In one of the oldest stories in the Bible , God comes to a young boy, Samuel, and it is in a voice in the dark. Only Samuel doesn’t recognize the voice. He thinks it is the voice of the old priest Eli, with whom he is living and apprenticing. ‘Samuel,’ the voice says, and Samuel gets up from his bed and goes to Eli.
Three times it happens: the voice says his name, Samuel thinks it is Eli calling. The third time Eli, who now suspects that the voice is actually God, tells Samuel to answer. The initiative is all God’s and God’s wonderful persistence. It takes four tries to get Samuel’s attention.
In this sermon, I make the case that any life, yours or mine, is a sacred journey into which God speaks and comes. That’s what makes it sacred . 139th Psalm suggests that God seeks and finds us, and that there is nowhere we can go, either accidentally or purposely running from God, trying to avoid God, that will take us out of the range of God’s presence and mercy and care.
It is a very different idea of God, one that puts religion in a whole different light. Instead of the human pursuit of God, religion becomes the activity, the place and way human beings respond to God’s initiative.
Dr. Willy L Mafuta,
Senior Pastor,
Hopewell United Methodist Church, Hopewell, NJ 08525