From Letter to Spirit: Listening

1 Samuel 3

Pastor Joanie:

Listening is very hard to do. Yet, we need to take Samuel’s example and be present.

Samuel didn’t give up. He heard someone calling, but it was not what he expected. He thought it was Eli. He thought it was the one he was learning from and serving, but it wasn’t. He made himself available to God’s word. And, as we learned, that was something difficult to hear. He had to give the message that things were not going to go well for Eli and his family. And it was going to be a difficult message to share.

Samuel made himself available to God. Samuel was present. Samuel listened. And God didn’t give up either. God listened. God knew what was going on with Samuel. It’s as if God was thinking, “Oh man, Samuel thinks it’s somebody else talking! He doesn’t recognize me yet!”

But God was patient. He kept calling and He was persistent. I believe that’s our message.

We are called throughout scriptures from the very beginning to stop, to rest, to listen, to give heed, to hear. You hear those messages throughout scripture. Jesus himself took time, for example, when he went to the garden to pray and to listen and to make himself available to the God who was working within him.

That is our job. That is, to listen and to make ourselves available even to one another, to listen to one another, to be there in presence for one another. The truth is, if we’re listening, if we’re really listening, it may not be what we thought we would hear. It may not always be the good news that we thought we would hear. When we’re listening to one another it may totally surprise us. It may turn us to a different direction. It may lead us somewhere closer to God.

So listen.

This morning I have invited Brother John Johnson to come and share a story and a word from God with you. So, John, come and share.

John Johnson:

Good morning. I want to read a short passage from 1 Kings 19:11-12. God is speaking to Elijah. Then God said, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord. And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice.

When I was in high school many, many, many years ago – I thought about this recently – the best teachers that I had never had to shout.

We might have been talking to our friends, a little unsettled right before the class started, but when these teachers got in front of their desk with their book, we got silent. They would look at us tell us what page to turn to and the lesson would begin and they did it with a still small voice. I don’t think it’s by accident that each of these teachers that I remember were all women! They just did a fantastic job of controlling the room.

I tied this with the passage we just read because the one thing I found out in my Christian faith is that the world – with all of this noise and all of this neon lights and all the sounds – will do everything possible to pull you away from listening to God and communicating with God. And the world is very successful in pulling you away.

Over the past 10 years, the ministries that I’ve been involved in – whether it’s been prison ministry or being a chaplain at the hospital or the work that I did over in Slovakia and now what we’re doing with Ladles of Love – I always got direction when I was spending time in prayer with God.

I could hear him just as clearly as if he was standing in front of me talking to me. Now, I didn’t hear him audibly, but I sensed it in my very being, exactly what direction He wanted me to go. Plain and simple, He wants to do the same thing for you. But you have got to give him an opportunity by getting away from the noise and just the total clutter of this world. You must hear the message that He’s got for you.

I want to talk to you just a few minutes about the Ladles of Love ministry and how that got started because that’s the one that this church is connected to the most.

God put this on my heart several years ago. I said: “Well, I have got to find me a partner church.” So, I went to several of the main churches in this town and pitched the idea. I was told by each church that this is something they would like to help with occasionally. Perhaps we could do something like this at Thanksgiving, Christmas, and maybe Easter. I thanked all of them. But I told themthat this is something that I want to be a ministry. I want it to be every week. And I don’t want it to be about delivering food. I want the food to be our invitation to get to know people, where we can not only talk with them, but pray with them. But none of these churches were interested.

I was racking my brain about what to do. Well, I had never met Jason Williams, but I had heard several things about him. And I found out that he had one afternoon a week where he was going to The Cellar Coffeehouse to meet people. And I figured I qualify as people. So I went to The Celler. When Jason finally came in, I introduced myself and he put his computer away and his phone away and said talk. I told him exactly what it was I wanted to do and what the vision I had for Ladles of Love and he immediately said this is something I know our church will want to be a part of. And we’ve been doing this I guess for three or four years now. And it certainly wouldn’t be possible without the help of the membership here at Hood. That’s something I do know. Folks have been faithful upon faithful.

You get all kinds of blessings in ministry. Miss Beulah Pope is one of those. She is 93 years old. Week after week after week she fixes a meal for 30 people that she does not know for the glory of God. She’s fixing them for God. Who gets them is irrelevant. She’s glorifying God. And when we glorify God, we’re the beneficiary.

Another one of my blessings has been that I’ve got a dear friend that’s 84 years old now. We kind of lost touch with each other. But he had gotten to where he was staying in his recliner all the time and just letting life pass him right on by. I’m talking about Gary Ronfeldt. We happened to talk and Gary asked if he could start helping with  the Ladles of Love meal deliveries. And Gary has blossomed like a brand new flower. He has thanked me repeatedly for making him get out of the house. Reconnecting with Gary is one of my blessings.

Now could we use more help in actually making deliveries and visiting people. Sure. Even so, we’ve never missed delivering meal to everybody that wanted one. And this is what I want each of you to realize today: the importance of listening to what God’s ministry is for you. You can so you can’t do it right now. You can come up with a million excuses of why you can’t do it. But God’s asking you now for a reason.

I’ve played that game before with God also. “I don’t want to do that.” “Not now.” But God wouldn’t leave me alone. And when God puts a ministry on your heart, you’ll be amazed at the people who want to work with you. You all have got ministers at Hood – Joanie and Jason – who will spend all the time you want in formulating a game plan for ministry. And once you’ve told them your ideas, they won’t tell you that you’re wrong in this area or that area, but they’ll say, “Let’s get to work!” And this is the blessing of seeing a ministry go from seed to where it takes root and it flourishes. That’s the opportunity you have here. The next step is up to you. Take time to talk with God in a quiet place hear him call you. Your church is here to help.

Amen.