What does God's voice sound like?
Text: 1 Samuel 3:1-20
There’s a minister and hymn writer by the name of Thomas Troeger who tells the story of a preacher who was caught off guard by something that happened in a children’s story. Of course, being caught off-guard by what happens in our children’s stories goes with the territory, so it wasn’t really extraordinary that this preacher found themselves at a loss for words.
Children’s stories are fun, because we really don’t know what is on the minds of children… despite the fact that all of us, at some point, was a child and probably asked these questions. I just think we’ve forgotten how to ask them. I think we can learn a great deal from some of the profound things that they say.
As Troeger tells the story, it was of a typical Sunday worship service. The children had come forward for their time with the minister. She had prepared a story for them, and was all ready to deliver her message… but before she could actually begin, one little boy stuck up his hand, and quickly asked a question.
“What does God’s voice sound like?”
Needless to say the children’s story that she had prepared quickly flew out the window. Trust me, I can relate to this. Sometimes we call this being derailed or upstaged, but maybe it’s more something from the Holy Spirit… but one of the things that I’ve learned is that when it happens, ya run with it!
In this case, all the eyes of the congregation were on the minister.
“What does God’s voice sound like?”
How would you answer that question?
Of course, most of us really don’t think about that. We tend to think that when God talks to somebody, it’s this profoundly earth-shattering event. Lights from heaven… choirs of angels… an enraptured moment when we cannot possibly mistake it for anything else.
I’ve often said that we tend to go Hollywood when we tend to think of how God speaks to us. We use the Charlton Heston model, and think that God only speaks with a deep male voice, with a strong wind, flashes of lighting, and peals of thunder.
But if we think about it, that may have been how the Greek God Zeus was expected to show up when he wasn’t pretending to be something else… Really, the Biblical example is far more diverse and subtle than we realize. God’s voice, by extension, is far more subtle than we realize.
The story of Samuel as a boy is a perfect example.
This is a story about God revealed. Simple in its telling and yet rife with insight.
In this story, God calls to Samuel several times… and as the story says “the word of the Lord was rare in those days.” Samuel, not surprisingly, didn’t recognize God calling him in the middle of the night. He thought it was his mentor Eli. The beauty of the storytelling is this tension as to when exactly Samuel is going to figure out who is calling him. As with any good story, there is a bit of comic relief, of his poor mentor just trying to get some sleep and this little boy keeps bothering him. When is that kid going to figure out it’s God?!
But get this… when God calls Samuel, his first instinct is to run to Eli… because he thinks that it is Eli who is calling out to him. Notice what happens, in the middle of the night, a voice calls out to Samuel. As far as Samuel is concerned, there’s no dispute as to who the voice belongs to. It’s Eli… because there’s something familiar about the voice.
Keep in mind that up until this point in the story, Samuel has lived with Eli, as a friend and mentor ever since he was a small child. Eli is more than a mentor, he is very much a father figure. For Eli, Samuel is very much the son he wished he had, as his own children had proved to be a disappointment. Samuel knew Eli’s voice very well. It makes his case of mistaken identity all that more puzzling. Surely an unfamiliar voice in the middle of the night would have been something Samuel would have greeted with a different reaction. He would have run into Eli’s chamber in fear of a strange voice echoing from where he was sleeping.
Yet three times, Samuel hears this voice, a voice that he clearly recognizes as being Eli’s. Three times he comes to Eli, who claims not to have called him.
For Samuel, God’s voice is familiar… God’s voice sounds like the familiar voice of his mentor and friend. Later in the story, for the older Eli, God’s voice echoes through the familiar voice of his young protégé.
What does God’s voice sound like?
How do you and I actually hear God’s voice? Do we recognize it?
I think many of us are like Samuel, in that we might hear God calling us, and it sounds very familiar… Perhaps in the words of a friend, a mentor, a student… but we’ve not realized that in fact, it is God speaking to us. We’ve developed our own fixed ideas as to when and where God can speak to us, that we never realize it when it happens.
Sometimes we can be so desperate to hear a word from God that we actually miss it. We want answers -divine intervention, guidance… something to point us in the right direction… and yet we can be so busy listening for the word of God that we want to hear, we don’t realize that the word of God that we need to hear is right there in front of us, echoing from something familiar. Perhaps we’ve made up our minds on what expect, and we’re not prepared to listen to anything different.
I genuinely believe God is constantly in conversation with us, but we have not really learned to listen. Usually we want to hear from God for those big things in life. We’d like to have alight shine down on the choice that we should make… or at least get a card in the mail telling us what Biblical passage we should read. Maybe it’s happened to some of us, but really, most of my own experiences of God have not been like that. When God speaks to us, sometimes it’s not subtle, but we may be so distracted by everything going on in our lives that we miss it all too easily. Sometimes, we may realize that God is speaking to us, only after someone else has pointed it out.
What’s does God’s voice sound like? How would you personally answer that question?
In developing our relationship with God, I think it’s a very important question to ask and answer. After all, I firmly believe that God has spoken to each and every one of us over this past week. I also expect that probably most of us, like Samuel, didn’t recognize it. Sometimes, we only realize it after the fact.
For me this week, perhaps, it was in the middle of the night, after a long but important Session meeting. My daughter Megan was suddenly and unexpectedly sick. I won’t go into all the details, suffice to say that changes of sheets needed to be applied not only her bed, but ours. I got very little sleep, and if any of you encountered me on Wednesday morning, to say that I was haggard and tired would have been a compliment.
Yet really, it was a reminder to me that we cannot shut off being a parent. Maybe that’s what God was trying to teach me this week. A simple lesson, but I think an important one. Did I actually hear God saying that to me in so many words? No… but my daughter’s wail for help and comfort in the midst of the night helped me to realize a couple things. The first, I already mentioned. Being a parent is 24/7… and it trumps everything… even that horrid groggy sensation. The second thing, and perhaps a bit more subtle, but just as important… by being there… by being the calming voice of comfort, perhaps my daughter was hearing God’s comforting voice through mine or Sarah’s.
Remember that poor minister in the midst of that derailed children’s story. Everyone in the congregation leaned forward, to hear what she was going to say…
What does God’s voice sound like?
Well… in all seriousness, think about this: How would you answer that question?
Amen.
There’s a minister and hymn writer by the name of Thomas Troeger who tells the story of a preacher who was caught off guard by something that happened in a children’s story. Of course, being caught off-guard by what happens in our children’s stories goes with the territory, so it wasn’t really extraordinary that this preacher found themselves at a loss for words.
Children’s stories are fun, because we really don’t know what is on the minds of children… despite the fact that all of us, at some point, was a child and probably asked these questions. I just think we’ve forgotten how to ask them. I think we can learn a great deal from some of the profound things that they say.
As Troeger tells the story, it was of a typical Sunday worship service. The children had come forward for their time with the minister. She had prepared a story for them, and was all ready to deliver her message… but before she could actually begin, one little boy stuck up his hand, and quickly asked a question.
“What does God’s voice sound like?”
Needless to say the children’s story that she had prepared quickly flew out the window. Trust me, I can relate to this. Sometimes we call this being derailed or upstaged, but maybe it’s more something from the Holy Spirit… but one of the things that I’ve learned is that when it happens, ya run with it!
In this case, all the eyes of the congregation were on the minister.
“What does God’s voice sound like?”
How would you answer that question?
Of course, most of us really don’t think about that. We tend to think that when God talks to somebody, it’s this profoundly earth-shattering event. Lights from heaven… choirs of angels… an enraptured moment when we cannot possibly mistake it for anything else.
I’ve often said that we tend to go Hollywood when we tend to think of how God speaks to us. We use the Charlton Heston model, and think that God only speaks with a deep male voice, with a strong wind, flashes of lighting, and peals of thunder.
But if we think about it, that may have been how the Greek God Zeus was expected to show up when he wasn’t pretending to be something else… Really, the Biblical example is far more diverse and subtle than we realize. God’s voice, by extension, is far more subtle than we realize.
The story of Samuel as a boy is a perfect example.
This is a story about God revealed. Simple in its telling and yet rife with insight.
In this story, God calls to Samuel several times… and as the story says “the word of the Lord was rare in those days.” Samuel, not surprisingly, didn’t recognize God calling him in the middle of the night. He thought it was his mentor Eli. The beauty of the storytelling is this tension as to when exactly Samuel is going to figure out who is calling him. As with any good story, there is a bit of comic relief, of his poor mentor just trying to get some sleep and this little boy keeps bothering him. When is that kid going to figure out it’s God?!
But get this… when God calls Samuel, his first instinct is to run to Eli… because he thinks that it is Eli who is calling out to him. Notice what happens, in the middle of the night, a voice calls out to Samuel. As far as Samuel is concerned, there’s no dispute as to who the voice belongs to. It’s Eli… because there’s something familiar about the voice.
Keep in mind that up until this point in the story, Samuel has lived with Eli, as a friend and mentor ever since he was a small child. Eli is more than a mentor, he is very much a father figure. For Eli, Samuel is very much the son he wished he had, as his own children had proved to be a disappointment. Samuel knew Eli’s voice very well. It makes his case of mistaken identity all that more puzzling. Surely an unfamiliar voice in the middle of the night would have been something Samuel would have greeted with a different reaction. He would have run into Eli’s chamber in fear of a strange voice echoing from where he was sleeping.
Yet three times, Samuel hears this voice, a voice that he clearly recognizes as being Eli’s. Three times he comes to Eli, who claims not to have called him.
For Samuel, God’s voice is familiar… God’s voice sounds like the familiar voice of his mentor and friend. Later in the story, for the older Eli, God’s voice echoes through the familiar voice of his young protégé.
What does God’s voice sound like?
How do you and I actually hear God’s voice? Do we recognize it?
I think many of us are like Samuel, in that we might hear God calling us, and it sounds very familiar… Perhaps in the words of a friend, a mentor, a student… but we’ve not realized that in fact, it is God speaking to us. We’ve developed our own fixed ideas as to when and where God can speak to us, that we never realize it when it happens.
Sometimes we can be so desperate to hear a word from God that we actually miss it. We want answers -divine intervention, guidance… something to point us in the right direction… and yet we can be so busy listening for the word of God that we want to hear, we don’t realize that the word of God that we need to hear is right there in front of us, echoing from something familiar. Perhaps we’ve made up our minds on what expect, and we’re not prepared to listen to anything different.
I genuinely believe God is constantly in conversation with us, but we have not really learned to listen. Usually we want to hear from God for those big things in life. We’d like to have alight shine down on the choice that we should make… or at least get a card in the mail telling us what Biblical passage we should read. Maybe it’s happened to some of us, but really, most of my own experiences of God have not been like that. When God speaks to us, sometimes it’s not subtle, but we may be so distracted by everything going on in our lives that we miss it all too easily. Sometimes, we may realize that God is speaking to us, only after someone else has pointed it out.
What’s does God’s voice sound like? How would you personally answer that question?
In developing our relationship with God, I think it’s a very important question to ask and answer. After all, I firmly believe that God has spoken to each and every one of us over this past week. I also expect that probably most of us, like Samuel, didn’t recognize it. Sometimes, we only realize it after the fact.
For me this week, perhaps, it was in the middle of the night, after a long but important Session meeting. My daughter Megan was suddenly and unexpectedly sick. I won’t go into all the details, suffice to say that changes of sheets needed to be applied not only her bed, but ours. I got very little sleep, and if any of you encountered me on Wednesday morning, to say that I was haggard and tired would have been a compliment.
Yet really, it was a reminder to me that we cannot shut off being a parent. Maybe that’s what God was trying to teach me this week. A simple lesson, but I think an important one. Did I actually hear God saying that to me in so many words? No… but my daughter’s wail for help and comfort in the midst of the night helped me to realize a couple things. The first, I already mentioned. Being a parent is 24/7… and it trumps everything… even that horrid groggy sensation. The second thing, and perhaps a bit more subtle, but just as important… by being there… by being the calming voice of comfort, perhaps my daughter was hearing God’s comforting voice through mine or Sarah’s.
Remember that poor minister in the midst of that derailed children’s story. Everyone in the congregation leaned forward, to hear what she was going to say…
What does God’s voice sound like?
Well… in all seriousness, think about this: How would you answer that question?
Amen.
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