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VOICES
Monday, January 9, 1989
John M. Buchanan
Trinity Sy Chapel , CO lube s, Qluc
Scripture

1 Samuel 5:1-1g
Mark 1:9-11 2c: tuke Bie , ar an

i began my pilgrimage through theological

z.

education with tats simple aseunt ions having

— be i el —iie
Taith meant having answers, and having a call ta
ministry meant having personai_experience which in

wil
some way confirmed the answers as true; (oeeriences

a all ree ees, Dial
which in some way could be evoked when people

why .

asked,(as they sti? co.) {een did you decide to be

a minister?” | experiences Which, at the very least,

would provide personal solace and comfort when at
the end of the day one asks oneself (rat in the
world am I doing in this business?)

And so I went to Divinity School expectant ly

- assuming that just as the Medical School taught

eager students to dissect, diagnose and operate,

mem eT,

and just as the Law School would teach eager

Ce iia

studeits to research, organize and argue_a case, }s0

my faculty would reveal to ine the answer to my

part icutar purzie the school was smug ty

a

unconcerned with anything as prosaic as say, how te
ily —

preach a sermon, or run a meeting, or conduct a

A,

funeral \ so I felt fairly safe in my assumption

that what I would get out of the experience was

nial

contact, at least, with peaple who knew.

——

What a trauma ta discover professors telling
eo sree

me that God is in the quest ions, \the search.\ the

pursuit of truth, beauty and meaning, that the onty

evidence I needed for God was a sense of my own

hunger for Cod... ieimasmpHeibywas suspect —

I cantinue to suspect that deep in the heart of

many of us is the inclination that religious faith

—

is having some answers we are sure of. \1 cont inue

to suspect that for many, if not most of us,

—, ~

verifiable, objective, descr ibable >,

ec gemini

which is what our evangelical friends are always

urging us to do with our experiences of God p) far

most of us our experiences of God are pretty rare

or pretty thin or both - and we feel pretty anemic
Sn im,

when in the same room with a theologically muscutar

evangelical who knows what he/she believes and can

Se mainianial

nailit down with an experience that sounds
Jausible. 4
—? C0h for a voice in the niant.| Oh, for a wee a

single, solitary experience that wil? tell us we * ve. }

\earn WwW ot
= were right to come to this Place and tame Greek 8 aS (ee

eee a
syntax and the nuances of Nike and Chalcedon. of yas Sos
IW Foteed
Well, I never heard one. ( And I've_aimost yeh *

given up hoping for one. ( what I got instead was 4
a med
Lutheran theologian rasa Josepn_Sittier wno said:

} "We are tempted -— to hang the reality of
God. the compass of God's demands, the

scope of Biblical and theological meaning

on a febrile nail: the warmth and immediacy

of a feeling of blessed assurance."

[Grace Notes and Other Fragments, p. 48]
My lusting after a voice - an experience to 4

Ga. jAa
confirm my theological inclinations ~ a sin® esr?
ree

Sittler said -
Yin!

"T have not seen any burning bushes. | Jonn
Wesley's strangely warmed heart at Aldersgate
Street - this is not my street. | I have not the
possibility ta say of the Christian faith what many
honest persons have said about it. [ But I have come

to see that to declare as a gift of God that which

I da not fully possess is, nevertheless, a duty of
obedience.”
Anct that, T would suomit, is a googd_entree to
a Biblical incident which is both charming and
aia, —?
profoundly disturbing.
It is a 3,000 year old story. ae is about an

elderly couple, Elkanah and Kannah who, to their

great surprise and delight, discover that they are

—

going to have a baby. 4 They are so happy they

ee

promise to give their baby to Gad.
Pl

So when the child, Samuel, is twelve, Hannah

ee ea

and Elkanah make good on their promise and take nim
ta an old priest, Eli, who presides over a

sanctuary - ar sacred shrine at-Sniton. \ They Jive

_—,

Samuel to Eli, and it js there and then that Samuel

a ——

hears the voice.

The voice comes at night. | Samuel and &1T7 are

steeping.\ Samuel thinks it is Eli calling. | He
—< Cee nal

wakes Eli and asks what he wants. \ eu thinks
Samuel is dreaming and sends him back tao bed it
happens several tines.\ What I love most about the

story is that three times Samuel mistakes the voice

tered

for Eli. \ x doesn’t sound Tike God - it sounds

Tike the ald priest And E17 does exactly what you
en nena a ei

and I would do under the circumstances. \ He sends
i

Samuel back to bed. Aus fairty_standard

procedure, I should think, that if a child is
—

standing beside your bed at two ait. shaking you

awake to tell you he's heard_a voice,| you assure

—

him that there is no voice, leverything is okay, pat

—_———

Aim, hug fim, send him for a drink and then back to

eerie

bed so everyone can get some sleep. | And if it

——_————————

5

keeps happening al} night ira nis shak ing you

awake and insisting. "But I do hear it - I keep

hearing the voice," You and I would do exactty what

aiid en eliitinenl
old Eli did. | Turning over and puliing the covers up
thie Lae CS
aver his head... “All right ~ al} might! You

heard a voice. Next time you hear it, stay

be ae

there, see what happens next ~- Jisten. \ren ne

—__ i
about it in the morning.’
onl anUt

Whatever happened that night, out of it came

Tsrael’s first praphet: \ the man who would embody
the soul of the peaple, who would hejp them choase
Ee Ce sl
their first King when the time cane[ who would

mae — in,
anoint Saul and woutd shape history - all of
ae
history.

It's a great, charming story. \ cut it is a

disturbing story toa - because we haven't heard a
iE ES, Lad

voice Tikewthat, and the life of faith would be a

lot simpler rane cid;

Senco WE,

6

in the Bible is that if you listen to the world, sf you

Leal

you will hear the voice of God, ) The ine? travel seh _ bh

ot
section dast week carried a delightful/littte t

' ad
essay, ° find articles ct
‘ Ws 0 ¢
with title§, like that peculiar ty trresistible in *E ve ,
January. Theawriter told hoy%he loves nothing so —
much as a walk Q 1 in the middle of a Ybv UAar |
[AAA

storm. And I recdled/ hat Jong ago I began the

and to listen. A summers ago -
sitting down ofl the deck locking end listening and
reading ~ I giscovered Psalm 29, akd the reason I
always do tfiat: “The voice of the Lord is upon the
waters." /

"LAsten,” Eli told Samuel, and I suggest that
when We listen, what we hear is the voice of the

Lord. cs there is an old and venerable and

continuing debate among theologians about how much
on eal

Mere

of God you can Know by listening to the world.

eee

"ATT you need,” say some, Known as
—

Pantheists\ God is athe wor ta. \ The world is in
Y. \ n. God. | Go is\the world. The worid 7s God\\ others
oe say... nothing ef God_is known through nature.
ev

¢ YW fv yx Nature 7s neutral. often cruel, beautiful by
4 yt accident."

wa
we What the Bible seems to say is that he
heavens are telling the glory of God... The _yoice

*
Ss ot . of the Lorct is upon the waters."")
t? ; —
4 It isn't the whole story. (cou speaks through

people and events in history and supremely in the

life of a man named Jesus. \pat for those who can
ne

—_— ee

hear - the voice of God is also heard in the world.

(And i misitt be a good starting point for those af
Late et

us Who have not yet heard voices.

when it comes to religion, we ought to keep
ae tatkina Remember... We think religion means

rad
Lneeail

having answers, not asking questions. \ So
eee, —

logically, praying means talking. | Being quiet ard

listening is sqpecnes excruciatingly painful.

ela
Presbyterians find a Quaker meeting uncomfortable.
oe

Thirty seconds of complete silence in a worship

service will make us squirm, But there is a whole
enter iahicminiereel ~—

tradition of spirituality which teaches that

“listening” is a spiritual discipline at least as
a i
important as speak ina that prayer is the act of

git5*? _' first discerning the presence of God, Yistening to

aa

|
“

God's vaicel or remaining sitent before God. *

——

“Listen,” E17 advised Samuel. \1t isa

¢
ee
=
=
%

disciplined, It is a ministry, Dietrich Bonhoeffer
“sn F nnindl

once said: }the ministry of listening to each

other. J[prvsicians keep telling us that the

ee

greatest single demand and the most difficult for

Dasma

them to meet, is the need of people far someone to
eee,

listen to them.
So — to those who have not heard a voice, or
— ee

had a personal experjence with the reality and

immeciiacy of Gad, the first word is “try listening.

Stop talking for a while and listen... Listen to

OE el

second word here is that the voice of God may not

always be precise, or what we are listening far.

The ancient story, after ail, is very clear. | Goa

anid

is speaking to Samuel, but Samuel doesn't recognize

it as God's voice.

That is very good news. \ Josep Sittter
el

Danneel

helped me by teaching me that the experiences don’t
be el

happen with the same clarity and precision and

eee, a

intensity for everyone. \It's not that other peaple

eed oars,

don't have them: | it's just that they don't happen

So el

with the same intensity —- or we al} don't
an

experience them the same.{ I think we need to hear
————e

I think we have accepted the definition of
eel

conversign as a radical, one time, profound

upheaval... { if you haven't fett it deeply,

dramatically - if you haven't heard it clearly ~ if

you haven't heard a voice calling your name - it

jsn't real.\ Wel], things are a jot clearer in
———

—

10

retraspect, I have discovered in my own Tife. 4 Anc

_——

Sittler helped me see that it is that way for mast

Of us: that when Moses saw a burning bush in the

desert, he was probably scared and probably looked

——e

around for bucket of water to put it out. | The

theological content was not altogether clear at the

moment .

on: ( “The experience yasfrustrating but it

revealed to me again the curious and wonderful
Faint

mystery of how God calis us.| It is a pare call

that resounds with clarion simplicity.

That has been my experience and ae
it is the experience ¢ of most of us! d's voice

js not demanding. ‘oud, ‘harsh, erscise ut sof soft,
[oa — aaa =—e

easily missed \_ often sounding unclear at the time,
We are free not ta hear it, to ignore it, ar to

cisregard dt.

The basic assertion of the Christian faith is
rT,

11

that God has spoken mast clearly in Jesus Christ.
* — eee Perera

eg DE
God's voice 7s heard in the life of that man: [ in

ad
—_——,

his words, but also his deeds - his teaching, his

at am

healing, his loving and forgiving, \ God's Word

aS
became flesh in trim.\ The word we a in the world

ac al wwe wor

and in the voices of other people - that word

became flesh in the life and death and resurrection

of Jesus Christ. | God's voice, we believe and on
rs

occasion experience, iS an assurance ~- a reminder
7 Sy —

that we are not alone.\ And sometimes it is

Judgment ; ometimes it is a voice of angry
pat —Tsuyet

impatience \and sometimes, always, im—mmet, it is a

bidding, an ‘invitation to trust, \to commit Jc

follow.

That voice\will not demand. It.,will not

intrude, It will b& persistent ause God will
never give up on you, 711 not violate your
freedom to ignore it. An\you will have to listen
- carefully - in ordpr’ to a

So, I invit you to do th Listen for

God's voice. If you have never heaX it - Tisten.

té

ly

t
x

lhl

Xl Fe cderck (wuce Tareas Ob ccs bes

we me a ee Sap nek HE
Pe ee L ~y

“] hear you are entering the ministry,” the woman
said down the long table, meaning no real harm. “Was
it your own idea or were you poorly advised?” And the
answer that she could not have heard even if I had given
it was that it was not an idea at ali, neither my own nor
anyone elsc’s. It was a lump in the throat. It was an itch-

10 The Alpbabet of Grace

———~ ing in the feer( It was a scene in the blood at the sound
| of rain\It was a sickening of the heart at the sight of

misery. It was a clamoring of ghosts. It was a name
which, when I wrote it out in a dream, I knew was a
name worth dying for even if I was not brave enough
to do the dying myself and could not even name the
name for surg] Comegewee ;

deer and. are

heavy lade, and I will give you a high and driving

i ‘iiderme tran tn Aaatch

That voice Wil not demand.| It wit] not

intrude.\ Tt will be pergistent because God wil]

i eel

never give up on you, but it will not vjglate your
freedom ta ignore it \and yOu will pave to listen
~ carefully — in order to hear.

So, I invite you to do that.\ Listen for

ead om,

God's voice. \If you have never heard it ~- Tisten.

Ce «*~eeee

vio

OW

Dare wapla

It may never come with the precision you wish oa

a

expect or hope for... no_matter Sark shen.