Future prophets are already among us. Can anything good come out of Nazareth?
I Samuel 3 and John 1

Samuel was an unlikely candidate to hear God’s voice. Yet, it was Samuel to whom God spoke (not Eli). Hannah and Elkanah had dedicated this boy to the Lord, so much that they turned him over completely to the church. How would we, as the church, do if someone depended completely on us for their ‘raising’? Are we teaching people, are we helping each other learn ways to change the world or are we simply surviving, are we giving out the message that the best thing to do is to hide away, to create our own separate reality so that we really don’t have to deal with the world in 2009? But it is the world in 2009 into which we have been sent, perhaps not on a public scale but into the places where we live and work. Today we recognize Human Relations Sunday and the work of people like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. There are some who would even today look at the color of his skin and echo Nathanael’s scornful question “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” But despite his human flaws, Dr. King left a legacy, a call for equality and unity that echoes today. And lest we put him up on a pedestal that is too high, I believe that God has such a mission for each of us and such a mission for our church, to be shining examples of light and love and welcome.
We talk a lot in the United Methodist Church about ‘radical hospitality’, about welcoming the stranger, the unknown, the unwanted. But at its most basic level, radical hospitality is simply being open to the one who is different, the opinion that is different, the one that may look, dress or smell differently than we do. Our tendency is to want to hold on tightly to what we already have, to keep almost a death grip on it, so no-one can take it away, so that things don’t change. But time marches on and change is a gift from God. We can either open our arms in radical hospitality, expectantly waiting for the best God has to give us or we can hunker down over our pile of possessions and ignore the riches all around.
Perhaps Eli didn’t expect that Samuel had anything valuable to tell him after he had been woken up twice already in the middle of the night. Who expects a little kid to have anything important to say at 3 o’clock in the morning? But Samuel was learning how to hear God’s voice and that is the most important lesson we ever learn. Imagine the consequences if Eli had said “Roll over and go back to sleep. That’s not how God operates.” How many years of searching, seeking would Samuel have had to endure? Samuel’s ministry would have been changed if he hadn’t known how to discern that Jesse’s had another younger son out in the field that became the King of all Israel. And it all started with a small boy being taught how to hear God and how to respond: Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.
We look at the world and ask how anything good can come from it. We live here in this little enclave of historical reproduction of Bath, NC. If you squint your eyes just right, you can pretend that nothing exists on the other side of the ‘long bridge’ and that what happens over there doesn’t affect us. But that, my friends is wishful thinking. I am just as guilty of it as the next person. The real question is who will serve the church, who will serve God in the world after we are dead and gone? God will raise up leaders just as He raised up Samuel and Nathanael. He will teach people to hear His voice. If we don’t do it, even the rocks and stones will cry out the glory of God.
Hear what the Bible says in the very first verse of I Sam. 3: The word of the Lord was rare in those days. Was this written 3,000 years ago or 30 minutes ago? The word of the Lord seems rare to us as well. But as much as we concentrate on Samuel in this passage, it also is valuable to consider Eli. How difficult it must have been for Eli to accept Samuel’s encounter with God and to respond to it. After all, Eli had been the prophet for years and now it seems that God has chosen a new prophet. Eli must have thought that Samuel’s age and inexperience disqualified him for the job. And on top of that, Samuel’s first prophecy condemns Eli’s own sons. Yet Eli shows the depth of his faith in his response: It is YHWH; let him do what seems good to him.
Both Samuel and Eli act with restraint and humility.
Now go to the John text where we hear the account of Nathanael’s call to discipleship. “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Nathanael asks. “Come and see”, Philip replies. That little bit of dialogue sums up our mission in the world. Holding these two texts side by side, the story of Samuel and Eli and the story of Nathanael and Philip, what is God saying to us here today?

1. We each come face to face with the living God in our lives. Sometimes we don’t recognize him, we don’t recognize the voice that is speaking and we don’t expect anything good to come out of people or places that traditionally seem useless to us.
2. The consequences of that encounter with God must be spoken about and lived out both in the Church and in the wider world.

We are entering a new season of visioning and leadership here in this church and here in our country. I am sure that there are some who are asking: Can anything good come out of this? That’s when we must be Eli, we must open our minds and hearts to the reality of the Samuels among us and remind ourselves that God does the choosing and our job is follow. Sometimes in our lives we are Samuel and sometimes we are Eli.
But the question “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” is also being asked in a different arena. In these troubled times, the world is looking for a Messiah, a Savior, some answers, some peace and comfort. But in their jaded skepticism, the world wearily looks at the church and asks “Can anything good come out of that?” Jesus has the same answer for them that he did for Nathanael: I saw you before you came to me. He sees, He knows, he cares and the world can come to know him if we live openly, honestly, with no deceit. It means living transparently, humbly, drawing our identity from Christ and not from the world.
Think on this. Samuel slept every night in the Temple, near the legendary Ark of the Covenant. And when he heard someone speaking to him, he ran to the closest human for answers and further instructions. And the human he ran to was wise enough to tell him: “That’s God you’re hearing” and then taught Samuel how to respond: “Speak Lord, for your servant is listening.” Sometimes we are Samuel needing to learn how to listen and act, we are Nathanael needing to be shown what good can come from Nazareth and sometimes, we are Eli – pointing out to others where God is already at work, teaching them how to respond and responding with grace and humility ourselves.

Whether in this season of our lives we are Samuel or Eli, the overarching reality is that God is using even us, right now, to accomplish His purposes: to call people to see Him, to believe in Him, to live with Him now, today. We must live into the responses of Samuel and Eli:

Speak Lord, for your servant is listening.
It is Yhwh, let him do what He wills.

Listening and speaking
Teaching and learning
Reaching higher, going deeper
Discipleship is not one or the other, it consists of both across the seasons of our lives.

Can anything good come out of Nazareth? It has, it does and it continues to spill out, to spill over through us into the world. No matter where you are today in the ebb and flow of discipleship, be encouraged. God is here, He is working and He will not fail us. Commit all your works and words to Him and He will direct your path.

Psalm 139:1-18 O LORD, you have searched me and known me. 2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away. 3 You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. 4 Even before a word is on my tongue, O LORD, you know it completely. 5 You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. 6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is so high that I cannot attain it. 7 Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? 8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. 9 If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea, 10 even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast. 11 If I say, "Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light around me become night," 12 even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day, for darkness is as light to you. 13 For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother's womb. 14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well. 15 My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. 16 Your eyes beheld my unformed substance. In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed. 17 How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! 18 I try to count them-- they are more than the sand; I come to the end-- I am still with you. Psalm 139:23-24 23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts. 24 See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

Speak Lord, for your servants are listening. Will you listen? Will you follow?