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Dreams                        1 Samuel 3: 1-10                   January 18, 2009

On the 28th of August, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC and gave the speech of his life. We've all heard it before, at least in part.

"I have a dream," he said. "I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.'

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."

The day after tomorrow, forty-five years and five months after that historic speech, an African-American man will put his hand on a Bible, take the oath of office, and become President of the United States.

Today, in churches all over the land, people of faith are joining together, as we are, to reflect, from a Christian perspective, on the progress we've made as a nation - progress that brings us to this point in history.

Three important events converge on us today. Two of them I have already mentioned. First, it is the holiday weekend when we remember the legacy of Dr. King. And second, it is the eve of the most broadly and anxiously anticipated presidential inauguration in my lifetime for sure and perhaps in modern history.

Both of these events could be described as pivotal - as turning points in history. We know that to be true of the "I have a dream" speech. In Martin King's own words, the gathering of thousands in Washington that day was "the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation." That speech energized the crowd, accelerated the Civil Rights movement and was followed by historic legislation that changed America forever.

We won't know for years, of course, if the inauguration that will occur this Tuesday will be the kind of turning point that many hope it will be. There is plenty of healthy disagreement on that subject, with articulate voices on both sides of the issue. Pretty much everyone agrees, however, that whether we support the direction that President Obama appears to be taking the nation or not; whether we agree that his presidency will be a step in the direction of "reclaiming the American dream," as he describes it in his writings, or feel that he and his administration will be taking the country down a road we will live to regret, the mere fact that a black man could win the nomination of his party and then get elected by the margin that he did says something decidedly positive about our country.

We may just have come to the point where many of the dreams that Martin King talked about forty-five years ago have come true. We may just be able to say that this election has demonstrated that in America, you can be judged by the content of your character and not by the color of your skin.

And that is very good news, no matter which direction you tend to face on political and social matters - right or left, red or blue.

The third event that converges on us today is one that happened thousands of years ago, and called to mind by our Old Testament text for this morning, the second Sunday after the Epiphany - the story of Samuel's call, and his response to that call. It is another dream story. And while it is different from the other two, present-day stories, it has relevance for us as well. It is an account of another pivotal point in history.

Samuel, as you may recall, was a giant in the history of God's people. He is the last of the "Judges," the holy men who ruled the people of Israel for the 400 years from their entry into the Promised Land under the leadership of Joshua - the first of the Judges, until the appointment of the first king, King Saul.

Samuel eventually becomes the first of the great prophets and, before the end of his life, he selects and anoints both King Saul and King David. But we encounter him, this morning, when he was just a boy - probably about twelve years old - and living in the Temple with Eli, a priest and another one of the last Judges.

When Samuel arrives on the scene, Israel is in the midst of one of those all-too-common periods when they have abandoned their allegiance to God's ways and slipped into patterns of corruption and evil. The narrator of our story beautifully sums up the situation: "The word of the Lord was rare in those days," he writes.

Eli, Samuel's teacher and mentor, is long in the tooth at this point, and barely able to see. And, priest or not, the corruption that has prevailed in the community has touched his family. Eli's two sons, it appears, regularly engaged in downright wicked practices - taking for themselves all the prime cuts of meat from sacrifices, and taking physical advantage of the vulnerable women who served at the temple entrance.

If ever there were a time that was ripe for a turning point, this would be it.

Fortunately, God is ready to act. Ready to do a new thing.

Young Samuel is lying down when he hears a voice that he presumes is old Eli: "Samuel! Samuel!" the voice cries out.

So Samuel jumps up and runs to Eli, "Here I am," he says, "for you called me."

"I did not call, my son," Eli responds, "go back and lie down."

You know the rest. The same thing happens again and again, and after the third time, Eli catches on. It must be the Lord, he concludes, speaking to Samuel in a dream-like vision.

So Eli tells Samuel, "go back and lie down once again, and when you hear your name called, this time don't come running to me. Instead, stand up and say, 'Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.'"

The text we read earlier ends right there. But that is not where the story ends. After Samuel responds to the Lord with "Speak, for your servant is listening," the Lord speaks to the young prophet to-be. "See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make both ears of anyone who hears of it tingle."

And then, after getting his attention, God tells Samuel some news that Eli and his wicked sons will not want to hear. God is going to do a new thing, and Samuel is going to be God's instrument. He is going to help God accomplish the change that is necessary. The priestly rule of the previous four hundred years will come to an end. Going forward, there will be Kings, and Samuel will be the kingmaker.

Can you remember the last time you heard news that was so important that just hearing it made your ears tingle? News that was so transformative that it will stand out forever as a turning point in your life?

Sometimes a tingle is prompted by fear. The anticipated call from your doctor following the biopsy of a lump that wasn't there a few months ago and now is so present that the feel of it never seems to go away. The sound of a telephone ringing in the middle of the night. The sight of rockets piercing the night sky during Desert Storm, the first televised war.

And sometimes, thank God, those tingly moments are exciting and filled with hope.

I was in high school when Martin King told the crowd in D.C. that he had a dream, but I bet there were hundreds - maybe thousands of people in that throng of humanity that would tell you that their life was never quite the same after that day. That hope crowded out all of their other emotions and filled them to overflowing.

I don't mind telling you this morning that I am among those Americans who are looking forward to Tuesday with that same hope. I fully expect that my ears will tingle when I listen to President Obama's speech that day.

It doesn't matter if this inaugural address turns out to be an oratorical masterpiece. In the history of the United States, few addresses have risen to that level of greatness: FDR's "The only thing we have to fear Is fear itself," John Kennedy's "And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you-ask what you can do for your country," and, of course, the greatest of them all, Abraham Lincoln's "With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in . . . to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."

The hope surrounding this inauguration has little to do with oratory. Just as the story of Samuel marks the end of one era in history and the beginning of another, so, I believe, will the events of January 20, 2009.

So pay attention, my friends. Whether you cheer or watch skeptically, pay attention. Our nation will never be the same again. And that, all by itself, is enough to make our ears tingle.

In the end, though, let's remember that it is the words of Samuel that stand out as the most important of all the words we've been considering today. Samuel, the one who couldn't sleep because he kept hearing God calling him.

In the end, for those of us who believe that God is alive and at work in the world; who believe that God is going to do a new thing, so large that anyone who hears about it will notice that both ears are tingling; for us, Samuel's words are the formula for participation in that work. And that is what makes them so important.

At some level, God calls every one of us. Samuel responded, and changed the course of history. So did Martin King and so, I believe, did our new President.

In the end, in order for us to find wholeness in the midst of our brokenness and hope in the midst of our fear; in the end, we too must respond, when God calls, with the simple words of Samuel, "Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening."

                                                                             AMEN

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