So… what do y’all know about Samuel and Eli? Or perhaps, before we talk about Samuel and Eli, we should talk a little bit about the roles of prophets, judges and kings in Judaism. Prophets, judges and kings, oh my! What differentiates one from the other, you might ask. I mean, we know what a king is… but judges? And prophets? I guess many of us are a little fuzzy about who (and what) were judges, and who (and what) were prophets. And here’s a secret: rabbis and scholars don’t always agree about who was who, and what was what. So, I’ll give you just a couple of broad generalizations in this regard.
We’ll start with judges. Judges were people, both women and men, whom God raised up to lead the nation of Israel back onto the path of righteousness whenever their straying had gotten them into trouble. Since finding their way into Canaan after “forty years” of wandering in the wilderness, a very-predictable pattern had developed: (1) Israel would fall into apostasy (that’s straying away from God); (2) they would then be dominated by a foreign oppressor for a time; maybe it was the Edomites… or the Moabites… or the Canaanites, or the Midianites… or the Ammonites… lots of different “ites”… then (3) Israel would call out to God in their misery; (4) God would send a judge to deliver them; and (5) the judge would defeat Israel’s oppressor. And as long as that judge was around to keep the Hebrews on the straight-and-narrow, everything would be OK. But no one lives forever, right? And judges had no heirs… so the pattern repeated itself over and over again—at least twelve times, for the better part of three centuries. The Book of Judges tells us that when there was no one to lead them, “the people did what was right in their own eyes” (vv. 17:6 and 21:25)… and you know what happens when people do that. So, judges led the people.
The job of prophets, on the other hand, was to speak truth to power. Prophets called kings to task for failing to lead… and attend to the needs of their people. And while many of the main characters in Hebrew Scripture, from Abraham and the Patriarchs… to Moses, Aaron and Joshua, and even a few of Israel’s judges… were given the honorific of “prophet,” most of the folks we normally refer to as prophets (other than Moses, who we know spoke truth to King Pharaoh) were those who lived after the nation of Israel, an amalgamation of often disparate tribes, became the kingdom of Israel, first under Saul, and then David and Solomon, et. al. And here’s where Eli comes in: Eli was the next to last judge (before the first king of Israel) sent to lead the nation of Israel in the face of the worst oppression it had ever known… at the hands of the Philistines. Y’all remember the Philistines, right? The story of David and Goliath and all that?
Well, the battle between the boy and the giant happened a few years after the bit from 1st Samuel that we read in our passage from Hebrew Scripture today. At the time of today’s reading, the conflict with the Philistines was rocking along with no end in sight. And Eli was old… and not only were the sons of judges not entitled to inherit their fathers’ judgeships, generally, Eli’s sons, Hophni and Phineas, had been singled out by a special messenger of God (let’s just say a “big angel”) as being particularly unfit to follow in Eli’s footsteps… or even to serve as priests in the Aaronic line. They apparently had a habit of skimming the choicest bits of meat from sacrifices made by the faithful… and liked to have their way with the women who served at the entrance to the Tabernacle. They were bad boys. And Eli was tired… he couldn’t control them. Parents, you know how that feels sometimes, right? So, God stepped in… as he always did… to ensure Israel had the leadership it needed… to help it mend its ways, and ensure its survival. And what it needed was a new judge: the boy, Samuel… who did not yet know the Lord, and whose word had not yet been revealed to him. But Samuel was listening.
If you read ahead in 1st Samuel, you’ll see that, in accordance with the previous foretelling of the “big angel,” the story didn’t end well for Eli and his sons (at least in the temporal sense), and that Samuel eventually became the last of the judges of Israel… and later, king-maker and prophet. On one hand, that seems pretty cool…. On the other, it must have been a lot of work: it was Samuel, after all, who had to continue fighting the good fight against the Philistines… and who made Saul God’s first anointed King of Israel. And when that responsibility proved to be too much for old Saul, it was Samuel who had to seek out and anoint David as the new King. How satisfying… and yet how heartbreaking that must have been for Samuel: knowing that God’s will was being accomplished… and yet, seeing the suffering and the pain that would take place for Saul and his son Jonathan, and for David before the next phase of God’s plan for his people, the golden age of the Kingdom of Israel, could come to fruition.
So, let’s “fast-forward” to today’s Gospel story… Jesus’ calling of Philip and Nathanael (John 1:43-51). “Hey Nate… wait up!” I can almost hear Philip panting. “What in the world are you going on about?” said Nathanael. “You, my friend, are out of control!” “No, no, you’re not going to believe this!” said Philip. “We’ve found the Messiah. He’s here.” “Say, what?” said Nathanael. “I’m not kidding!” Philip gasped. “He’s from Rockmart.” What would you say if you were Nathanael? I wonder if you might say, “Could anything good come from Rockmart?” Or maybe just, “Not Rockmart. There’s no way the Messiah would come from Rockmart.”
But here’s the thing: just like God wasn’t going to let his plan for the salvation of the world come to an end with Eli, who had been a good and faithful servant—as far as he was able, but who just wasn’t able to close the deal. And a thousand years after Samuel’s day, neither was God going to let his people continue to suffer under the yoke of oppression imposed by the Herodians and their Roman overlords. And, even more importantly, God was not going to allow his people to suffer under the same burden of self-righteousness and self-importance that had led to the dissolution of the Kingdom of Israel, and plagued the Hebrew people since before the time of the Babylonian exile. “I’m doing a new thing,” God told Isaiah. “I’ll make a way” (Isaiah 43:19). First, John came “as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him” (John 1:7). And it was one of John’s disciples, Andrew, who ran to catch up to his brother Simon Peter (who would be called “Cephas,” the rock on which the Church would be built) and said, “Hey Pete… wait up! Guess what? You’re not gonna believe this….” And so it went. After Andrew and Peter, came James and John. Then Philip and Nathanael (a.k.a. “Bartholomew” in the synoptic gospels), Thomas, Matthew, James (the lesser), Thaddaeus (or Jude), Simon the zealot… and Judas Iscariot. “Come and see,” said Jesus. “Follow me.”
And we’re all called to take our places in that great line of prophets, judges, apostles and martyrs for the cause of bringing about God’s Kingdom on earth. God has a plan to save his people and nothing can stand in its way. So, here’s the crux of what I want to say to you today… what the Holy Spirit has put it into my heart to say to you today: You’ve been washed in the Blood of the Lamb at Baptism. You’ve been adopted into the Body of Christ, which is the Church (writ large). You’ve experienced the real presence of God’s Christ in Holy Communion. You’ve ascribed to the contents of the Creeds. You’ve confessed your faith in Christ crucified and resurrected. What now?
Only this: remember, in the words of the Apostle Paul, that “you are not your own” (1 Corinthians 6:19). You. Are. Not. Your. Own. You belong to God. And you were bought for a price… a great price. And for a great purpose. So, give in to that purpose. I can’t tell you how it will all play out… that’s between you and God. You’ve read the Scriptures. You know the basics of what it is that God is calling you to do… and to be. So, talk to God about it… and listen! It will come to you. And, rest assured, it will probably involve some work. But such work! Work for the salvation of this world! Samuel’s in your corner. And Eli. And a bunch of apostles, prophets and martyrs… and a great cloud of witnesses: the Holy Host of all those who have labored in God’s vineyard to help reunite God with his people since the Fall. Hard work. Holy work. For a Holy purpose. You’re being called.
I pray that you, like Samuel, will say, “Here I am.”
A few words from Father Kemper 