“Calling in the Night”

January 18, 2009

I Samuel 3:1-10

John 1:43-51

In the reading from First Samuel this morning, we heard a story of a difficult new beginning—a story for our time.

We are coming to a great milestone in the history of our nation. Remembering Martin Luther King, Jr.’s leadership in the struggle for civil rights, we eagerly anticipate the inauguration of Barak Obama. In a way that transcends political affiliation, we recognize that this is a momentous time for our country and all its people—an occasion to be marked with thanksgiving and genuine celebration.

We are all aware that these momentous times are not good times. As recently as yesterday, Mr. Obama reminded us that: “Only a handful of times in our history has a generation been confronted with challenges so vast. An economy that is faltering. Two wars, one that needs to be ended responsibly, one that needs to be waged wisely. A planet that is warming from our unsustainable dependence on oil.”

For a while this past week we were given a small reprieve from our concerns about Guantanamo and Gaza, about markets and Madoff, and all the other disheartening news that has occupied our thoughts recently. On Thursday our hearts were cheered by the happy and heroic ending of the crash of U.S. Airways Flight 1549. Guided by a skilled pilot the distressed plane made an amazing river landing and all passengers and crew exited safely.

People found joy in the fact that something potentially so horrendous could turn out so well. The crew and passengers and rescuers all did what needed to be done. It was reported that as the plane was going down, “a man named Josh who was sitting in the exit row even did exactly what everyone is supposed to but few ever do: He pulled out the safety card and read the instructions on how to open the exit door.”[1]

The results have been called miraculous. And if we can understand miracle as an event that points beyond itself to the presence of God, then perhaps that word is appropriate. But we need to understand that the event itself was people doing their job, people doing what they had been trained to do, people doing their best.

I think that’s the hope that many have had for this country: That our leaders would guide us through these tumultuous times, that people would do their best, and that we would work for the common good and ultimately come through unscathed.

This has not been our story up to this point.

The story of the call of Samuel that we heard this morning occurs in what one person has called “a time of spiritual desolation, religious corruption, political danger, and social upheaval.” [2]It moves quickly from a beautiful story of the call of a young boy to a tale of the fierce judgment of God.

This story tells about the end of one order and the hopeful start of another. It affirms that God can bring new beginnings out of impossible situations, that God can, as the saying that goes back to the time of slavery puts it, God can “make a way out of no way.”

This story can inform our lives in the events of the days ahead.

Tomorrow we mark the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., who reminded us of our higher calling as individuals and as a nation. And who, in the final years of his life, began to shift his focus from civil rights to the cause of peace, linking his opposition to the Vietnam War to the civil rights movement. Often drowned out by clips of children reciting his “I Have a Dream” speech was King’s message that this nation must undergo a “radical revolution of values,” putting people before things so that the “giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism” might be conquered.

King’s antiwar message was received no better than his prophetic voice on civil rights was. While he spoke truth to power we should not forget that “power” did not want to hear what was spoken. Eighty years after King’s birth and over forty years after his death, we still grapple with the racism, materialism, and militarism that he called us to defeat.

The University community uses King’s birthday to begin its annual weeklong Celebration of Human Rights. Recognition of King’s birthday has been a tradition at the University of Iowa since 1969, and the national holiday has been observed through human rights programs since its inception in 1986. Students, faculty, and staff are urged to make this a “day on” rather than a day off, by participating in service activities in our community.

The interfaith religious community holds our annual celebration of the life and work of the Rev. Dr. King tonight at 7:00 at First Presbyterian Church. This celebration has been held for many years now. It was at one such worship service that the Ecumenical Minority Scholarship was first suggested by the former minister of this congregation, Bruce Fischer. Over the past 15 years, eight men and women have been able to study at the University because of this program. I hope that you will bring family and friends and join us tonight at 7:00.

Tuesday, of course, brings the event that many in Iowa have been waiting for since that cold caucus night on January 3, 2008, an event many in this country thought they would never live to see—the inauguration of Barak Obama as the 44^th President of the United States. It can be a source of pride for all of us that Iowa gave President-elect Obama his first victory, setting him on the path to the nomination and the election. Our whole nation has reason to celebrate this historic inauguration. What a day that will be.

We come to the end of one administration and the beginning of another. The transition is peaceful, which is always the case—and always astonishing. There are great hopes that many have for positive change in the coming weeks, months, and years. There are hopes that the “content of one’s character” will at last become the measure of a person. There are hopes that racism, materialism, and militarism can be dealt with in more effective ways.

We should recognize, however, as the novelist Chiam Potok put it: “All beginnings are difficult.”

We heard this morning those disturbing words that God speaks to Samuel: “I am about to do something in Israel that will make both ears of anyone who hears of it tingle.”

There is much that we hear in our time that makes our ears tingle.

Last week the New York Times wrote that even after all the accounts of political corruption in the Justice Department, “it was still chilling to read a new report detailing illegal efforts to weaken the department’s enforcement of civil rights laws.” Ears tingle.

Last week we heard Eric Holder, Jr., the nominee for Attorney General, state flatly that waterboarding is torture, in contrast to the current Vice President, who once endorsed the use of the procedure, calling it “a no-brainer.” Ears tingle.

The markets continued to fall even as an $825 billion stimulus package was proposed. “The economy is in a crisis not seen since the great depression,” said one representative. Ears tingle.

The Books of Samuel begin with a people in moral chaos, economic upheaval, and political uncertainty. They are a people who need to undergo a “radical revolution of values.” In this unpromising situation, Samuel is given a message.

His words are not words of comfort. Samuel will speak words of judgment against the corrupt sons of Eli. He will condemn their failure of leadership at a critical time in the life of the people of Israel.

This is a story of endings.

The message of this story, however, is that, in spite of our human tendency toward failure and corruption, “God will not acquiesce to evil.” If we are to accept God’s judgment in our own time of change and hope, we will acknowledge our own complicity in what is wrong and trust still that God “will do what is good.”

This is a story about a time of a hopeful new beginning that comes as old, established ways of doing things collapse. We as a nation are entering into such a time. And so we must ask ourselves:

Will we seek the truth about the use of torture, the truth about the abuse of detainees, the truth about what some have labeled “war crimes” at high levels of government? Or will we turn aside in favor of other concerns? Some, including President-elect Obama, suggested that we need to “look to the future” more than we need focus on the past.

The urgent concerns facing the new administration and our nation should not keep us from uncovering those responsible for egregious abuses of power. This may be the only way to keep such abuses from happening in the future.

Will we use the economic chaos and the proposed economic stimulus to move our nation to the elimination of poverty, a greater sense of our common destiny? Or will we continue to feed the greed that has already grown so great?

Will we continue to pursue the goals that we celebrate tomorrow—the civil rights of all people, the peaceful resolution of conflict? Or will we simply say that we are now “beyond racism” and find new ways to continue old prejudices?

And who will speak the unpopular word to our new popular President? Who will say those things that will cause the ears to tingle; those things that he will not want to hear? I hope that someone will rise up to speak in this way. Certainly the word of God is even rarer in our time than in the time of Samuel—but someone must tell our new President the harsh truths that will need to be spoken in the coming years.

The challenge of the present moment calls us to examine our past as we move toward a workable future. The challenge is great, but our joy and hope are great as well. We can use the positive power of this present historic moment to move toward a greater good for all people.

Let us begin. Let us celebrate. Let us pray.

Let us rededicate ourselves to the long struggle for a new world, a new righteousness, a new peace.

Let us bring our best to what we do and demand the best from those we have chosen to lead.

This is our calling as citizens of this nation. This is our calling as those who seek to follow the God who makes a way out of no way.

This is our calling so that these days will not be the end to what we do to change America, but the beginning.