Sunday January 18, 2009
The Very Rev. Anthony R. Pompa
II Epiphany
I Samuel 3:1-10

A boy, rabbinic scholars tell us probably 12-15 years old, living thousands and thousands of years ago, is slumbering warmly in his bed, protected from the elements of the outside when he is rudely interrupted by a voice calling him! Samuel, Samuel! Thinking wrongly the voice is but a rude interruption or even a call for help from his mentor Eli, who he shares the space with, he rises from the warmth of his bed, and travels through the dark house and asks, What do you want! It’s not me calling, go back to bed! Good news! We all love to go back to bed. Three times that voice comes and three times the young boy finds himself confused and yanked out of bed! Finally Eli, the mentor discerns the voice must be coming from God and with simple wisdom and some fear for his own place in the world, Eli says, it is God, Just lay there and listen! Imagine the twelve year old boy and the context of his world. These were ancient times where the people of Israel in their journey with Yahweh have not yet developed into a nation governed, ruled, and protected as other people’s were at the time. Many of their powerful neighbors were established as a monarchy, ruled by a King. Israel at this point in their history are more of a confederacy of sorts, organized as tribes scattered throughout an ancient land, worshipping a unique God. This people would daily be challenged by influences of competing for “prosperous” and generous farm lands. They would compete with a diversity of people’s and nations for the same land, and would be influenced by other customs, ways, and even Gods! How do these tribes stay unified, protected, and how do they make for themselves an “economy”? For Samuel, the young boy, he will be called by God to stand in line as a “JUDGE” and a Prophet”. A Judge as is the name given to those “holy men” called to be leaders of this “confederacy” of tribes, to hold them together, unified in purpose, in devotion to Yahweh, and as competitors to foreign influences and challenges. For Samuel, the young boy, you have to wonder as he contemplates the complex enough question of who he is becoming as a young man, how he might identify himself as a young man in complex world. If he is to Listen to God, what could it all mean for his life? If he is to listen to God and even make his way through the complexity of his context to discern this call, he has to be asking what difference can he make at all should he respond to this call?


I don’t know about you, I don’t know how you listen to God’s voice. I don’t know if God’s voice wakes you from your sleep, or slips into your daily conversations, or comes to you in prayer. I know what wakes me these days is the stark contrast of the cold outside and the blessed warmth of my bed. What wakes me these days is the strange juxtaposition of life that puts me in the warmth why others are on the street in the cold. I know what wakes me is the middle of the night is the thought and challenge of waking my way to the next piece of my daily routine, how and when the juggle of schedule will lead to all that needs to be done get done. I know that at times when I am awakened in the middle of the night I give in to the bad habit of turning on my television and there I see the complexity of the world I live in. I know you see it too: war, economic tenuousness, disease, famine, crime; you know the list. These things of my context I confess I sometimes get a helpless feeling, as I consider what it is that I am to do about any of it.
The complexity of the pace of life and our place in it is a challenging enough task. We consider our place and future in our vocations, employment, our relationships, and in our household. It is plenty complex as rise and face our own identity, strengths and weaknesses in the human condition. It is even more complex when we consider the struggles of our local governments, our nation, and the world.
I suppose what I mean to say is that when we start each day, just trying to figure out who WE ARE, What we will BE, WHO we will be in the everyday, this seems like enough of plenty, BUT when on top of it then we may find ourselves reflecting on a world and even struggling to pray for a world that is war torn in many places, where there is suffering and hunger in so many places, where there is financial and economic tenousness and even ruin in so many places, this sometimes seems overwhelming!
We listen for God’s voice the scriptures reveal to us, yes Lord, but How can we even consider taking our place in this sometimes overwhelming world? Where do we look for that voice? How can we hear that voice? Most importantly, if we do hear that voice, that call, and if we get to a point of responding, are you sure its going to make any difference at all?
Sometimes in it all we may find ourselves caught up at times in history, where the smacking of justice catches up with the ticking of history. We may see glimpses of calls heard and responded to that break in to our daily lives in tangible and significant ways. I pray we note the significance of his profound historical moment in our country as we witness an African American being sworn in as President of these United States. This is particularly poignant as this act occurs just a day after we recognize the life and witness of Martin Luther King who, having heard God’s voice of call, responded in such a way that led to the sacrifice of his very life in the name of Justice and equality for all of God’s people. I pray this sacrifice by not only Dr. King, but so many ordinary people who marched and sacrificed and died in dark remote forests in the middle of the night, to public streets in cities like Memphis, Birmingham, Atlanta, and Chicago. These brave actions made so such a moment in history possible. Regardless of our political positions and persuasions all of in this moment of history want what is best for our country. We hope against hope that the difficulties of our country and the world can be faced with integrity and faithful action by those we elect to help lead and invite us into faithful actions of resolve in the face of our challenges.
Thank God for such a witness and response to God’s vision for equality that would lead us to see tangibly that equality is possible.
Yet still, for you and for me, trying to figure out our place in this world, even so, we may be wondering how we take our place in this equation of life in a way that can make any difference at all? Let’s face it, for the majority of us here today, and certainly with some exceptions, we will not be the ones sitting at tables of influence charting forward a plan for economic recovery, or for finding resolution to peace in the middle east, or creating a systematic approach to eliminate hunger and disease, around the world. Its complex enough isn’t it, trying to figure out how we will stay alive in our marriage, Be alive as a parent, sustain ourselves and provide for ourselves and our families.
So as we rise in the darkness of each day, grateful we pray for the gift of another day, but I confess as we engage the boy Samuel and the story of his calling, perhaps each us deep down asks the question, so if I can after all Listen for God’s voice calling me, what difference will it make anyway even if I figure out how to respond?

Madeline L’Engle in her book “Glimpses of Grace” quotes a poem her Grandmother used to recite to her:

“Little drops of water,
Little grains of Sand,
Make the mighty ocean
And the pleasant land.

She goes on to say, “ I believe the Kingdom is built on little things that all of us do. A single drop can’t even make a puddle, but together, all our drops and God’s planning can make not only a mighty ocean but a mighty difference”.

It’s easy to be overcome by the bigness of the complexity of the world’s needs and easy to be in a place to wonder, if we are able to hear God calling, What difference will it make anyway. It’s understandable that we may stand afar and be thankful that Samuel answered his call to Yahweh and became a prophet of integrity and a Judge who would lead the tribes of Israel strongly against foreign invaders. He would call people into faithful relationships with Yahweh, and he would “begrudgingly” give in to the cry for a Monarchy and anoint Saul as the first King of Israel.
Its understandable that we would stand grateful that a young boy from Atlanta would hear a call from God that would lead him to lead a movement that would work toward equal rights and we would give thanks for that sacrifice for justice.


But given most of us will not lead a nation, or a movement, though indeed I am banking on the fact that some out there may, we still ask the question to God, what difference can we make.
Sometimes God’s opportunity to “make a difference” begins with a simple email naming small realities. For example this week, an email came from across the river, It’s cold outside, dangerously cold, and the small but deserving homeless population in Bethlehem have no shelter. Like drops of water combining together to make a mighty ocean, or in this case, like grains of sand coming together to create a pleasant land, the pieces of a puzzle began to come together in response to a call! Here on Thursday night, blankets and pillows began to arrive, soup and cereal, bread and water, bodies and souls, coming together, and with heart and soul, the basement of Sayre Hall was transformed into a sanctuary from the cold for a number of God’s people who otherwise would have been on the street. The next night St. Andrew’s in East Allentown followed suit, and a van ran from the Cathedral transporting folks, lastnight the Unitarian Church became that pleasant land, tonight St. Andrew’s again, tomorrow back here at the Cathedral.

What difference does it make? I wonder if one of our guests after a night off of the street might help us with that answer.