Name-Calling

1 Samuel 3:1-20
Young Samuel served YHWH under Eli. Now the word of YHWH was like a rare jewel in those days; prophecy was not widespread.

One day Eli had gone to lie down in his usual place. His eyes were beginning to fail and he could not see. The lamp of Elohim had not yet gone out and Samuel was lying down in the temple of YHWH where the ark of Elohim was. Then YHWH called to Samuel and he said, "I'm coming." He ran to Eli and said, "Here I am; you called me."

But Eli said, "I didn't call you. Go back and lie down." So he went and lay down.

Again YHWH called, "Samuel!"

Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, "Here I am; you called me."

He said, "I didn't call, my son, go back and lie down."

Now Samuel did not yet know YHWH and the word of YHWH had not yet been revealed to him. Again YHWH called Samuel a third time and he got up and went to Eli and said, "Here I am; you called me."

Then Eli understood that YHWH was calling the boy. Eli said to Samuel, "Go back and lie down. If he calls to you, say, 'Speak, YHWH, for your servant is listening.'"

So Samuel went back and lay down in his usual place. YHWH came and stood there and called as before, "Samuel, Samuel!"

Samuel said, "Speak, for your servant is listening."

Then YHWH said to Samuel, "Look, I am going to do a thing in Israel which will tingle both ears of all who hear of it. In that day I will fulfill against Eli all that I spoke concerning his house, from beginning to end. I declare to him that I will judge his house forever because he knew about the sin - that his sons committed sacrilege against God - and he did not rebuke them. So I swear concerning the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli will never be expiated by sacrifice or offering."

Samuel lay there until morning; and then he opened the doors of the house of YHWH. Samuel was afraid to report the vision to Eli, but Eli summoned Samuel and said, "Samuel, my son," and he answered, "Here." And Eli asked, "What did he say to you? Keep nothing from me. May God do thus and so and more to you if you keep from me a single word of all that God said to you!"

Samuel then told him everything, withholding nothing from him. And Eli said, "He is YHWH; he will do what he deems right."

Samuel grew up and YHWH was with him; YHWH did not leave any of his prophecies unfulfilled. All Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, knew that Samuel was trustworthy as a prophet of YHWH.

When I was about 4 years old I went shopping with my Mom at the old Miller and Rhoads department store in Charlottesville. I grew up in Orange, which was a small town, and for us Charlottesville was the big city and a multi-story department store was the height of fashionable shopping. It had the same magic for us as “across the bay” has here. At 4 years old it seemed like a great adventure and on this particular day it turned out to be just that.

I was following my mother dutifully through the racks of clothes that towered over me like the walls of a great polyester canyon. It was the 60s so I was looking at a lot of lime green and large orange flowers. At some point I needed to go to the bathroom and with all the confidence of 4 years of living I decided not to bother Mom, who was busy shopping, and instead I struck out on my own to find the bathroom.

I was pretty resourceful, too. I found the elevator, pushed the button for the correct floor. I found the bathroom…got back on the elevator…and I couldn’t remember which floor I had been on. I pushed a button that looked like it might be right but when I got off the elevator I was totally bewildered. Were these the right polyester slacks and mini-skirts? Had I been past these purple vinyl handbags before? Was my mother anywhere to be found?

I wandered aimlessly. Panic began to take hold. I could feel tears welling up in my eyes. I had visions of becoming a Miller & Rhoads orphan—a ward of the state. Why, oh, why had I ever left on my own?

Then I heard it. In a very familiar voice I heard my name. The voice didn’t have a very happy tone but there it was, “Alex, Alex, where have you been?” Then I knew that I was found. Though I was in a very strange place, I was home.

You know, there is nothing more powerful in the Christian story than hearing your name called. Think of Saul on the road to Damascus, knocked off his donkey by a blinding light and hearing Jesus call his name, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” Saul got up, dusted himself off, and went on to a new life with a new name as Paul.

Think of Mary in the garden by the empty tomb. Weeping inconsolably, distraught at the thought of Jesus’ body being stolen away, confronting a man she assumed to be a gardener and then hearing him call her name, “Mary.” Then she saw that the man before her was the one she sought all along – Jesus.

Or think of Samuel—the young boy in the temple in today’s reading. Samuel lived in desperate times. It was a time of chaos. A time of war. It was a time when all of the old ways of thinking and acting seemed to be falling apart. It was a time when there were no leaders - no guides to tell what was good and right. It was a time, as the book of Judges says, when every person did what was right in his or her own eyes. Come to think of it, it was a time not much different than our own.

Samuel’s story really begins before his birth in a town called Shiloh. Shiloh was in the hill country of Israel. It was a holy site where there was a temple to Yahweh, the God of Israel. It was a place where people would come for festivals - a place where people would come to offer sacrifices - a place where some horrible things had taken place - women abducted to be forced into marriage against their will, priests abusing their position and taking what was rightfully God's. But in this temple was the Ark of the Covenant - the ark that Israel had carried through the wilderness and through the Dead Sea - the ark that contained the Ten Commandments which God had given to Moses on Mount Sinai. It was a powerful symbol of God's presence, and so the people came.

But though the ark was easy to find, God was not. The Bible tells us that the voice of God was scarce in those days, like a precious jewel that is valued because it is so rare. And there were no prophets to convey God's word to the people - only the judges like Deborah and Samson who were raised up from time to time but who never really united all the people. It was, after all, a time when people did what was right in their own eyes.

The priest of the temple was a man named Eli who was beginning to get on in years. He was a tired man - a worldly man - who found himself serving a God who never spoke to him. And after all these years he had begun not even to expect to hear God speak to him. Maybe once he had desired such a thing - but now, well, now he was old and tired and there was the work of the temple to be done. Yahweh God was a duty for Eli - a name to be spoken and an image to uphold.

If Eli was world-weary, his sons were worse. Phinehas and Hophni, they were called. They served as priests as well, but their sins were many. It was the right of priests to come while a sacrifice of meat was being boiled and to dip a fork in to remove the meat to eat. It was a perk of the office and it was fine because it was the fat that God wanted - that was the heart of the offering - and that had boiled away. But Phinehas and Hophni demanded the meat before it was cooked, fat and all, and this was denying an offering to God. The people protested, but the two sons of Eli continued in their wicked ways and Yahweh God was not pleased.

But that was not all that they did. They began to demand abuse the women who served at the entrance of the temple. Finally the word came back to Eli. He called his sons in and scolded them, warning them of the consequences of their actions. "If a person sins against another person that's one thing," he said, "but if a person sins against God what kind of sacrifice could be made to intercede for that one?" But the sons would not listen to their father, and they continued in their ways.

Into this world where God spoke rarely, if at all, and where God's priests abused the very site of God's presence - into this scene came a child. Though Eli had lost the fervency and expectation of hearing God's voice, one woman sought it with all her heart. Her name was Hannah and one day she came to the temple during the annual festival to pray. She was the wife of a man who loved her, but who also married another woman, as the custom sometimes was. And, as happened all too often in Biblical days, one wife was able to have children and the other wasn't and a great deal of hostility brewed between the two. Hannah was the one who could have no children. And as she prayed in the temple that day she told God that if Yahweh would grant her a son she would give him back to the Lord for all the days of his life and a razor would never touch his head - a symbol of the vow she took for him.

Eli was sitting by the door to the temple that day and he saw Hannah's lips moving as she prayed. "Too much wine at the festival," he thought. He went over and said to her, "You're drunk aren't you? Straighten up!"

But then she told him about her prayer and old Eli was ashamed of himself. It was so rare that he saw true fervency that he mistook her for a drunk. So he gave her a blessing to take with her, "Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant your petition that you have made."

Maybe it was Eli's blessing, or maybe it was Hannah's prayer, or maybe it was just God's choice, but however it happened, Hannah bore a son. And though she kept him until he was two or three, ("Until he is weaned," she said), she eventually took him back to Eli and gave the child to him to serve in the temple. If she knew anything about Eli she must have wondered about her vow - leaving her only child in the care of an elderly man who didn't have a very good track record with his own children. But a vow it was and the child was to serve Yahweh, not Eli. Before Hannah left she sang a song of victory in praise of God. Every year she returned to see the child that she had given to God, and every year she took a new little robe that she had made. The child's name was Samuel, which means, "I asked him of the Lord."

If Eli had any feelings for the boy, they aren't recorded. Eli was a rather passive man anyway. Not one to get too emotional about things. One day a wandering prophet came by and gave him a message, which he said came from Yahweh himself. The prophet declared that God said, "You honor your sons above me, Eli. You allow them to fatten themselves on the offerings that are meant for me. So I will cut them off and cut you off, Eli. On the same day both of your sons will die. And after you are gone I will raise up a faithful priest to serve me. And the few who are left in your house after your fall will come to the new priest begging just to eat."

Eli let the words pass without a word. Maybe he paid this wild prophet no mind. After all, who was he to talk with Yahweh when no one else did? But maybe he believed every word.
Samuel continued to grow and to serve in the temple. The Bible says that he was ministering to Yahweh, but since he had no inkling of who Yahweh was, he really served the worldly priest, Eli. One day that all changed.

Eli was in sleeping in his usual spot. He was very old now. His eyes were beginning to fail and he could not see. Sometimes it was just easier for him to lie down and forget about this God-forsaken place he lived in and the omens of doom all around him.

But if the light of Eli's eyes had begun to fail, the lamp of God had not, and it was near this lamp, next to the powerful ark of the covenant, in the temple itself, that Samuel lay down to sleep. As he lay there in the midst of all the trappings of God's presence he heard a voice, "Samuel!"
"Coming," he cried and Samuel jumped up and ran to Eli, ready to serve. "Here I am," he said, and then to remind the forgetful old man, "You called me."

But Eli said, "I didn't call you; go back and lie down." So Samuel went back to his spot near the ark, probably shaking his head.

Again the voice came, "Samuel!" Now this was the voice of Yahweh - that precious jewel that was so rare and so sought after - but Samuel didn't recognize it. And he got up and went back to Eli, "Here I am; you called me."

The old priest was a little annoyed but he softened his tone, "I didn't call you, my son; go back and lie down."

Now Eli should probably have suspected that something was going on by now, but his lack of vision was a problem for more than his eyes. He was tuned out to God's voice as well. Samuel should have suspected something, too, but he had never experienced anything like Yahweh before, even living in the midst of the temple. So when Yahweh God called Samuel a third time, he still ran straight to Eli and said, "Here I am; you called me."

Finally Eli understood that it was Yahweh. So he told him to go back and lie down once more, but this time to be ready. If Yahweh called again he was to say, "Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening."

So Samuel went back and lay down to wait. In the dim light of the temple, Yahweh came and stood beside the longhaired boy. God brushed back the hair from his ear and whispered gently, "Samuel, Samuel!"

Samuel said, "I'm listening now."

God told him about some incredible news - so incredible that it would make the ears of anyone who heard it tingle. It would be a deed that would touch all of Israel, but it would start with the downfall of Eli and his sons. God said that Eli would suffer because he had failed to restrain his sons, despite their sins. As Eli himself had said, for these sins there was no sacrifice that could wipe away the stain.

After God left, Samuel lay there in the temple, contemplating this terrifying news. Yahweh had come with news for all Israel, but it would mean the downfall of Eli, who despite his faults was the only father Samuel had ever known. Suddenly Samuel found himself with divided loyalties - finally serving the God he was dedicated to serve, yet still bound to the man who had given him a home.

In the morning Samuel opened the doors to the temple. But he didn't go to find Eli. Finally he heard a voice calling him, "Samuel, my son." This time there was no confusion. He knew it was the voice of Eli. "Coming," he said.

When he came to Eli, the old priest gripped him by the arm. "What did he say to you? Tell me everything. May God strike you down if you keep a single word from me!"

So the boy told him. Everything. And as he told him the old man's grip on his arm slowly loosened. At the end Eli said, "He is Yahweh; he will do what is right in his own eyes."

As Samuel looked at him he must have wondered if Eli really deserved this punishment. After all, Eli had rebuked his sons, which is what God said he wanted. Though Eli was hardly a model priest, he had been smart enough to recognize a mother's fervent prayer and the call of God to a young boy. Even if God never spoke to him, Eli seemed to know when God spoke to others.

But Eli recognized something that Samuel was to realize all too often in his ministry - God chooses the ones God chooses - not because of any merit they have or deed they've done, but just because God is God. And so Eli could accept his fate with those simple words: "He is Yahweh; He will do what is right in his own eyes." In a nation where everyone was doing what was right in his or her own eyes, God was doing the same, and Samuel was going to be God's instrument.

As Samuel grew up, he was able to do what no one had been able to do since the time of Moses and Joshua. He was recognized by all Israel as a prophet. Once again God's voice was heard in a land parched from the lack of it. Eli's time had passed and within a short time, God's word against Phinehas and Hophni was fulfilled.

Yet even in his worldliness, God had used Eli. In fact, God used a lot of rough tools to bring about a new thing in Samuel. God took the unfinished, unvarnished instruments of human existence - a mother's fervent hope and reckless gratitude, a young boy's ignorance and innocence, an old man's worldliness - and fashioned from them something that could bring about a new thing for the people of God. And God does this for no earthly reason that we can determine, but because God is God and God does what is right in God's own eyes.

When I was working with college students in campus ministry, I often felt that one of my biggest roles was to help people listen for their names. We have a generation of bright, brilliant young people who are taking their place in the world. But like all of us they need to hear God calling their name, claiming them as God’s own, and moving them to work for God in the world. I don’t think God stops calling folks, but I do think we sometimes stop listening. And I think we older folks, and yes, I’m including me here, we older folks sometimes don’t help others to listen for God calling their names. There’s a role for crotchety old Elis, too.

A few years ago I went to my old seminary with a group of students who were exploring ministry. They ranged in age from 19 to 22. They are excited about ministry and seminary. They will make excellent clergypersons or laypersons if that’s where they end up. You know what the average age of students in our seminaries is now, though? 37. The average seminary student is 37 years old. My students looked around and said, “Where are my peers?” Don’t get me wrong. It’s great that we have so many second career folks going into the ministry, but the truth of the matter is that we are not helping our young adults and youth to answer a call from God. They may finally get the message. Maybe when they’re 37! But God is calling them now. They just need some encouragement to listen for their name.

Let me close with a story. It’s about a rabbi--Rabbi Yehuda Loew ben Bezalel, who was the greatest rabbi of his time in Europe. This was the man who created the Golem, the animated form of a human being, by putting under its tongue a slip of paper with the unutterable name of God. One night Rabbi Yehuda had a dream: he dreamed that he had died and was brought before the throne. And the angel who stands before the throne said to him, “Who are you?” “I am Rabbi Yehuda of Prague, the maker of the Golem,” he says. “Tell me if my name is written in the names of those who will have a share in the kingdom.”

So the angel goes and reads the names of all the people who have died on that day whose names are written in the book. And Rabbi Yehuda listens but he doesn’t hear his name.

At last, when the angel finished reading, he wept bitterly and cried out against the angel. The angel said, “I have called your name.”

Rabbi Yehuda said, “I didn’t hear it.”

The angel said, “In the book are written the names of all men and women who have ever lived on the earth for every soul is an inheritor of the kingdom. But many come here who have never heard their true names on the lips of human or angel. They have lived believing that they knew their names; and so when they are called to their share in the kingdom, they do not hear their names as their own. They do not recognize that it is for them that the gates of the kingdom are opened. So they must wait here until they hear their names and know them. Perhaps in their lifetime one man or woman has once called them by their right name: here they shall stay until they have remembered. Perhaps no one has ever called them by their right name: here they shall stay until they are silent enough to hear the King of the Universe calling them.”

Rabbi Yehuda woke up and, rising from his bed with tears, he covered his head and lay prostrate on the ground, and prayed, “Master of the Universe! Grant me once before I die to hear my own true name on the lips of my brothers and sisters.”

Hearing my mother calling my name in the department store was like finding home in a strange, strange land. For Samuel sleeping in the presence of God and never even knowing it, hearing his name set his whole life in motion toward God. God is calling the names of people - young and old in this congregation and we can help them listen. And if we do it right, we will also be listening for our own true names. To know the God who has known us from our mother’s womb and before and to know our own true name is the greatest work and the greatest gift of our lives. Thanks be to God.