“Who Needs Sleep Anyway?”

Sermon 1 Samuel 3:3-10 & 11-18 January 18, 2015

“Who Needs Sleep Anyway?”

Well, it seems clear from our reading this morning that Eli and Samuel have joined the “who needs sleep anyway” club!

Eli, three times in one night is awakened by a noise, by the child he’s trying to train, his imagination, his worries, his impulses, his surroundings interrupting his deep dreams.

We've been there.

All of us.

Perhaps even this week we've all been through a night filled with interruptions.

My daughters have called me and my friends have posted on face book and my mother has emailed me, yes and my mom is 87 and she uses email, go mom.

They were telling me of how the baby, the dogs, the neighbors, the late night phone calls, the snoring of a spouse and the fear of tomorrow have disrupted a perfectly needed good night’s sleep.

God knows we need sleep!

I did some research about sleep and discovered the creatures like bullfrogs and dolphins who we assume do not sleep have some kind of activity that demonstrates that even while they are in motion they sleep.

Humans especially need sleep. A recent study aired on a daytime talk show said we even need naps. They said if we learn something new and then take a nap, we will remember all the details. If we learn something and don’t take a nap the chances of us remembering the details is much less. It’s been proven that sleep improves memory and sleep improves daytime performance and productivity.

Yet, God shows up calling in the night.

God shows up in the middle of dreams and disturbs the night. It makes me wonder why then are we so fascinated with this story even today in the Christian church? It’s one of our favorite stories!

Perhaps it is that on this second Sunday of Epiphany we witness a story about the appearance of God without all the fanfare that occurred at Christmas-no star, no angels voices, no shepherds or wisemen to guide the way.

Here in a bedroom in the middle of the night is

a sound,

a voice,

one that calls out,

‘Samuel, Samuel!’

We have heard our names called out in the night whether it was a wee little one that wanted a glass of water, or a pager calling us to our fire fighter duties, or the dreaded call to let us know the sad circumstances of someone dear, we have heard our name called in the night.

It’s hard to discern those voices when they come.

It’s hard to know in the fuzzy brain state to be clear what we are hearing.

The voice of the Lord was rare in those days of Eli we are told.

And perhaps for the church we feel the same today, perhaps we too sense that the voice of the Lord is rare.

And so, with Eli and Samuel we too wonder what is happening during those untimely interruptions at night.

Not knowing any better, Samuel assumes the only person that would call him would be Eli.

So he runs to him and says, ‘I’m here.’

 Samuel responds out of impulse,

he jumps out of bed,

before he has the time to discern the call of his name.

He does this three times to Eli!!

Poor Eli!!

 He’s old now, he’s blind.

They didn’t have the equipment for cataracts, or macular degeneration back then to aid in the diminishing vision that comes with age.

So, Eli was dependent on Samuel.

He was in a role reversal with this young man who he had raised up to tend to the Temple and to follow the ways of the priests.

Eli was aware that these were troubling times in Israel.

He was aware that his own sons had followed the way of corruption.

It’s hard to discern a voice in the dark. Perhaps Eli was no longer listening for God. He was ingrained in the duties of his job.  Perhaps he had let go of the idea that God was always present.

Are there moments in our lives when we are so caught up in life and the duties surrounding them that we are no longer listening for God?

And then in the middle of the night when we desire our sleep and our rest the most, there comes the interruption.

And all we notice is the fact that we have been disturbed.

It took Eli until the third time before it dawned on him what was happening.

Too bad God doesn’t always come with blaring sirens and clanging cymbals.

God’s voice isn’t always obvious.

God’s presence isn’t always flashy and clear.

Perhaps, that’s part of the reason we gather together on Sundays to seek God’s voice and be in God’s presence even if we are not quite sure what that sounds like or looks like.

If God can be in the midst of normal circumstances and in the midst of troubling times, then that perhaps this God is a God we can believe in.

Eli and Samuel are obedient to God in this moment.

Eli responds to Samuel and guides him with a final word. “When you hear the voice again say, ‘Speak, your servant is listening.’”

And when the voice came again Samuel does what Eli told him.

He hears God’s call and he speaks and God is near in the midnight hour.

That is one of our greatest comforts and consolations as believers; to know that God is near. God is our refuge and our strength. God is our rock and our redeemer.

It is a comfort to know that God calls us by name and grants us a calling to a life of purpose. This is why we love this story.

The trust and faith of Eli to respond to God for the call of Samuel is one of humility before God.

He is able to relinquish his authority to Samuel.

He realizes this is his time to let go and let God.

He becomes the conduit so that God’s work can take place; to relinquish the old guard and respond faithfully to God’s call on Samuel even if it means bad news for him…

how many of us are willing to let go when we need to?

I know I've had trouble letting go and letting my children grow up. I’ve had trouble letting go and letting someone else drive…there are many situations where we can find that our faithful response is to do and sometimes to hand over.

If we stop at verse 10 then this story we love, this story we want to hang on to is a very personal story about me and God and it has an intimate feel to it. While we may want to think of Samuel’s response to God’s call as a personal call to faith and a personal call to transformation, (because that is what we want, a God and me kind of life).

The truth is God’s call to Samuel was one that put him at high risk.

It was a call to bring the nation to social transformation.

It was a call that we read later that put him on the run for his life.

We know that God is the one who gives us life, who knows our name and who provides us with a presence in the very depth of trouble.

But, God also puts us in places of discomfort.

Places where we are called to follow through with obedience even when it isn’t popular.

Pope John Paul II, said in 1993

 “The Christian is called, with the grace of God invoked in prayer, to a sometimes

heroic commitment.~ Veritatis Splendor (The Splendor of Truth)

I think of the founders of our nation were in that situation.  At the time their ideals and their decisions were not popular. People like John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington who did not always agree with each other yet, put those differences aside to work for independence and the creation of these United States of America.

I think of Dietrich Bonhoeffer whose faith in God was so strong that he forsook his safety to stand up against the Nazi regime and to tell the truth about a people who were slaughtering the innocents.

I think of Martin Luther King Jr, who we celebrate tomorrow, who wrote from the Birmingham jail, “The time is always ripe to do right.”

There are those who are called to be prophets to lead a people and transform nations. God places people in positions such as Esther, ‘for such a time as this.’

Yes, we love this story. Yet, Walter Brueggemann said that God’s new thing that is happening in the call of Samuel is not a grand religious act but a fresh invitation to a dangerous social beginning.

And we have all lived long enough now to be witnesses to new social beginnings because of those who responded to the call that came in the night.

The call to respond in a time that was ripe to do right.

Even the disciples answered the call of Jesus. They heard their name and followed him.  After his death they followed through in the most uncomfortable and most difficult circumstances because they believed in the call placed upon them.

As we are here in the church of the 21^st century do we hear God calling us in the night?

Have we heard a voice that we are not sure about?

Are we wondering about the direction of our lives? (We are always   wondering about the direction of our lives)

It might be for parents of children and the church alongside them to stand up to local and state governments for funding for education.

Perhaps it’s equal housing or healthcare or the rights of the elderly.

When we are part of that, “who needs sleep anyway” club,

what disruptions are getting our attention?

Because even if it’s a baby needing to be fed

or

have a diaper changed,

or

if it’s worry about where tomorrow’s food will come from

or

how to pay the mortgage,

even

if it’s just a noise we do not recognize

-perhaps this is just the moment for us to say to God,

‘speak, Lord for your servant is listening.’

Amen.