The Winds of Change Are Blowing
Sermon text for April 6, 2008:
I Samuel 3:1-20
It is about 1000 B.C. and the winds of change blew ominously over the face of Israel. Change was in the air and the people were afraid. For centuries, Israel was governed by temporary leaders called “Judges”. They announced God’s will and sometimes assumed military leadership to help the Chosen People face the challenge of warring Kings from neighboring nations. The People felt secure with the Judges occasional leadership because they believed that God spoke through the Judges. But over time, word of God grew more and more scarce, and as the word grew scarce, the people’s anxiety grew proportionally. Scripture says it this way, “The word of the Lord was rare in those days and there was no frequent vision.”
Most of us know what that feels like. We have experienced periods of time when we could not hear God. And in those times of spiritual barrenness we have longed for the refreshment of God’s presence. We have the sense that there is something more, a deep and close relationship with God, but we just can’t seem to get there.
The mood of Israel is personified in a woman named Hannah whose personal life is as barren as Israel’s corporate life. Hannah is married to Elkanah, and her life is miserable because she has no children. In Hannah’s day, women gained status through having children, and a woman without a child, was literally not a woman at all. Hannah’s co-wife, who is the mother of many children, taunted her for being barren. For many years Hannah prayed that God would give her a son. But if God’s word was “rare” in Israel, Hannah could not even hear the echo of a whisper coming from God. Yet God finally answered Hannah’s prayer by making her the mother of a little boy, whom she named Samuel. The birth of Samuel marked the beginning of significant change in Hannah’s life, and in the life of the Chosen People. Like a sandstorm, the winds of change were blowing, and no one knew what the landscape would look like when God was finished.
On the day Samuel was born Hannah dedicated his life to serve God. And when he has weaned, she took him to live with the old priest Eli who was the last of Israel’s Judges. Eli cared for the Ark of the Covenant at Shiloh, which is where we meet him today.
Samuel represents Israel’s future, and Eli represents the past, so we know that in the crucible of past meeting future, God is doing a new thing. The winds of change are blowing. Once, Eli exercised strong spiritual leadership, but when we meet him he is old and weak. He is burned out and no longer has the strength to meet the needs of his people. His sons who might be expected to take his place are so corrupt that they are not eligible to minister to God’s people. Eli’s ministry is as barren as Hannah’s womb prior to the conception of Samuel. “The word of the Lord” is as rare in Eli’s life as it is in the life of the nation.
The end of Hannah’s barrenness is a sign of hope for the barren priesthood, and the spirit-starved nation. God breathed life into both when he called the boy Samuel into a special relationship with Eli. God’s breath became the winds of change and Israel would never again be the same.
One night Samuel heard someone calling his name and he ran dutifully to Eli, but it wasn’t Eli who called. It was Eli who recognized that the voice must belong to God. Eli, whose life and ministry were almost on life support, was still able to offer the spiritual message that sent Samuel on a life-long spiritual quest.
As God speaks with Samuel, it becomes clear that he is a messenger of change and he is in grave danger. Samuel’s first message of change affected the life and legacy of the old priest Eli. The winds of change were ominous and threatening to Eli’s family. They believed that they owned the priesthood as birthright. But God told Samuel that when Eli dies the priesthood will be dead as far as his family is concerned. It is an unimaginable loss, the kind of thing that people might kill to maintain. That must have been on Samuel’s mind when Eli all but forced him to share God’s word. Under extreme duress, Samuel told Eli that God had taken the priesthood from Eli’s family and given it to him.
Eli’s response is truly amazing. He did not scream or throw things. He did not threaten Samuel. His response is the kind only possible with people of deep faith. When he heard God’s condemnation, Eli said, “It is the Lord. Let him do what seems good to him.”
The winds of change are blowing in our lives today, and sometimes the changes are frightening or even devastating. You know that the winds of change are blowing in this congregation. The specter of change hangs like an ominous cloud over everything. When I first preached a sermon series like this one of my parishioners gave me a sign that says, “change is inevitable, growth is optional”. My hope for you as I prepare to leave and as you welcome someone new is that each of us can meet the future as Eli did. When faced with monumental change Eli said, “It is the Lord. Let him do what seems good to him.”
The winds of change are blowing. And we can meet the changes with confidence because even if we don’t know what the future holds, we do know the One who holds the future. The future is “the Lord. Let him do what seems good to him.”
Copyright © 2008 by Dwight R. Blackstock
I Samuel 3:1-20
It is about 1000 B.C. and the winds of change blew ominously over the face of Israel. Change was in the air and the people were afraid. For centuries, Israel was governed by temporary leaders called “Judges”. They announced God’s will and sometimes assumed military leadership to help the Chosen People face the challenge of warring Kings from neighboring nations. The People felt secure with the Judges occasional leadership because they believed that God spoke through the Judges. But over time, word of God grew more and more scarce, and as the word grew scarce, the people’s anxiety grew proportionally. Scripture says it this way, “The word of the Lord was rare in those days and there was no frequent vision.”
Most of us know what that feels like. We have experienced periods of time when we could not hear God. And in those times of spiritual barrenness we have longed for the refreshment of God’s presence. We have the sense that there is something more, a deep and close relationship with God, but we just can’t seem to get there.
The mood of Israel is personified in a woman named Hannah whose personal life is as barren as Israel’s corporate life. Hannah is married to Elkanah, and her life is miserable because she has no children. In Hannah’s day, women gained status through having children, and a woman without a child, was literally not a woman at all. Hannah’s co-wife, who is the mother of many children, taunted her for being barren. For many years Hannah prayed that God would give her a son. But if God’s word was “rare” in Israel, Hannah could not even hear the echo of a whisper coming from God. Yet God finally answered Hannah’s prayer by making her the mother of a little boy, whom she named Samuel. The birth of Samuel marked the beginning of significant change in Hannah’s life, and in the life of the Chosen People. Like a sandstorm, the winds of change were blowing, and no one knew what the landscape would look like when God was finished.
On the day Samuel was born Hannah dedicated his life to serve God. And when he has weaned, she took him to live with the old priest Eli who was the last of Israel’s Judges. Eli cared for the Ark of the Covenant at Shiloh, which is where we meet him today.
Samuel represents Israel’s future, and Eli represents the past, so we know that in the crucible of past meeting future, God is doing a new thing. The winds of change are blowing. Once, Eli exercised strong spiritual leadership, but when we meet him he is old and weak. He is burned out and no longer has the strength to meet the needs of his people. His sons who might be expected to take his place are so corrupt that they are not eligible to minister to God’s people. Eli’s ministry is as barren as Hannah’s womb prior to the conception of Samuel. “The word of the Lord” is as rare in Eli’s life as it is in the life of the nation.
The end of Hannah’s barrenness is a sign of hope for the barren priesthood, and the spirit-starved nation. God breathed life into both when he called the boy Samuel into a special relationship with Eli. God’s breath became the winds of change and Israel would never again be the same.
One night Samuel heard someone calling his name and he ran dutifully to Eli, but it wasn’t Eli who called. It was Eli who recognized that the voice must belong to God. Eli, whose life and ministry were almost on life support, was still able to offer the spiritual message that sent Samuel on a life-long spiritual quest.
As God speaks with Samuel, it becomes clear that he is a messenger of change and he is in grave danger. Samuel’s first message of change affected the life and legacy of the old priest Eli. The winds of change were ominous and threatening to Eli’s family. They believed that they owned the priesthood as birthright. But God told Samuel that when Eli dies the priesthood will be dead as far as his family is concerned. It is an unimaginable loss, the kind of thing that people might kill to maintain. That must have been on Samuel’s mind when Eli all but forced him to share God’s word. Under extreme duress, Samuel told Eli that God had taken the priesthood from Eli’s family and given it to him.
Eli’s response is truly amazing. He did not scream or throw things. He did not threaten Samuel. His response is the kind only possible with people of deep faith. When he heard God’s condemnation, Eli said, “It is the Lord. Let him do what seems good to him.”
The winds of change are blowing in our lives today, and sometimes the changes are frightening or even devastating. You know that the winds of change are blowing in this congregation. The specter of change hangs like an ominous cloud over everything. When I first preached a sermon series like this one of my parishioners gave me a sign that says, “change is inevitable, growth is optional”. My hope for you as I prepare to leave and as you welcome someone new is that each of us can meet the future as Eli did. When faced with monumental change Eli said, “It is the Lord. Let him do what seems good to him.”
The winds of change are blowing. And we can meet the changes with confidence because even if we don’t know what the future holds, we do know the One who holds the future. The future is “the Lord. Let him do what seems good to him.”
Copyright © 2008 by Dwight R. Blackstock
posted by Dwight Blackstock | 7:25 PM
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