Listen to the sermon with the player below, or, download the audio.
In the name of Jesus. Amen.
As a boy, when I was particularly talkative & inattentive my mother often said: “God gave you two ears and only one mouth, so that you would listen twice as much as you talk!” I don’t think she was the only mother that said that to a child but perhaps the notion has been forgotten. We certainly have no lack of noise that streams to our ears. Now, it’s even wireless. In fact, one can hear noise everywhere. For the love of Mike, even greeting cards speak their messages.
My mother also often asked me “Do you hear me?” And when I answered, “Yes,” she would retort: “But are you LISTENING?” which is an important distinction illustrated by the following conversation. Two men were talking over coffee one day. One said: “I’m concerned about my wife. She talks to herself a lot these days.” The other said: “Mine does too, but she doesn’t know it. She thinks I’m listening.” That doesn’t work. We must learn to listen, to hear. Especially to our spouses and our mothers.
About two centuries ago, Danish theologian & philosopher, Søren Kierkegaard said that if he were a doctor and were allowed to prescribe just one remedy for all the ills of the modern world, he would prescribe silence. For even if the Word of God were proclaimed, Kierkegaard said, it would not be heard or heeded, for there is too much noise and busyness in our world.
Focusing primarily on today’s Old Testament narrative about the call of Samuel and the Holy Gospel’s account of the calling of Philip & Nathanael brings to mind the Divinely-inspired words of Isaiah 55:2,3 “2Listen, listen to me… 3Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live.” And so we consider the theme: “Divine Hearing Aids”
1.
Samuel had been given to Yahweh and brought the Lord’s house as a young child; shortly after having been weaned. It seems as though he is a kind of apprentice, helping the aged Eli in various traditional priestly duties in the tabernacle. The nation of Israel was in a time of spiritual poverty marked by spiritual rebellion as well as prophetic inactivity. Eli, the High Priest, was old and weak. His sons Hophni and Phinehas were wicked men; they had no regard for the Lord (1 Sam 2:12). Even in such a corrupt society their conduct was considered scandalous. They took the best parts of the sacrifices of faithful families for their own consumption (1 Sam 2:13-17). The. Lord put the message as follows: “fattening yourselves on the choicest parts of every offering of my people Israel?” (29b). Their open immorality was well-known. Sadly, the only step that Eli would take was to issue a rather mild rebuke (1 Sam 2:22-25).
And the Lord was compelled to judge this wickedness so that “the word of the Lord was rare in those days” (1 Sam 3:1). These words remind us of the Lord’s warning through Amos: “The days are coming,” declares the Sovereign Lord, “when I will send a famine through the land—not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord. 12Men will stagger from sea to sea and wander from north to east, searching for the word of the Lord, but they will not find it (Amos 8:11-12). And these events remind us that a people which becomes defiantly disobedient or apathetic concerning God’s Word, unless they repent, will eventually be totally deprived of the Word. These are people, that like us, need hearing aids.
2.
Such a warning is still appropriate for the world and the church today. To say there is a wholesale closing of ears to the Word of God is surely a glaring understatement … even among church people. When I speak of “closing the ears” I do so both literally and metaphorically because even the hearing impaired can join the rest of us in being careless with and ignorant toward the Word of God. And these sins of “hearing” and “listening” to the Lord together with our sinful natures which influence us against God’s Word warrant nothing less than both physical death and eternal punishment in hell.
Because God does not want us to perish temporally or eternally, He seeks and calls and so enables us to repent. He makes us contrite on account of sin and gives us faith to believe the Gospel which tells us that “sin has been forgiven and grace has been obtained through Christ” (AC XII.5). With such faith and contrition, we desire to do better than to keep on sinning.
When we repent then God forgives us of our sinful nature and all our actual sins. He forgives us for the sake of Christ. At the cross Christ carried all sin for all time for all of humankind in His own body. At the cross Jesus is your substitute … the innocent one for the guilty ones. He suffered and died in our place to pay the penalty we deserved for our sins. Jesus offers forgiveness, not revenge, to those whose sins nailed Him to the cross. He rose again from the dead – victorious over sin, Satan and death. And now life and salvation are also available through faith in Christ Jesus. Living in such repentance and faith we, like Samuel, are now ready to say: “Speak, for your servant is listening. (v. 10)”
3.
St. John’s Gospel identifies Jesus as the Logos, the Word of God in human flesh, which must be heard. So, here’s an idea – to save time why don’t we just print out the readings for each Sunday and then instruct you to go home and read them for yourselves? Because we must proclaim the Word of God again and again … over and over. And we believe that in order to receive the benefits of Christ’s passion, death and resurrection for us we must hear and listen to Him as we come into contact with His Word in all of its forms. His voice calls us as His Word is read, and spoken, and expounded, and prayed in the Divine Service. His voice calls us as His Word connected with water in Holy Baptism brings us into the kingdom of God and creates faith. His voice calls us as His Word of Holy Absolution comforts us and releases us from despair. His voice calls us as His Word together with bread and wine nourishes us with His true body and the true blood given and shed for us.
Here through His Word and the Sacraments our Lord aids our hearing – opening our ears and hearts to cherish that which creates and sustains saving faith. The means of grace are God’s gracious gifts to enable a keen sense of hearing in the midst of a world filled with voices that would lead us rather to “despise preaching and His Word.”
In ancient Israel the people of God had deserted the faith to such a degree that they all deserved to have God’s Word and revelation removed forever. Yet, in His great mercy God would raise up a faithful messenger – Samuel – through whom God would continue to proclaim His grace, His mercy in His Word as He reveals Himself to His people. Samuel would serve God in Israel as prophet, priest, and judge. Samuel would receive God’s Word and proclaim it again clearly so that spiritual integrity would be restored to Israel.
In the Gospel today, like the Samuel narrative, our Lord takes the initiative in seeking out and calling Philip and in calling and blessing Nathanael. Philip encountered Jesus, and believed He was the Messiah. He then went and found Nathanael and told him. Nathanael responded cynically & skeptically that the Messiah wouldn’t come from such an insignificant town as Nazareth. Philip simply tells him to put away his prejudice. And when Nathanael later meets Jesus he believes and confesses that Jesus is both the Son of God and the King of Israel. In both narratives, God uses others as agents of opening ears – Eli with Samuel and Philip with Nathanael.
Likewise, God has His agents in the pastoral office who through the faithful administration of Word and Sacraments give the forgiveness of sins empowering believers to live out their vocation of Christian witness in the midst of their daily callings and stations. We not only have the ability to find new ways to present God’s love to the loveless, we also have the knowledge to confront all the voices which drown out God’s true Word.
Conclusion: My grandparents referred to the radio as the “squawk box.” They told me of hours and hours listening to classic programs like The Shadow” & The Lona Ranger…They said the radio was replaced by the television which they called the “boob tube.” And now, there’s no limit to the sources of noise (some of which is even called music). Yet, in spite of all the racket, we hear the voice of God – sometimes the still, small voice of God that Elijah heard after the storm, and the earthquake, and fire. This same voice speaks to us in today’s Psalm: His hand shall lead us and His right hand shall hold us (Psalm 139:10). This same voice called the universe into existence by the one who still “governs all things in heaven and on earth” as we prayed in today’s Collect. This same voice speaks to us in today’s Epistle reminding us of the importance of our witness in fleeing immorality and glorifying God in our bodies (1 Cor. 6:18, 20b). It is the recalling of this same voice of grace, mercy, the forgiveness of sins, and salvation that brings us comfort and hope in the darkness of our cares, fears, and dreadful threats including relationship or fiscal or health uncertainties and terminal illness and death. And it will be the same voice we hear when we “see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man” (St. John 1:51).
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.