Welcome to worship at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Salmon Arm.  We are delighted that you have joined us online.   

Announcements:

• Just a reminder that this month's Loonie Offering is going to the Shuswap Volunteer Search and Rescue group. See the "Recent Posts" for more information and how to donate.
• Thank you to Rev. Ena Van Zoeren for leading our worship today. May God bless and guide all of us as we adhere to the current Public Health Guidelines.

INTROIT

Open your ears, O faithful People

CALL TO WORSHIP

Something made the hairs stand up on our necks. Was it you, O God?
Was it you that we saw blowing over the water?

Was it you that we heard moving through those feet?
Was it you that we felt in the beating of our own hearts?
Was it you that called our names?
Come, O God. Come to search us. Come to know us again.
We were knit in your womb. We have tried to count your works.
Come, O God, so that we can hear you calling our names.
Here and now.

God of mystery and of power,

nothing is hid from you, to you all things are plain.

Give us grace, O Lord, to hear your word and see your hand.

Your might and your strength are beyond all comparison.

Your love is greater than words can say.

Give us grace, O Lord, to hear your word and see your hand.

You call us Lord to a closer walk with you.  You guide us into

the paths that you have chosen in your wisdom..

Give us grace, O Lord, to hear your word and see your hand.

 

Hymn  open my eyes that I might see

 

PRAYER OF INVOCATION

God of mystery and of power,

nothing is hidden from you, to you all things are plain.

Give us grace, O Lord, to hear your word and see your hand.

Your might and your strength are beyond all comparison.

Your love is greater than words can say.

Give us grace, O Lord, to hear your word and see your hand.

You call us Lord to a closer walk with you.  You guide us into

the paths that you have chosen in your wisdom..

Give us grace, O Lord, to hear your word and see your hand.

On Jesus name we pray, amen

 

UNISON PRAYER OF CONFESSION

Let us pray to God,

that he will bring to fruition all that he desires for his creation.

O God, giver of all good gifts, you have given me life.

You have bestowed upon me your love and that love includes your plans for me, and yet I cannot perceive that plan.

What am I to do?  All life is a call and a response.

I pray for grace to hear your voice and a heart to respond.

I am ready to listen, help me to have open ears.

 

I am overwhelmed with thoughts of the future, through my hopes, my fears, my plans I miss your voice calling to me.  Yet guide me into that future so that I know who and whose I am.

I shall listen.

I shall listen to the voices of those witnesses who have lived before me.

I shall listen to those who are here to give me guidance and encouragement, for it is clear that whatever plans you have for me,

Remind me that I will never journey alone.

I will listen to my feelings as I grow and change,

processes that I know will be lifelong.

I shall listen to you.

And even though I want easy answers,

I know that what you want is a relationship.

So when I answer you, may my response be to my potential

and to your love of all creatures on your good earth.

O God, I know that vocation is truly a gift of your love.

What am I to do?

I am ready to listen.  Amen

 

Assurance of Pardon

God whispers to each of us:  you are my beloved, created in love for love. We hear these words and our spirit soars as we answer, Here I am, Lord.

In response to the assurance that God forgives us, accepts us and calls us, we respond:

Here we are Lord.

Shine the light of your love on us.

Kindle your Spirit within us.

Work your redeeming will in us,

that all the world may be one

through the power of your love.  Amen.

 

PASSING THE PEACE

 

The peace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you.  And also with you.

Share a sign of peace with those nearby, or ask the Spirit to bring his peace to another you may know, or to a world situation.

HYMN thy word is a lamp unto my feet

 

SCRIPTURE READINGS

Listen, hear and remember, these portions of the revelation of God’s word for us.

1 Samuel 3: 1-20

The boy Samuel ministered before the Lord under Eli. In those days the word of the Lord was rare; there were not many visions.

2 One night Eli, whose eyes were becoming so weak that he could barely see, was lying down in his usual place. 3 The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the house of the Lord, where the ark of God was. 4 Then the Lord called Samuel.

Samuel answered, “Here I am.” 5 And he ran to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.”

But Eli said, “I did not call; go back and lie down.” So he went and lay down.

6 Again the Lord called, “Samuel!” And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.”

“My son,” Eli said, “I did not call; go back and lie down.”

7 Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord: The word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him.

8 A third time the Lord called, “Samuel!” And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.”

Then Eli realized that the Lord was calling the boy. 9 So Eli told Samuel, “Go and lie down, and if he calls you, say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’” So Samuel went and lay down in his place.

10 The Lord came and stood there, calling as at the other times, “Samuel! Samuel!”

Then Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”

11 And the Lord said to Samuel: “See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make the ears of everyone who hears about it tingle. 12 At that time I will carry out against Eli everything I spoke against his family—from beginning to end. 13 For I told him that I would judge his family forever because of the sin he knew about; his sons blasphemed God,[a] and he failed to restrain them. 14 Therefore I swore to the house of Eli, ‘The guilt of Eli’s house will never be atoned for by sacrifice or offering.’”

15 Samuel lay down until morning and then opened the doors of the house of the Lord. He was afraid to tell Eli the vision, 16 but Eli called him and said, “Samuel, my son.”

Samuel answered, “Here I am.”

17 “What was it he said to you?” Eli asked. “Do not hide it from me. May God deal with you, be it ever so severely, if you hide from me anything he told you.” 18 So Samuel told him everything, hiding nothing from him. Then Eli said, “He is the Lord; let him do what is good in his eyes.”

19 The Lord was with Samuel as he grew up, and he let none of Samuel’s words fall to the ground. 20 And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba recognized that Samuel was attested as a prophet of the Lord.  (NIV)

Psalm 139:  1-6, 13-18

1 You have searched me, Lord,
and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
    you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue
    you, Lord, know it completely.
5 You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
    too lofty for me to attain.

13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
    your works are wonderful,
    I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body;
    all the days ordained for me were written in your book
    before one of them came to be.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts,[a] God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them,
    they would outnumber the grains of sand—
    when I awake, I am still with you.

 

SERMON:  Recognizing the voice of God

Have you ever been alone in a church building late at night?

You know all those noises that big empty buildings have, but in the day light hours you are too busy or too relaxed to hear them.  At night those noises get loud…very loud.

When I hear them, even though I know that I am alone in the building and the doors are locked, I stop what I am doing and I listen, wondering what that was.  Sometimes if the noise has been particularly loud or strange, I have to talk to myself to calm down, and slow my racing heart.

For that reason I have great sympathy for Samuel.

He had been brought to the Temple as a very young boy, perhaps shortly after he had been weaned.  So 3 maybe 4.

So there he was, a mere child missing his mother and thrust into a world that he did not know or understand.  A child who would be raised in a world of adults, and mystery and ritual.

And then he learned where he would be sleeping.  In the Sanctuary in front of the ark of the covenant.  About the only good thing in that situation is that the lamp of the presence of the Lord was always lit, so at least a night light.

A few years later he had a strange encounter in the night.

Into that half-dim, mysterious, noisy cavern of a room came a voice, calling him.

Startled out of a deep sleep, heart racing he sat up and listened.  Certain that he heard a voice calling him, he ran to where Eli’s chamber was and said, “here I am, you called me”

The answer was no, I did not call you.  Go back to bed.

So that is what Samuel did.  But you have to wonder, how long it took Samuel, still a young boy, to fall asleep again.  How often even the slightest sound had him sitting up and looking into the shadows.

Finally dozing off he heard it again, exactly the same as before the voice calling, “Samuel.”

Heart racing, on shaky legs he ran to Eli and said, “here I am, you called me”.  The answer, “no I did not call you.  Go and lie down”.

But here the Scriptures give us a clue as to who was calling him.  We read that Samuel did not yet know the voice of the Lord, and we understand that it is God who is calling him.

That raises a whole lot of questions.   If Samuel is being raised in the Temple, why has no one taught him about God?

Yet from the account of Eli’s life we know that he didn’t teach his own sons.  That he allowed them to live lawlessly before the Lord.  That he allowed them to disrespect the Lord God in numerous ways.  We are reminded that the voice of the Lord has not been heard in the land for a very long time.

So then we question what God could be thinking.  Why a boy, likely afraid of things that go bump in the night?  Why not speak in the day?  Or at a time the priests are in the Temple?

Why a midnight visit to a boy who doesn’t know who God is?

For a second time Samuel trudged back into the cavernous Temple and curled up by the mysterious and fearsome ark of the covenant not daring to close his eyes.  Finally sleep overtook him, and again he was startled out of sleep by what he was sure was Eli calling him.

And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.”

Then Eli realized that the Lord was calling the boy.  So Eli told Samuel, “Go and lie down, and if he calls you, say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’”

And without question Samuel went and lay down in his place.

The Lord came and stood there, calling as at the other times, “Samuel! Samuel!”

Then Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”

So, once again we have questions.  Why would Samuel be so courageous as to say what Eli told him?  What if this wasn’t the Lord God?  Or worse, what if this really was the Lord God?  If he had learned anything from a few years sleeping in the Temple it would should be that the voice of the Lord is powerful.  He would have seen that the priests who still worshipped stopped in awe in front of the ark of the covenant and left discouraged because they had not heard God speak.

Did Samuel question why God would speak to him and not them?

Yet we also need to stop and remember that our questions are baseless here.  Have we not seen?  Have we not heard?  Have we not seen and heard that God’s plans for salvation always involve a child.

A youngest son tossed in a cistern.

A baby floating in a basket

A baby in a manger

Do we remember that Jesus points out that God works best with a child for they are of the Kingdom of God?

God seems to prefer to work with the weak and the lowly rather than the powerful and the mighty.

We see the wisdom in this foolishness when we realize that the powerful are more concerned with their own power than with God’s will.  A child whose heart is not yet full of self love and selfish ambition is more likely to hear the voice of God.  The child may not know what it is, but he or she knows that the voice calls them into something important.

So Samuel says, “speak Lord your servant is listening”.

And that is the beginning of Samuel’s acceptance of his call to be a prophet.

We are reminded that a prophet is merely one who hears God’s voice, listens, remembers, obeys and shares that word without any thought of how difficult it will be to hear and who will be disturbed or upset by the message they bring.  They simply do what God asks.

It’s not easy to be a prophet.

Prophets bring pronouncements of judgement.  Prophets bring warnings about what God is going to do.  Prophets bring a message of woe and doom.

Prophets do not come with a message that says it is all okay, everything will be fine.   Nothing to worry about.

YET, when we listen to the word of the prophet and hear and obey, we do hear the message of hope.

It must have been hard for Samuel to bring that message to Eli.  It contained a stark reminder that God would bring to pass for Eli and his whole family every thing he had warned them about.  It seems that when we do not heed the voice of the Lord, we will reap the consequences of our disobedience.  We can never say that we were not warned.

Eli hears that and accepts it.  All of us, even those of us who are not good at listening for God’s voice, will at some point hear and accept.

But in this message there is a bigger hope.  “See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make the ears of everyone who hears about it tingle.’

When the voice of the Lord is once again heard in the land it is as welcome as rain after a drought, or warming sunshine after a flood.  Even when the voice sounds a note of judgement, it is welcome.  The welcome comes with the hope—God is about to restore his people.  God’s blessing will once again be known.

The voice of a prophet points out the deep hope of God’s restoration, if and when the people stop and listen and obey.

We have seen it in the life of Joseph.  We have seen it in the life of Moses.  We have seen it in the life of Samuel.  We have seen it in the life of Jesus.

We have seen it in other countless faithful servants who have spoken the word of God and brought the people back to knowing, loving and serving God.

We have seen it in our own lives, when we have spoken the word from God given to us and people have responded.

The key thing for each and everyone of us is that we recognize the word of God when we hear it, when we read it, and when we are filled with his grace and his Spirit.  We see, we hear, we listen, we obey and we become those through whom God speaks hope, joy, peace—not always couched in easy language and gentle words; but we do so knowing that wherever God’s word is spoken, God’s grace is available.

May it be for us as it was for Samuel:   The Lord was with Samuel as he grew up, and he let none of Samuel’s words fall to the ground.

May the Lord always be with us, and may the words of our mouths spoken from God voice in our ears and hearts never fall fallow into the ground.  Amen.

 

HYMN:  May the mind of Christ my Saviour

 OFFERING

Today we remember the gift of Jesus Christ given to us giving thanks to God, for the many ways in which we to our offering into the storehouse. Please check the front page of the website for ways in which you can contribute.  Thank you.

OFFERTORY PRAYER (responsive)

Generous God, for all that sustains us;  air to breath, warmth and light,
food to eat, water to drink, we offer our thanks and praise.
For spiritual gifts that bind us together; one people, one body
empowered for service we offer our hands and voices.
For the Good News of the Gospel; healing and wholeness
freedom and justice we offer our hearts in service.

We offer all that we have for we have been gifted and blessed by you and now we desire that what we give and all that we bring, be brought forward by you to bless your world and your people, that all may hear your voice and know that you are God and that your love is eternal.  Amen

PRAYERS OF THANKSGIVING AND INTERCESSION

Eternal God, you are the maker of us all, and we are your creation, people formed in your image, as individuals, as community - formed and fed and furnished with understanding of who you are and of who and whose we are. We are worshipping you today in recognition of your calling, of your communicating, of your caring to invite us to share in your creative and healing work.  We are here because we have heard you speak in us and through others.  Help us, dear Lord, to ever respond to you and your invitation to your grace... Lord hear our prayer...

God of all our moments, of our days and our nights, you speak and you act in the world around us, not only to call all people to you, but also to direct and guide us in the way of healing and wholeness.  Awaken us Lord, to hear what you would say to us.  Help us to open our ears, our eyes, and our hearts to your presence . Help us to know when it is your voice we are hearing and it when it is our prejudices and desires to which we are paying heed.... Lord hear our prayer...

Lord, we pray that your church may rise up with renewed commitment in answer to your call, that your people may be instruments of your grace and love.... Lord hear our prayer....

We pray for those who consider themselves inadequate and dismiss or avoid your calling in their lives.  Give them a new vision, a vision in which you are their strength and their hope... Lord hear our prayer....

We pray for those who, in answering your call, must leave the known for the unknown, the oasis for the desert, the comfortable for the uncertain. Grant them courage and steadfast faith... Lord hear our prayer....

We pray too, today, O Lord, for those in want and need - for those of us and of the larger community who suffer in body or in soul.  We remember before you......

Those who are ill, and those who are grieving
Those who struggle with decisions

Those who seek your guidance
Governments that they may have the wisdom of Eli as they direct faithful service in and among the people
The various concerns of each of our hearts for those far and near and for ourselves….
Lord, hear our prayer.....

Loving Father - bless us all with an abundant faith, a fruitful ministry, a joyful life.  Bless us and all those who gather together to continue the work of Jesus, who came to heal, save, and deliver us all

 

OUR PRAYERS FOR THE COMMUNITY

We pray for our dark and dreary world, a world in need – in need not just of a technical fix, but in need of love and grace, forgiveness and new life, hope, peace and fellowship, in need of renewal, in need of YOU.

Today we pray for all community groups, the food bank, the Lighthouse Mission, Neighbourlink and Second Harvest

LORD’S PRAYER

Hear us now as we pray as Jesus taught us saying, Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.  Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.  For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory for ever.  Amen

 

HYMN  be thou my vision

CHARGE AND BENEDICTION

SUNG BLESSING:  Teach me God to wonder