Bible Text: 1 Samuel 3: 1-10 and Mark 1: 4-11 | Preacher: Rev. Jenn Geddes
Stevland Hardaway Morris was born on May 13, 1950 in Saginaw, Michigan. He was born pre-mature which along with the oxygen-rich atmosphere in the hospital incubator resulted in retinopathy of prematurity, meaning he lost his eyesight just a few days after being born. Stevland grew up, however, loving music and playing various instruments from piano to harmonica to drums. He also sang in the choir at Whitestone Baptist Church in Michigan. He became somewhat of a child prodigy and at the age of 11 he signed with Motown’s Tamla label. It was a producer from Motown who gave him the name, Little Stevie Wonder. Many years later Stevie Wonder wrote, produced and performed a ballad entitled, “I Just Called to Say I Love You.” It was Wonder’s tenth number one hit on Billboard’s R&B charts. It was also Wonder’s only solo UK number one and was Motown Records’ biggest-selling single in the UK. Admittedly the song is a rather schmaltzy and sickly sweet. The premise is that the singer called the person on the other line for no particular reason or special occasion, but simply to say, “I just called to say I love you. I just called to say how much I care. I just called to say I love you and I mean it from the bottom of my heart.” In reality, sometimes a simple call like that can have a profound affect. Interestingly enough, while this song has no political point, it was this song that helped Wonder end apartheid in South Africa. When the song won an Academy Award Stevie Wonder accepted the award in the name of Nelson Mandela. The next day the South African government banned Wonder’s music but also this drew global attention to Mandela and his fight against the apartheid. Sometimes a simple call can have a profound impact.
It is a still small voice, a simple call, that has a profound effect on the life of one young man in our Old Testament reading this morning. Dare I say it, but Samuel becomes somewhat of a child prodigy, a wonder himself, discovering that he has a strong connection to the divine. Our passage opens up with a rather interesting statement, it says that “The word of the Lord was rare in those days and visions were not widespread.” This passage is set in the early life of the young nation Israel. Prior to this story there have been strong leaders like Moses and Joshua but that was before they had settled in the land. Just prior to the book of Samuel, leadership was found in a series of judges who helped keep the peace, so to speak. But at this point, despite being settled in the land promised to them, Israel is not an organized nation. In fact, it seems to have gotten off track and even forgotten God. The Book of Judges even closes on a cliff hanger with tribal wars and factions threatening to divide the people. The opening sentence in our passage about the word of the Lord being rare is a reflection of the closing sentence in Judges in which it says, “All the people did what was right in their own eyes”. One of the reasons why the word of the Lord was rare was because people were too self-involved to hear God, their eyes were not open to the visions that God was placing before them but rather they maintained a myopic view of the world. In their minds the only people who deserved a call from God was someone in great power or that God would deliver a message in a cloud with a booming voice- as in days of old. The truth was, if God was calling to simply say, “I love you” no one was answering the call. It concerns me how much this passage sounds like our modern age. That people are simply doing what is right in their own eyes, which means no one’s eyes are open to the visions of God in front of us.
But then we have the boy Samuel who is in bed in the temple with his tutor Eli. Samuel hears a voice calling out to him and Samuel runs to Eli saying, “Here I am.” Eli is confused, even miffed, that he would be aroused from slumber when he in fact did not call Samuel. This almost comical scene occurs two more times before Eli realises that it is the Lord’s voice which Samuel hears. In this simple call Samuel will become the means by which God is made known to the people and that the organization of Israel as a nation will come to pass. But God enters this story in such simplicity that it takes more than one try for even the temple priest to realize that it is God calling in the first place. This story illustrates the power of God to initiate salvation even to a child. The entire chapter is worth reading because the arc of this story is that Samuel, who does not know God at first, is tutored by Eli to recognize God, but eventually the student exceeds the master and Eli faces judgment for some of his actions. Both Samuel’s story and the story of Jesus’ baptism should illustrate to us that while God can use simple words to communicate with us, answering that call does not mean simple living.
In the story of the baptism there is this beautiful juxtaposition of John who baptizes sinners, and Jesus, the sin-less, who is baptized by John. John continues to point past himself to Jesus, like the important secondary character that John is. John declares it is Jesus who issues baptism through the Holy Spirit, through the power and presence of the saving grace of God. Perhaps the image of the heavens being torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove and a booming voice from heaven declaring who Jesus is, is the kind of word and visions that people expected to hear in the days of Samuel. Perhaps it is still that kind of vision and experience that people expect today. It was certainly a dramatic way to affirm who Jesus was. But this one major incident plays out in all kinds of ways throughout the gospel. I don’t want to simplify this message, but essentially this voice is declaring not only to Jesus but to all who are willing to hear it that God has called in the person and life of Jesus to say we are loved.
As this story unfolds we learn that Jesus can baptize through the Holy Spirit, because the Spirit of God rested upon him- not just in the act of baptism but throughout his life and ministry. Jesus experiences this vision and hears this message and this makes it clear that he is the divinely appointed, divinely anointed, and divinely affirmed Son of God. It is in fact, this conviction that is at the heart of Mark’s Gospel- well, truly at the heart of the Gospel message, period. What it means is that Jesus is “God’s selfless servant who gives even himself to save others. He reveals with utter clarity the depth of God’s love and the essential, selfless, serving nature of God. And Jesus, as the Son of God shows us the manner of life to which God calls us.”
But this morning I still cannot help but also be challenged by the story of the boy wonder, Samuel, and of the baptism of Jesus. We associate new beginnings with the beginning of the year, with the birth of a child, with changes in one’s life. Yet, are we living in a time much like Samuel’s, in which we are doing what is right in our own eyes and therefore the word of the Lord seems rare, and visions are virtually non-existent? In some ways we no longer take seriously the true commitments that are made in baptism. and we oversimplify God’s call. Suffering and loss were sewn into the fabric of Jesus’ life just as much as the presence of the Holy Spirit.
Stevie Wonder has been prolific in his musical gifts, regardless of his lack of sight; Samuel helped pioneer the new leadership that would bring Israel together, and Jesus shows us how to live. God called them all to a unique role. What is our role as baptized believers? At the very least are we called to express love from the very bottoms of our hearts? But what does that look like? In our baptisms, no matter our age, the Spirit is present with us. We would do well to acknowledge that the reality of faith is indeed a mystery, but that we are called to trust that the Spirit will enrich our love and ministry, and then God’s voice, be it a small simple voice in the night or a booming-heaven opening phrase, will be heard. Amen