2nd Sunday after The Epiphany

The Rev. Tommy Thompson

1 Samuel 3

2^nd Sunday after The Epiphany

15 January 2012 

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! 

Isn’t it good to be gathered in a heated room where the warmth of God’s love fills us as we worship Him?  It is particularly good to experience such warmth right now—smack dab in the middle of January.  I think it was in the low 20s when I left the parsonage this morning.  I am thankful for the physical and spiritual warmth we have here in this holy gathering this morning.

Warmth…now that’s a good word isn’t it.  It wasn’t that long ago when we were praying for cooler weather.  Now we’re wearing jackets and coats.  Instead of air conditioning, we’re having to turn on the heat. Now for some of us, turning on the heat is more work than walking to a thermostat and flipping a switch.  I learned this for myself a couple appointments ago.  In Nelson County, Virginia, people love wood stoves.  The parsonage had a wood stove…and I had to learn how to use it.  It took me a little while before I was really good at keeping the fire going without having to restart from new wood…but in time, I learned how it worked…But like many things in life, I learned the hard way...

When I first began building fires in the stove, I didn’t realize the power of a few smoldering ashes or the power of just a few hot coals.  I thought that I had to shovel out all the “ashes” and start all over every single time.  But now I know that from just a few hot ashes, a great fire can be kindled.

I learned this truth in a whole new way in when I live in Nelson County.  One evening I went and shoveled out the ashes that had been accumulating in the wood stove and put them into my metal bucket.  Well, I put the metal bucket outside by the door and left it there until I needed to dump it and refill the bucket.  The next morning I thought I’d start a fresh fire, so I went outside and dumped the old ashes that were in that metal bucket into a small brush pile, thinking that they had to be extinguished by now, I mean those ashes had been sitting in that bucket for hours overnight now and there wasn’t any visible sign that it was still hot….  So I went back inside, shoveled the ashes out of the stove and into the metal bucket and started a fresh fire in the stove.  I proceeded back to my office and sat down at my desk and worked away … and, i…started smelling something burning…but not necessarily the same smell you would smell form the wood fire. 

I ignored it for a little while thinking it was nothing…but it kept getting stronger and stronger.  So I went downstairs where the wood stove was and everything seemed to be okay…I was gonna just forget about it…but something told me I better look outside. 

So I went outside and low and behold the whole side of the yard was on fire!  I lived on a 2 acre plot of land that was hemmed in by cow fields and mountains.  The fence posts were blazing…the fire was spreading in one direction out into the cow field and in the other direction toward the parsonage.  I was in a panic! I filled the mop bucket with water multiple times running back and forth from the fire to the house to the house from the fire…I was out there with a bath towel trying to put that fire out by swinging the towel down on those flames, but it was no use…it was too much for me so I called the fire department who came and put it all out. 

Of course in Faber, VA everyone has scanners…it didn’t take long for the whole county to know that the pastor had done gone and started a fire at the parsonage.

...That day I learned that from a few smoldering ashes a great fire can ignite.

In the Old Testament text that was just read, we heard the story of the Word of the Lord coming to Samuel in the midst of a time and place where God’s word and visions from God had become rare.  In other words, it seemed that the great fire of God had been extinguished in the life of Israel.  God’s word was rare and visions were not widespread.  But like those ashes in my metal bucket that appeared to be extinguished, in Israel lived a man named Eli.  I love the description in the reading. It says that Eli’s eye sight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see….that the lamp of God had not yet gone out in the temple.  Sure these are literal descriptions that tell us (1) that Eli is an old man and (2) that it is not yet daylight since the lamp of God was still burning in the temple.  But what the text is really trying to tell us is that even though all of Israel seemed to be unable to see God at work… Eli’s eyesight, yet growing dim, still works!   Though the fire of God that once blazed among God’s people, the Israelites, seems to have gone out, the lamp of God in the temple, where Eli is, had not quite been extinguished.  And we’ve learned, from a few smoldering ashes, brothers and sisters, the fire of God can be rekindled and a great awakening break out among the people of God!

And that is just what this text is all about.  It is about Eli’s ability to perceive God even in a time where it seems God is absent.  It is about the fire that burns deep within the resesses of Eli’s being…it may even be just a couple of smoldering ashes way down deep and off in corner somewhere…but Eli has not allowed the fire to be completely extinguished even with all of the negative things that have taken place among God’s people and particularly among Eli’s own wicked, scoundrel sons! 

The ashes are still hot and that means there is potential for a great fire.  For when the ashes are hot and they begin to burn through the fuel of our availability, all that is needed is a fresh wind from God the Holy Ghost and low and behold a fresh new fire kindles up in the midst of the people of God!

Brothers and sisters, has the fire gone out? Or like Eli, are there some among us this day who even in the midst of all the circumstances can still perceive God?  Is there some in our midst even today that at least have hot ashes somewhere deep down in the recesses of their being?  If so, I hope you are ready…for God is about to do a new thing!  Because all God needs is a few smoldering ashes for a fresh fire to spread among God’s holy people.

Eli’s fire hadn’t gone out.  He could still perceive God Almighty.  And for Israel this meant good news…but for Eli, maybe not such good news.  You know the rest of the story.  Eli was asleep and Samuel was lying down beside the ark of God, right there in the presence of God and wasn’t even aware of it….hmmm…anyway, they were asleep in the temple and the LORD called Samuel.  Samuel heard someone calling so he went to Eli who told him to go back to bed.  It happened again and Eli told Samuel once again that he did not call him and that he needed to go back to bed.  Finally, it happens again and then it happens!  The man whose eyesight had began to grow dim who lived in a time when the Word of the Lord was rare and visions not widespread, discerns it is the Lord speaking to Samuel…his fire wasn’t quite out…so he tells Samuel that it is the Lord and that he should just respond telling the Lord that he is listening.

The story continues and Samuel hears from the LORD that God is about to do a new thing in Israel…this new thing will cause the ears of any who hear of it tingle…but with the new thing that God is going to do means that judgment must be passed on the old.   Oh no, I better not go there…we don’t wanna hear it.  We want resurrection without death…we want new creation, but leave out the judgment…

But, brothers and sisters, if I’m going to be faithful to the Gospel, I must say, resurrection only comes after death.  Restoration only comes after exile.  Newness comes after judgment. 

This is SO important.  We never get negative judgment just for the sake of negative judgment.  Judgment is the excision of all that is evil among God’s people so that the purposes of God might continue to unfold and that new creation might ultimately be reality.  When God judges, he does so with the intentions of bringing goodness and newness to all of creation.  But for this to happen, the evil, that which stands in the way of God’s purposes, that which is not centered in the will of God, must be dealt with.  When we are not in the center of God’s will, judgment is not pleasant.  And this is the case for Eli’s family. 

When Eli pressures Samuel to tell him what God had told him, what he hears is not good news for Eli or his family.  Samuel has to tell his mentor…the one who raised him up from a very early age, that his family will be punished for the sin committed by the sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas. God is about to do a new thing in Israel but it means the breaking down of the old sinful power structures!  Eli was a part of the old sinful power structures…how will he deal with this news?

And this is the amazing thing about Eli.  Listen to his response.  “It is the LORD; let him do what seems good to Him.”  …

…Sisters and brothers, this is sanctification…this is what it means to live the holy life.  Eli’s words point us forward to the Christ who prayed in the garden of Gethsemanea “Not my will but thine.”  It is these words that John Wesley himself desired for us Methodists to pray and become through covenant renewal (that many United Methodists participate in at the turn of the civil year).  Listen to this prayer that Methodists have been praying since the time of Wesley:

I give myself completely to you, God. 

Assign me to my place in your creation.

Let me suffer for you.

Give me the work you would have me do.

Give me many tasks or have me step aside while you call others.

Put me forward or humble me.

Give me riches or let me live in poverty.

I freely give all that I am and all that I have to you. 

And now, holy God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,

  you are mine and I am yours.  So be it.

May this covenant made on earth continue for all eternity.  Amen.

Are we ready for God to do a new thing?  Are our lives so given up to God that we are willing to step aside while God calls others?  Are we so on fire for God that we can join Jesus in praying, “Not my will but thine?”  Are we able with Eli to say, “It is God! Let him do what seems good to Him?” 

As the older among us identify the glimmer of hope that exists within, are they willing to allow that smoldering ash to kindle into a holy flame for the benefit of the future church even if the older group does not reap the benefits?

Whether we are ready or not, God is about to do a new thing.  Judgment is coming upon the old systems of power that stand in the way of the new thing God wants to do.  The challenge that remains for us that have been identified with those systems of power and abuse is whether or not we are willing with Eli to accept God’s verdict.  Can we step aside and allow the Samuels to lead us into the future?  Can you who are older and wiser let God be God and turn to the young God is raising up for your instruction?  Can we stop telling em their too young and start agreeing with God that with Him all things are possible?

God is doing a new thing.  If there is but a smoldering ash somewhere deep down in your being, and you have the fuel of availability as did Eli and Samuel, the wind of God will blow and a new fire will start up right here among us in this community.  The Word of the Lord that was rare and those visions of God that were not widespread will become what is normative here at Central and beyond.  That’s what happened with Eli and Samuel and I believe God wants to do the same with His church gathered here today! 

I can’t wait for the Word of the Lord and visions from the Lord to become even more normative for this community of faith.  I am so looking forward to hearing how God is speaking in fresh ways to you, God’s people.  I look forward to the visions and dreams God is giving you for this, one of his parishes in Clifton Forge, and especially for this community, to come to fruition.  The world around us is looking forward to meeting more people in the church that are more characterized by Eli rather than Eli’s sons.  I am looking forward to hearing what the Lord has to say to us from the lips of the Samuels even if it is not to my advantage.

It is You, O Father, let it be as you see best.  Amen.