This is the text of the message I prepared for worship at Eventide Homes in Stawell for Sunday 14th January 2024. It was the Third Sunday of Epiphany, and I was taking chapel at the aged care facility for a mixed (mainly Uniting Church) congregation.
1 Samuel 3:1-11, 19-21a, Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18.
I wonder, do you l like your name? I was explaining to the people of Pomonal a few weeks ago where my names come from, and what each of those names represents in my family. I share a surname with a line of male ancestors, but neither of my Christian names comes from my family. I am Damien Paul, my father is Robert John and his father was Lloyd Albert: so there’s no continuity there even if we have all been “Mr Tann” at some point. I still am.
In today’s story from the Jewish Tradition we hear of how God calls Samuel by his name. This was something I spoke of with the St Matthews people this morning, and how as a teacher of teenagers with Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties, and then later as a prison officer for HMPS, I have been called many things that are not my name. In fact I don’t need to go to tough school or gaol to hear such language, sometimes I only have to be at North Park and wave one flag instead of two at the end to which CKS Swifts are kicking to hear the sort of language not used in church. I happen to like my name, Damien, but some of the names yelled at my back while I’m umpiring in goals are somewhat less appealing.
When God called to the boy Samuel in the dim-lit sanctuary of the temple at night, God used his name. Samuel was a child, but it was to him that The LORD spoke, and not the adult priest Eli. We are told in 1 Samuel 3:1 that the voice of God was rarely heard in those days, and neither were visions seen. We are told that Eli was almost blind, and it appears that his heart was as much blind to God’s vision for the people as his eyes were fading to God’s colours in the sunlight. So God avoided the blind man and spoke to the small boy, confident of being heard and understood.
It might be a bit confronting in the environment of Aged Care to speak of deafness and blindness caused by diminishing powers; but it need not be so. Even allowing that God called Moses at eighty years of age; more so we remember from recent Sunday readings the stories of Zechariah and Elizabeth, and the Simeon and Anna. Each of then were spoken to by God at an advanced age, and each of them filled a small but vital part in God’s plan for Jesus. God knows the ones whom God calls, and God calls each of them by their unique name to their unique purpose.
Our psalm for today also speaks of God’s intimate knowledge and organisation of our lives. In Psalm 139:1-6 we read of God’s thorough understanding of who we are individually, how each of us ticks. In Psalm 139:13-18 we read how God also knows from what each of us is composed, because God was there in the knitting and the shaping from the outset of our conception. God calls the ones God wants called, and knows upon whom to call for the work that must be done. When God bypassed the experienced but dull-sighted high priest, and landed upon the child dozing in the sanctuary as the recipient of a rare vision and prophetic insight, God knew what would happen. The child responded, and as he grew into manhood he continued to respond and God continued to speak to and through Samuel, the one The LORD knew by name and by design.
I do not believe that the call of God goes away if the child of God continues to listen. Samuel started early and lived a long and faithful life. Moses started his prophetic career much later in life, but he ended on a high. Simeon, Anna, Elizabeth and Zechariah all joined the mission of God in young adulthood and continued to serve The LORD as God gave them task after task. The tasks changed as their bodies and minds aged, but God did not forget them or excuse them simply because they were old.
So, even in Eventide, what is God calling you to? There are many residents who are not here in church with us right now, but you are. Some cannot come because age has wearied them even this much; others do not have the confidence in God that you have, or the history you have of relying upon Christ and his faithfulness. My prayer for you is that if God is calling children to the work of the gospel and not us, let it be because God has other work for us and not because we have stopped listening and stopped choosing to respond. God is faithful, and God continues to speak to each of us by our preferred name. I know this, because not only does God call me “Damien” rather than “blind green maggot”, but because God calls me “beloved son”, and “faithful servant”. My prayer for you is that you may you hear similar words in your dear Father’s voice as well Amen.
damienwrites 