Second Sunday of Ordinary Time
Have you ever been woken up in the middle of the night? Maybe a loud 2am thunderstorm. Or a smoke detector decides to start beeping and needs a new battery. Or perhaps a friend sends you a text without realizing how late it was and that you were probably asleep. It can be a little disorienting, right? It’s nice when you can roll over and go back to sleep after whatever it is, and hopefully it doesn’t happen again.
Samuel and Eli in the First Reading this week have one of those nights where they keep getting woken up; but in this case, it’s something more significant than a phone they forgot to put on “do not disturb”. The LORD calls to Samuel, and the first 2 times, Samuel thinks Eli must be calling him, so Samuel goes and wakes Eli up. Eli tells Samuel he didn’t call him, and to go back to sleep. After the third time, Eli catches on, that in reality, it’s God calling out to Samuel, and tells Samuel to answer “Speak, LORD, for your servant is Listening.” The fourth time, the LORD begins an amazing work in Samuel’s life when Samuel responds, and Eli gets a few extra minutes of shut-eye.
This is a great story, and it’s one my young children love. They like to pretend they’re asleep and snoring, and then in a deep voice I’ll say “Samuel, Samuel”, and they jump up and throw all the blankets off. I hope that when God calls them throughout their lives, they’ll be able to respond like that!
When we go to apply this story to our lives, we usually think of ourselves as Samuel, and about being ready, so that when God calls us, we’ll be ready to listen and to answer. But I’d like to focus on Eli here.
If it weren’t for Eli, Samuel might have had a much harder time figuring out what was happening. Even though Eli didn’t have all the answers either, he gave Samuel some advice on how to listen for God’s voice and how to respond when he heard the call. We need people like Eli in our lives. I can think of a number that I’ve had in mine. People who knew me well. People who were close enough to me in my life where they could see how God was working, through things I’d say, or how I’d respond to challenges and opportunities. Eventually I started to seek these sorts of friendships out, so that I’d always have these “Eli’s” around who could speak into my life, and help me to see how God was working. So, think about who in your life has been an “Eli” for you; and if you don’t have someone, seek them out. Talk to your youth minister, a priest, a faithful friend, or maybe somebody a little “further along” in their spiritual life, who might be helpful.
And on the flip side, who is God asking you to be an Eli for? You may very well have a sense that God is jumping up and down, waving his arms, trying to tell your friend something, and they’re just not getting it. A conversation with you might be the thing that helps them hear God’s voice.
He often speaks to us through others. And when you get that 2am call from God, remember to respond, “Speak, LORD, your servant is listening.”