|
First
Reading
|
Psalm |
Epistle |
Gospel |
| 1 Samuel 3:1–10 |
Psalm 139:1–5,12–13 |
1 Corinthians 6:12–20 |
John 1:43–51 |
The story of the old priest Eli and the young apprentice Samuel, is a wonderful story for the weeks after the rush of Christmas and also a very appropriate story for this particular weekend. It was not a particularly enlightened time in Israel. People seemed to be in a spiritual blah. Eli took Samuel under his wing. and taught him the lore and the wisdom gained from a long journey of both despair and hope. Samuel was likely innocent and eager to please, as well as having the growing pains of rashness and impatience. Samuel symbolizes all the energy that comes with the promise of growth, maturity and possibilities of a better future. It is no wonder God sought to speak to him. Eli was too set in his ways and tied to the past to fully understand what a fresh new voice from God might be saying. However, Samuel was too young and lacking in experience to distinguish the word of God from the noise of the world and his own immature dreams. In the darkness, Samuel heard the sound of the Holy Spirit, but only through old Eli was Samuel able to distinguish that it really was God who was calling. The word of God became known because of them both.
Eli and Samuel are not always two distinct people. Sometimes both the spirit of Eli and Samuel reside within us. Each of us has a history, a well of tradition and experience for us to draw on, and a life that is in the past and is dying. We wish at times to hold back the future. Yet we also have maturing within us a child of the future, a hope yearning to be born, an undiscovered treasure of potential waiting to be uncovered, and a voice calling us forward into the embrace of God. We are also able to leverage our past as a way of traveling forward, and evaluating the choices that lie before us. Spiritual health is measured both in the openness to go forward, and in the depth of historical insight and perception.
The same can be said for communities. For example, the evidence from a wide range of parishes across the land suggests that a predominant factor in a healthy parish is its willingness to examine its traditions and history in order to adapt to new situations; to be stimulated by a fresh voice of God, and to be a temple where both Eli and Samuel live together.
This weekend, larger society is celebrating the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. It's not merely an individual’s birthday, but the birth of the message of reconciliation, of naming hatred and discrimination as an affront to God’s love. This weekend honors the birth of a vision of a society cleansed from the sin of racism.
King's famous letter from the Birmingham jail to the clergy of that city woke up Birmingham’s religious leaders. King drew from the inspiration of the prophets and gave their words new energy, showing how they spoke eloquently to the injustice of racism around them. Through Martin Luther King, God’s word became heard again. . It became a prophetic document because it stimulated thinking; it connected the ancient biblical themes of freedom and dignity and the liberating words and deeds of Jesus with their own lives in the mid-twentieth century.. In a time and place when the word of God’s justice seemed to have become din and ineffective, King heard the word of God clearly and communicated it. People of all races responded and courageously began to take King’s message to heart. They recognized that God was calling them to re-think some things, to see others in a new light, and even to see others as their brothers and sisters for the first time.
The word of God is continually born anew, recognized and nourished by the interactive spirit of both Eli and Samuel. We give thanks today for the witness of Eli and Samuel, for the witness of Martin Luther King, Jr. and those who were profoundly moved by his message, and we gather around God’s table to be fed and prepared to hear God’s voice anew in our generation.
And I offer this to you in the name of the Living God, Amen.
