2nd Sunday of Ordinary Time (The Call of Samuel)
We hear today of Samuel, a man who plays an important role in the history of the Jewish people. By the time of his birth the people of Israel had come to settle in the land that God had reserved for them. But one thing that made them different than all the nations around them is that they did not have a king. Nevertheless, the people wanted a king, because they saw how those nations around them were so organized around the king, economically and militarily.
Despite the warning of the prophetic voices, the plea for a king persisted. Born into this unresolved tension was the man we hear of today, Samuel. God would come to use him as a prophetic and authoritative voice to guide the first kings of God’s people: Saul and then David.
Samuel had been an answer to his mother’s prayers. Hannah, his mother, who had been childless for so long, promised that if God would grant her a child, she would dedicate the child to God for his purposes. When Samuel was born, Hannah fulfilled her promise and br
ought him to temple, to be raised by the priest Eli, along with his own sons. To be clear, this was a temporary temple, in a place called Shiloh, about 19 miles from the place that would come to be called Jerusalem. It would be about 100 years later that a temple would be built in Jerusalem.
Today we hear Samuel’s first calling from the Lord. As he slept, his name was called. Each of the three times, it woke him and left him confused as to who was calling him, until, at last, as instructed by the priest, Eli, he implored God to speak, for he was now listening.
Amazing things would come to be done by God through Samuel, but I also consider what we learn from this for our lives. One thing that comes to mind for me is regarding hearing God’s call. I remind you that the word we use for God’s call is the word vocation, and that everyone one of us is called to a universal vocation: to live like Jesus, to lay down our lives for the good of others. At the same time, each of us does so in a way that is unique.
But even aside from the grand vision of our universal call, today’s reading reminds us of simply listening to the voice of God. It’s hard. There’s so much noise and distraction. Yes, God has the capability of shouting through it all, but most of us are unable to hear it.
I think it’s fair to say that there’s not enough silence and stillness in our lives for us to really hear. It’s worth noting that Samuel heard God’s voice in the silence of the night, when everything was still.
The role of technology in our lives makes it challenging. I want to suggest that it’s only with purpose and intentionality that we can create space in our lives that gives way to silence and stillness. If it’s in that, that God can guide us, it begs the question about what guides us when we don’t have it?
In a book I’m currently reading, more than once, I read the line, “You can learn more in an hour of silence, than you can in a year from reading books”. Is that true? Maybe it depends on what we mean by learning or what it is we wish to learn. Perhaps from books or other sources of information, we can learn numerous things about people, cultures, about how to develop skills. But perhaps it’s in silence that we come to truly learn about who we ourselves are, our interior struggles, our fears, our sources of joy. Perhaps it’s only in that silence that we can truly understand who we were made to be.
Most of us aren’t sure what to do in silence and stillness, because we’ve never tried to become accustomed to it. We tend to be conditioned to the noise and distraction, so much that we can’t rest in the mystery. Thus, to the extent we manage to enter into prayer, we’re probably more inclined to say, “Listen, Lord, your servant is speaking”, rather than, “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening”.
This is why our church doors are open every day for many hours. It’s also why I strongly recommend the Hallow app. It helps guide you through the quiet and from that, to begin to explore what’s in your heart, where God’s voice can be heard—yes, even using the very device that tends to keep our hearts and minds in the noise of it all. By the way, while there’s a subscription version that has a handful of extra features, there’s a free version that has the helpful guides for personal prayer, for silence, for stillness.
Perhaps more than ever, we need to hear God’s voice to know His plans for us. Too easily, we are simply lost, relying upon others for guidance and example, who themselves are lost. Instead, let us find for ourselves a place where we can eventually and truly say, “Speak, for your servant is listening” , finding Him, and thus ourselves, in the silence and stillness.