1 Samuel 3:1-21 on October 13th, 2025
Above is audio of the sermon pulled from the video and amplified.
Below is transcript pulled from the video and formatted by artificial intelligence. There may be inconsistencies or errors.
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As we continue in the biblical journey, we should probably have another catch-up session since so much has happened since last week. Last Sunday we heard how God fit the Israelites with a manna in the wilderness, teaching them that God provides even when things feel uncertain. After wandering for 40 years, Joshua finally leads them into the promised length. And there they settle down and form their tribes and are led by a string of judges, not those ones with robes and wigs and gabbles, but they were pretty eccentric nonetheless. The era of judges was framed by times of faithfulness and forgetting. By the time that we reached Samuel's day, the people were spiritually adrift. As we begin our lesson, the word of the Lord was rare in those days. Visions were not widespread. Yet God had not stopped speaking. The people had just stopped listening.
As we see in our story today, God calls and Samuel doesn't get it. But it's no wonder he's just a young boy at the time. He lies, he lies, the wise, experienced, priest. Surely he knows that this is God speaking and can get a tick-simile wild to know that it is God. Three times, actually. Despite it being night and then lying down with no distractions, even though there is no one up there, he lies, he didn't call Samuel, regardless of age and supposed an experience, it takes Eli a while. So after the third time, he finally gets it and tells Samuel to respond, speak for it. Your servant is listening. So on time four, Samuel does just that.
God, if you didn't know, is pretty persistent. And one thing about the story is that it isn't just something that God did. It's about what God is doing. And the same thing is true with Samuel too. Samuel didn't just listen. He said, I am listening. It's an ongoing kind of action. Because God keeps speaking, we keep listening.
We as the community of the Saint Philip Lutheran Church have been doing the same. Listening for what God is saying to us now. And just as Samuel grew into his calling, we are growing into others. Through the past year plus, we have been listening together through prayer, discernment, and meals, conversations, and the spirits and nudges. We have shared devotions about crossing the thresholds, heard what is meaningful about this community of faith, and through it all, our crossing thresholds team has been listening. And next week, we will share what we have heard, even as I've been pre-reviewing it for a few weeks now. Our crossing thresholds ministry guide will be available. And the ministry pieces will be available in print and the whole 54 page document will be available online. And it you will read about the process that we took, the mission statement that will guide us to six areas of focus for our next season together, and those core values that will keep us on track.
And I'd like to touch on those core values just briefly as those two came from listening. Core values name what matters most to us as a community of faith, and they will help guide us in living out our mission of expanding God's table for all. First, we are saved by grace. It's quite a loop, isn't it? Grace is a guiding principle in our life together. Our salvation, our worth, come not from what we do or give, but are based solely on what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. That shapes how we see ourselves and how we see others, responding as people who are already loved, forgiven and free. We value authentic worship. Worship shapes our lives and we strive to be healed before God. We can bring our whole true self, trust thing that a God meets us in song, prayer and sacraments. Next is inclusive welcome. We've listened to God's heart for all people. And like St. Noah's surprise that God was calling him personally, we're learning to hear God's call through new voices, new faces and new neighbors, welcoming with grace and knowing that all people are beloved children of God. Faithful fellowship helps us grow and Christ through genuine relationships. We listen to God in one another's stories, laughter, prayers and more. We are listening to God's call to go beyond our walls and engaging service. We serve, we become God's hands and feet and voice for others. It's God's speaking and working through us.
And all of us, the mission, the core values, the ministry guide, all of this is the result of listening to God calling this community in new ways of living and proclaiming. And God will keep calling us. And sometimes that call, it is joyful and exciting, new ministry, new faces, new possibilities. But sometimes like Samuel, we're called to do something hard. Samuel's first assignment wasn't a celebration, it was a confrontation. He had to speak truth to his mentor, the one who raised him. And that's not easy. But sometimes that's how God works. Calling ordinary people into hard, but holy work. God's call is persistent, sometimes hard, but it is always met with God sustaining grace, that keeps speaking, feeding and renewing us as we listen and we follow together.
And when that calling gets hard, when God asks us to do more, give more, risk more to stretch more into unfamiliar places, God doesn't leave us on our own. He keeps giving. God is feeding us with grace that is more persistent than our fear. God is nourishing us with bread for the journey, strengthening us for that next step. God is renewing us in batches, reminding us again and again who and who's we are. The sacraments aren't just things that God did or things that we remember. We're not just saying that in wine, water and word, how God keeps showing us, keeps speaking, keeps sustaining us in our call.
And God won't give up, not even after the third time. God, as you know, is persistent. And God keeps calling. God keeps nudging. God keeps forgiving. God keeps speaking. And so we keep listening. And we're listening by expanding God's table. We're listening by serving others. We are listening by participating in God's ongoing conversation. And today we are listening through our intent cards, offering our gifts and commitments as part of that conversation. Trusting that a God would use them to sustain and grow this ministry of grace.
As long as we are listening, God will continue to call us forward and to generosity and to grace into the next chapter of our story. Who knows what God will call us to next? What new ministries will be born, what lives will be touched, what grace will surprise us along the way. So we keep listening. Because the voice that one's called, Samuel, Samuel is still calling today. Think for a little. The God who created with a word still speaks into our lives. The God who calls Samuel still calls us to speak, to serve, to love. And by God's grace we can keep answering. Here we are, Lord. Speak. For your servants, for this moment.