God, is that you?
1 Samuel 3: 1-11, 19-20
(These were my notes only. The audio version is an expanded version.)
I am so happy to be back from my studies in Boston. I am both exhausted and exhilarated. My doctoral “cohort” includes seven MCC pastors. It is truly amazing that queer voices are the majority voice and that we are affirmed and respected for the way we engage God’s mission of justice in the world. We are actively listening to God’s voice; the topic of my message this morning.
In these uncertain times how wonderful it would be to hear God talking to us in an audible voice as Samuel did in our scripture. Lucky Samuel.
Samuel was a young boy in our story. It was no more common to hear God in Samuels time than it would be in ours. So when Samuel heard his name called, logically he thought it was the priest Eli calling him. It didn’t even occur to him it might be God. Apparently it didn’t occur to the wiser and older Eli until Samuel came running to him multiple times. Then and only then did he think “Wait a minute! Maybe it’s God. Ok Samuel, here’s what you do. Go back, lie down and if you hear your name called again, let God know you’re open by saying, “Yes, God, is that you?” So that’s what young Samuel did, he opened himself up to the possibility of a real time relationship with the Creator and lo and behold, God spoke to him. That’s what I’d like us to consider this morning: our real time relationships with God.
In the original pilot version of our Creating a Life that Matters curriculum, there was a learning exercise using this same scripture. The class was asked to reflect on whether the meaning is different if emphasis is put on the specific words in the sentence, “God is that YOU?” You might put the emphasis on YOU if you weren’t sure if it was Gods voice or, say, the neighbors. How about if I said “God IS that you?”. Well that sounds like I’m feeling defeated, certain it’s not God because God’s not likely to talk to ME. How about God is THAT you? What would saying it that way mean? Is THAT you or is THAT you? God quit being so tricky! Here’s the one I like. “GOD IS THAT YOU?” (Said with anticipating joy) Said that way it’s a good bet you have some confidence around conversing with God.
Here’s what I know about listening for God. If you expect to hear God speak to you, you probably will hear God when she speaks. If you don’t think God is still speaking to common folk like us, or if you don’t figure God is going to speak to you, you probably won’t hear God. Each of us has different ways of hearing God in our lives.
I have a very British friend named Caroline. The two of us went to seminary at the same time, me at the Lutheran seminary of Berkeley’s Graduate Theological Union and Caroline at the Episcopal school. Today she is a Episcopal Priest serving a beach community in California. I recently asked her how she “hears” God. I loved her answer. It was very matter of fact, with a little British sass. She admitted that mostly she DOESN’T hear God. She does however “experience” God. Caroline spends an agreed upon 20 minutes every day with God, twenty minutes when she doesn’t ask questions, ask for what she wants or even what she is grateful for. She says, “God has me 24 hours a day so when it comes to prayer, I can promise twenty additional minutes of quality time but we have to be efficient about it.” She can’t guarantee her mind won’t wander or she won’t catch herself thinking about what she needs at the grocery store. But for 20 minutes she hangs out quietly with God. Every day without fail. In varying forms, this kind of prayer is called centering prayer.
Of course I had to ask her what happens when she does have something specific to pray for. Her answer was brilliant. Again God and Caro have an understanding. “Life can get stupid busy sometimes. Sometimes it’s just really hard to “hear” a still small voice.” (God is that you?) So whenever she has something to ask she lays it out with one request. “God, whatever your guidance, you’re going to have to make it obvious. Please make the answer unavoidably clear!” According to Caroline, that’s a reasonable request. My response, “Alrighty then.”
If you’re like me, you have to ask about those times when it’s not obvious, when it’s not clear? Apparently that goes back to “We have an agreement.” If it’s not clear Caroline takes that as God’s “Whatever.” Then it is up to her. She can take it any direction she sees fit. I love that. God is that you? No response. Fine. Whatever.
Sometimes we don’t “hear” Gods voice in the literal sense, sometimes it just comes out—in a communion blessing or in our advice to a friend, advice that’s too wise for us to have thought it up independently. Have you ever had that happen? If you find your spirit saying, whoa, God is that you? It probably is God. Ariana Huffington suggests changing the way we often say “That’s Odd!” to “That’s God!”
Before we go further I want you to know that I’m not saying you and I are puppets and God is pulling strings. What I am saying is that God inspires us, beckons us, calls us. If we’re open to listening and receiving, then we can take the next step or not. I believe God’s greatest hope for us is that every one of us has the opportunity to flourish in this life. One of my professors says it this way, “moment by moment God is drawing us in, beckoning us, helping us to become whatever it is that we are not yet.” Our lives are works in progress. And when it comes to hearing God, any of us might be the messenger!
Opening ourselves to God, saying as Samuel did, God is that you, opens a space for inspiration to come in. Who knows what inspiration we will receive and what kind of an inspiration we will become. My partner Kathy loves being a teacher. That love of teaching and the impact teachers can have on students was inspired by a teacher she herself had. So profound was her inspiration that Kathy and the now mother superior Barb Pillar are still friends. God speaks to and through our friends, our teachers, our colleagues. There is not a place that God isn’t.
That is precisely what happened with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. whose life we celebrate tomorrow. King was the son of, the grandson of and the great grandson of a preacher. Inspired by the many who went before him, he opened himself up to the hearing of God and then acted on what was cooking in his spirit. And because he acted, he started a holy chain reaction of anti-racism and social justice that had many beneficiaries. In no small way King paved the way for what will happen Tuesday, the inauguration of the nation’s first African American President. President Barack Obama stands on the shoulders of those who fought, sat, listened for God, acted and in many cases suffered and died that Tuesday might become reality. I am absolutely convinced that choruses of all those who gave their lives for justice will be singing Hallelujahs. Free at last. Free to be. God is that you?
In fact, you and I are here today because Troy Perry took action when God’s voice came into his spirit saying, “Troy I do not have step children! You’re my son and I love you.” As a result Metropolitan Community Churches was born, forty years ago this year!
Looking at one more example, truly God was busy Thursday when the US Air jetliner was able to land in the Hudson River after losing an engine. The crew’s training came together seamlessly. God is that you? I don’t know if God was literally talking to pilot Chelsey Sullenberger, maybe he was. If I was the pilot of a plane in the act of going down, I’d be talking to God even if I didn’t believe in God. I’d be bargaining, “God just get this plane down safely and I promise you I’ll reconsider.” And you gotta know that most of the 155 people saved were praying. Prayer works! God showed up in the considerable skill of Captain Sullenberger, as well as in the synchronicity of the entire flight crew and for that matter the passengers.
For large purposes and small, if we’re open we can “hear” God in our spirit.
Right now, you may be hearing God’s telling you that you can remain sober or clean for one more day. You may find yourself as I did, pushing a shopping cart at the grocery store and find yourself inexplicably wanting to pray for the elderly man who just passed you. God is that you?
Before the scripture, Paul Barnes read what’s known as the Micah call, so named after the bible passage “Do justice, love mercy and walk humbly before God.” This “call” is part of the United Nations Millennium development goals set in the year 2000. The eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – which range from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education, all by the target date of 2015 – form a blueprint agreed to by all the world’s countries and all the world’s leading development institutions. They have galvanized unprecedented efforts to meet the needs of the world’s poorest. How exciting to be part of praying with the entire world! How will you deploy the voice of God that is working within you?
God is that you? Yes my beloveds. God is all around us because God is in every one of us. When you go to sleep tonight, if you hear God’s voice, say, “Yes, God, your servant is waiting.” And tomorrow during the inauguration, listen for whether you think it’s God’s voice that this country is saying “Yes we can!”
Amen.