Creekside Church Sermon of January 16, 2000 "Today and Tomorrow " I Samuel 3:1-10	Rev. David Bibbee
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The process is as old as time itself. There is a leader whose gifts have long been honored and respected, but the march of time has carried him past his prime, and necessity dictates that a new leader step forward...and behind him is another wannabees preparing for the day when his name is called.

This passing of the mantle is the subject of our text from I Samuel three. Eli was a chief priest. He was old, with sons who were priests. Young Samuel was ministering to the Lord under Eli's supervision. In Hebrew the name Samuel means, "One who is from infancy to forty." Tradition has it that Samuel was twelve, the same age as Jesus when his hunger for the scriptures and God was apparent.

The text begins, "The word of the Lord was rare in those days." The preaching was pitiful. The bottom fell out of church attendance. People thought they would get more from a few extra winks rather than go to worship. The pitiful few that did attend couldn't tell you the difference between the Torah and a tambourine. Eli's sons were fleecing worshippers, taking the choicest sacrifices for themselves and using the power of their position to engage in sexual trysts. "The word of the Lord was rare." But the winds of change had begun to blow.

Late at night as the world slept, with Eli in his usual place and Samuel in his next to the ark of God, a voice woke Samuel. "It was Eli," Samuel thought. Always ready to help, he came to Eli and said, "Here I am!" "What do you mean, 'Here I am!'" Eli said. "You called me." "I did not. You were dreaming. Go back to sleep." But again Samuel hears his name and went to Eli. "Here I am. What do you desire?" Samuel asked. "I desire sleep. From now on, no more pizza before bed for you. Now go to sleep!" Eli said.

Samuel wasn't frightened by the voice. There was a beckoning quality to it. But he didn't conclude, "Ohhh...it must be God." Samuel ministered to the Lord, but verse seven says he didn't yet know the Lord. He hadn't heard God's voice. Eli had just dozed off when Samuel woke him again. It had to be frustrating-like it was for the hardware store clerk who watched a duck waddle up to the counter and ask, "Hey, got any grapes?" "No we don't, so get out of here!" A little later the duck waddled back, "Hey, got any grapes?" "I told you once, no! Ask me again and I'll nail your feet to the floor!" The duck waddled out and in several minutes waddled back in. "Hey, got any nails?" The clerk said, "No!" The duck replied, "Good! Got any grapes?"

And for the third time Eli heard "Here I am." Then it finally dawned on him. The Lord was calling Samuel. Now imagine for a moment you are Eli. You have spent your entire life serving God. You daily and diligently study the scriptures. Every day you pray and listen. You listen and pray. As high priest you speak on behalf of God to the people. Listening to God has been your life. The word of the Lord was rare in those days. If God would speak to anyone, it would surely be you.

Finally God speaks...but not to you. He speaks to a twelve-year-old who doesn't know a fraction of what you know. God bypasses you for a kid. It became apparent to Eli that the sun was setting on his today and rising on Samuel's tomorrow. In one respect, Eli wasn't surprised. His sight was shot. His son's shenanigans had aged him fifty years. He had been at it so long he was no longer performing his priestly functions from the heart, but out of habit instead. He wasn't as passionate as he used to be. The dwindling numbers at Sabbath services didn't bother him anymore. Eli's heart just wasn't into it. And when he heard Samuel answering God, "Speak, Lord, for your servant hears," he felt like his space was more valuable than his presence.

It's not easy to hear this story from Eli's perspective. I have always felt like Samuel. God interrupted my plans when I was nineteen, and put me on a path I never would have chosen for myself in a thousand years. I know what it's like to have your life plan scrapped and to be handed another agenda instead. People would say to me, "You're a minister? You look so young for a minister," or "The church needs young men like you to pump fresh blood through our spiritual arteries." That's what they used to say. Hardly anyone tells me that now.

My Samuel days are behind me. I've learned to change what I can. I'm beginning to accept what I cannot change. And I'm gaining the wisdom to know the difference. Years ago William Beam, the dean at Bethany Seminary said, "Things are changing so fast today that you have to run as fast as you can to keep from standing still." Well, life is much faster today. Much of the information I learned in seminary is now obsolete. The climate of the churches has changed that much. It's a new day that requires new tools to spread the gospels. Just as the power shifted from Eli to Samuel, the greatest signs of life in the church are shifting from established traditional churches like this one, to new churches that are springing up like Dandelions with worship to a decidedly different beat, and organization to do ministry in a new way to face current needs.

I got a phone call from Eli last week. Asked if I wanted to join a support group for washed-up religious professionals who have been replaced by the "young bucks." I get depressed, sometimes, but not that depressed. I still have time to listen to the spirit and help the church through changes to insure it will continue to have a ministry tomorrow.

I wonder, do you think Eli liked Samuel's music. I ask this because I had a talk with an older person who said they were considering another church. "But why?" I asked. "There's just too much going on. Decisions have been made and changes are happening that I can't accept." "What changes?" "I just can't stand to listen to this new music in church. It's not worshipful, and it's too loud!" I don't know if Eli liked Samuel's music, but when Eli finally caught on to what was happening to Samuel, he realized God was speaking to this young boy in a way Eli couldn't hear or understand.

What speaks to one generation may not speak to another. God's message to all generations remains constant, but not the means. The wonder of God is that he speaks in ways each generation can hear, and a reason the church has continued though the ages is it's ability to adapt its way of sharing the gospel. I heard a bishop say, "I'm all for change, as long as we don't have to alter anything." Our willingness to accept carefully considered change today determines what the church will be tomorrow.

If I'm speaking to anyone here who is struggling with change and the pain that goes with it, let me say this. We can't escape change. Life is change. As we grow older we face changes in our health. Like the grandmother whose granddaughter asked what it was like to grow old. "Put cotton in your ears, pebbles in your shoes, and put on rubber gloves and smear Vaseline on your glasses. That's what it's like...instant aging!" In addition to this there are life's changing circumstances...like letting go of family, friends, and possessions.

This individual I spoke of earlier also said "We're too old to adapt to all these changes in our lives and in the church." To this I have a word of pastoral counsel..."Baloney!" You cannot change who you are, but you are not too old to change what you do with who you are. It's about changing allegiances. To receive an installment on the glorious things God has promised, we appreciate the past, then let go of it, and let God guide. Can we be open to the new life and energy that today's Samuels bring to the church? You don't have to like the music, but young churches can teach old ones new tricks.

You need Samuel, but Samuel also needs you. Samuel heard a voice, but didn't know it was God's. It took Eli, who had spent a lifetime listening to God to tell young Samuel who was calling. Youth needed guidance. Eli stands for the older, faithful generation that "has" what the younger generation "has not," simply because they have not lived long enough. The Samuels among us need the Elis among us for you have experience, wisdom, and insights about God and life which must be passed on to tomorrow's children.

It's not an eloquent way of saying it, but we need to fill in the gaps.

Sir Huber Von Herkomer founded a famous painting school in the late 1800's. Picture an old man watching this brilliant painter at work. The old man is so proud, because the painter he watches is his son. The elder Herkomer was a sculpturer, and has come to spend the last years of his life in the home in his famous son.

As he witnesses his son's genius, the father feels overshadowed, insufficient, and totally succeeded by his son. That evening he asked his son for some clay so he could while away the lonely night hours. But like Eli, his eyes were failing, and there was a big gap between what he envisioned and what he achieved. Every night he went to bed frustrated and depressed. After several days, his son noted his father's depression.

That night, while his father slept, Hubert slid silently into the room and went to the modeling table. Night after night he entered to work just a few moments on the sculpture. And each morning his father woke and gazed at his work with new pleasure. Each morning with tears in his eyes he said to himself, "It's not as bad as I thought. I've still got it after all."

The father taught his son. The son gave back to the father. They filled the gaps with love.

Long ago the silence of night was broken by a voice that hadn't been heard in a long time. God called a new leader for the future...a new leader with lessons to learn from one who lived a life of service to God.

Let's pray that listening, learning, and love will prevail between the generations represented here so that we, all of us, may be granted strength for today, and bright hope for tomorrow.

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