One night a mother was reading to her little son the story of God’s call to Samuel. When she finished the little boy looked up at his mom and asked, “When is God going to call me?” I seriously doubt that little boy understood that he had just asked a profound theological question. I find myself wondering if that little boy ever came to the realization that God was constantly calling him. I find myself wondering if we realize that God is constantly calling us.

How? How does one hear God’s voice among the many voices which clamor for our attention in today’s frenetic world? Although Samuel was in the temple, near the Ark of the Covenant where the Israelites believed the spirit of God dwelled, he didn’t understand that the voice he was hearing was that of God. It took his mentor, Eli, old and almost blind, to help Samuel “see” that it was God who was calling him.

Of course, it helps to listen. Listening is a lost art in today’s society. How many of us, when we are gathered with other folks, and a topic is being discussed, are busy formulating our response in our minds, rather than listening to what others are saying? We are so afraid that our opinion isn’t going to be heard that we fail to listen to what others are saying. I suspect our failure to truly listen to one another is a major, if not the major reason, for so many failed relationships in our society…person with person, nation with nation.

What does it mean to listen? Bible commentator Eugene Peterson says: “Listening is an act of personal attentiveness that develops into answering.” Let me repeat that: “Listening is an act of personal attentiveness that develops into answering.”

Looking at the call story of Samuel, we see the truth of that statement. Samuel was listening. He heard a voice calling him; four times as a matter of fact. But it wasn’t until the fourth time, when Eli pointed out to him the possibility that it was God who was calling, did Samuel truly answer.

Oftentimes, it is in community that we hear God calling us. Certainly as Presbyterians we believe that. Next week we will ordain and install our new deacons and elders to the class of 2008. It was in community that these folks discerned God’s call upon their lives, at this season in their life, to serve God’s church in this particular way. At the very least, it is often in community that our call to serve God in a particular way is affirmed.

Currently, both Carolyn(Christie) and Mike(Sorsen) are enduring the rigorous process to become a Minister of Word and Sacrament. To become a Minister of Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (USA), one has to jump through a lot of hoops: a three-year seminary degree, meetings upon meetings with Committee on Preparation for Ministry, examinations, endless forms and paperwork, presentation before Presbytery several times. While it does seem a pain, there is a reason for it. That process is actually the community helping to confirm that God is truly calling one to serve God’s church in professional ministry.

Right now, we here at Northminster are going through a process to discern God’s vision for our life and mission and ministry. Your officers began this process early in the fall when we gathered to share with each other things we had learned as a result of reading we had done over the summer during Jim’s sabbatical. At our most recent meetings of the Session and Diaconate, we shared with each other hymns and scripture that speak to us of what we feel God’s vision for us is. This coming weekend, at our annual Officers’ Retreat, we will again engage in exercises to continue this process of discerning that vision to which God is calling us.

Some of you may be wondering why it is taking so much activity to discern our vision. Some of you may feel you know exactly what vision God will lay before us. And… you may be right. But one of the ways God speaks to us is in and through the community of believers.

I remember a Session meeting (in a former church where I was then serving as an elder). The pastor was on one side of an issue and the entire Session was on the other. The pastor kept trying to change our minds about the item we were discussing. Finally, one of the elders looked at the pastor and said, “Pastor, you know, God speaks to us, too.” Obviously, there is a lesson in that for all of us who take on the cloak of professional ministry to remember, and to also remind our congregations, that we are not the only ones God speaks to.

Actually, God speaks to every one of us. God has been calling to us since the moment of our birth. God has been pursuing us, desiring to be in relationship with us. That is why God became human in the person of God’s son, Jesus Christ.

But what about everyday life? What is God calling us to do day in and day out?

I believe that God calls us in every aspect of our lives… In our work, in our play; with our family, with our friends; with our neighbor, with the stranger; with the poor, with the rich; with those who look like us and with those who do not look like us. Wherever we are, whatever we are doing, God is calling us to show the love of God, known to us in the person of Jesus Christ.

Let’s face it... most of us are quite ordinary. There may be some extraordinary people among us. Maybe there is a future Olympic athlete sitting here with us today. But most of us go about our lives doing our jobs, going to school, raising our families, caring for our homes, doing whatever it takes to get through the week. And we don’t often think about how what we are doing might affect those whose sphere we may enter, even if only for a moment.

In 1883, two friends graduated from the University of Michigan Medical School. One tried to persuade the other to go to New York City where he felt they would experience a financially rewarding and prestigious life. When his friend seemed reluctant, he said, “Will, you’re a fool. The Middle West is a cheap place to study medicine, but no place to practice it. There’s nothing here but small towns and farms and none with any money. You’ll never make a dime out here.”

Will hesitated and then said to his friend, “It’s a tempting picture you paint, Ben, but what about the people here? They need good doctors too, even if they can’t always pay. No, I think I should go back home to Minnesota and give them all the help I can.”

The two friends went their separate ways. It isn’t known what happened to Ben when he went to New York. Maybe he did get rich and live a glamorous life. Maybe not. Will stayed in Minnesota and ended up partnering with his brother Charles. That partnership resulted in a hospital that treats people from small and large cities around the nation and the world. Will’s last name was Mayo, and the hospital he and his brother established is the Mayo Clinic.

An ordinary person who listened to God. Do you think Will Mayo knew what would happen when he returned to Minnesota rather than going to New York? Do you think Samuel knew he would become one of the greatest prophets of the Old Testament that night he responded to God by saying, “Speak, for your servant is listening?” American novelist Frederick Buechner has written: “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”

God’s call upon your life is there whether or not you have a job.

God’s call upon your life is there whether you are in school or out of school.

God’s call upon your life is there whether or not you are physically or emotionally well.

God’s call upon your life is there whether you believe yourself to be someone ordinary or someone extraordinary.

God’s call upon your life is there whether you feel like answering God’s call or not.

God’s call upon your life was there yesterday, is there today, and will be there tomorrow.

God calls each one of us by name to be a part of God’s grand design to bring God’s creation back into complete and right relationship with God. God’s call on your life today may be something as simple as smiling at and thanking the person who serves your food at the restaurant where you eat following this service. It may seem a small thing to you, but you don’t know what that person is experiencing in their life right now and your smile and appreciation may be like the sun breaking through on a cloudy day for them.

I wish I could give you a simple formula to understand what God is calling you to do in your life. It would be so easy if I could just say, “Do this, this, and this and you will have a clear understanding of what God is calling you to do.” I suspect that many of us actually do have a clue as to how God calls us. For some of us, it is that still, small voice or the wisdom and guidance of the people around us. Yet for others of us it is a combination of both the silence of our hearts and the community that surrounds us. What is important for us to grasp is that God calls us, each one of us, usually in ordinary places and through ordinary people; sometimes in extraordinary places and through extraordinary people. The question is: Are we listening?

Those of us who were around in the 1970s remember the show, "Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In". On that show, Lily Tomlin had a skit she would do acting as a telephone operator. (Some of you are nodding your heads…you remember.) When Lily would answer the phone, she would say, “Is this the party to whom I am speaking?” No matter how often you heard her say that, you would always laugh because it was so obvious that the person she was speaking to was the person she was speaking to. God knows that God is calling to us. Are we listening… and are we answering?  Amen.