Second Sunday after Pentecost, June 2, 2024
1 Samuel 3:1-10
by Allison Courey
Last year at the end of the gardening season, my neighbour Ingrid cut back her parsley and brought me some to dry for the winter. I laid it out to dry beside my other herbs and teas and must have been too busy with the rest of my harvest to bother washing it because when walked by a couple days later, I noticed three tiny caterpillars crawling on the leaves. I called the kids and we put the caterpillars into a big pickle jar and gave them fresh food every couple of days. Over the next few weeks, we watched as they grew bigger, shedding their skin and pooping all over the jar (which was the best part for my four year old!) Finally, they hung upside-down before turning into a chrysalis and eventually emerging as butterflies. At the end fall, the kids were able to release the butterflies onto the last dahlias of the season and watch as they dried their wings in the sun.
I’ve often wondered what would have happened if I hadn’t looked closely at the parsley that day in September. The caterpillars would have died for sure, maybe we would have even eaten them, and we would have missed the opportunity to watch them become butterflies in our kitchen.
Driving up the mountain last week, I noticed graffiti along the guardrail that reminded me of our butterflies last fall. It said, “expect the unexpected.” Of course, this feels like a bit of a misnomer because something can’t be unexpected if you expect it. But I think what the writer was trying to say was “pay attention, stay awake, or you might miss something important.” It felt like a prophetic thing to say in a culture that’s more distracted than ever before.
In fact, I would say that the ability to pay attention and hear what’s really going on is what sets someone apart as a prophet. It seems like as I’m with you over the summer months, we have a bit of a theme of prophecy going on. Last week we met Isaiah who was called to listen to the voice of God in a context of political uncertainty.
Today, we meet Samuel as he too receives a call to hear from God. The story of Samuel takes place hundreds of years before Isaiah, during another time when God’s people are in social and political crisis. Before they had a monarchy, Israel was managed by judges who were often priests and/or prophets. Samuel’s mentor Eli is the last of the judges, and the system is not working well. There is again corruption and injustice, and Eli’s sons are committing sexual abuse among their people, but Eli doesn’t stop them.
We hear that “the word of God is rare” at the time, meaning that there aren’t many prophets and God feels far away. And in this context, Samuel is growing up in the temple, sleeping next to the eternal flame, the “light that has not yet gone out,” symbolizing that even though corruption and abuse are rampant among the religious and political leadership, at least one person there is ready to listen for God’s voice and relay it to the people.
So God declares that Samuel is going to be Eli’s successor as high priest because Eli’s own family have been appalling representatives of God. A major change is needed in order to regain the people’s trust and reconnect them with the Holy One. That night, as a child, Samuel learns that a prophet needs to do three things: first, they must listen to the people (and here he is listening to Eli). Second, they must listen to God. And finally, they must speak truth to power (as Samuel does when he reluctantly tells Eli what God has said).
I know lots of people who are good at doing one of those things, but the ability to do all three is pretty rare. The gift that Samuel receives that night and spends the following years developing is not public speaking or even leadership - it is the gift of paying attention. Unlike the politicians and priests who went around declaring their own ideas, Samuel learns that a prophet can have nothing to say until he has first heard the voice of God and the voice of the people. And in particular, when the people are going through a major crisis of leadership and God feels far away, they job of a prophet is to learn from the people, to really hear and notice them, and to sit before God.
I came to the Wednesday lunch this week and found a person with a gift for paying attention. Dave offered to help my kids with their plates and commiserated with my five-year-old over her love of sausage despite living in a vegetarian household. He introduced me to the others at the table and told me a little about them. He even took time to listen to the concerns of a two-year-old, much to Fern’s delight. Dave told me that he wasn’t needed for serving food, so he carved out a new position for himself: the one who sits and pays attention.
When I was a university chaplain in Winnipeg, we called this “loitering with intent.” It’s essentially the practice of being, for the purpose of listening and noticing. The idea is that in our busy culture, it’s a prophetic act to slow down enough to sit still and notice the needs of another person. Most people don’t know how to seek out a friend or ask for help, but if you just happen to be sitting there, you might have the chance to gain their trust enough to offer some support.
I found it striking that Dave’s context for learning to pay attention is so similar to Samuel’s. The headlines this week seemed to echo the experience of ancient Israel: a powerful leader is condemned in the courts, a vulnerable people are chased from their homes and then bombed in a refugee camp, abuse scandals lead to distrust of church leadership.
The word of God is rare in these days. But the lamp of God has not gone out. We have our own eternal flame here to remind us that God is still among us and still speaks to those who listen. Only this time, it is not an individual being called to be the prophet, but the whole community of Resurrection together. And just as God taught Samuel to listen to his community, to listen to God, and to speak truth to power, you are being invited to listen to the voices in your community and to see where new shoots of life are popping up among you.
Last week I mentioned several ways you are already paying attention to the needs in your community: you saw hunger, so you grew food. You saw newcomers, so you taught them to sew. You saw loneliness, so you started a community lunch. This is what living into your calling as a prophetic community looks like.
Next week following the service, we’re going to have a short town hall to talk about another way we can listen to our broader community. The needs of some of the groups using this building have shifted, and the corporation feels like we can use our space more effectively in a way that will meet both our needs and theirs.
As you move into this week, I invite you to practice paying attention. Notice the look on your neighbour’s face and the flowers that have just opened. Notice the needs of your own body and the feeling of the ground under your feet. Perhaps you’ll see just a bunch of parsley, but if you really pay attention, you might find butterflies there.
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