By word of mouth

Order of Service

CMP 179 Go, tell it on the mountain (verses 1&2)

Call to worship

Prayer

Hymn CH4 448 Lord, the light of your love is shining (verses 1&2)

Scripture readings:

Old Testament 1 Samuel 3: 1-19

New Testament Romans 10: 14-18

Music

Sermon By word of mouth (scroll down for text of sermon)

Hymn CH4 251 I the Lord of sea and sky (verses 1&2)

Prayer

Music

Benediction

CMP 179 Go, tell it on the mountain (verses 4&5)

 

Speaking is silver, hearing is gold. It certainly is the case in the bible where God speaks and His words are heard by those whom He is speaking to. Throughout the bible, focus is on hearing:

‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one’ (Deuteronomy 6:4), meaning that his words and deeds are one.

‘But this command I gave them: ‘Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people.’ (Jeremiah 7:23)

And then the response of the young girl Mary, Jesus’s mother, after hearing the words that the angel Gabriel had spoken to her,

‘I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.’(Luke 1:38)

We heard the first words that the twelve year old Jesus spoke in the temple:

‘Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?’ (Luke 2:49)

With these words the boy Jesus says: ‘the relationship with my Father comes first.’

And now, we have heard how the boy Samuel, whose name means, ‘to hear’, learns to hear God’s voice.

It was at a time, that rituals and offerings in Israel continued to happen, while the word of the Lord was rare. Or, could it be that His word was not heard?

Eli, the priest has two sons: Hophni and Phinehas. It is said of them that their sin was great in the eyes of the Lord, for the men treated the offering of the Lord with contempt. And by doing so, they found themselves, not within God’s blessing, but within the anger of the Lord.

It’s as if there was a layer, a thick crust that prevented God’s word from reaching His people.

The prophet Eli was old and with that, his eyesight had become weak.

But that weakening of his eyesight symbolizes the situation:

the old priest has lost sight of what it is that makes Israel Israel, its connection with God.

Yet, it was at that time, God chose to speak through the young Samuel.

‘Yet’, we hear that word a few times.

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 (verse 3).

What kind of lamp is this? It’s not just a lamp, but  the lamp of which specific instructions can be found in the book of Exodus. It’s the lamp in the tent of meeting, to be tended from evening to morning before the Lord. It was a statute for ever to be observed throughout the generations by the people of Israel. Both the lamp and the ark, were symbols of God’s presence.

Samuel was lying where the ark was. The lamp had not yet gone out.

But the lamp signifies more. It’s symbolic. It refers to the spirit of Eli that is still receptive to God, even though he’s old and his eyesight had become weak. His commitment and service to God is still there. While that is so, the boy Samuel is given a crucial role by God.

In the darkness of the sin of blasphemy of God by Eli’s sons, while the word of God is rare, God makes His way to this young servant Samuel, who is not yet familiar with God’s word.

Just before the lamp runs out of oil, God speaks.

But Samuel does not recognize what he hears as the voice of God. Eli must have been near him, otherwise Samuel would not have assumed that it was Eli who called him.

‘Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him.’ (verse 7)

That is how it is with faith. Familiarity with God comes with getting to know Him. Time is needed to let that familiarity grow; ripen.

Faith is not something that can be passed on. We wish, for if that were so, wouldn’t we pass it on to our children and grandchildren, our neighbours, friends? But no, that is not how it works.

God calls Samuel three times. There’s suspension until the moment of Samuel’s actual encounter with God.

That delay stands for the time that we all need to realize that and how God is present in our lives, and where He wants us to be. It is a delay that can be recognized in our faith in Him, now. God’s patience; His timing determines the pace with which He lets things happen.

It is important to realize that we never stop learning who God is; how He works in His mysterious ways.

While Eli’s eyesight has become weak, he still functions as a key in Samuel’s service to God. He puts Samuel on the way to God, by telling him to hear the Lord’s voice.

God was present that night. He is present now, but He can only be present through those who do hear Him. There is an enormous emphasis, for instance in Isaiah, on receiving God’s Word through the ear:

The Lord God has given me
the tongue of those who are taught,
that I may know how to sustain with a word
him who is weary.
Morning by morning he awakens;
he awakens my ear
to hear as those who are taught.
The Lord God has opened my ear,
and I was not rebellious;
I turned not backward. (Isaiah 40:4-5)

Samuel opens his ear, but not without Eli’s help and guidance.

God says to Samuel:

 ‘I am about to do a thing in Israel at which the two ears of everyone who hears it will tingle. 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.  Therefore I swear to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be atoned for by sacrifice or offering forever.’

What a difficult thing to do, for this young servant Samuel, to tell Eli. And Eli? Eli wants to know every word that God has spoken.

And so he shows that he maintains his willingness to guide Samuel in God’s ways. He does not shut his ears for what he doesn’t want to hear, but listens and says:

‘It is the Lord. Let Him do what seems good to him’. (verse 18)

Eli continues to hear His Lord; continues to trust God in the darkness of His judgment.

Speaking is silver, hearing is gold. But hearing is only gold when we hear and recognize God’s voice like Eli does. Eli hears and then speaks to Samuel  words that for Samuel are words of guidance. And then, Eli hears those difficult words, that God spoke through Samuel.

While Eli’s own strength was failing, his faith in God wasn’t.

Faith doesn’t grow without being tested during times that are dark, difficult, painful. Our strength may be affected, but we can choose; we can insist on holding on to our faith, as Eli does.

In our struggles, we can find encouragement in God’s word as it has come to the world through Jesus Christ, through whom God’s word became flesh.

Let’s not lose sight of the biblical reality that God is and remains present through those who hear Him. God is not loud. So hearing requires concentration and training, so that we learn to recognize his voice like Eli the priest, who guided Samuel.

May hearing God’s word be as gold, triggering words and deeds coloured by His love. Love that He wants to begin within ourselves, so that He can make it greater, like the effect of a stone thrown into water causing bigger circles.

That so God’s word may continue to go out to all the earth, reaching the end of the world.

Amen

 

Growing and Learning

Order of Service:

Call to worship

Prayer

Hymn (Complete Mission Praise 3) Abba Father

Scripture readings:

Isaiah 11: 1-11

Luke 2: 39-52

Hymn (CMP 32) An army of ordinary people

Sermon ‘Growing and Learning’ – scroll down to read the sermon text

Hymn (CMP 167) Give me oil in my lamp, keep me burning (2 verses: 1 & 4)

Prayer

Music

Benediction

Hymn (CMP 33) And can it be (2 verses: 1 & 3)

 Growing and Learning

As I was preparing the sermon, a particular prayer came to mind, the prayer that was always said at the end of the Girls Brigade session:

“Hear us Jesus as we pray,

Help us love You more each day,

at Girls Brigade and everywhere.

Help us know You’re always there.

Amen.”

Daisy prayed, Hear us Jesus as we pray, help us love You more each day.

We do need Jesus’s help to love Him more and more. We do need His help to learn to love.

In our New Testament reading, Jesus is the same age as Daisy: 12 years old. When you grow up, you discover and learn so many things.

Unlike Daisy, when she was saying this prayer, Jesus was not at his home, which was in Nazareth. In our story, Jesus is in the temple in Jerusalem. He went there with Mary his mother and Joseph to celebrate with thousands of other Israelites the Feast of Pesach. In English it’s called the ‘Passover’. What is celebrated at this feast is the freedom they were given by God, after years and years of slavery in Egypt. When they were led out of Egypt, they were guided by someone who was chosen by God and his name was Moses. And Moses guided the people of Israel out of Egypt in the way that God wanted him to do.

So it was for this feast that Jesus, with his mother Mary and Joseph, travelled from Nazareth to Jerusalem. They travelled as part of a group, a big group of people. Everybody was happy. Jesus was too. He was excited because this was the first time he was going to see the temple in Jerusalem. After a long journey they arrived in the city and then, after going through the small streets he saw…the temple. It was an enormous building and because it was built on a mountain, it looked even higher than it was.

It was also terribly busy. You can imagine: thousands of people arrived there from all different places, so things could get easily out of hand. Therefore, there were stewards who tried to make things go smoothly, but there were also teachers, priests, beggars and tradesmen, trying to do business by selling animals for offering. It just looked like a big, busy market place. Jesus saw a lot of toil. Not quite what He expected. For what He knew was that God works when people have peace when they trust Him. So He wondered…Is this the house where God lives, the house that He built? Jesus was thinking of the words of this Psalm,

Unless the Lord builds the house,
those who build it labor in vain.
Unless the Lord watches over the city,
the watchman stays awake in vain.
It is in vain that you rise up early
and go late to rest,
eating the bread of anxious toil;
for he gives to his beloved sleep. (Psalm 127:1,2)

Jesus had to stay with His mum Mary at the square where women had to stay behind. Joseph went through to the square where the animals were offered. Joseph had a lamb that he took with him and Jesus knew what was going to happen to it. It was going to be looked at by a priest, and if he thought it was perfect, the lamb was slaughtered. Then some of the blood of the lamb was going to be taken by the priest and he was going to put it on the altar. It was a ritual and Jesus knew what that ritual meant. It meant God’s forgiveness: the blood of the lamb covered the sins of the people; it washed away the sins of the people. The lamb could then be taken back and eaten by the family, at the Passover meal. Jesus knew all these things. He was a thinker. He thought a lot about God and wanted to find out more about Him.

Therefore, during the days of the Passover feast Jesus chose to spend time in that part of the temple where the Ten Commandments were taught. The Ten Commandments were rules given by God to Moses and Moses had to pass on those rules to the other Israelites. It was wise men who explained the meaning of the Ten Commandments.

In this story, Jesus listens very carefully to what these men say about these commandments, about these rules that God had given Moses. But more than anything, Jesus is keen on hearing more about who God is. What can these wise men tell Him about God Himself? Jesus listens, and then starts to ask questions.

God said to Moses that He always would be with His people, but how? And can we call Him Father? Moses also said that God’s children turned away from Him. Why did they do that?

Jesus asks deep, challenging questions. The wise men had never had a pupil before whose mind and heart were so full of God. At such a young age. They were amazed. Some of them liked having such a keen pupil. But others found Jesus with His sharp questions, irritating.

The wise men wonder: why is this boy like this? Well, through the stories he heard from his parents it started to dawn on Jesus that God must be His Father.

So while the wise men were dealing with his questions, they didn’t know that this boy Jesus was searching for His own Father, exploring, moving closer and closer to Him.

What this meant for Joseph and Mary was that Jesus slowly but surely distanced Himself from them. And that was painful for Mary and Joseph. That distancing of Jesus from them, while they loved Him. That pain was only going to be intensified. It was going to be unbearable, when Mary was going to see this same Jesus, her son, on the cross, from a distance.

The fact that Joseph and Mary were already on their way home when they realized that Jesus was not with them, is a sign that he was given freedom; that they trusted him. They didn’t expect him to stay within their sight, all the time. They found Him, after three days.

After three days, Jesus was found.

Later, Jesus would be lost again for three days, in death after which He would appear to His loved ones .

For now, in our story of this morning, Mary and Joseph find Him, after three distressing days, in the midst of the teachers. He was listening to them. Taking in the words they spoke. Making them His own, before He Himself would speak, teach and interpret the same Ten Commandments.

Jesus’s home was the tradition of His fellow believers. For that is what they were: Jesus and the teachers of the Law; they shared their unshakable belief in God.

From that belief and the traditions that came with that Jewish belief, Jesus grew, as it says at the end of the story

‘And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favour with God and man’. (Luke 2:52)

During Jesus’s ministry, Jesus speaks about the Law and when He does, He means the Ten Commandments that were given to the Prophet Moses, ages and ages ago. Moses wrote down the ways in which God wanted His people to live. So when Jesus says,

Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets, I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them (Matthew 5:17)

He says: Don’t think, because it was ages and ages ago that those rules were given, they do not count anymore for I, the Son of God, am here to help you to love, and so to put in practice the rules that Moses, ages and ages ago, wrote down.

For when people do that, what happens then is that the light of Jesus; His way of living, can be shown by them. And other people can see something of Jesus. And His way is the way of love, a love that never stops burning

Amen