Can God Call an Old Guy (like me)?

Introduction

The question in our sermon title has an obvious answer – Yes! But the truth is that we often think of God’s call in quite restrictive ways. We think God’s Call is for young people, or for full time Christian workers, or for people facing some great crisis – in fact, for almost anyone except me. Let’s talk about God’s Call.

Some Stories

You probably grew up with stories of God’s call. I remember one my Uncle Arthur used to tell. He married Arlene Brubaker, a young woman from Ohio. They were both students in Upland, California when they met. He was a young man who knew he wanted to go into missions, probably in Africa. She also felt that God was calling her to missions, either in Africa or India. Since she had relatives in our mission work in Africa, she assumed God was calling her to India.

Arthur was a shy young man with a supremely confident exterior. He was afraid any girl he liked might say no, so he formed a club with some friends called “the woman-haters club”. When Arlene started at Upland College, she saw him across the room and thought he looked nice, but her friends discouraged her: “That’s Arthur. He started the woman-haters club. Don’t worry about him.” Of course, he had also noticed Arlene and decided to ask her out. In those days (the 1930s) “asking a girl out” included walking her home from some event or other.

Meanwhile Arlene was praying about God’s Call. So she asked God to show her if she should go to Africa or India. She prayed, “Lord, if you want me to go to Africa, have Arthur Climenhaga invite me for a date before Wednesday night.” That Wednesday, Arthur watched Arlene leave the campus by bus for her apartment. Then he got on his bicycle and rode to the bus stop where he knew she would be waiting. He rode up to her and talked for a bit and then asked, “May I walk you home from choir tonight?” He said that she just looked at him and he thought, “Oh no! She doesn’t like me!” She was thinking, “God just told me to go to Africa!”

[Disclaimer: Arthur said that he does not recommend this way of discerning God’s will – the proverbial “fleece”! I add that my memory of details such as “Wednesday night” may be quite wrong. I wasn’t there!]

I think of another story. Years before, Arthur’s Uncle, Henry Smith, was also engaged to a young woman, Katie Burkholder. Henry and Katie both believed God was calling them to mission work in Africa. Independently of each other they both realized that God was actually calling them to India. Each of them wrote a letter to each other breaking the engagement to follow God’s call. Henry’s letter travelled from Pennsylvania to California at the same time as Katie’s letter went from California to Pennsylvania. When they each got the other’s letter, they realized God had confirmed God’s call in their lives in a wonderful way.

I love these stories. God speaks to us – sometimes so directly and clearly that we know for sure what God wants us to do. But there stories contain a serious problem: They imply that the real work of a Christian is overseas missions, and that the best Christians are those who receive this kind of marvellous call. What happens to the rest of us? Does God call us too?

1 Samuel 3: 1-10

3 The boy Samuel ministered before the Lord under Eli. In those days the word of the Lord was rare; there were not many visions. ² One night Eli, whose eyes were becoming so weak that he could barely see, was lying down in his usual place. ³ The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the house of the Lord, where the ark of God was. ⁴ Then the Lord called Samuel. Samuel answered, “Here I am.” ⁵ And he ran to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.” But Eli said, “I did not call; go back and lie down.” So he went and lay down.

⁶ Again the Lord called, “Samuel!” And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.” “My son,” Eli said, “I did not call; go back and lie down.” ⁷ Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord: The word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him.

⁸ A third time the Lord called, “Samuel!” And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.” Then Eli realized that the Lord was calling the boy. ⁹ So Eli told Samuel, “Go and lie down, and if he calls you, say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’” So Samuel went and lay down in his place.

¹⁰ The Lord came and stood there, calling as at the other times, “Samuel! Samuel!” Then Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”

You know the story. Hannah is married to Elkanah. We don’t know the details, but in their culture marriages were between families and for the purpose of having children. When Hannah had no children, no one would have been surprised that Elkanah took a second wife, and they would have rejoiced with him when she had children.

Imagine Hannah’s despair. Elkanah loved her more than he loved Peninnah, but she had no children. During their annual pilgrimage to Shiloh, she went into the Tabernacle and prayed desperately for a son. Eli the priest saw her and pronounced God’s blessing on her: “Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant you what you have asked of him.” God granted her request, and Samuel was born.

In her joy, she promises to give the child to God to live in the Tabernacle with Eli. When Samuel is born, she fulfills her vow and takes him to Shiloh and leaves him there, probably soon after he learned to walk. In chapter 2, then, Hannah sings a song of praise that serves as the model for Mary’s song of praise in Luke 1.

So we come to chapter three. Samuel’s name may mean “Heard of God”, since God heard Hannah’s prayer. Certainly, his life was changed by hearing God’s call in the night. We don’t know how old he was, but he had been in the Tabernacle for some years when this event took place. The writer sets the stage: The people in general do not hear or see much of God, and Eli himself is failing, old and in poor health. Samuel was sleeping that night in the tabernacle itself when he heard the voice call, “Samuel!” He got up and went to Eli to see what he wanted. Eli hadn’t called him, and he went back to lie down and sleep. Again he heard the voice, and again Eli told him to go and lie down.

Verse seven signals a change in the action: “Samuel did not yet know the Lord.” This night was God’s call on his life. When he heard the voice a third time and went to Eli, Eli realized what was happening. Eli was an important figure – the first of the high priests, descendant of Aaron, priest and judge in Shiloh. Although he was a flawed person, unable to teach or control his sons, here he acted as God’s person for that moment. He told Samuel what to do. “Go and lie down, and if he calls you, say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’”

Samuel did as he was told. The voice called twice this time: “Samuel! Samuel!” He replied as Eli told him: “Speak, for your servant is listening.” And the course of his life was set. He was the last of the judges, the priest at Shiloh, the leader of Israel who helped bring in the monarchy and the house of David. Since the Messiah is “Son of David”, Samuel’s life was basic to God’s great redeeming work, coming in the person of Jesus to reconcile the world to God.

The story reinforces our perceptions that God’s call is for special people, people like the leader of Israel. Consider, however, who Samuel was: A small boy, serving and growing up in the Tabernacle. God came to a child, not simply to some great leader. Another point in the story is of greater importance: God call is the formative event in a person’s life. When God calls you, you are never the same again – whether you heed God’s call or not.

To think more about God’s call, we turn to John 1: 35-42

John 1

³⁵ The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. ³⁶ When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!” ³⁷ When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus.³⁸ Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?” They said, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?” ³⁹ “Come,” he replied, “and you will see.”

So they went and saw where he was staying, and they spent that day with him. It was about four in the afternoon.

⁴⁰ Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. ⁴¹ The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). ⁴² And he brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which, when translated, is Peter).

We join the action of chapter one as John the Baptist pursues his work. He sees Jesus passing by and identifies him as the Messiah. Two of John’s disciples follow Jesus and ask where he lives. Jesus invites them to “come and see”. In effect, he says, “Follow me.” They do.

One of these two was Andrew, and he brought his brother Simon. Simon also came to Jesus, and Jesus renamed him “Cephas” – or “Peter”, that is “Rock”. Matthew’s gospel explains this name in 16: 18 as “the rock on which Christ builds his church”. Again we see the importance of God’s call, which is life-changing. Peter does not immediately become a steadfast reliable person. The greater change in his life comes in the resurrection of Jesus and the events leading up to Pentecost, but here Jesus begins the process.

So God’s call is life-changing, but the call in John is quieter, less dramatic than in 1 Samuel. “Where do you live?” “Come and See.” In understand this to mean that Jesus invites the disciples to walk with him and live with him, and the invitation changes their lives. If the story about Samuel involves a child, at least that child was especially dedicated to life in God’s house. In John, the call is more prosaic. John’s disciples are so very ordinary, they could be you or me! So let’s put these together and ask what we can say about God’s call for us today.

Applying to Life

1) My first thought is that God’s call is actually basic to every one of us. God’s call is not just important to future apostles, or priests at Shiloh, or other religious specialists. As we read the gospels, we find that Jesus had only one response when people came to him and asked what they should do: “Follow Me.” That is still true today. Whether you are 15 or 50, finishing school and ready to work, or finishing work and ready to retire, God calls you and God calls me to follow Jesus, to live with Jesus.

I was talking recently with Reg, and he noted the way that people saw his going to MCC USA from government service as “following God’s Call”, although it seemed rather less dramatic than that to him and Phyllis. I would say that they were right: Reg and Phyllis were following God’s call. I would add that moving to the RHA more recently was another example of following God’s call. I think that Phyllis was following God’s call when she established a business in Pennsylvania making and selling crafts. God’s call is the foundation of life for every one of us.

2) A second thought is that God’s call is life-changing. Simon’s name-change symbolizes more than just a new nickname. God is at work to make him a completely new person. Samuel’s response to God’s voice changed his life.

We have often thought that a life-changing call has to do with “full-time Christian service”, but actually it just has to do with life. God calls a young woman entering the work force to live as God’s person in a Steinbach business so that the people she works with and interacts with each day see Jesus. God calls a middle-aged man to start his own business so that the people he serves can see Jesus. God calls a retired couple to take people into their home through a ministry of hospitality so that the people they meet will see Jesus.

God’s call has less to do with age than with our openness to God’s voice. Like John’s disciples in John 1, we are looking for God, and when God comes to us, we respond. We say with the boy Samuel, “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.”

3) A third thought is that God’s call changes the world. Peter was renamed for the sake of the church and the world, not just for his own sake. Samuel’s call led to new life for the Children of Israel. God calls you and God calls me to be “salt and light” in our world, so that through our response other people also come to know Jesus.

I think of an international student at Providence who moved to Winnipeg after graduation. She later said that, living at Providence, she thought Canadians were a warm and welcoming people. Then she moved to Winnipeg and changed her mind. Now she says that the people at Providence are a warm and welcoming people. That is an example of a community responding to God’s call together.

I think of another friend from Japan whom Lois used to teach. She invited him for supper and told him to bring any friends he wanted to. As we sat and talked together, he said, “This one is from Indonesia, and he is a Christian. This one is also from Indonesia, and he is also a Christian. This one if from Madagascar, and he is a Christian. I am not a Christian.” An unusual statement! Lois asked if they were his roommates, since he had invited them to join him. He said, “No. They are just the best people at the place where I work!” That is an example of three young men answer God’s call and making a difference in the world around them.

4) Two final thoughts. One: We find God’s call together. The stories I began with this morning can lead us to think that we find God’s call is a personal and individual thing. There is an individual component: You must respond for yourself. Nobody else can listen to and respond for you. There is also a vital community component: We listen for God’s voice together. God may speak through a brother or sister to tell us what to do. When we think God is speaking, it is good to check with our sisters and brothers – in care groups, over a cup of coffee, making sure that we are not just engaging in wishful thinking.

Two: Some people try to make this whole conversation into God’s pre-planned blueprint for our lives. I don’t think that makes sense. God drew Samuel and Jesus invited his disciples into a life lived together. In any given moment, God may present us with several choices, with two or three right answers to the questions that face us. Like the time that my parents, older sister, and I were crossing the ocean by ship on our way home from Africa. My sister was nine years old, and there was a game going on in the ship dining room – a horse race around a small track with models of horses that raced based on the roll of the dice. One of the women there saw my sister watching and gave her a small amount of money to bet on the horses. She asked my Dad what she should do, and he told her to choose for herself. She chose to bet the money, which was probably not what he would have done! The lesson to choose for herself proved to be more important than a prohibition on gambling, and she was still safely in my parents’ will, even though their choice would have been not to gamble.

God speaks to us through our likes and our interests. God speaks to us through to opportunities that present themselves. God speaks to us through each other. Together we respond and witness to the presence of Jesus in our world. A dramatic call to Africa is part of this picture. An ordinary step into a new situation is part of this picture. At any age, for all of our lives, Jesus says, “Come and see where I live. Walk with me. Live with me.” Like Samuel, we say, “Speak. We’re listening.” Like Peter and Andrew and James and John, we respond by walking with Jesus in everything that we do.

Steinbach Mennonite Church

21 January 2018