Episodes
Sunday Nov 26, 2017
"Don't Hold Back"
Sunday Nov 26, 2017
Sunday Nov 26, 2017
A sermon preached by T.C. Morrow at Foundry United Methodist Church in Washington, DC on November 26, 2017.
Scripture: 1 Samuel 3:8-18
Good morning. We are in the midst of a year long theme of Faith Remastered, a distinctly musically inspired theme playing off of technologies that allow for enhancing sound quality of recordings. We’re looking afresh at scripture and other practices in our tradition – you may recall our readings from John Wesley’s 1761 “Directions for Singing” – looking at how they can be dusted off and relevant for the living out of our days.
Our current sermon series theme is on mashups – the sometimes good and sometimes bad blending and merging of lyrics and tunes from two distinct songs. Our relationships are like that too – bringing together distinct personalities and desires in blends that can have all kinds of results. In a week with Thanksgiving, whether spending time with family that you grew up with or chosen family, we are perhaps extra attuned to the colorful tapestry woven together from our relationships --- loose threads, spectacular patterns and all.
Two weeks ago Pastor Will examined Ruth and Naomi, showing how authentic relationship does not simply commodify our interactions, warning us of the pitfalls of participating in a “consumptive relational economy” as Pastor Will named it. Last week Pastor Dawn explored the story of Cain and Abel, looking at the messiness of our relationships – and the importance of how we respond, how we rise given the troubles and messiness. This week we turn to Samuel and Eli.
Will you join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O God, our rock and redeemer. Amen.
Don’t even think about hiding anything from me. Don’t hold back!
Samuel’s maybe ten or twelve years old when he hears this admonition from his mentor, his foster father Eli. Since he was just a few years old, he has lived with the priest Eli at Shiloh, the main worship site for the Israelite people before the construction of the first temple in Jerusalem.
Eli trained Samuel as a priest, though this role was not initially one of Samuel’s own choosing. While still an infant, Samuel’s mother Hannah made promises for Samuel’s life. The text says that she decided he would be a nazirite from birth, someone set apart for God’s service with some special rules like no wine and no cutting of your hair. Surely Samuel could have ignored his mother’s faithful dedication of her first born to God’s service and God’s subsequent call, but sometimes even when we land in circumstances not entirely of our own choosing, we nonetheless embrace them. Samuel embraces the path before him and goes on to become a prophet and leader, ushering in the transition into a monarchy, unifying the disparate tribes of Israelites.
So your mother has dropped you off to live with some guy, whose own sons were engaging in one might call extravagant living – enjoying the company of women who were not their wives and skimming off the best portions of the meat that the people were offering to God. Eli’s sons corrupted their roles as religious leaders and while it may sound as harsh to you as it does to me, the text says that God punished their despicable, greedy behavior by essentially cursing their family.
Samuel has lived with Eli for maybe a decade at this point, but the text says that “Samuel did not yet know the Lord.” (1 Samuel 3:7) He knew his religious duties, but there was something more to know.
“Samuel! Samuel!” It’s the middle of the night when Eli says once and then again, “No, I’m not calling you.” (1 Samuel 3:4-6) Only on the third time does Eli understand what’s going on. Eli understands that God is calling Samuel. In his role as spiritual mentor, Eli guides Samuel into a receptive state to hear from God. Ironically, in equipping Samuel to understand that it is God calling, Eli empowers Samuel to hear a word against Eli’s family. Samuel receives a vison that he is afraid to share the information with Eli. And rightly so.
“What was it that he told you? Do not hide it from me. May God do so to you and more also, if you hide anything from me of all that he told you.” (1 Samuel 3:17)
Eli wants Samuel to hide nothing from the vision. We manage a lot of our relationships hiding something, or telling part truths or what we think someone wants to hear. You can imagine Samuel interpreting the vision into something like: Well, the actions of your kids leave a lot of room for improvement.
Eli demands that Samuel hide nothing, and in doing so demands from himself that he pay attention to what Samuel says.
Eli gets ahead of any half-truths, insisting that Samuel tell him everything. Authentic relationship demands the hard work of truth-telling. When we hide things, we are in control. On the other hand, truth telling leaves us vulnerable. Vulnerable to not being believed, vulnerable to attack, vulnerable to being shunned or ostracized. But the cost of hiding things can be high as well.
Authentic relationship also demands the hard work of truth-listening. To hear someone else’s experience means risking your own comfort, risking the possibility that you will have to adjust your own understandings. But that is what living in authentic community demands.
In a time of technology allowing for tremendous communications, fake news is perhaps an inevitable consequence of the desire to control messaging. Both saying and receiving real news, real facts, real feelings takes intention and courage. When Eli tells Samuel to hide nothing, it means Eli is also telling himself to hear what is being said.
In thinking about truth-telling and truth-listening, I can’t help but think about the many women, and some men, who have been moved recently to share their experiences of sexual harassment and sexual assault. Even here in 1 Samuel, we read of power dynamics and sexual impropriety. God holds to account the sons of Eli for taking advantage of their religious roles and having sex with the women who served as greeters at the worship site at Shiloh.
I’ve appreciated the “we hear you. we believe you.” messages I’ve seen on social media as people share their stories of surviving sexual harassment and sexual assault. These are important first steps, but it will take significant cultural change to fully shift away from the vestiges of the notion that women are property. You don’t need to treat women as you would treat your mother or your sister – though I understand the sentiment – it should not be a radical notion to treat women as human beings. Gentlemen, a few social media posts, especially of the “well, I respect women” type do not necessarily mean you are fully an ally to women. I invite you to engage in some truth-listening, you may learn an additional way or two that you can more authentically respect women. If you have already been doing so, I am at least one woman who says thank you.
Also, I want to emphasize that changing laws does not change behavior and attitudes. It may do so, and is a vital step, but not decisive. From addressing pay gaps to comments like “well, what did she expect?”, it will take determination to overcome even the most seemingly benign sexism, not to mention the outright misogyny all too prevalent. It will take not just truth-telling, but truth-listening.
While there are all kinds of truth-telling that take place in one on one relationships, communities and societies, the role of prophet is both naming what needs changed and giving a vision of how things can be ordered to get just a little closer to embodying the kin-dom of God. Samuel is afraid because he has to tell Eli some really bad news about his family. However, the content of the vision implies that Eli already knew the bad news. So other than it being awkward to talk to your foster Dad about the actions of his grown sons, what did Samuel have to fear? I think Samuel is afraid because receiving a vision from God, receiving a call from God can be really scary. If this vision came, what else might come?
Eli gives Samuel a gift – a clear instruction on what to do with a vision: Don’t hold back!
Their relationship allows Samuel to learn to speak the truth from God, to learn to respond to God’s call to share a prophetic word. Responding to a call from God takes discernment. The voice of God is all around but do we recognize it? Samuel didn’t even put together what was happening right away.
This passage illustrates the need for that discernment to take place in community. Eli is the one who recognizes God, and then gives the encouragement for Samuel to share the message he received from God. Prophetic leadership requires authentic relationships. This passage serves as a dramatic introduction to Samuel’s role as a prophet. The prophets do not only call out what is wrong, what is out of sync, but they name what can be.
Of course God speaking aloud doesn’t happen too much these days, but there are those who can testify to receiving a word from the Lord, a vision of what can be. There are those who we think of like Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. or Rev. Dr. William Barber. But also Bill Kirk comes to mind, a Foundry member for almost 30 years until his death in 2011, who helped end the institutionalized racism of the Central Jurisdiction of The Methodist Church upon the merger into The United Methodist Church.
Several of the ministries of this congregation give prophetic leadership in civil and religious spheres. Yet even as we strive to be truth-tellers, we must always remember to be truth-listeners as well. This includes being in ministry “with” and not “to”, building relationships and being open to transformation ourselves.
Also, in order to continue to refine how we are best ordering ourselves – and it is nothing like the Israelites’ shift from judges to kings as told in the next few chapters of 1 Samuel –we are embarking on a period of some structural change here at Foundry in order to even better serve our mission to love God, love each other and change the world. We are moving toward a new staffing pattern and I invite you to hold the staff and Foundry lay leadership in prayer during this upcoming time of transition.
Truth-telling and truth-listening – the mashup of Samuel and Eli shows us that authentic relationships with each other, and indeed with God, requires speaking the truth and listening to the truth.
Don’t hold back your hope, your pain, your joy, your torment, your peace, your brokenness.
Don’t hold back in building authentic relationships, where your vulnerability might allow for another’s vulnerability to break through.
Don’t hold back in naming your own experience.
Don’t hold back in speaking truth to power.
Don’t hold back from resisting evil, injustice, and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves.
Don’t hold back in speaking truth in love for the sake of the kin-dom of God.
Don’t hold back from knowing you are a beloved child of God, just as is baby Anna who is getting baptized today.
Don’t hold back from being open to the transformative power of the one who shattered expectations and brings new life, the one who we strive to follow on this Reign of Christ Sunday.
Don’t hold back from seeing Christ in the stranger, the imprisoned, the unhoused, the hungry, the naked, those who are sick and need healthcare.
Don’t hold back from responding to God’s call. God calls you and you and you and me and all of us – individually and together as the Foundry community.
And when God gives you a vision, don’t hold back from sharing that vision.
Don’t hold back.
Amen.
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