LWML Sunday 2024

Text: “10 And the Lord came and stood, calling as at other times, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant hears.”” (1 Samuel 3:10).

Today I invite you to learn an important lesson from a young boy.

Samuel is a surprisingly good example for you and me to learn from today. He offers a surprisingly good example in his willingness to listen to God.

Samuel, of course, had been sent by his mother, Hannah, to live and serve in the temple. She sent him while he was still a young boy. That is why, at the beginning of the Old Testament reading, you see him sleeping there in the temple, just outside the Holy of Holies where the Ark of the Covenant was. In the reading you heard from 1 Samuel 3, you heard about God coming and calling Samuel to be a prophet. Samuel mistakes God’s voice for Eli’s three times before Eli realizes that God must be calling Samuel, so Eli famously instructs Samuel, “9 Go, lie down, and if he calls you, you shall say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant hears’” (1 Samuel 3:9). And that is precisely what Samuel does. God calls Samuel’s name one more time, Samuel responds “Speak, Lord, for your servant hears,” and then Samuel listens to God.

That’s it. That is the example for you to learn from today. It is not complicated. A young boy listening— that is the lesson.

It seems simple, but that does not make it a minor thing. Consider how well you usually listen to God. You come and give God His one hour out of your week— assuming you do not have something more important going on. But you come to church in sort of the same way you go to see your elderly great-grandmother in the nursing home— you know that it is not going to be any fun; you know that, if she talks that day, it won’t make any sense or she’ll just rehash stories from decades ago that you have heard a hundred times and that really do not have any bearing on anything that is going on today— or, worse, that are a little uncomfortable by our modern standards— (so you go there ready to laugh at the jokes and to be impressed when she expects you to be impressed and to generally act as if you’re interested in hearing all of it again); you hope the staff who are working that day are the friendly ones because they, at least, will notice that you are there and comment on what a loving grandchild you are. Otherwise, it is just uncomfortable and awkward and not really any fun. But you are a good grandchild, so you give your great-grandmother her one hour each month.

Because of that, God offers you the example of Samuel.

It’s true, you were not sent as a child to live full time here at the church. That is not what God expects of you. But you were called by God. And, as amazing as that image is of God stepping out from the Holy of Holies, coming through the curtain, and calling Samuel by name, God has done something greater for you. He stepped down from His throne, and “7 [took] the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:7–8).

As God commanded, you were brought here to His house where He called you by name. Are you listening to what He’s speaking to you? In the waters of baptism, He called you by name. So yes, please, for this one hour out of your life, please sit in your place in God’s temple and say, “Speak, for your servant hears.”

Your Savior desires to speak to you about all that He has called you to in baptism. It was not just a thing that happened to you, way back when, it is not just one part of who you are, it is the foundation of who you are. The foundation of everything you do. He called you by name in order to bury you, with Him, into His death, and raise you, with Him to new life (Romans 6:3-4, Colossians 2:12). He called you, by name, to be something greater than a prophet— He adopted you as a child of God. He called you, by name, to be a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession (1 Peter 2:9). It is not just a thing that happened to you, way back when; it is not just a thing you do one hour a week; it is the foundation of everything that you are and do.

When you leave here, your priestly service begins. In the strength of the grace you have received here, you go back to your home, back to your workplace, back into our community to offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe (Hebrews 12:28) by showing brotherly love; by not neglecting to show hospitality to strangers; by remembering those who are imprisoned and mistreated; by honoring marriage and keeping the marriage bed undefiled; by keeping your life free from the love of money, confident that God has promised “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:1-5).

Having heard His voice, again, you leave here to continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name— never neglecting to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God (Hebrews 13:15-16).

And there is more. You go from here in the strength that God’s voice gives. Whenever enemies hate you for no reason, when friends and family betray you, God stands, calling you by name, assuring you, “I have given my beloved Son for you.” When all of your efforts feel like they have come to nothing, He promises, “13 Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Blessed indeed, …that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!”” (Revelation 14:13).

What a perfect lesson for LWML Sunday, by the way. This is why the LWML takes time at each meeting for Bible study, that’s why they schedule rallies and prayer services and events throughout the year where you are invited to join the women in our area in listening to God speak through His Word. Whether your days are consumed by a career, by caring for children, by both, all that you are and all that you do are sanctified— are made holy— by the message that God speaks to you in His Word.

It is not easy. There are countless voices trying to drive out God’s voice; countless ways that the devil, the world, and your sinful flesh try to distract you from God’s voice; countless ways that they try to deceive you into doubt and despair. So learn well from Samuel to return to your place here in God’s temple as often as possible and sit and say, “Speak, Lord, your servant hears.”