Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.
The Reverend Shearon Sykes Williams
Saint George’s Episcopal Church, Arlington, Virginia
Second Sunday after the Epiphany- MLK
January 14th, 2024
“Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.” 1 Samuel 3: 1-10
This weekend our nation commemorates the life and legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. And what a life it was. He became the most prominent leader of the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. King had an unparalleled gift for oratory and he used his speaking gifts to inspire and galvanize people and call them to righteous, non-violent action for the common good.
It is always very interesting to me to think about how someone becomes who they are. We are all created in God’s image with our own unique gifts and abilities, and the experiences that we have throughout our lives, shape and form those gifts. Martin Luther King Jr. was born a leader, thinker and speaker, but he could have used those gifts in any number of ways. His upbringing had a big influence on who he became, as is true for all of us. And, just like all of us, there were some wonderful things about his early years and some challenging ones. The fact that his father was a Baptist preacher and that he was brought up with church as the center of his life, was of foundational importance. He grew up going to church all the time, memorizing Scripture and listening to a lot of sermons. This teaching took place at church and at home. But as he grew to adolescence, he started questioning the strict literal interpretation of Scripture that was part of his religious tradition, and he had a growing awareness of the injustice that he and other Black people in his community experienced every day. During college, seminary, and graduate school, he discovered the wonderful world of progressive theological education, and realized that one could use reason to interpret and understand Scripture and that there were social implications to the Gospel, that the Good News of Jesus was as much about the salvation of the world around us as it was about personal salvation. He discerned a call to follow in the steps of his father, entering the ministry, and at first understood his role to minister to the needs of his congregation and the local community. It wasn’t until the Montgomery bus boycott of 1955 that he was catapulted into national prominence. King had recently been called as the pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery and the other Black pastors came and pleaded with him to speak out, one, because he was new in town, and they thought that it would be easier for him to take the heat for it, and two, because he was already well-known in town for his oratorical abilities. King reluctantly agreed, only because no one else would do it, and the rest is literally history. From there, he began to recognize a new manifestation of his vocation to the larger world. He and others founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to organize mass demonstrations against racism, using the non-violent methods that Mahatma Gandhi had used to gain independence for the people of India from British rule.
King’s life and that of his family were constantly at risk for 13 years, from 1955 to 1968 when he was finally martyred. One night In 1957, in the wee hours, he was awakened by the telephone, and received a particularly vicious threat. As he sat at his kitchen table, crying and praying, he heard the Lord speaking to him and saying, Martin Luther, stand up for righteousness, stand up for justice, and I will never leave you alone..”
In our reading from Samuel today, Samuel too is awakened in the middle of the night. He is serving in the temple, under the tutelage of Eli, an elderly priest who is beginning to lose his eyesight. Samuel sleeps next to the ark of the covenant, where God’s presence was believed to dwell. He hears the voice of the Lord, but he doesn’t know who it is at first. Because he is a young boy, he has not yet learned to discern God’s voice. He runs to Eli, thinking that is who is calling him, and after several times, Eli realizes what is happening. He tells Samuel that the next time he hears the voice, say, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.”
We had the option today to end the reading from Samuel right there. We often have additional verses in parentheses that are optional, and it was tempting to end it early, because the rest of the story is a lot more challenging. Without the additional verses, we have a story of call, of learning to hear God’s voice, a sermon perhaps on prayer and service to God in the church. And that would be good and right. It is essential for our spiritual lives to learn to pray, to both talk to God and listen to God. It is important to put ourselves in a place where we are more likely to learn to distinguish God’s voice from other voices. The fact that Samuel was immersed in the life of the temple and sleeping next to the ark, is significant. We need to put ourselves in places where we can cultivate our faith. That is the main reason we are in this space today. So, all of these things are important. AND, there is more. We included the additional verses today because they are the other half of the story. The part where God calls Samuel to do something hard in the service of others and Samuel does it, albeit reluctantly. God calls Samuel to tell his beloved, elderly mentor Eli, that God is going to bring Eli to justice because he has not corrected his sons for their misdeeds. Eli is the head of a priestly family. His sons have abused their office and Eli has turned a blind eye. Eli’s sight has grown dim, both figuratively and literally. And yet, even though he had not had the courage to do what was right, he is still able to be part of God’s redemptive purposes by teaching Samuel to listen for God’s voice. In Samuel’s call, Eli remembers his own.
Samuel is the Old Testament figure who stands at the crossroads of what is old and what is new for the people of Israel. He grows up to become the last of the judges of Israel, a prophet, who prepared the way for Saul as the first king of Israel, who is followed by David, from whom Jesus descended. The call to usher in a new era is a difficult call to respond to. It requires courage, the will to act, even in the face of anger and resistance and rejection. Samuel was afraid. The Reverend Martin Luther King Jr was afraid. But they acted anyway, because God called them and God was with them, giving them what they needed for the sake of others.
Samuel’s call was confirmed by Eli. MLK’s call was by the other religious leaders who were reluctant to take a courageous stand, but recognized in him the particular combination of gifts that were needed in the moment. When we step out in faith, we never know where it will take us.
It is essential to hear God’s voice, and to learn to distinguish God’s voice from other voices, with the help of those who are more experienced at listening. it is also important to realize that God calls to us, not just for our own spiritual edification, but for the well-being of others. God’s calls us to both prayer and service. May we hear God’s voice this day and may we have just enough courage to do the hard thing that God calls us to do.
“Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.”