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    Sep 09, 2018

    But I’m Just a Boy

    Passage: 1 Samuel 3:1-10

    Speaker: Rev. Vivian McCarthy, Pastor

    Category: Discipleship

    “Speak Lord, your servant is listening.”  When we are ready to answer like that, God’s directions could come from some really crazy places!  What an adventure!  And how amazing that God can use you – or you – or you – or maybe even me!  “Speak Lord, your servant is listening!”

    The story of Samuel is pretty long in the Bible.  It starts with Hannah who longed for a baby so much that she promised God that if she could just have a child she would give him up to serve in the temple with the priest Eli.  She actually turned him over to Eli when he was weaned.  While we aren’t sure how old he was, there is a reference in the book of the Maccabees that indicates he could have been somewhere between 3 and 5 years old.  I can’t imagine giving up my child at any age – much less that young! 

    Then except for a few places in his story, Samuel is in the background, working on behalf of God but not on center stage – but we’ll get to that over the next couple of weeks.  Today’s story took place while Samuel was still a boy serving as an assistant to Eli, the priest.  He probably did chores like keeping the lamps filled and trimmed and cleaning up after services in the temple.  Today we might say he was an acolyte. 

    Imagine his puzzlement when Eli continually sent him back to bed.  And even more, imagine his puzzlement when Eli finally realized that it was God calling him!  Can’t you just hear him say, “but I’m just a boy!” 

    Today there are two things I hope we will take from this passage.  The first takeaway is especially for the young people in our congregation, and it’s pretty simple. 

    God often calls people who are not the ones we would expect.  It doesn’t matter how old you are or how smart you are or how much money you have or how handsome or beautiful you are.  It matters only that you listen for what God has to teach you and where God is leading you.  

    That’s why Sunday School and worship and being part of a faith family are really important.  Remember that Samuel had literally lived in the temple with Eli since he was just a little, tiny boy.  He learned more and more about God every single day, and when God called him, he was ready to listen and to do what God told him to do.  Being with your faith family helps you to be ready – to learn what the scripture says about how to love God by loving people.  To learn what’s most important – and I bet some of you could tell us all right now what the greatest commandment is:  love God and love your neighbor – right!?! 

    So, as you participate in Sunday School and worship and learn more and more about God, I hope you will be thinking about how you can serve God – right now and in the future.  Maybe God will call you to be a doctor who takes care of people who need good care – or who goes to a place where there is no doctor to take care of sick children.  Maybe God will call you to solve a problem like getting clean water to remote places.  Maybe God will call you to be a pastor to help others know the love of Jesus.  And maybe – just maybe God is calling you right now to help us see what God wants us to do right here in our own community.

    It hasn’t been so long ago that one of our children showed some of the grown ups that we needed to treat our church guests with deeper kindness.  That child could see that something we did unconsciously needed to be changed.  And it was clear that the child’s concern grew out of an understanding of God’s immense love and kindness.  

    Which leads to the second thing I hope we will take from this passage.  When my children were young, I went to a training event and the closing activity was a purse or wallet scavenger hunt.  We were to take something from our purse or wallet that spoke to us of God’s place in our lives.  I have no idea why, but I pulled out a piece of gum or maybe it was just a gum wrapper. 

    I think I said something like, “well, this reminds me of my children – my greatest gift from God.”  It was a pretty surface answer.  Not much depth but the best thing I could think of at the moment. 

    Then someone in the group jumped in and looked me square in the eye and said, “maybe God is trying to teach you something through those children.  What is it that God is showing you through them that impacts your ministry?” 

    God truly speaks in unusual and unexpected ways – which aren’t always obvious to us because we aren’t ready to receive them.  What if our children have something important to say and we are so convinced that our way is the best way and we just kind of pat them on the head or ignore them because we don’t think they know enough to have an important opinion?  What if we miss God’s message because the messenger just doesn’t fit our definition? 

    Wait until you hear the rest of the story!  Even though this Samuel was dedicated to God even before he was born, even Samuel’s life had some strange twists and turns and the unlikelihood of his being God’s messenger didn’t end with his being called when he was just a little boy. 

    “Speak Lord, your servant is listening.”  When we are ready to answer like that, God’s directions could come from some really crazy places!  What an adventure!  And how amazing that God can use you – or you – or you – or maybe even me!  “Speak Lord, your servant is listening!”