Vocation is
a word many people use to describe a job.
But a
vocation is more than our work.
It is our
life.
Vocation literally
means “calling.”
It isn’t
something we have chosen to do.
A vocation
is our response to an invitation from God.
God invites
all of us to life, to joy, and to peace.
But God
invites each of us as an individual
to follow our own personal path
through life.
Today we
will celebrate some of us being called
to live a Christian life in the
sacrament of confirmation.
We will
celebrate the call of some to worship
as Episcopalians on the rite of
reception.
We will
celebrate your priest’s call to serve
as pastor of this church family,
your vestry’s call to govern the operation
of this congregation.
We will
celebrate the calls of Sunday School teachers
and others.
Each of us
is called by God.
We are
grateful to those who listen.
Today’s
lessons are about listening to God’s call.
Our Old
Testament lesson is about the little boy, Samuel.
The Bible
says, “The word of the Lord was rare in those days,
and visions were not widespread.”
Now that
doesn’t mean God wasn’t speaking.
The Bible
tells us that God speaks creation into being.
The fact
that we are here shows God is speaking.
God’s
Eternal Word is what sustains the universe.
So if the
word of God was rare in those days,
it means no one was listening.
We don’t
know why they weren’t listening,
but we know why people are not
listening today.
We are just
too busy.
Our minds
are busy.
Our heads
are full of thoughts.
We are
always planning, imagining, dreading, hoping,
remembering, trying to figure things
out.
We are busy
of body, and even busier in our minds.
A great
rabbi, Martin Buber, called it “commotion.”
He meant our
constant activity and inner chatter,
our busy minds.
“Commotion.”
Noise. Distraction.
This is why
we cannot hear God whispering.
Just so, in
Samuel’s day, no one was listening.
Even little
Samuel did not intend to listen.
He did not
expect God to speak to him.
He just
staying in the holy place
because his mother had given him to
the priest
to be a servant in the
Lord’s house.
The Bible
calls it “the Temple of the Lord.”
But it was
not the great stone and timber building
we think of as the Temple.
Solomon
would not build that until over a hundred years later.
Samuel and
the blind old priest Eli lived in a simple structure,
little more than a tent.
But it was
holy because the Ark of the Lord was there.
And in front
of the ark there was an olive oil lamp
on an ornate gold lamp stand.
That lamp
was called “the lamp of God.”
It burned
all night every night
as a sign of God’s presence.
Samuel lay
down to sleep each night
in the presence of God.
He lay down
before the ark
with the lamp of God as his
nightlight.
Probably he
had already been asleep
and had awakened early.
It was
before dawn because the Bible says,
“the lamp of God had not yet gone
out.”
So he
awakened in that magical mystical pre-dawn darkness
to hear somebody calling his name.
It never
occurred to Samuel that God might speak to him.
So he
replied to Eli.
And Eli
said, “I didn’t call you. Go back to bed.”
Again Samuel
heard the voice and replied to Eli.
Again Eli
said, “I didn’t say anything. Go back to bed.”
It happened
a third time, and this time Eli got it.
He said, “It
is the Lord calling you, Samuel.
If he calls again, answer him.”
The Bible
says, “Samuel did not yet know the Lord,
because the word of the Lord had not
yet
been revealed to him.”
That was
about to change.
The next
time Samuel heard his name spoken
in the lamp illumined night,
he prayed, “Speak for your servant
is listening.”
And so
Samuel became the prophet of God
and the leader of Israel.
The Bible
says, from that time on
he let none of the Lord’s words fall
to the ground.
Now the
point of the story is simple:
If we spend
time in the Lord’s presence,
just being still and paying
attention,
we will hear our
calling.
It doesn’t
take any complicated spiritual disciplines.
It is just
being quiet and paying attention.
Very simple.
But not many of us do it very often.
We are too
busy.
We are too
busy doing a million little things.
We forget to
do the main thing – to find out our purpose.
We get so
caught up doing things,
we forget to ask why we are doing
them.
We miss the
call of God,
and if we miss the call of God,
we miss the road to joy
and peace in life.
A great
Christian writer named Walker Percy once asked
“Is it possible for a man to miss
his life
the way he might miss a
bus?”
Of course
that is what happens to many people.
It is so
easy to miss our life
because we did not take time to
notice
what we are living for.
And what is
all this commotion about?
Do we think
it makes us important?
Or maybe we
are keeping busy to avoid something.
The
spiritual teacher, Henri Nouwen, used to say,
“a busy heart is a dead heart.”
Why would we
want to deaden our hearts?
It takes a
special kind of courage to be still
and get to know the Lord.
We do it by
praying and then just staying quiet awhile,
paying attention to the thoughts and
feelings
that follow prayer.
You see
God’s main way of speaking to us
is through us, through the stirrings
in our souls.
It’s the
being still and noticing that comes hard.
We may get
bored or anxious or restless
but we can trust God to show up for
us
if we show up for him
-
if,
like Samuel, we come together at his altar
each week;
then pray each
day, and spend some time in silence –
then little by little we discover
something.
We may not
hear a voice like Samuel did,
but we get a sense of God’s deep
peace.
We get a
sense of how God loves us
and loves the other people around
us.
Eventually,
we want to be of some service
to each other for the sake of mercy
and the love of God.
It does not
come as a burden or a chore,
but as a chance to live life a
little deeper.
These
callings we celebrate today
are examples of what happens
when we do not let the
Lord’s words
fall the
ground.
We take vows
to live a holy and faithful life.
We commit
ourselves to the service of God
and each other.
We sink our
roots deep into faith.
And we find
our way to joy and peace.
