The lesson of Samuel and Eli is both precious and sad. Sad, but also hopeful. Eli, the elderly prophet of the previous generation, is now old and in the way. He's almost blind. He's mostly asleep. Blind and asleep are Bible code words for stuck, stubborn, and proud of it. Eli's not quite dead, but almost. Still, he's not totally useless, as we'll see. Meanwhile, the new kid, Samuel, doesn't know God at all, at least not like Eli did. His ignorant youth is annoying. To the old guard, the kid's a functional atheist. He has no idea what he's getting into. Think Obi-wan and Luke, in the original trilogy. One generation fades away, and a new hope arises.
1 Samuel 3:1-20
Samuel's Calling and Prophetic Activity
Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord under Eli. The word of the Lord was rare in those days; visions were not widespread.
At that time Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see, was lying down in his room; the lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was.
Then the Lord called, 'Samuel! Samuel!' and he said, 'Here I am!' and ran to Eli, and said, 'Here I am, for you called me.' But he said, 'I did not call; lie down again.' So he went and lay down.
The Lord called again, 'Samuel!' Samuel got up and went to Eli, and said, 'Here I am, for you called me.' But he said, 'I did not call, my son; lie down again.' Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him.
The Lord called Samuel again, a third time. And he got up and went to Eli, and said, 'Here I am, for you called me.' Then Eli perceived that the Lord was calling the boy. Therefore Eli said to Samuel, 'Go, lie down; and if he calls you, you shall say, "Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening." ' So Samuel went and lay down in his place.
Now the Lord came and stood there, calling as before, 'Samuel! Samuel!' And Samuel said, 'Speak, for your servant is listening.' Then the Lord said to Samuel, 'See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make both ears of anyone who hears of it tingle. On that day I will fulfill all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end. For I have told him that I am about to punish his house for ever, for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them. Therefore I swear to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli's house shall not be expiated by sacrifice or offering for ever.'
Gospel Reading
John 1:43-51
The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, "Follow me." Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, "We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth." Nathanael said to him, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Philip said to him, "Come and see." When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said of him, "Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!" Nathanael asked him, "Where did you get to know me?" Jesus answered, "I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you." Nathanael replied, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!" Jesus answered, "Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these." And he said to him, "Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man."
Sermon - Evergreen. Evergreen. Evergreen. Evergreen.
Recently I had to provide a reference for a fresh, new child pastor straight out of seminary.
I told the person asking about this tiny tot, "He's young, he knows everything, and he talks too much."
So, typical seminary grad.
I said, "It's OK. The church'll beat that out of him soon enough."
There's a picture in the hallway of me when I, too, was fresh out of school. I, too, was young, smarter than everyone, and talked too much.
I was so green.
And now the picture's so yellow.
Even farther back in the day, way far back.
In the days of Samuel and Eli, you didn't have fancy grad schools.
Your parents sold you into an apprenticeship.
Education was sort of like a Reverse Mortgage.
You got a real world education, and your parents got the cash to remodel your room.
"Let's put the Peloton where his bed used to be."
Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord under Eli. The word of the Lord was rare in those days; visions were not widespread.
A little backstory.
Prophets – not just Hebrew prophets – but in societies and religions all over the world, prophets tended to be the weirdos.
The pay scale was just slightly higher than Village Idiot.
The job description was pretty similar, too.
There's a reason they made prophets live on a hill outside of town.
Prophets were (and this is a quote from an expensive book):
The prophet was an altogether extreme kind of figure. He might dribble, drool, maintain a vacant stare, act like an epileptic; or engage in long but pointless tasks such as spending hours arranging shells into designs on the ground. (Like tourists in Panama City.) (Prophets might) speak in tongues, go into trances, fast, balance on their head, and perch on rooftops. Normally prophets were treated with bemused respect. They were ill; but the illness was a direct consequence of being touched by God.
In other words, Prophets were seriously unorthodox people.
Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord under Eli. The word of the Lord was rare in those days; visions were not widespread.
Why in the world would that be?
Had God gone on vacation?
Eli the Prophet, bless his heart, Eli was old.
Almost blind.
Took a LOT of naps.
He looked nothing like his picture from 30 years ago.
Eli just didn't have the energy for balancing on his head or preaching naked like Isaiah used to do. (Isaiah Chapter 20, you can Google it.)
(People will say: "Preachers just don't preach the way they used to." Good. I'm glad.)
But we can also infer from 1 Samuel 3 that it wasn't just Eli.
The Bible says: Visions weren't widespread.
In other words, religion had gotten… boring.
Nobody took it seriously. (Sound familiar?)
It's the exact opposite from God's plan in Acts 2 and Joel 2 when God says, "I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your young will see visions. Your elders will dream dreams."
Nope. It just wasn't happening.
All this is apparently why it took God not one, not two, not three, but FOUR times to get the boy Samuel to WAKE UP!
Four times God visited him, called him by name, disturbed his slumber, and started a lifetime of blowing his mind.
—
That was then. In the Old Testament.
So in the New Testament:
By the time Jesus rolls around, prophecy has changed.
To a degree.
When you and I think of prophets, especially Bible prophets, we think of people who Make a living predicting the future.
Like sports radio at the coming of a new coach.
Telling the future is "part" of the prophet's job description, but by the time of Jesus, prophecy is more concerned with telling… the present.
In John Chapter 1, Nathaniel – Nathaniel is a prophet.
But not because Nathaniel tells the future.
But because Nathaniel sees the world and tells it how it is.
And Jesus – Jesus seems to get a kick out of him.
The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, "Follow me." … Philip found Nathanael and said to him, "We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth." Nathanael said to him, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?"
(we might insert Birmingham, Georgia, Washington DC.)
Philip said to him, "Come and see."
When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said of him, "Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!"
I have a friend.
He's from Scotland.
The polite Southerners in East Tennessee think he's rude.
He's not rude;
He's like Nathaniel.
There's not an ounce of deceit in him.
He just tells the truth.
Maybe that's why people think Scots are always wanting to fight.
They're actually quite peaceful.
But they tend to make other people want to fight THEM, punch them in the mouth when they say the new haircut's bad, or American football is dumb.
So honest.
Maybe Nathaniel was part Scottish. Who knows?
But he WAS a prophet.
Not because he saw the future, but because he spoke the truth.
—
Now jump back to Samuel and Eli –
God woke up the boy Samuel and gave him truth to tell.
Hard truth.
The first thing, THE FIRST THING God told Samuel to do was to tell his blind, elderly master Eli that Eli's sons were idiots.
Rotten. Blasphemous brats. Entitled jerks.
Eli just couldn't see it.
Literally and figuratively.
Oh, the boss is going to love hearing that.
But wait, it gets worse.
God told Samuel to tell Eli, that even though his sons were scumbags, Good news:
God wasn't going to punish these adult children (because what good would it do?).
Bad news: God told Samuel to say that Eli was going to be punished.
That Master Eli was going to be punished for letting his kids get this way, because (quote) his sons were blaspheming God and he did not restrain them.
Now.
We know it's not fair to blame parents for their children's bad behavior.
Sometimes.
I do know a few public school teachers who would much rather put the parents in time out.
Give THEM a spanking, if they wouldn't get sued.
In this case, the Bible sides with the school teachers.
Samuel isn't telling the future as much as God has simply awakened him to the very present truth.
God has opened Samuel's eyes to see what's going on, today.
And today, in that day, the Old Time Religion has become the old BLIND religion.
Prophets no longer have visions of the future.
Worse, they don't even recognize what's going on right under their noses.
Samuel's sons are symbolic of the whole ugly society gone bad.
So God calls Samuel's name, one, two, three, FOUR times until there is absolutely, positively no mistaking.
God wants the old, boring religion to stop turning a blind eye to wrongs and injustice and fat entitlement.
God appoints a new kid on the block who, like Nathaniel, will speak the truth, without deceit, plain and simple and honest.
"Truth hurts." Sayeth the song of Lizzo.
—
We have two daughters. You may have met them.
Gen Z kids.
And they're smart.
I say to my friends, "Isn't it great when our kids turn out smarter than we are?"
Yes, it is.
Except when said children then tell us how dumb we are.
"Oh Dad. Oh Mother. You don't understand!"
Sorry, Pops. Truth hurts.
I think kids these days have a lot of Samuel in them.
They're a new kind of prophet.
They've heard the whispers in the night, on TikTok and Instagram, and they're not afraid to speak the truth to their elders.
In this economy they've got nothing to lose.
I know I've got a lot of blind Eli in me. It happens.
Since the last time I was in Dothan and now, so much in the world has changed.
And so much of the change is not good.
This planet is on fire. In so many ways.
This house of a world is divided against itself, and this time it's not just North versus South, but North, South, East, and West, online and offline, flying drones and digging tunnels, fractured, fighting, burning.
It IS time to wake up our sense of prophecy.
It IS time the world to re-learn the Scottish Presbyterian tradition of telling the truth, even if it hurts.
–
In my half-blind, old-man opinion, church everywhere has gotten dull.
Not boring.
Many churches are quite entertaining.
Some bring their preachers in on trapezes. That's not gonna happen here.
Some are so political they're like cable news with a cross. That's not my jam.
Neither is boring. Just dull.
Dull because instead of speaking truth, churches have made an industry out of telling people exactly what they want to hear.
We focus on making nice people nicer.
Sometimes, we focus on making mean people meaner.
We sell certainty – and brand it as faith.
I don't know exactly what it is, but I'm pretty sure – it's not prophesy.
Prophesy without vision is Eli.
Vision with truth, that's the new kids. That's Samuel. That's Nathaniel.
That's the future.
Maybe not seeing the future exactly, but building it, starting now.
Ephesians says to "speak the truth in love."
When you love someone you tell them the truth.
When you love a church, when you love a world, when you love your children, when you love your elders, you tell them the truth.
Maybe it doesn't sound loving at the time.
Samuel's word to Eli sure didn't.
Nathaniel's little quip about Jesus, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" sounded like a jab.
But Jesus knew – he didn't say it with deceit.
He just told the truth.
—
So, like God almighty, we can say it once, twice, three, four times:
Evergreen.
Evergreen.
Evergreen.
Evergreen.
God wants us to wake up.
You, me, all of us together.
And if we waste this time we have together, if we waste it by being nice when we could be truthful, being sweet when we could be telling the truth, then we're just sleepwalking.
–
Then the Lord said to Samuel, 'See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make both ears of anyone who hears of it tingle.
I think God is doing something in Dothan, Alabama, in Evergreen Presbyterian Church (USA), that will make the ears of anyone who hears it tingle.
Will make their hearts beat faster.
Make our eyes open wide.
Make our feet move.
But we have to wake up. And listen for it.
Evergreen, Evergreen. Are you ready?
Speak, Lord, for your servants are listening.
--
Rev. Dr. James McTyre
1 Samuel 3:1-20
Samuel's Calling and Prophetic Activity
Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord under Eli. The word of the Lord was rare in those days; visions were not widespread.
At that time Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see, was lying down in his room; the lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was.
Then the Lord called, 'Samuel! Samuel!' and he said, 'Here I am!' and ran to Eli, and said, 'Here I am, for you called me.' But he said, 'I did not call; lie down again.' So he went and lay down.
The Lord called again, 'Samuel!' Samuel got up and went to Eli, and said, 'Here I am, for you called me.' But he said, 'I did not call, my son; lie down again.' Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him.
The Lord called Samuel again, a third time. And he got up and went to Eli, and said, 'Here I am, for you called me.' Then Eli perceived that the Lord was calling the boy. Therefore Eli said to Samuel, 'Go, lie down; and if he calls you, you shall say, "Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening." ' So Samuel went and lay down in his place.
Now the Lord came and stood there, calling as before, 'Samuel! Samuel!' And Samuel said, 'Speak, for your servant is listening.' Then the Lord said to Samuel, 'See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make both ears of anyone who hears of it tingle. On that day I will fulfill all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end. For I have told him that I am about to punish his house for ever, for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them. Therefore I swear to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli's house shall not be expiated by sacrifice or offering for ever.'
Gospel Reading
John 1:43-51
The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, "Follow me." Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, "We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth." Nathanael said to him, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Philip said to him, "Come and see." When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said of him, "Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!" Nathanael asked him, "Where did you get to know me?" Jesus answered, "I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you." Nathanael replied, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!" Jesus answered, "Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these." And he said to him, "Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man."
Sermon - Evergreen. Evergreen. Evergreen. Evergreen.
Recently I had to provide a reference for a fresh, new child pastor straight out of seminary.
I told the person asking about this tiny tot, "He's young, he knows everything, and he talks too much."
So, typical seminary grad.
I said, "It's OK. The church'll beat that out of him soon enough."
There's a picture in the hallway of me when I, too, was fresh out of school. I, too, was young, smarter than everyone, and talked too much.
I was so green.
And now the picture's so yellow.
Even farther back in the day, way far back.
In the days of Samuel and Eli, you didn't have fancy grad schools.
Your parents sold you into an apprenticeship.
Education was sort of like a Reverse Mortgage.
You got a real world education, and your parents got the cash to remodel your room.
"Let's put the Peloton where his bed used to be."
Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord under Eli. The word of the Lord was rare in those days; visions were not widespread.
A little backstory.
Prophets – not just Hebrew prophets – but in societies and religions all over the world, prophets tended to be the weirdos.
The pay scale was just slightly higher than Village Idiot.
The job description was pretty similar, too.
There's a reason they made prophets live on a hill outside of town.
Prophets were (and this is a quote from an expensive book):
The prophet was an altogether extreme kind of figure. He might dribble, drool, maintain a vacant stare, act like an epileptic; or engage in long but pointless tasks such as spending hours arranging shells into designs on the ground. (Like tourists in Panama City.) (Prophets might) speak in tongues, go into trances, fast, balance on their head, and perch on rooftops. Normally prophets were treated with bemused respect. They were ill; but the illness was a direct consequence of being touched by God.
In other words, Prophets were seriously unorthodox people.
Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord under Eli. The word of the Lord was rare in those days; visions were not widespread.
Why in the world would that be?
Had God gone on vacation?
Eli the Prophet, bless his heart, Eli was old.
Almost blind.
Took a LOT of naps.
He looked nothing like his picture from 30 years ago.
Eli just didn't have the energy for balancing on his head or preaching naked like Isaiah used to do. (Isaiah Chapter 20, you can Google it.)
(People will say: "Preachers just don't preach the way they used to." Good. I'm glad.)
But we can also infer from 1 Samuel 3 that it wasn't just Eli.
The Bible says: Visions weren't widespread.
In other words, religion had gotten… boring.
Nobody took it seriously. (Sound familiar?)
It's the exact opposite from God's plan in Acts 2 and Joel 2 when God says, "I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your young will see visions. Your elders will dream dreams."
Nope. It just wasn't happening.
All this is apparently why it took God not one, not two, not three, but FOUR times to get the boy Samuel to WAKE UP!
Four times God visited him, called him by name, disturbed his slumber, and started a lifetime of blowing his mind.
—
That was then. In the Old Testament.
So in the New Testament:
By the time Jesus rolls around, prophecy has changed.
To a degree.
When you and I think of prophets, especially Bible prophets, we think of people who Make a living predicting the future.
Like sports radio at the coming of a new coach.
Telling the future is "part" of the prophet's job description, but by the time of Jesus, prophecy is more concerned with telling… the present.
In John Chapter 1, Nathaniel – Nathaniel is a prophet.
But not because Nathaniel tells the future.
But because Nathaniel sees the world and tells it how it is.
And Jesus – Jesus seems to get a kick out of him.
The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, "Follow me." … Philip found Nathanael and said to him, "We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth." Nathanael said to him, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?"
(we might insert Birmingham, Georgia, Washington DC.)
Philip said to him, "Come and see."
When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said of him, "Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!"
I have a friend.
He's from Scotland.
The polite Southerners in East Tennessee think he's rude.
He's not rude;
He's like Nathaniel.
There's not an ounce of deceit in him.
He just tells the truth.
Maybe that's why people think Scots are always wanting to fight.
They're actually quite peaceful.
But they tend to make other people want to fight THEM, punch them in the mouth when they say the new haircut's bad, or American football is dumb.
So honest.
Maybe Nathaniel was part Scottish. Who knows?
But he WAS a prophet.
Not because he saw the future, but because he spoke the truth.
—
Now jump back to Samuel and Eli –
God woke up the boy Samuel and gave him truth to tell.
Hard truth.
The first thing, THE FIRST THING God told Samuel to do was to tell his blind, elderly master Eli that Eli's sons were idiots.
Rotten. Blasphemous brats. Entitled jerks.
Eli just couldn't see it.
Literally and figuratively.
Oh, the boss is going to love hearing that.
But wait, it gets worse.
God told Samuel to tell Eli, that even though his sons were scumbags, Good news:
God wasn't going to punish these adult children (because what good would it do?).
Bad news: God told Samuel to say that Eli was going to be punished.
That Master Eli was going to be punished for letting his kids get this way, because (quote) his sons were blaspheming God and he did not restrain them.
Now.
We know it's not fair to blame parents for their children's bad behavior.
Sometimes.
I do know a few public school teachers who would much rather put the parents in time out.
Give THEM a spanking, if they wouldn't get sued.
In this case, the Bible sides with the school teachers.
Samuel isn't telling the future as much as God has simply awakened him to the very present truth.
God has opened Samuel's eyes to see what's going on, today.
And today, in that day, the Old Time Religion has become the old BLIND religion.
Prophets no longer have visions of the future.
Worse, they don't even recognize what's going on right under their noses.
Samuel's sons are symbolic of the whole ugly society gone bad.
So God calls Samuel's name, one, two, three, FOUR times until there is absolutely, positively no mistaking.
God wants the old, boring religion to stop turning a blind eye to wrongs and injustice and fat entitlement.
God appoints a new kid on the block who, like Nathaniel, will speak the truth, without deceit, plain and simple and honest.
"Truth hurts." Sayeth the song of Lizzo.
—
We have two daughters. You may have met them.
Gen Z kids.
And they're smart.
I say to my friends, "Isn't it great when our kids turn out smarter than we are?"
Yes, it is.
Except when said children then tell us how dumb we are.
"Oh Dad. Oh Mother. You don't understand!"
Sorry, Pops. Truth hurts.
I think kids these days have a lot of Samuel in them.
They're a new kind of prophet.
They've heard the whispers in the night, on TikTok and Instagram, and they're not afraid to speak the truth to their elders.
In this economy they've got nothing to lose.
I know I've got a lot of blind Eli in me. It happens.
Since the last time I was in Dothan and now, so much in the world has changed.
And so much of the change is not good.
This planet is on fire. In so many ways.
This house of a world is divided against itself, and this time it's not just North versus South, but North, South, East, and West, online and offline, flying drones and digging tunnels, fractured, fighting, burning.
It IS time to wake up our sense of prophecy.
It IS time the world to re-learn the Scottish Presbyterian tradition of telling the truth, even if it hurts.
–
In my half-blind, old-man opinion, church everywhere has gotten dull.
Not boring.
Many churches are quite entertaining.
Some bring their preachers in on trapezes. That's not gonna happen here.
Some are so political they're like cable news with a cross. That's not my jam.
Neither is boring. Just dull.
Dull because instead of speaking truth, churches have made an industry out of telling people exactly what they want to hear.
We focus on making nice people nicer.
Sometimes, we focus on making mean people meaner.
We sell certainty – and brand it as faith.
I don't know exactly what it is, but I'm pretty sure – it's not prophesy.
Prophesy without vision is Eli.
Vision with truth, that's the new kids. That's Samuel. That's Nathaniel.
That's the future.
Maybe not seeing the future exactly, but building it, starting now.
Ephesians says to "speak the truth in love."
When you love someone you tell them the truth.
When you love a church, when you love a world, when you love your children, when you love your elders, you tell them the truth.
Maybe it doesn't sound loving at the time.
Samuel's word to Eli sure didn't.
Nathaniel's little quip about Jesus, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" sounded like a jab.
But Jesus knew – he didn't say it with deceit.
He just told the truth.
—
So, like God almighty, we can say it once, twice, three, four times:
Evergreen.
Evergreen.
Evergreen.
Evergreen.
God wants us to wake up.
You, me, all of us together.
And if we waste this time we have together, if we waste it by being nice when we could be truthful, being sweet when we could be telling the truth, then we're just sleepwalking.
–
Then the Lord said to Samuel, 'See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make both ears of anyone who hears of it tingle.
I think God is doing something in Dothan, Alabama, in Evergreen Presbyterian Church (USA), that will make the ears of anyone who hears it tingle.
Will make their hearts beat faster.
Make our eyes open wide.
Make our feet move.
But we have to wake up. And listen for it.
Evergreen, Evergreen. Are you ready?
Speak, Lord, for your servants are listening.
Transitional Pastor, Evergreen Presbyterian Church (USA), Dothan, AL
865-216-1980
james@evergreenpres.church
www.evergreenpres.church
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