Second Sunday Ordinary Time B

Image: Calling Disciples,
He Qi , from Art in the Christian Tradition, 
a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN

January 18, 2015

Click here for scripture readings.

Nowadays, we spend a lot of time receiving information.

People can contact us in many new ways.

At the time of Samuel, the only way to call us was to say our name out loud.

But no longer.

We have voice mail, e-mail, pagers, smart phones, and more.

Soon people will have to use larger business cards just to hold all the numbers used for ways to contact us!

We have a lot of information, but not enough time to process it.

"Too much information running through my brain!"

These words, from the song, "Too Much Information," by the group, the Police, were written even before the Internet existed.

But there is no turning back.

Like any other technology of the last thousand years, it is how we use it that makes the difference.

There are no U-turns as we roar down the information highway;

no speed limits posted and very few exits.

I once observed a couple while I was having lunch in a restaurant. They spent more time during lunch checking their voice mail and talking on their cell phones than they did talking to each other!

We have a plethora of communication toys.

But I wonder:

Is there anyone out there listening?

Is anyone home?

Are all the circuits busy?

Samuel, you've got mail.

Our Scripture lesson today deals with the story of God's call to the young boy, Samuel.

It is a direct conversation, a startling conversation!

It changed the boy's life forever.

Samuel, whose name means "the one who listens," learned to do just that.

Samuel learned to listen as he lay in bed at night.

He was still and quiet.

Some of us are never still, never quiet.

The heresy of action has ex-communicated us.

We surround ourselves with sounds all the time— when we crank the car, we turn on the radio, when we enter our home, we turn on the TV, and some of us cannot even sleep without the radio!

"Mea culpa" to all three for me!

When are we still and quiet?

Samuel, "the one who listens," answers, "Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening." (1 Samuel 3:10)

It is rather dangerous to say words like that.

Why?

Because our words should turn into deeds.

"Come and see!" (John 1:39)

This is the call of Jesus.

This call will make a difference.

He is inviting us on a journey, not to a holy place, but to a person, himself.

"Come and see" to discover your vocation and your "calling," whether it is high profile or not.

When we feel ill-prepared or unequal to the challenge of God's call, we are to remember that no call ever comes without the guarantee of grace.

When calls from God seem to conflict with our personal aspiration, or appears to be a detour from the course we have set for ourselves,

we are challenged to renew our trust and surrender.

"Here I am for you called me." (1 Samuel 3:8)

Most of all, we are to remember that our God is a God of many surprises and multiple voices.

Therefore, we must be open and willing to hear and to heed the call of God from wherever, in whomever, and whenever it may come.

Lord, I promise that when you call, I will not interrupt you with call waiting!