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Samuel was one of those children born rather late in the life
of a woman who dearly wanted a child. To have a child was
Hannah's most earnest prayer. Indeed the writers of the
scriptures regarded a child born late in life as an indication of
God's special favor. Hannah, Samuel's mother, must have thought
so too, and while he was still an infant, as soon as he was
weaned, he was offered into the service of the Lord in thanks to
God for his birth. That's how it happened that this young boy
named Samuel came to live with and serve as a kind of apprentice
under a priest named Eli. Samuel lived and slept right there in
what was called the Tent of Meeting, which served as a center of
worship years before a permanent temple was built. So he grew up
there under the influence of the old priest who was his mentor
and example.
The account tells us that Samuel was called by the Lord while
Samuel was still a young boy. We don't know how old he might have
been. Traditionally the Jews have held that it was probably about
age 12, as that was often assumed to be a prime age for spiritual
awakening. It happened early one morning, for the scripture tells
us that the lamp that burned in the tent all night had not yet
gone out. Young Samuel heard his name called -- "Samuel, Samuel."
Thinking that Eli had called, the boy obediently ran to him,
saying "Here I am."

But Eli declared he had not called, and told him to go back to
bed again. That sounds like an experience most parents have had
from time to time with young children. Once again Samuel heard
himself called and once again he ran to Eli, but Eli had not
called. That kind of thing can get exasperating after a while.
And yet a third time it happened. This time it dawned upon old
Eli what was happening. He perceived that the Lord was calling
young Samuel, so he instructed the boy how to respond.
Now the scripture gives us the idea of a more substantial
presence rather than some mere disembodied voice. It tells us
"the Lord came and stood there, calling as before, 'Samuel!
Samuel!' " This time Samuel answered just as Eli had instructed
him and said, "Speak, for your servant is listening." Having
gotten his attention, the Lord revealed some surprising things
about his future. Thus Samuel was called to his prophetic role.
That scene of the drama closes as we are told that when he grew
up "the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the
ground. And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba knew that Samuel was
a trustworthy prophet of the Lord." (1 Samuel 3:19-20)
It should be clear to us that Samuel did not come to that
calling on his own. He had to be keenly aware of the momentous
hopes toward which his parents had projected him in giving him to
serve the Lord. And he was under the constant influence of Eli,
so Samuel could not help but know about God. Nevertheless there
is considerable difference between knowing about and knowing.
Knowing about God is secondary based on someone else's knowledge
or experience, whereas knowing God is primary, and bespeaks one's
first-hand knowledge, experience and relationship. One person's
experience shared can become the preparation for another's direct
experience and relationship. That can be the powerful effect of
our own faith when we share it with another. We have good reason
to surmise that is what happened to old Eli and young Samuel.
Eli's influence upon the boy at a very receptive time in his life
brought him to a state of "critical mass" -- the point at which
the impact of God directly upon Samuel would not

fade away, but be a continuing force throughout his life. Thus
Samuel passed the threshhold from knowing about God, to the
personal relationship of knowing, and "all Israel, from Dan to
Beersheba knew that Samuel was established as a prophet of the
Lord."
Eli's very important part in all this was to bring Samuel to
the point of readiness, and then to instruct him in the way to
respond to the Lord's call. Thus he helped to complete God's
revelatory act to Samuel, for without Samuel's response there
would have been no relationship. God may call us, but the call
awaits our answer.
The story in the scripture is quick to tell us that Eli was
not a perfect example. None of us are. The chief criticism of Eli
was that he was unable to control his unruly and contemptuous
sons. Still God calls us through the imperfect examples of people
like ourselves. (Bible scholars feel the condemnation of Eli may
have been a later addition.) We may feel some sympathy with Eli
if we are at all aware of our own failings. But still God uses us
in amazing ways and with a power that often astounds us.
A mother called me one day to invite me to her son's Eagle
Scout ceremony. She said, "I want you to see what you helped
produce." Of course I was gratified by her comment. Yes, I
remember him always being there with his parents, paying
attention in a way that seemed beyond his years. And I remember
his bright and incisive questions and comments even as a small
boy. But I wasn't aware he was looking at me. I wonder, how might
I have behaved any differently or said things any more clearly
for his benefit if I had known?
Still another mother -- a member of a church I had left a
couple years earlier -- stopped me at a wedding reception one day
and wanted to tell me about her daughter. The daughter had been
in my church youth group. This mother told me that her daughter
had been arrested -- and it was not for the first time -- for her
part in a protest demonstration against the testing of nuclear
weapons. When the daughter had telephoned her mother after the
arrest her mother wanted to know

how she was, and then wanted to know more about why she was so
involved in this protest. The daughter explained a bit and then
said, "Fred always used to tell us we have to act upon the things
we really believe." I couldn't respond in words right then to
what this mother had told me because there was a big lump in my
throat and tears in my eyes. All I could do was to hug her. How
did I know that a young teenage girl had been listening so
intently and making all that part of her own life? You may have
some similar example from your own experience. Imperfect persons,
such as you and I, are indeed used for God's purposes. Remember
that. You never know who's looking. You see, we are all guides
for someone else, with powers beyond our knowing.
If you know who Eydie Gorme is, you'll know she is a wonderful
singer -- what we might call a torch singer. On a television talk
show a few years ago, Eydie Gorme told some things about how her
career got started. Her inspiration and idol was Judy Garland. So
Eydie Gorme studied and tried to copy everything that Judy
Garland did -- the sound of the voice, the style, the mannerisms.
Eydie Gorme's first big break came at the Waldorf Astoria in New
York City, where she played to packed houses, and received rave
reviews. Her next booking was not so elegant. It was somewhere
around Pittsburgh in a not-so-classy nightclub -- the kind with
beer signs flashing in the windows and a pool table in the back.
If that were not a come-down enough, there was a terrible
blizzard on her opening night and most people, who might have
been there, stayed home. Her second night the weather was even
worse. She was there, but there was no audience. The third night
she didn't go either. The owner of the nightclub telephoned her
and said, "I pay you to sing, and if you don't sing you don't get
paid." It made no difference that nobody else had shown up
either. She needed the job, so on the fourth night she bribed a
taxi driver to get her there through the snow. Besides her there
was just the manager, the guy who worked the lights, and part of
the band. Some of the players didn't make it either. When it was
time for her to sing, the place

was still empty, but the house lights were dimmed, the stage
lights came on, she cued the band to play her opening music and
she began to sing -- to an empty house. She said that she told
herself, "If I can sing to a packed house at the Waldorf Astoria,
I can sing to an empty house here." Part way through the first
song the door opened and in the glow of the lights from outdoors
she saw the silhouettes of five people who came in and sat at a
table in the middle of the room. So she began to sing to those
five people. And again she said to herself that she could sing to
these five people as she would sing if this was the largest
audience Carnegie Hall ever turned out.
She said she sang that night with a richness and a passion and
an energy that was as good or better than she had ever sung in
her life -- to those five strangers. She finished her set, and the
spotlight went off and the house lights came on, and she looked
out at those five people who had been her audience. Four of them
she didn't recognize, but the one in the middle was Judy Garland,
who surely had no idea of the power and influence and inspiration
she had been in the life of an aspiring young singer named Eydie
Gorme.1
Yes, we are images for one another. We are influenced by
people who may never know it, and others of whom we have no idea
may in turn be patterning their life in some small way upon us.
Think of those who become a part of you. Think of those who
awakened your ideas, and quickened your spirit and encouraged and
inspired you. Perhaps for you, as for me, it was a minister who
didn't think it beneath himself to sit on the floor and tell
stories to children, of whom I was one. Then there was that old
man who was still young enough in spirit to take a lively
interest in teenage people -- to talk to us and even volunteer to
take a car load of us when we needed transportation for some
youth event. And there was a high school principal who over the
years gave up not just hours but days and weeks of his life to
lead a YMCA club and often to talk to us about our concerns and
the things that were going on in our lives at that age. Those
kinds of images are especially important to us when we are young,
but we never get past

needing someone to lead us into some new way, or the need to see
an image in someone else to inspire us.
Mark's gospel tells us that one day John was standing with a
couple of his disciples. He saw Jesus passing by, and told them,
"Look, here is the Lamb of God." Probably not at all to John's
surprise the two disciples left him and followed Jesus. It was an
intentional act on John's part. He pointed them beyond himself to
Jesus. And when they inquired of Jesus he invited them, saying,
"Come and see." So they spent the rest of the afternoon with
Jesus. But the story didn't stop there. Andrew, one of the two to
whom John had pointed out Jesus, went home and found his brother,
Simon, and took him to Jesus. Then the next day as he was leaving
for Galilee, Jesus invited Philip to go with him, and Philip in
turn told Nathaniel and invited him. Skeptical as Nathaniel was,
saying, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" he accepted
Philip's challenge to "Come and see." You know the result. They
all became part of that band of close friends and disciples of
Jesus, who after he was captured and crucified, were led by the
Spirit to create the movement that evolved into what we know
today as the church. It is amazing what happens when, in the
simplest of ways, we direct someone's attention to something or
someone who can fulfill their lives. We feel flattered when the
attention is upon us, but our job as Christians is to be
signposts for others, pointing beyond ourselves to the Christ.
I remember a young man who used to enjoy telling how someone
led him to become a part of Christ's church. "It all began by
spreading fertilizer," he said. You see, this fellow and his wife
moved to a new community to take a teaching job, and became
acquainted with a neighbor who, he noticed, often went to his
church to help out with whatever project was going on there. This
young fellow didn't have much interest in church at the time. But
one day his new friend invited him, saying, "We could use some
help on a project we have going down at the church. How about
coming along?" "Sure," he said, "what are we going to do?"
"Spread manure," was the reply. True to his word, this young man
went along to help

put in and fertilize a large lawn. Through that humble task he
met some others, and made new friends who took a personal
interest in him. The next Sunday he and his wife were in church.
It was not long before they became deeply committed followers of
Jesus Christ, and an example looked up to by many others, and all
because of being invited to do a humble task, and coming to see
that these followers of Jesus shared something they wanted in
their lives.
God calls us through one another. God leads us through people
who sometimes serve as angels unaware, by simply going about
doing ordinary things but with the extraordinary presence of God
implicit in what they do. How wonderful that God is not off
somewhere ignoring us, but calls us in the common events of every
day. That call comes to us in the subtle urgings we glean from
things we read or see, in the beauty and wonder of creation. It
comes in the simple words and lives of people who point beyond
themselves to show us the way to God as John did for his
disciples. What a wonderful and awesome concept it is that if we
listen God can call us to our own destiny through common people
like ourselves, and by that same token can call others through
us.
We've all had the experience of being put on hold. Perhaps
that is where we have put the call of God in our own lives. Old
Eli's advice to his young servant Samuel is good advice for us
all, to open the communication lines and listen, and say, "Speak,
Lord, for your servant is listening."

1-With appreciation to Rev. Robert Morley who brought this story
to my attention.