Disruptive Words

John 1:43-51
1 Samuel 3:1-20

January 15, 2012

Words have power. A simple phrase or question can disrupt your life, changing its course forever.

“You have cancer.”
“Will you forgive me?”
“I love you.”
“I will, God helping me.”
“I have a dream…”

Perhaps you can recall moments when words disrupted, changed, unsettled your life. What comes to your mind?

One particular experience of disruptive words kept coming to my mind as I studied this passage from Samuel.

It was a lovely June day in Chicago. I was sitting in the office of a pastor who was to be my internship supervisor for a year, one of the final steps in the ordination process. I had just graduated from seminary, and Peter and I were contemplating the cross country move and finalizing details. He would go to graduate school and I I would intern in a Christian Reformed Church. We had a plan. This was perfect.

The pastor’s first question to me was “What are you still doing in this denomination?” It stopped me.

I was baptized as a baby and formed in the Christian Reformed Church. At the time, the denomination’s polity did not allow for the ordination of women. Women were being ordained by exception, and it was a hard road. I had scraped my knees as I tried to walk down that road, being affirmed in that call in spite of a church that did not think a woman should be a pastor. I came to Chicago having networked for over a year to find one church willing to take a female intern let alone me.
This church internship was the only option.

The pastor’s words disrupted that plan and forever changed the course of my life. His words opened me up to seeing another option.

I put the ordination process in the Christian Reformed Church on hold. After prayer and conversation with many in my life, I stepped onto an entirely new path. We moved to Ann Arbor instead of Chicago. We joined First Presbyterian Church of Ann Arbor, and I took three more years to begin the ordination process all over again in the Presbyterian Church USA, where I have found a home to live into my call to preach and teach, to minister.

Disruptive words carried me here to you, and I am grateful.

Disruptive words have power don’t they? Spoken at just the right time they can forever change the status quo.

God’s words overturn the status quo in this passage from 1 Samuel.

Young Samuel, just a boy is asleep in the temple. I imagine him being a sixth grader, like our very own Ben or Michael. Samuel is an apprentice to august old priest, Eli.

Remember Eli? Eli is a head priest whose sons, Hophnai and Phineas are also priests. But the sons do not follow in their father’s upright footsteps. They are the playboys of the temple. They have defiled the priestly order, running around, stealing temple gifts. And, Eli, the head priest cannot keep his sons in line. He is rendered useless.

This relationship is a mirror for Israel at this time as well. Israel is still a group of tribes, not a nation…They are in an in-between place between the era of the judges and kings, and it’s not pretty – it’s chaotic, and lawless, breeding abuse and fear. Eli’s role as priest is to be setting forth the law, yet it seems that he has given in and given up.

The only bright spot is Samuel. Samuel, born to barren Hannah. Samuel, a miracle boy, who is apprenticing with Eli in the temple with respect for the priestly vocation.

Samuel is awoken in the middle of the night by a voice. He thinks he is hearing Eli, but after three calls, Eli finally snaps out of grouchy man mode into priest mode, and recognizes that Samuel is hearing God.

The message disrupts more than a good night of sleep. For Samuel, the message is not just a warm fuzzy call to follow God. No, the message contains a challenge, a condemnation, and a call.

Hear it again from The Message translation:
“11-14 GOD said to Samuel, "Listen carefully. I'm getting ready to do something in Israel that is going to shake everyone up and get their attention. The time has come for me to bring down on Eli's family everything I warned him of, every last word of it. I'm letting him know that the time's up. I'm bringing judgment on his family for good. He knew what was going on, that his sons were desecrating God's name and God's place, and he did nothing to stop them. This is my sentence on the family of Eli: The evil of Eli's family can never be wiped out by sacrifice or offering."

Imagine hearing that message as a child, and then having to deliver it? Eli is Samuel’s mentor and father figure. Samuel is dependent on Eli, and he has just heard Eli’s entire household and family will suffer the consequences of their sins. Yet, Samuel delivers the words with courage and directness. Eli hears it and accepts it. The words do not surprise him.

But the word of God has forever disrupted Samuel’s life and the life of Israel. The status quo has been overturned, and the power dynamic of Eli as mentor and leader, and Samuel as student and pseudo son is reversed.

Disruptive words.


Disruptive words and change are no strangers for us. From Samuel’s call to Jesus’ life, to the early church’s declaration “I believe in God…” to the Reformation to the present, God’s word as discerned by the body of Christ has disrupted lives and communities.

Tomorrow many of us will mark Martin Luther King Jr. day. A day off from school, and a day in which we as a church have decided to serve and love our neighbor with our 3rd annual day of caring.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was a pastor, an organizer, a prophet, and his words and the life he lived in response to those words ripped up the system of segregation and racism, forever changing the course of history.

While many were content to maintain the status quo of segregation, Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream for a different way of life. As a pastor, he was guided and shaped by Scripture, the word of God, and by prayer, listening for God. He helped to lead the Civil Rights Movement, and was killed, a martyr for the cause of full inclusion.

King’s “I have a dream” speech elicited action. Words disrupted.

Yet, it seems different to us in 2012. We are bombarded with a cacophony of words that seem to drown out the word of God. Religious leaders no longer make the New York Times. The actions of the Presbyterian Church USA no longer warrant a warning from the Secretary of Defense as the Confession of 1967 did.

Some have thrown their hands in the air proclaiming the church is dying, because the church does not have the same power and cultural capital it once did.

The North American mainline church is changing. Gone are the days of cultural prominence, and of blue laws. Your experience of church as you knew it 10, 20, or 50 years ago is not our present reality. If you follow news from General Assembly you will know that many congregations are struggling to support a pastor, and to keep their doors open. I have sat at a number of tables with colleagues who lament this transition, who long for the past.

The Presbyterian Church USA is facing splits and fissures. Next week a group called The Fellowship will meet in Florida to discuss splitting off or staying.

But yet, here we sit. Northridge Presbyterian Church is a thriving, healthy church. We value worship, mission, and education. We value differences and are able to be united with those differences. We care for our neighbors. We respect our past as we are listening and leaning forward into the future.

We are ready to hear and answer a word from the Lord.

The Good News is that God still speaks.

God calls forth a new beginning in this text, and invites Samuel, just a boy, to be a co-creator. The Word of the Lord unsettles unhealthy patterns, setting hope into motion.

Yes, Eli’s house is doomed, but it is time. Notice also that, Samuel doesn’t just hear God’s call and prophecy and then act alone. No, Samuel needs Eli to help him hear God. Samuel needs Eli to confirm this message by responding in verse 18 “It is the Lord; let him do what is good to him.” And, in verse 20 “All Israel from Dan to Beersheba recognized that Samuel was a prophet of God.”

If you read the rest of 1 and 2 Samuel you will read a narrative of God’s presence with and continued disruption of Israel’s community. Always overturning and new building. Tough endings and new turns.

Walter Breuggeman notes that “God’s new thing is not a grand religious act, but an invitation to a fresh, dangerous, social beginning.”

God is still speaking. Just as God called forth Samuel, just as Jesus called out Nathaniel in our passage from John 1, so God still speaks to you and me.

I find that comforting. Now, don’t get me wrong…God’s words of disruption are scary. They should make us anxious. We have something to lose. We lose control.

When that pastor asked me “What are you still doing in this denomination?” Followed up by, “have you thought of leaving? “ I was not happy to follow. I had a plan and it did not include starting a process all over again and working at Ann Taylor setting display tables of cashmere sweaters while my seminary classmates set communion tables and preached their first sermons. But, I would not be who I am without that experience.

The Presbyterian Church USA is in the process of being disrupted by God’s word.
At the end of February Presbyterians from around the country are gathering here in Dallas to have a conversation called the NEXT Church conference. Ben and I are attending as part of our continuing education, and we invite you to attend if you can.

Pastors, Elders, Deacons, seminarians, and lay leaders, will worship together and vision about how to be the body of Christ in a changing context. We’re going to talk about failures, strengths, and risks. We are going to study Scripture, and pray together as a body.

I’m excited by this conversation because it speaks to something deeper going on in the larger body of Christ. You and I are hungry for real connection, to hear God’s word, and to carry it out of this sanctuary into the rest of our lives. We know we cannot follow God in this world alone, or by ourselves, but in partnership with one another.

I have hope, because Northridge, you are unique. As one Elder said at our retreat yesterday, Northridge has something to offer to this conversation. While other churches are dying and struggling, we are growing in many ways and on many levels. While others are splitting, we are open to new ways of partnering, and welcoming all.

I have hope, because I have learned in my first year with you that you too believe and know that God is still speaking.

You keep Baptismal vows when the future seems uncertain for us and our children.

You hunger to read and study Scripture for a word that might rock your world.

You risk living into the charge we say each week to “Go out into God’s world in peace”, you have courage, and you love and serve the Lord in your homes, workplaces, and at school.

God is still speaking. What do you hear?

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.



References:
Interpretation Commentary on 1 & 2 Samuel by Walter Brueggemann, page 27.
God is still speaking tag line from the UCC
Sermon title is a phrase in Breuggeman's commentary on 1 Samuel 3.

Image from: After googling disruptive words, image
http://frrl.wordpress.com/2011/04/08/radio-is-dead-long-live-radio/