Call and Discipleship
NRSV
It would be of little surprise to most Baby Boomers and their predecessors the ‘Silents’ that main-line and even non-denominational churches are slowly (and in some cases rapidly) dying. Some are quick to point at the growing population of “SBNRs" (Spiritual But Not Religious). These are people who have left the formalized, institutional church, for their own rituals and ways of relating to or acknowledging God.
However too many people who are active within the ‘formalized’ church (clergy and lay people alike), are also assisting the slow death of the church by focusing, comparing, or even obsessing about their ABC’s: (Attendance, Budget and Children). It seems as if it is a part of the rapport-building stage when numbers of believers gather to compare stats, regardless of their roles in their church or their denomination. Questions like “How many do you get on a Sunday?,” “How big is your budget?,” and “How many kids do you have in Sunday school or youth group?,” all help size-up each other’s church mojo.
Sadly, somehow, the church has lost sight of the rest of the alphabet; especially the D’s. How many Disciples is the church is creating?
While this is not an original thought, it remains both disturbing and helpful to ponder. The Silent and the Boomer generations had better wake up to figure out how make more D’s or we’re all going to get F’s when we meet the Lord God at the pearly gates.
One way to look at discipleship differently is to stop calling “the youth” the future of the church. Some years ago, at the 219th General Assembly [the bi-annual meeting of the PC(USA)], one of the “YAD’s” (Youth advisory Delegates) was given voice on the Assembly floor . She was debating an overture. “As part of your argument for the amendment,” she said to the Assembly, “We are not your future. We are your present. We are here now and want our voice, the youth voice as a regular part of church conversations and planning, not just a small minority delegation from time to time.” That sounds like the voice of a Disciple to me
Church Officers (and Elders in particular) have often been seen as holding lofty positions over the decades, sometimes perceived as having more-than-average bible knowledge, perceived as large contributors with exemplary behavior, and serving perpetually (as often as by-laws allow). But that’s not how the gospel most often shows us discipleship.
Some time ago, the nominating committee of the church I serve was unable to fill all the open slots for ordained officers in time for the congregational meeting where officers are elected. This was quite disheartening given the church’s “ABC’s” years’ past. The same Sunday as the meeting, the text I was to preach on had been preselected to pair with the lesson for the Sunday school. It was 1 Samuel 3:1–10. It neatly fed right into (my) concerns and all of our hopes for our church, as well as paralleling the greater church; the older and wiser but tired…needing to make way for the young and restless. The story of what is known as the “the call of Samuel” is a misnomer. It is not a call story. It is missing all the usual call narrative elements: initial call from God or an agent of God, anxious refusal from the called (and a litany of reasons for God’s ‘mistake’) and then God’s reassurance, (e.g.: Moses; Ex 3:17, Jeremiah, Jer.1:4–10, Isaiah Is 6:1–7). Instead, the story of 1 Samuel 3 is a wonderful example of the discerning elder’s ear assisting the neophyte heart. Is is also an example of a theophany; God’s physical presence arriving to shore up the faithful.
What’s curious in this text is how discipleship meets us even when, “Samuel did not yet know the Lord, and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him.” (1 Sam. 3:7). How does one become a disciple without knowing the Lord, or not yet having a revelation from God’s word or spirit? How does one become a disciple without all the training, education, understanding of scripture, multiple theological views, varied forms of prayer, and years of sitting with the elders?
An Answer Lies in the Hebrew for Verse 7. The two key verbs in v7 are יָדָה (yada) Qal “to know” and גָּלָה (galah) Niph “to be revealed.” The use of יָדָה (yada) in 1 Samuel cited in the BDB is simply “know.” But even in English ‘know’ can have different meanings depending on context, “I know how to get to the Quick Chek from my house,” or “I know how to behave around my in-laws.”
Revelation also has multi-level meanings; גָּלָה (galah) Niph “to be revealed.” This usage is not so much “the winner of the Powerball will be revealed Sunday night” as it is “God’s words, intentions, and purpose will be revealed…in time.”
And so it was that very Samuel Sunday. I preached and landed the sermon on Samuel and we ended the service. We moved to the congregational meeting but at the close one spot remained unfilled. I closed out the meeting praying that God would sustain us and bless us with willing servants and that God would continue to go before us in everything that we do.
The sanctuary emptied out casually with the usual amount of smiles and chatter. As I was stepping out of the pulpit, Robert, a very serious and mature 16-year-old, came up and stood next to me. He is always well dressed with shirt and tie. He is in worship every week and up until last year he was my worship assistant, helping me prep the sanctuary and the service each Sunday morning. Robert leaned over to me and asked, “Rev., can I serve on session?” I was so stunned and amazed I got polity brain-freeze. I looked at his father who was still sitting in the first pew. Robert said, “I think I am because my Dad rolls off session next month, but I was afraid to ask in the middle of the meeting.” I paused, scanned my brain for any rule that would preclude this. Nothing did. The adrenaline kicked in. I shouted to get the clerk back up front and for all of those who were still in the sanctuary to come back and take a seat; we needed a quorum to reopen the meeting. They did. His father nominated him, the vote was unanimous, and there wasn’t a dry eye in the house.
This disciple who has been hanging around the church weekly, faithfully, doing whatever has been asked of him since he was a kid, knew enough about God to want to serve God. This he knew, even without years of a study, decades of training and nota clue of the demands ahead of him. To my knowledge, even by the end of last year’s conformation class, he was still working out what it might feel like to experience God’s ruach, God’s Wind, Spirit or breath, or even receive a specific revelation. Still God put in his heart and soul a deep enough understanding to know when he is being called, a wide enough understanding of what it means to be a disciple, and a short enough response to simply say “Speak, your servant is listening.”
