Local Serving

The Second Sunday after the Epiphany
St. John's Lutheran Church, Alexandria, VA
1 Samuel 3:1-20

“Being SJLC: Local Serving”

“Hey!  Hey you!  Over here!  Yes, you!  I need your help.  I need money.  I need tutoring.  I need comforting.  I need protecting.  I need you.”  What are you hearing?  There’s a lot of need in the world.  There’s a lot of need right here in metro DC.  There’s a lot of need, even here in our Alexandria-Franconia-Springfield community.  There’s a lot of need, but it’s not any one kind of need.  Some are more pressing than others, like the need for food and shelter.  Others are less pressing but still important, like the need for education and employment, or the need for companionship for the isolated or encouragement for the downtrodden.  There’s a lot of need.  What are you hearing?  Or maybe the better question is: To what are you listening?

Did you notice anything on your way into the sanctuary for worship today?  We’ve got a lot of decorations up for our Being SJLC theme through this Epiphany season, with table displays and sing-up boards, even symbols hanging from the ceiling.  But did you happen to see the picture on the video screen behind this weekend’s event schedule?  It might have seemed kind of odd.  It doesn’t provide you with any context – it’s just a man sitting on some stairs with his head bowed low.  Is he discouraged?  Is he homeless?  That kind of imagery is all around us, and it’s all too real.

To what are you listening in the world around you?  A lot of life – especially in this time and place – is spent filtering; filtering out the noise of the world.  There seem to be so many demands: for time, for energy, for finances.  You’ve got to pick and choose between all these calls for your attention.  The ones that seem farther away are often the easier to shut out.  The ones that are closer to home are probably the ones that get the most of your focus.  It doesn’t seem like you’ve got any choice but to filter.

This weekend’s Being SJLC focus brings us to “local serving.”  How can and do you serve?  You likely make use of certain parameters to determine what would be manageable for you: what are the areas in which you can give of yourself, serving in the world around you.  Some people give their time.  Or give money.  Or both.  Is one better than the other?  No – both can be used by service organizations to support the work that they’re doing.  The need financial resources just as they need willing workers to help get things done.  You can even support organizations like those that we’re lifting up this weekend (Koinonia, Lutheran Social Services, and Carpenter’s Shelter) by being an advocate for them and spreading the word about what they’re doing in our community.  Given all the demands on your time, however, the most convenient thing to do might be provide financial support.  In that event, though, beware falling into a disconnected rut, feeling more like you’re paying a bill than being a servant – living isn’t meant to be disconnected from serving.

The noise all around can lead into the dangerous world of over-commitment or commitment to the wrong things.  To what are you listening?  Is the call for commitment to work above and beyond other priorities?  Or extracurricular activities for yourself or your children?  There’s a lot of pressure to give and give and give of your self until it doesn’t seem like there’s anything left.  As a people, we’d do well to ask: Who do our commitments serve?  If they’re only self-serving, that’s bad!  If we’re only serving ourselves, what kind of example are we setting for our families?  For the people around us?  How can we get out of the cycle of over-commitment or commitment to only self-serving things?  We follow God’s call.

Samuel was called by God as a young boy to serve as a prophet, delivering the Lord’s word to the people.  He had been dedicated for service in the Lord’s temple since his birth, and Eli had been like a foster father to him.  Things had not gone as well with Eli’s own sons.  They lived in rebellion, with callous disregard for their intended roles of service as priests of the people ofIsrael.  In doing so, they set a bad example for those whom they were supposed to serve.  But Eli had chosen to look the other way.  Rather than doing his duty and disciplining his sons, he let them have their way.  And so the Lord called Samuel to deliver a message against Eli and his household, one that announced their doom.  He called this young boy in the early morning hours, before the lamp in the sanctuary that burned from dusk to dawn had gone out.  Three times the Lord called, but it wasn’t until the third time that old Eli finally discerned that it was God calling to Samuel.  The next time the Lord called, Samuel answered as he had been instructed, “Speak, for your servant hears.”  The Lord stands there – He was present for His servant! – and gives Samuel the first of the many word he would deliver to the people.  It was a hard word for Eli and his family.  Service can be a challenge.

On this long weekend in honor of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., our nation is remembering the value of serving in one’s community.  Local serving is pretty uniformly viewed as a good thing, something the benefits the word in which you live.  But when we consider such service as people who follow Jesus, does it mean the same thing?

For the Christian, local serving is still a connection to the community around us.  We are seeking to meet people’s needs; however, most of those are only temporary, passing needs.  Local serving can also be much more.  God is sending you out into the world and putting opportunities before you as His people.  The Lord is calling you to daily listening to become aware of such opportunities for service as His agent.  Responding to that call can be difficult, especially if it requires a choice that would challenge your routine, even more so if you’ve got an over-committed routine.  You may have to say “no” to other work and activities and plans that you’ve taken for granted.  God is putting unique instances for service before you every day – some requiring more effort than others.  We’re highlighting some of those around our congregation this weekend, but there are others still, and you might already be engaged in serving with some of them.  Through local serving, we are God’s people engaged in serving Jesus through our neighbor and living in community.  For Christians, serving is incarnational serving.  You are the active body of Christ, Jesus’ hands and feet at work to meet all those kinds of need that we encounter in the world.  And beyond meeting passing needs, we can address an even deeper need as witnesses of God’s love in Jesus.

You service is a witness, calling others to “come and see.”  As you serve, you show the Savior who has made a difference in your life.  As you serve, Jesus is meeting the needs of people in this world through you.  As we serve, we proclaim good news, the gospel of the Lord who came to serve, even giving up his life to meet the need of the world – an eternal need that all of us face.  Local serving is a point of connection, an opportunity to invite others to share in the life that we have through this God who serves His people.  As you serve, God is present; He is there giving strength and life to servant and served alike.

During this season of Epiphany, as we continue each week in our Being SJLC congregational emphasis, we’re lifting up different aspects of our life together as a servant community.  But we should keep asking that question we’re considering today: “To what are you listening?”  How will we respond as God is calling us to active discipleship, growing in faith and servant life as Jesus’ people?  It all goes back to what God has done to serve us.  Last weekend, Being SJLC launched in the waters of Baptism, recalling how our Lord has given us a new identity in the washing of water and the Word.  He put His Spirit in you, making you a part of the body of Christ.  He has adopted you as His own, and He sends you out to serve.

“Hey!  Hey you!  Yes, you!”  God’s probably not calling out to you in a loud voice from heaven, nor beckoning you in the early hours before dawn.  But how might He be doing so through the people around you and in the opportunities He places in your life each day?  What are you hearing?  To what are you listening?  God stands with you, His servant.  He is present.  And He is calling you to live, now. 

Amen.