Spiritual Language
Text: 1 Samuel 3:1-10
Title: Spiritual Language
Thesis: Faith is believing what God is saying is true and responding to what God is calling us to do.
Time: Epiphany, 2 Sun, B
In High School I had a good friend named Henry. Interesting thing about Henry’s family, both of his parents were completely deaf. Not hearing from birth, they also couldn’t speak. I found it fascinating to go to Henry’s house and watch the three of them communicate back and forth in sign language. When his parents wanted to ask me something, Henry was our translator. They asked a question in sign language and Henry communicated to me their question. Then, Henry translated my answer back to them in sign language. Henry was also something of a prankster, and sometimes seeing the looks on his parent’s faces, I wonder what Henry was really translating back that I said. They probably still wonder how in the world I ended up as a preacher. I asked Henry one time how he learned to talk, since neither of his parents could teach him to talk. He said the main way he learned to talk was his parents leaving the television set turned on so he could listen to people talk.
The Bible describes the way we communicate to God. Learning to speak and hear a spiritual language is something we learn. It’s a language that is developed the more we use it. This spiritual language we use to communicate with God requires more than the natural senses of sight and hearing. Communicating with God is spiritual –our spirits in tune with the Spirit of God. I like the phrase that the apostle Paul coined to describe spiritual language. Paul called it “eyes of your heart.” Listen to what he writes in Ephesians 1:18, “So that with eyes of your heart, you may know what is the hope which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints.”
The Bible is our grammar to this spiritual language and our lesson today is from 1 Samuel 3:1-10.
Did you notice the play on words in 1 Samuel 3? With sight –Eli the priest’s eyesight has begun to grow dim, the lamp of God is no longer bright, visions are not widespread. With hearing –Eli does not hear God speak, but the young child Samuel has acute hearing. He hears God and responds back, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.” Mixing together seeing and hearing, God says in 1 Samuel 3:11, “See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make both ears of anyone who hears of it tingle.” What is God saying here? When we learn to communicate with God, our ears will tingle with new sounds and the vision becomes crystal clear.
In the physical senses of seeing and hearing, the eyes and ears take in information from the surrounding environment. We hear a dog bark, we see a car’s headlights. The light waves and sound waves are sent to the brain where they are then processed. Similarly, our spiritual ears and spiritual eyes take in information from God. This information God sends us is called grace. God chooses all kinds of ways to make us aware of what he is saying. We often describe the main ways God sends us information as the “means of grace” –things like reading the Bible, praying, the Lord’s Supper, Baptism, worship, and Christian fellowship. Once God’s grace is received, this information is processed by faith. Faith is first, believing what God is saying is true and secondly, responding what God is calling us to do.
It helps to have an instructor teach us the alphabet and first words of God’s spiritual language; just like you wouldn’t put a first grader in an advanced English composition class. In 1 Samuel 3, the young boy Samuel has his very first spiritual language lesson. Notice he has a wise teacher, a religious man named Eli. Here is what a Christian devotional author named Kenneth Chafin wrties, “Most people, if they reflect a while, will realize that God is always supplying people like Eli at different times when we are finding it difficult to discern God’s direction for our lives at some critical juncture. Questions like what to do about a relationship, which job to take, how to deal with a problem, or what to do with our lives are often made clearer by someone with spiritual wisdom who helps us hear Gods’ voice in the familiar and encourages obedience as the best way.”
Being around Henry, I picked up a few words and phrases in sign language. I am embarrassed to say, however, that Henry wasn’t that good of a sign language teacher. More than anything, Henry taught me how to cuss in sign language. But I still remember a few useful words, simple words like “yes” and “no.” In communicating with God, we begin with a basic vocabulary. Samuel, just learning the language utters his very first spiritual words in 1 Samuel 3:9, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.” We usually say as our first words in speaking to God, “God, forgive me of my sins, I want to live as a disciple of Jesus Christ.”
From there we continue, we progress in our ability to speak with God. Hearing God more clearly, we understand what God calls us to do as disciples of Jesus Christ. And the things God calls us to do as Jesus’ disciples are sometimes things we never dreamed could be possible. Ears tingle, visions are made clear. We may even say, “God did I hear you right, you want me to do what?” Some of us, looking back on our lives would never have envisioned the amazing things that God has called us to do.
But the hold-up for some Christians is they never move much beyond the first grade level. That’s one of the main problems dealt with here in the early chapters of 1 Samuel. The sons of Eli, active priests in the temple, have only a basic, rudimentary vocabulary. They’re even regressed back further than a first grade level, they’re in the toddler stage, the “my” stage. Listen to how they are described in 1 Samuel 2:12, “Now the sons of Eli were scoundrels, they had no regard for the Lord or the duties of the priests to the people.” With bad temple etiquette, they took more than their fair share of the sacrifice people brought as offerings. In 1 Samuel 2:16, one of them says, “No, you must give it now, if not, I will take it by force.” Instead of being master teachers of wisdom, instructing people in how to discern the will of God, they are back in the “my” stage, more concerned for their own needs. Touring a daycare years ago, I noticed on the door of a toddler room a sign that read, “The Toddler’s Creed.” I had the day care director make a copy of it. Listen to some of what it says, “If I want it, it’s mine; if it looks just like mine, it is mine; if I can take it away from you, it’s mine; if I had it a little while ago, it’s mine; if I give it to you and change my mind later, it’s mine; if we are building something together, all the pieces are mine; if it’s mine, it will never belong to anyone else no matter what.” Sadly, as Christians we can be like the two sons of Eli. We, too, can be more concerned for our own needs than opening ourselves up to our callings, that is, what God desires to accomplish through us. Even in our prayer lives, we can remain at a rudimentary, toddler level, just always asking God for things. But as we advance, hearing God speak, God’s calling is made clear.
As the young boy Samuel matures, he discerns God’s calling for his life. Samuel progresses way beyond a first grade level in communicating with God. He advances past a high school, college and graduate school level. Samuel becomes well versed in how to speak to God. In times when it seems for God’s people that God is nowhere to be found, Samuel hears God. In times when he is personally stressed, Samuel hears God. In times when others come to him seeking God’s direction, Samuel hears God. Samuel gains a reputation far and wide throughout Judea as the person to talk to if you want to get in tune with God. The Hebrews call Samuel “the prophet of God.” Samuel makes clear to others God’s calling. Whenever Samuel showed up in town, people knew they were going to hear a message from God. And what great things Samuel helped the people to see God calling them to do. For Saul it was to become the king of the nation. And again, for the young boy named David, the last any would ever dream of, Samuel helps him to discern God’s calling to be the king. For the nation of Israel, marching off into war, Samuel was there praying for God’s protection and presence. In times of national and spiritual crisis, Samuel was there giving the nation’s leaders wise advice. No matter how busy he became, Samuel always made time to communicate with God, seeking God’s direction.
God’s calling for our lives is made clear as we open ourselves to taking in what God is saying –especially as we are open to the means of grace –things like having a good prayer life, attending worship on a regular basis, reading the Bible on a daily basis, and going to Sunday school. Otherwise, we can end up like the sons of Eli, more concerned for our own needs than what God can accomplish through us.
What is the goal for every student? It’s to graduate. In our speaking to God, the temptation can be to settle in, to stay right where we are. Happy with what God has already accomplished through us, we just stop listening, no longer hearing what new things God has in store for us. God can be tuned out. This is evident in 1 Samuel 3. Think about it, Eli the priest lives in the temple, considered the most holy of all places for the Hebrew people. The temple is a place where only a very few number of holy people may enter. If there is any place in the world the Hebrew’s believe God is present and will speak and make clear their callings, it is in the temple. But Eli has tuned God out. It used to be that Eli was effective in his ministry as a priest, but now he’s got some family problems. His two boys are running around the temple yelling, “it’s mine, it’s mine.” Eli is growing old, with health problems and such, he feels he’s got enough of his own problems to worry about, much less anyone else’s. it’s no wonder we read in 1 Samuel 3:1, “Visions were not widespread.” The problem isn’t that God has stopped speaking. The problem is that Eli has tuned God out. Eli has compromised and has settled in to the belief that things will never get any better.
In the church we can compromise and settle into believing that things won’t get any better. In church life, we call it being in maintenance mode. In maintenance mode, the church focuses inward, thinking we’ve got enough of our own problems to deal with, much less anyone else’s. we become content simply to remember the good old days. Seeking God’s vision for the future wanes, and like Eli, we lay down on the job. This isn’t to say that in maintenance mode nothing is happening. It doesn’t say in 1 Samuel 3:1, “Visions were non-existent,” just that “Visions were not widespread.” In maintenance mode, the church can still get some ministry done, but that bigger vision, the reality of what God can do through the church goes unseen.
With spiritual ears that are opened to hear God’s voice and with spiritual eyes that are faithful to seeing what God can do, the church enters into a transforming mode. In 1 Samuel, the nation of Israel is transformed, renewed and revived. And it came about it the simplest of ways, just one small child, uttering a most basic of spiritual phrases, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.” If nowhere else, the place for any of us to start in speaking to God is by utter the simple phrase, “God, forgive me of my sins, I want to live as a disciple of Jesus Christ.” As a church, God makes clear the vision as we pray together, “Speak, Lord, for your church is listening.” And as we are open to what God is saying, having the faith to believe and to respond, may we receive our callings and be transformed.