Re.
Dr. Rebecca L. Kiser
Bad
News & Good News
Pentecost 2B, June 3, 2018
1 Samuel
3:1-20
The other day I read my first FB
post that blames my Boomer generatio for the state of the world today. At first I was rather cynical about it, but
y’know, I suppose that happens in every succeeding generation. (I KNOW it
happens in every succeeding presidency!)
My generation blamed our predecessors for being uptight about things
that didn’t seem important to us; and further, not caring about things we
thought were vital, like getting us out of the war in Vietnam. We called them closed-minded, said they had muddied
values and were hypocrites. So I guess I’m not surprised to see it happening
again with this new generation. In one
sense, the world change rapidly these days, so the context of each generation
differs. While in another sense, though, our deep values built on our Judeo-Christian
heritage abide for all time, although perhaps interpreted differently through
the lens of different eras.
I don’t for example, understand
the life experiences that shaped those who endured two World Wars, and how
living in that era formed them, because I came of age in the time of the
hippies, Jesus People, civil rights demonstrations and anti-war
protestors. Although, as I age, I’ve been
rethinking ideas that I’d accepted as the only possible way of looking at
things. My parents were raised through
the Great Depression, but I’ve been a suburban, middle-class girl since
birth. My parents could say that they
weren’t prejudiced and mean it, because they weren’t Archie Bunker; and they
tried to talk politely and nicely to people. “But, you see, ‘those people’ are
not like us and they prefer their own churches, and if they move in, our
property values are affected.” They had no feeling that we need to learn to
live together as equals. On the other hand, I and my generation admired and
listened to Martin Luther King Jr at young ages, and wondered what was so bad
about his vision.
I’ve lived long enough now to have
watched various changes come and go in the church. When I grew up, new churches
were built in middle-class neighborhoods, aimed at around 200 local members,
which could support a pastor. The lots purchased by the denominations were only
a few acres, meant to stay a medium size, and have parking for 1-car
families. Most wives were available
during the week for women’s meetings, teaching Sunday School and other
volunteering tasks. We assumed that if
we built it, they would come, and they did.
Church was part of the good, American life; men and women knew their
roles; everybody had 2.4 children and Sunday Schools overflowed. Plans for
bigger buildings were hatched. Nowadays
we wish we’d bought larger lots and allowed for multiple cars, we know it takes
more people to support a pastor in this, and those neighborhood churches are
floundering.
When I started as a preacher,
spirituality was an unknown word – it sounded catholic, people said, o it sounded
like spiritualism. A mere 5 years after
I was called in by the Committee on Ministry for talking about spirituality and
spiritual direction, both those things became the new buzz words and the
presbytery made a new committee for it & all the ‘with it’ people jumped on
it.
The first time I was an Interim
Pastor, I was told, “Just keep things going until the new pastor comes.” 6-7
years later that was wrong, and I needed to take the Interim Ministry training
and learn the skills for Interim work, so I did. 10 years later I went to take
the 2nd week of training and was told that so much had changed that
I had to take week 1 again. So I
did. This past spring when I went to
sign up for week 2, I was told the content had changed again and was now called
Transitional Ministry. But they let me
into week 2, thank goodness!
It is true that new insights come
from new leaders. They can show us where
we went too far in one direction, or missed a critical understanding. For example, for a long time we assumed
people had a choice whether to be gay or straight, so we encouraged them to
“choose” a more mainstream straight life. Now we know scientifically that its
not a choice, and that a certain number of people are born wired that way. A constant minority, they can no more
“choose” a different orientation that anyone else can. Now we are more welcoming – well, some of us…
Again, for a long time, it never
occurred to us that new industries and their methods of dumping chemicals in
the seemingly inexhaustible ocean, or the breadth of the skies, would hurt
anything. That turned out to be very
wrong, and the world and all its species, including us, is suffering under the
impact of those oversights, or our blindness, whether inadvertent or
intentional. And we are realizing that
stewardship of the Garden of earth is part of our faith.
We should have realized, though,
that any change has repercussions, and thought more deeply, like indigenous
people have done; and we should have realized that its human nature to be tricky
and greedy and to find ways to exploit just about anything. If we’d read our Bibles better and remembered
that sin is real, we may have made better decisions.
Our Hebrew text about the call of
Samuel is about this, to me – that is, the mixed relations of one generation to
the upcoming one. Eli is an aging priest
who, after a good and faithful earlier life, has not fared well as a parent or
priest in his older life. In the
preceding chapter, his sons are described as scoundrels who have no regard for
God or the people, and are exploiting their position as priests. Scripture also
says that the word of the Lord was rare in those days – those two things go
together. Meanwhile, a poor couple from
up in the hills rejoiced over a much-desired son, Samuel, and presented him to
the Temple as they had promised God to do - They were faithful to their
vow. And God was already starting a new
thing in the child Samuel.
Young Samuel doesn’t recognize the
voice of God that he is truly hearing; he thinks its just Eli needing
something, so he goes to be helpful. He
IS responding to what he is hearing, although he mistakes its source. Scripture still calls him a boy. He needs the direction of the elder priest
Eli to learn how to be attentive, recognize God’s voice, and listen and respond.
“If God calls you again, say ‘Speak,
Lord, for your servant hears.’” Its like
a grandparent to grandchild thing, age-wise.
Ironically, Eli still knows the LORD, even if he has not done well in
restraining his sons or rebuking their errors.
Maybe Samuel is his second chance?
Maybe God is giving him another opportunity in his old age?
In a positive view of the
interaction of the youth and the elder, young people can certainly hear God and
discern the messages; and we elders can point them to God’s ways. Elders can teach them to nurture their gifts,
or how to work in the church organization; elders can pass along the wisdom
gained by hard knocks and lessons; elders can share stories of how to walk the
path of faith. How to listen, how to
care, how to discern the Scriptures, and support for the struggles. How to test visions, and carry them out. That’s the relationship functioning at its
best.
At its
worst, the elder generation can so hold on to their old ways that the new
messages are stifled or ignored or shamed - and resist youth’s message so hard that the
Spirit of God is silenced or quenched; and the youth can be squelched, and the
word of God lost.
This story
of Eli and Samuel is a mix, as so often life is. Unfortunately, the message young Samuel hears
from God is not an encouraging word… Because Eli has let all kinds of bad
practices go on in the Temple, he and his family have incurred judgement, and
will be wiped out. Whew! What a message for a young boy to hear! He doesn’t want to reveal it – its bad news.
Just so, the younger people in our country
are speaking up to us about the bad news of school shootings affecting their
lives, and judging us for how our generation has not dealt with certain
problems. They are looking for solutions
to the mass of garbage floating in our oceans, that we’ve allowed to happen.
They are naming where we have failed them. My generation asked for more
authenticity, a good thing; this generation seems to be asking for more
responsibility for life together, also a good thing. It seems that people can’t get everything
right at the same time.
To return
to the story, Eli actually does know God and God’s voice. What has happened in his life to bring him to
this point? For all his – what - passivity? Fear? Purposeful ignorance? Laziness? for all his failures, he still knows God, and
he is man enough to acknowledge that Samuel has heard God rightly. Another prophet has recently come and told
Eli the same thing. ‘It is the Lord,’
Eli says. He knows the bad news is God.
Then he says, ‘Let God do what God intends.’ And at that point, I have
to wonder why Eli doesn’t repent, change his ways and seek forgiveness - other
groups and people in Scripture do just that, and are restored. Like the people of Ninevah, for example. Has Eli’s passivity even affected his faith? Has
he given up trying? How did he get like this?
I admit to
a lot of sympathy for Eli as the elder person.
Hard things happen in life, and many are not outcomes of bad choices,
although some are. I’ve known the
reality of being exhausted trying to do right, holding on to what I know, and
ready to give up. I can imagine how
difficult it would be to have my beloved children making horrible decisions –
its hard work to learn how to not be an enabler. So this story challenges me – am I like
Eli? Have there been truths I’ve known
or visions I’ve been given that I’ve grown too tired to pursue? Have I grown weary of well-doing, as Paul
names it? Have I abdicated my vision
because things got difficult, and push-back too hard to deal with any
more? Well, yes. Changes move so slowly, and there’s always
lots of criticism and anger thrown around. In a way I have given up on some
points – I still hold them, I’ve just stopped pushing. Will I be faithful to
the promises I made, like Samuel’s parents, or collapse & be judged, like
Eli?
I find
myself saying that at least I will listen for the emerging voices of the
younger persons of faith and support them, help be the bridge for their
vision. That sounds noble – until I read
this story of Eli and wonder if perhaps his tiredness of struggling is like
mine, and I have given up too soon, and just moved my hope to the next
generation. Have I given up the struggle
of the desert when we’re actually just one mile from the oasis?
So I hear
a variety of messages in this story of the aging Eli and the young Samuel. There’s a message of judgement on the
failures even of a person who yet does still know God; and even
recognizes it in Samuel.
Then there’s
the message of hope that God is still working for us even in raising up
Samuel. Certainly we as the older
generations want to encourage the new generation of the faithful, and not stifle
the Spirit in them. While not everything
new is necessarily good by virtue of its newness, not everything old is
stellar, either, by virtue of being tradition.
There’s a give and take, a listening and a welcoming as well as an
appreciation of wisdom handed down.
There’s a balance somewhere. I
hope that as a congregation and as a whole Church, we are open to discernment,
looking to our own responsibilities while also listening for what God is doing.
AMEN.
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