Our Old
Testament lesson begins,
“The word of the Lord was rare in those days,
and visions were not widespread.”
But that
doesn’t mean God wasn’t speaking.
The Bible
tells us that God speaks creation into being.
If God were
not speaking his creative word right now,
we wouldn’t be here.
So if “the
word of God was rare in those days,”
it means no one was listening.
Maybe they
were too busy.
Or maybe
they thought God was too far away
to speak to them.
Our lesson
tells the story of how a little boy
named Samuel learned to listen to
God.
Samuel was
the servant of Eli, the blind old priest in Shiloh.
Together
they lived in a simple dwelling, little more than a tent,
but the Ark of the Lord was there.
In front of
the Ark stood “the lamp of God,”
an olive oil lamp on a gold stand.
It burned
all night every night
as a sign of God’s presence.
Samuel slept
each night 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 next
time Samuel heard his name,
he prayed, “Speak Lord for your
servant is listening.”
That’s how
Samuel became God’s prophet.
The Bible
says, from that time on
he let none of the Lord’s words fall
to the ground.
Samuel shows
us a better way to pray.
It is a good
thing to talk to God.
--
a good thing to ask God for help.
Each day, I
give God a long to-do list.
I give God a
lot of advice on how to run the universe.
That’s fine.
I am sure it makes God laugh.
But that can
add up to a lot of talking
and not much listening.
Prayer is a
conversation for building our relationship with God.
It’s how we
get to know God.
But that
doesn’t happen if we do all the talking.
Talking to
God is only half of it.
The other
half is listening.
So how do we
listen to God?
One way uses
our imagination.
We can use
our imagination to hear God saying
what the Bible tells us God is
saying all the time.
God called
Samuel’s name.
God calls
the stars by their names. Psalm 147.
Jesus calls
each of us by name. John 10: 3
Jesus is
calling your name, every day,
just as he called “Samuel. Samuel.”
So start by
hearing in your mind the voice of Jesus
calling your name.
Then answer
as Samuel did in a way that invites
Jesus to tell you what he wants to
say.
Ask, “Lord
what do you want me to know?
Lord what do you want me to do?
Lord, what are you doing in my life?
Lord what do you want for me?”
Then use
your imagination to hear God’s answer.
Maybe the
answer will really be Jesus speaking to you.
Maybe it
will be something you have just made up yourself.
So whatever
we hear though prayer, we need to hold lightly.
We need to
be humble.
First we
listen to God with our God-given imaginations,
then test what we hear.
We ask: does
this fit the Scriptures and the teachings of the Church?
Does this further the Church’s
mission to reconcile all people
to God and each other in
Christ?
Is this true to the gospel message
of God’s love for all people?
If the words
we have imagined fit with the those things,
then it just may have been Jesus
talking.
We may think
the word of God must be a long way off.
We may think
that only the priests can hear it and tell us what God wants.
But listen
to what the Bible says.
“(God’s word) is not in heaven so
that you should say
‘Who will go up to heaven for us and
get it . . . ?
Neither is it beyond the sea that
you should say
‘Who will cross the sea for us and
get it. . . .?
No the word is very near to you.
It is in your mouth and in your
heart
for you to observe.” Deuteronomy 30
God speaks
to you through your own heart and your own mind.
Teachers
from St. Ignatius Loyola to C. S. Lewis
have said that God gave us our
imagination
as well as our eyes and our ears.
The
imagination is the eye of the heart
that can see spiritual truth.
It can also
go haywire. It can be crazy.
That’s why
we have the Bible and the Church
to keep us straight.
So we don’t
need to be afraid to listen to God.
Every day,
Jesus calls your name,
hoping you will answer like Samuel,
“Speak Lord, for your servant is listening.”
