Samuel 3:1-11
I would have been more excited if I knew who the guy was, but he must be pretty important because a story about him was the first thing that popped up on two of the news feeds on my computer. I had heard his name but since I am not one of those folks who follow popular culture people closely I had no idea what he did or what he was famous for.
The big news? Over the New Year’s weekend Shia LaBeouf became a Christian and had been confirmed in the faith at the Old Mission Santa Inés [Roman Catholic] Parish in Solvang, California.
I can tell by the looks on your faces that I am not exactly speaking to the Shia LaBeouf fan club here. Please, if you are in the building, no getting out your phones to Google him and, if you are at home, no pushing pause on the computer to look him up. To save you time I’ll tell you who he is.
Mr. LaBeouf, is a movie star who “is best known for his roles in 2007 movie “Transformers” and in 2008 movie “Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull.”1
Again, by looking at you, you’ve still got nothing. So, I’ll go on.
LaBeouf had a few run ins with the law in his life but according to the well-known theological journal, People magazine, he began his faith journey while making the film “Fury” in 2014. He became more and more interested “in the church's teachings while he prepared for his role in Padre Pio.
"’If you like immersive experiences and you get tasked with playing Pio, your life is going to change,’ LaBeouf said about how the role affected him.”2
While some of you are still wondering about who LaBeouf is, I hope most of you are rejoicing that he has come to faith.
I also hope all of you take note of the timeline. He worked on the film "Fury" in 2014 but it wasn’t until he starred in the film about Padre Pio which was released in 2022 that something began to take hold of him.
Pio was an Italian priest who in the early part of the 20th century “received the stigmata (bodily marks corresponding to the wounds suffered by the crucified Jesus) for the first time, though they eventually healed. He received the stigmata again in 1918, and this time they remained with him until his death.”3
While I don’t know Mr. LaBeouf personally, indeed, I’m not quite sure even now that I know who he is, this indicated to me that it took eight years – starting 2014 –when he first became interested in the faith until he finally fell into the arms of Jesus in 2022.
It was a long time before he heard the call, and he accepted it. That seems to be vastly different from the “call story” we have before us from today’s scripture.
The story of the prophet Samuel’s call in the temple is not only every Sunday School and preachers dream it offers cynics a field day. Think about it. “If someone says ‘I heard God speak to me, I tend to think that he’s hearing his own hunches or preferred stirrings.”4
While I am not exactly with her all the way, what the wonderful author Debi Thomas wrote of this scene still explains a little of my reaction and perhaps yours.
I was a high-strung kid with a radar for creepy things, and I actively feared the night. I knew that if I heard a strange voice calling my name in the darkness, I wouldn't be able to speak a word for terror. I would bolt out of bed, run to my parents' room, crawl into bed between them, and refuse to budge till morning.
These days, if I hear a voice in the night, I probably won't call up my parents. But I will question my sanity. Or cut back on caffeine. Or sign up for yoga. I'll probably do everything but believe that God is talking to me. If my childhood issue with Samuel's story was that it felt too real for comfort, my issue now is that feels too un-real.5
We don’t expect a word from on high calling our name and we certainly wouldn’t expect it to be in this place, in the middle of the night, making sure none of the candles went out. Besides, the alarm would go off, the police would show up, things could get ugly.
Yet, there they were, Eli whose priestly sons were as corrupt as two persons could ever be, staring at the ceiling with a vague sense of doom hanging over his head because the Lord has been as silent as only the Lord can be. “Prophets,” says Professor Paul Keim, “wouldn’t know a vision anymore if it bit them in the behind.”
Yet, the kid in the next room seems to be having one. “So, what’s eating the kid? Indigestion? Fleas? No, this boy is sharp. Maybe this is one of those rare cases of a divine call. If it happens again, {Eli tells himself} you better instruct the boy how to respond. Just in case.”6
And what does the old man – who was probably younger at that time than I am now, and I am old – say? They first two times he says to his young charge, ““Son, I didn’t call you. Go back to bed.”7
But, the third time. When the voice comes the third time and the young man shows up at his bedside again Eli takes the hint that something just might be going on. “That’s when it dawned on Eli that God was calling the boy. So Eli directed Samuel, ‘Go back and lie down. If the voice calls again, say, ‘Speak, God. I’m your servant, ready to listen.’” Samuel returned to his bed.
“And the Lord came and called as before, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel replied, “Yes, I’m listening.”8
What he heard not only made his ears tingle but the hairs on the back of his neck stand straight up.
Both Samuel, the youth, and Eli, the elder, dare to listen, though the content of God’s speech to each is quite different. The boy receives God’s promise of a bright future; the old priest hears a word of devastating judgment.“The lamp had not gone out.” God was still speaking then, God is still speaking now. “I am about to do a thing at which the ears of everyone that hears it will tingle.”9
It would have been nice if the God of the Covenant had chosen to break silence for a more cheerful message. But Samuel hears what he hears, and repeats it faithfully. Eli understands that God will do what God will do. Things will change. And the people who have endured his misdeeds will be helped.
This is a difficult story. The wrongs done to the {people will be made right} but at a high cost to Eli and his sons. And it reminds us of one thing: God remains free to speak and to act in ways we do not expect.
We need to hear this today, with power politics turning us into competing audiences divided by mutual suspicion and hostility. We need to hear this when our best efforts and intentions can feel so futile. We need to hear this when you wake up one morning and everything is rosy and it looks like you are finally getting it all together and then by nightfall everything seems to fall apart as the wheels come off your well-constructed wagon.
God is still acting in ways we do not expect.
When we read those countless articles about the church in decline and then discover good, well-meaning, but maybe even dispirited church people are buying into every word and seeing a future that is nothing but bleak.
Yet, God is still speaking and somewhere, somebody's ears are tingling.
Maybe that is why the story of Shia LaBeouf intrigued me so much. Okay, maybe I didn’t know who he was but I don’t know a lot of people. His actions last New Year’s in a California monastery when he allowed himself to be embraced by the faith are in direct contrast to what we have been experiencing. To put it is stark terms: Just when lots of people were getting off the church bus, he was getting on.
God's unexpected word to Samuel and maybe even the uninvited word to Lebeuf reminds us that our world is not frozen in its patterns of conflict and suffering. That God is still at work. God keeps coming to us, and coming to us, and coming to us. Nothing seems to deter Jesus in his desire to be with us and have us be with him.
If we take a moment, or a few moments, or nine years of moments to be embraced by Christ’s love. It will be time well spent.
If we follow Jesus, really and truly follow Jesus, the word of the LORD spoken to Samuel will come true in our lives, our churches, and maybe even in our land. “See, I am about to do something ... that will make both ears of anyone who hears of it tingle” and say with the young man in the Temple as yet unknown to the multitudes and the movie star Shia LaBeouf whose conversion made the news, “Here I am Lord, send me, send me.”
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1. Luis Andres Henao, “Shia LaBeouf Converts to Catholicism after Being Confirmed at New Year’s Eve Mass,” AP News, January 6, 2024, https://apnews.com/article/shia-lebeouf-actor-catholic-church-conversion-47cc67b06d9ce3f436c745f0faf1a84f.
2. Tommy McArdle, “Shia LaBeouf Confirmed into Catholic Church, Reportedly Intends to Become a Deacon.,” People Magazine, January 4, 2024, https://people.com/shia-labeouf-confirmed-into-catholic-church-8422317.
3. “Padre Pio,” Encyclopedia Britannica, January 5, 2024, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Padre-Pio.
4. James C. Howell, “What Can We Say January 14? 2nd after Epiphany,”January1,2024, https://jameshowellsweeklypreachingnotions.blogspot.com/2023/01/what-can-we-say-january-14-2nd-after.html.
5. Debi Thomas, “The Outsider Prophet,” Journey with Jesus - Previous Essays and Reviews, January 18, 2015, https://www.journeywithjesus.net/Essays/20150112JJ.shtml.
6. Paul Keim, “CALL ME: 1 Samuel 3:1-10; John 1:43-51; Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18,” The Christian Century, January 11, 2003, https://www.christiancentury.org/article/2003-01/call-me?code=m8X6BOabDC7DlbpLI6UT&utm_source=Christian%2BCentury%2BNewsletter&utm_campaign=817040c9f2-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_SCP_2024-01-08&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-31c915c0b7-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D.
7. 1 Samuel 3:6-7. (MESSAGE) [MESSAGE=Eugene H. Peterson, The Message: The New Testament in Contemporary English (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress,1995).]
8. 1 Samuel 3:10b. (TLB) [TLB=The Living Bible. (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale Publishing House, 1971)
9. Benjamin Dueholm, “A Scarce and Precious Word,” Day 1. Weekly Broadcast (Day1.com), accessed January 16, 2021, https://day1.org/weekly broadcast/5ff3518d6615fb2a57000010/ben dueholm a scarce and precious word.
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