Called to Ministry—Lectionary Reflection for Pentecost 2B (1 Samuel 3)

1 Samuel 3:1-10 (11-20) New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

3 Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord under Eli. The word of the Lord was rare in those days; visions were not widespread.

² At that time Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see, was lying down in his room; ³ the lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was. ⁴ Then the Lord called, “Samuel! Samuel!”and he said, “Here I am!” ⁵ and ran to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call; lie down again.” So he went and lay down. ⁶ The Lord called again, “Samuel!” Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call, my son; lie down again.” ⁷ Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. ⁸ The Lord called Samuel again, a third time. And he got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” Then Eli perceived that the Lord was calling the boy. ⁹ Therefore Eli said to Samuel, “Go, lie down, and if he calls you, you shall say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’ ” So Samuel went and lay down in his place.

¹⁰ Now the Lord came and stood there, calling as before, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.” ¹¹ Then the Lord said to Samuel, “See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make both ears of anyone who hears of it tingle. ¹² On that day I will fulfill against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end. ¹³ For I have told him that I am about to punish his house forever for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them. ¹⁴ Therefore I swear to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be expiated by sacrifice or offering forever.”

¹⁵ Samuel lay there until morning; then he opened the doors of the house of the Lord. Samuel was afraid to tell the vision to Eli. ¹⁶ But Eli called Samuel and said, “Samuel, my son.” He said, “Here I am.” ¹⁷ Eli said, “What was it that he told you? Do not hide it from me. May God do so to you and more also, if you hide anything from me of all that he told you.” ¹⁸ So Samuel told him everything and hid nothing from him. Then he said, “It is the Lord; let him do what seems good to him.”

¹⁹ As Samuel grew up, the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground. ²⁰ And all Israel from Dan to Beer-sheba knew that Samuel was a trustworthy prophet of the Lord.

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                The first reading for Trinity Sunday came from Isaiah 6, which depicts the call of Isaiah to prophetic ministry. The call comes in the context of a vision in which Isaiah is drawn into the presence of God. When asked who would go forth, serving as God’s representative, Isaiah declared “Here I Am, send me” (Is.6:1-8). On this Second Sunday after Pentecost, we turn to 1 Samuel 3, which offers us another story of a call to prophetic ministry. In this case, the call goes out to a young boy who has been tasked with assisting the aged priest at the shrine at Shiloh (remember this is before David established Jerusalem as his capital and Solomon tried to tie the worship of Yahweh to a single Temple in Jerusalem). That boy will grow up to be the priest/prophet/judge Samuel, the one who offered guidance to the tribes of Israel in the last days before the establishment of the monarchy. Samuel would go on to anoint both Saul and David as kings of Israel, but that part of the story is well into the future. At this point, we’re invited to consider the call of Samuel to prophetic ministry.

                As summer begins, we enter a season when ordinations are common, depending on the denomination of course. I am drawing closer to the fortieth anniversary of my ordination to ministry in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). I still have one more year before I reach that milestone, but as you can imagine it’s on my mind. So, on June 9, 1985, one day after receiving my M.Div. degree at Fuller Theological Seminary, hands were laid on me and I was welcomed into the order of ministry. Three years ago, at the end of June 2021, I officially retired from my ministry, but one thing about ordained ministers, retirement doesn’t mean we’re put out to pasture. I remain quite engaged in preaching and ecclesial leadership. The question that might come up in a conversation concerns the point at which I heard God’s call to ministry. I will confess that I didn’t have an experience like that of Isaiah or Samuel, or, for that matter, Jeremiah. I didn’t hear an audible voice or have a vision that left me awe-struck. Even on the day I was ordained at Temple City Christian Church with both Disciples and non-Disciples clergy, along with Disciples' Elders, laid their hands on me I didn’t envision serving in congregational ministry. My sense of call was to the Ministry of Scholarship and Teaching. For that reason, I pursued further education in church history and theology. Nevertheless, I eventually found myself serving as a congregational pastor. I continued in that role for nearly twenty-five years. In retirement, I continue to preach regularly and participate in various forms of leadership in the larger church.  Even as I accepted that call, I believed that ministry is a shared vocation. I wrote about that understanding of ministry in my book Unfettered Spirit: Spiritual Gifts for the New Great Awakening. Yet, as we see here with Samuel, God does set some of God’s ministers apart for special forms of ministry. 

                The story of Samuel’s call to ministry is set in his childhood. In the telling of this story, if we go back to the beginning, we hear the story of a man named Elkanah who had two wives, one of whom was barren. In that day the inability to bear a child was a sign of divine displeasure. So, Elkanah’s second wife, Hannah, who had failed to bear a child (much like Sarah and Rachel), prayed for a child. In that prayer, she dedicated that child to God. When God answered her prayer by opening her womb (the belief was that God opened and closed the womb), she brought her child to the Temple and gave the child to Eli the priest to raise in the Temple (1 Sam. 1-2). In response to that gift, God enabled Hannah to have five more children (three sons and two daughters).

                My story is much different. My mother may have prayed for a child, but I wasn’t given to the local priest (my family was Episcopalian) to raise in the church. But perhaps the seeds were planted during my childhood. Early on in my life, as an eight-year-old, I was invited to be an acolyte at St. Barnabas Episcopal Church, which at the time was in Dunsmuir, California (today it is located in Mount Shasta City). Then during my teen years, I was asked to serve as a lay reader at the Episcopal Church in Klamath Falls, Oregon, after having served as an acolyte at that church for several years. Apparently, I had a strong voice, such that the local priest thought I would make a good worship leader. So, could the seed have been planted during those early years of service? Perhaps.    

                I’ve already mentioned the call of Isaiah in Isaiah 6, which was the first reading for Trinity Sunday. Then there is the call of Jeremiah, who apparently called in the womb. According to the call story in Jeremiah, the prophet received a word from God declaring: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations” (Jer. 1:4). Now, as often is the case, Jeremiah resisted the call, but eventually embraced it.

                The call of Samuel to prophetic ministry is set up with the revelation that “The word of the Lord was rare in those days; visions were not widespread” (1 Sam. 3:1). It was a time when the religious leadership was corrupt, such that the sons of Eli, the ones who were to take over for their father, were “scoundrels” who “had no regard for the Lord” (1 Sam. 2:12). As for Samuel, who was assisting the aged Eli, he was a rather precocious and devoted child, one whom God took notice of. The author of the book is setting things up so we can hear that things are about to change. Since God is no longer speaking to or through Eli, who refused to deal with his wicked sons, God will invite Samuel to become God’s spokesperson. He will fill the vacuum left by Eli and his sons. So by the time he reaches maturity, “the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba knew that Samuel was a trustworthy prophet of the LORD” (1 Sam. 3:19-20).

                Before we get to the call itself it’s worth situating the story of Samuel. 1 Samuel continues a story that begins in the Book of Judges. As that book ended Israel, which was nothing more than a confederation of tribes, was in crisis. The Philistines were a constant threat and the people lacked leadership. That concern will continue into 1 Samuel. As J. Clinton McCann points out “In the midst of this crisis, Samuel provides stability. Even though he himself opposed the creation of a monarchy to deal with the Philistine threat (1 Sam. 8:1-18), he would prove to be a key figure in moving Israel from disarray and near dissolution to some semblance of stability, especially with the emergence of King David” [Connections, p. 37].

It is in this larger context of a deep crisis for the people of Israel that we hear the story of Samuel’s call. The narrator notes that Eli’s sight was poor so he couldn’t see (could this be a sign of spiritual blindness?). Nevertheless, probably due to Samuel’s assistance, the “lamp of God had not gone out.” Samuel had fallen asleep before the ark of God (the one featured in Raiders of the Lost Ark) when he heard a voice calling to him “Samuel, Samuel.” It was the voice of God. Samuel answered, “Here I am” and ran to Eli to see what his mentor wanted. Eli told him to go back to bed because he hadn’t called him. It happened a second time, and again Eli told Samuel he hadn’t called him. The narrator adds that at that point Samuel didn’t know the LORD and had yet to hear the voice of God. So, it’s not surprising that Samuel didn’t recognize the voice calling to him. When the voice called to him a third time, and Eli told Samuel he hadn’t called out to him, Eli realized that it was the LORD who was calling Samuel. So, this time Eli instructed Samuel to “Go, lie down; and if he calls you, you shall say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’” (1 Sam. 3:9). This time, when the LORD called to Samuel, the young prophet-to-be responded: “Speak, for your servant is listening” (1 Sam. 3:10).

The prescribed reading ends with verse 10, but verses 11-20 are offered as extensions. The call is responded to in verse 10 but verses 11-20 define that call. God tells Samuel that Eli has been informed that he will be replaced because God is going to do something new. While Samuel was reticent to tell Eli what had been revealed to him, Eli was aware that something important had been revealed to his protégé and demanded that Samuel reveal what had been revealed. He was ready to accept what was coming to him. Thus, Samuel will be the one who leads Israel during the next phase of its existence. As J. Clinton McCann notes, Samuel is being “called to be a transitional and transformational leader” [Connections, p. 38]. He will give way to the monarchy, but he will provide important interim leadership.

The question is, what might this passage say to us? I think most of us will agree that these are challenging times. We might not be facing invasion from the Philistines (despite what some politicians might say), but we are experiencing a crisis of leadership. What is interesting here is that the call of Samuel involves a change in generational leadership. It was time for the aged Eli to give way to new, more vigorous leadership, that could help the nation move forward. We might take note of that brief word about the lamp of the LORD not going out. There was a flame still burning that could be passed on to the next generation.

It has been reported that fewer people are answering the call to ministry, especially younger people. There is concern in our churches about who will receive the torch. Perhaps we older generations of clergy are not doing our best to encourage younger people to discern the call and once they enter the ranks, remain there. One question that people face when it comes to answering the call, especially in a season of transition and renewal, is how to discern the call to ministry. How do we know that it’s the voice of God, especially when we don’t hear an audible voice or have a vision like Isaiah’s?     

Getting back to my own calling. Could it be that Father Cartwright’s decision to invite me to become an acolyte and even assist him with the communion before I was old enough to be confirmed contributed to my sense of call? Could Father Green’s invitation to serve as a lay reader at the age of fifteen, at a time when I was struggling with my faith, be another sign? Then again, might that lay leader who told me that I needed career counseling because I wasn’t cut out to be a pastor correct? Or was it the people in the next congregation I served who embraced me and my leadership is a sign of God’s call? Discerning our call isn’t easy, especially since as Robert Ratcliff reminds us, we live in a “complicated world of flawed humans,” where “the chances that God’s call will definitively authenticate itself are slim” [Connections, p. 39].

Is it true that the “word of the LORD [is] rare in [these] days”? Or is God still speaking and we must tune our ears so that like Samuel we can distinguish between Eli’s voice and God’s voice?  When it comes to younger people, especially children, how might we help them hear God’s voice (without engaging in forms of manipulation!)? Ultimately, we don’t know how and when the call might come, but perhaps like Samuel we can say to God, I’m here, speak to me.

Image attribution: Wesley, Frank, 1923-2002. The Call to Samuel, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=59172 [retrieved May 23, 2024]. Original source: Estate of Frank Wesley, http://www.frankwesleyart.com/main_page.htm.