perform badly, chances are he will.  If we expect a relationship to go nowhere, that's probably where it will go.  A stranger in town walks up to an old timer and says, "We've just moved in.  What kind of people live here?"  Well, says the old man, "What kind of people live in the town you came from?"  "Oh, terrible people, selfish people, people who were just no good."  "I'm sorry to tell you," says the old timer, "but the same kind of people live here."  A few minutes later another stranger comes up and asks the same question: "What kind of people live here?"  And gets the same question back, "What kind of people live in the town you came from?"  But this time the response is, "Oh.  Wonderful people, good, honest, decent people."  "Well, I'm happy to tell you," the old man says, you'll find the same kind of people here."  A lot of wisdom in that.  What we expect to find we do find.  We bring our pre-dispositions with us and make the facts fit.  Expectations, then can be a curse, or (if we include a loving, caring God in our realities) they can be a blessing.

 One of the most beautiful stories I know about expectations comes from the Bible, from the Book of Acts.  You remember the lame man lying at the Jerusalem gate who calls out to Peter and John for alms.  "Give me a nickel.  O.K. give me a penny."  And Peter walks over to him and says, "Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have give I thee.  In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk."  That man, like the young Samuel, didn't expect to hear the Word of God.  But God cut across their expectations and made himself heard.  God is not governed by our expectations, but we sometimes are limited by them, even made despicable by them.

 All our awful prejudices, for example, are nothing more than group expectations. Isn't that right? Think about it.  He's Jewish, he'll probably try to cheat me.  He's black, he'll probably try to rob me.  He's white, he'll probably try to exploit me.  He's Italian -- he'll probably break into song at any minute.  We put people in boxes, a terrible injustice.  But, even worse, when we do that, we put God in a box.  For we are saying that God is not able to break patterns of behavior, that he cannot change people, that a leopard's spots will  always be re.  Nothing in the Bible, or in our faith, would lead us to think like that.  On the contrary, the Bible story is a story of God's breaking in, doing the unexpected, surprising his people.  Just as he appeared to Samuel, after a long absence, appeared to an unlikely person at an unlikely time, he can also appear to us.  If we are not hardened in our pre-conceived ideas.

 When God's word comes (in whatever form it comes) it brings with it both judgement and hope.  The house of Eli had to go (judgement), and poor little Samuel was afraid to tell the old man.  There are many thing in our society and in our lives that have to go, and we are often afraid to say it, for fear of being thought "judgmental."  But here is something to remember about God's word, dearly beloved: if we shy from its judgement, we never know the hope.  For example, somebody had to say that slavery was wrong (to bring judgment upon it), before we could begin the long road back from bondage.  Somebody has to say in our day that abortion is wrong, and having children out of wedlock is wrong, and living together when you're not married is wrong, and living selfish grasping lives is wrong, and  exploiting the ignorant and poor with lies and enticements is wrong. And when we say any one of these things, somebody gets hurt, for there are vested interests in everything.  But not to say it, means we are stuck with it.  God's word brings judgement, but it also brings hope, and don't expect one without the other.

 Eli told Samuel that, the next time he heard the voice, he should say, "Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening."  In other words, he told him to change his expectations.  Instead of hearing a scary voice in the night, to listen for the voice of God.  We can do that, too.  Instead of hearing scary messages all the time, about how the world is going to hell and how there is no hope, we can change our expectations and listen, instead, for the voice of God, among all those other, doomsday voices.  Chances are that God's word will include judgement (Some things will have to go.), but it will also bring hope, and the possibility of change for the better: in ourselves and in the world.  God has pulled that off time and time again.  He wants us to find hope in him.  "Fear not, little ones, it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom."