Sunday Video Message – “Speak, Lord”

Order of Worship

January 17, 2021

Order of Worship

Prelude

Announcements 

Music

Prayer Concerns

Pastoral Prayer 

Message: “Speak, Lord”

Scripture: 1 Samuel 3:1-10 

Open Worship

Benediction 

Postlude

Announcements 

Good morning, and welcome to worship at University Friends! 

• Thank you, Rosemary.  Thanks also for technical support by Michael Barrett and Joe Dawley, music coordination by Dawn Blue.   
• We are live streaming on Facebook and the church website (wichitaquakers.org).  
  • Please feel free to share our worship with your Facebook friends by posting a link.   
  • Please also feel free to comment on the Facebook page with prayer concerns, announcements, or words of ministry. 
  • And if you worship with us online only and would like to be more connected, please leave a message on the Facebook page or website.  Someone will get back to you, and, if you wish, we can put you on the list to receive our weekly newsletter.   

Today 

• Monthly Meeting for Business at the rise of worship
• 3:00 p.m. ~ 205 Sunday Class via Zoom
• 5:30 p.m. ~ Great Plains YM in Person Praying as a Beacon on a Hill, here outside at the front steps

Church activities this week                                   

• Monday, January 18, 12:00 pm, Prayer with Sue 
• Tuesday, January 19, 7:00 pm, GPYM Online Prayer Witness
• Wednesday, January 20, 6:30 pm, Bell Choir
• Thursday, January 21, 8:30 am, Prayer with Kim

Music

Prayer concerns

• Sherry Johnson dealing with advanced cancer 

• The McDonald family 

• Our country at this time of a transfer of power 

• Our community as it deals with the pandemic 

• Our church

Prayer  

God of peace and justice 

May we find clarity and energy for the tasks at hand and the decisions we will need to make as we find our way forward.   May we find ways to use our assets wisely and well.  May we discover ways we are to be a beacon of love in our world. May we be looking for the doors you are opening, and may we have the courage to walk through them.  May we see what you are doing in our world and join you in it.

Message: “Speak, Lord”

Scripture: 1 Samuel 3:1-10 

While I have been here with you over the past year, we have been seeking answers to these three basic questions:  Who are we?  Who are our neighbors?  What is God calling us to be and do?     

We’ve gotten some clarity on the first two questions.  

Who are we?  Here are at least some of the emerging answers. 

We are diverse.  

• We have some racial diversity, though most of us are white.  
• We have some socio-economic diversity, though most of us are college-educated.   
• We are fairly diverse politically, with some conservative, some liberal, some progressive, some libertarian.   
• Theologically, we are Christian and Quaker (so not diverse in that way), but we do cover most of the Christian spectrum from evangelical to main line to liberal or progressive.    
  • As someone said in one of the Listening Groups, “We respect people’s faith journey, where they are. …  We can be Christians without agreeing on everything.”
• We want to provide a safe, accepting place, a safe harbor, a place where people feel good and want to come back.

We are Christian. 

• We do a good job of applying scripture to our lives in Sunday’s worship, which bridges ancient teachings to modern life.
• We have members who lean liberal Christian Quaker and those who lean evangelical Christian Quaker and quite a few in between. 

We are Quaker. 

• We value the SPICES, the Quaker testimonies:  simplicity, peace, integrity, community, equality, and stewardship.  These are part of our tradition, and they resonate with us today.   We would like to offer these to our world in more substantial ways. 

• Our worship is programmed with a significant amount of silence.  We are pastoral, not unprogrammed, and we are not primarily evangelical.   
  • The music in our worship services includes variety, and it is based on the gifts we have, which makes it joyful, neat, and appreciated. 
• As we make decisions, every member counts.  
• Among other Quakers, we are centrist. We have our strongest affiliation with the main-line Christian Quakers of Friends United Meeting. 

We are smaller than we used to be.  

• We have about a dozen children, toddler through early grade school.  
• We have a scattering of youth from later grades through high school and college. 
• We have a significant number of adults aged 30-40, a few in their 40s and 50s, and more in their 60s, 70s, and 80s. 
• Besides that, some people are gathering with us online that haven’t ever worshiped with us in person.   
• Most of us don’t live near the church; instead, we live scattered throughout the metropolitan area.

That’s gives us some sense of who we are. 

The second question is, Who are our neighbors?   

• Our neighborhood neighbors are more working class than professional.
• We are in or near the district of Delano.  
• The masonic home is a few blocks to the east. 
• Friends University is closer than that to the west.  
• We might think of the homeless families to whom we minister through Family Promise as our neighbors.   
• We have Quaker neighbors, at Heartland, Northridge, and Crossroads. 

What about the third question?  To what is God calling us?   That’s the focus of our attention over the next few weeks, including the all-church retreat, February 5-7.    

In relation to that, let us consider 1 Samuel 3:1-10.  This is from the New Revised Standard Version. 

3 Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord under Eli. The word of the Lord was rare in those days; visions were not widespread.

² At that time Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see, was lying down in his room; ³ the lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was. 

⁴ Then the Lord called, “Samuel! Samuel!”^[a] and he said, “Here I am!” ⁵ and ran to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But [Eli] said, “I did not call; lie down again.” So [Samuel] went and lay down. 

⁶ The Lord called again, “Samuel!” Samuel got up and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But [Eli] said, “I did not call, my son; lie down again.” 

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

⁸ The Lord called Samuel again, a third time. And he got up and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” 

Then Eli perceived that the Lord was calling the boy. ⁹ Therefore Eli said to Samuel, “Go, lie down; and if [God] calls you, you shall say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’” So Samuel went and lay down in his place.

¹⁰ Now the Lord came and stood there, calling as before, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”

We know from the accounts that follow, that God called Samuel to be a prophet, and he played a huge role in the forming of Israel as a nation and in the choosing of its first kings.  

We know from our own experience that sometimes God speaks in a voice as audible as the voice Samuel heard as a boy in the temple.   During my last year in seminary, as I was struggling to decide whether to stay in my marriage, I often heard God reassuring me:  “I love you, Cath.” 

Sometimes God speaks with a still, small voice.  

Sometimes God speaks to us with a quiet knowing.   I remember that my dream of pastoral ministry was this quiet knowing that grew in my heart, sort of like a baby growing in my womb.  

Sometimes God speaks to us through the words of others.  I remember three such times, which were turning points in my life:

• My vacation Bible school teacher, when I was about 10 years old:  Would you like to ask Jesus into your heart?  
• The leader of a small group in Newberg, Oregon:  What is your ministry?    
• A workshop leader at a ministry conference in Chicago:  What is at the heart of your specific call?   

I ask you this morning – to what is God calling you?   

As a basis, we know that God calls all of us to love God and to love our neighbor as ourselves.  We know that the Spirit bears the fruits of “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness, and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23).   Those are given, expected of every faithful follower of Christ. 

More specifically than that, to what is God calling you?  If you were the young Samuel, and you responded to God, “I’m listening,” what would God say to you?   Today, at this time in your life, to what is God calling you?  [Pause.] 

Then, as I have done before, I want to refocus that question to us, to you as a congregation – to what is God calling us?   To what is God calling you as a church?  

To what is God calling University Friends? 

• If God is calling us to diversity, how do we live that out in our community?  How might we show that to our neighbors?   How could we let people know that that’s who we are?  
• If God is calling us to be Christ-centered, how might that be part of our work in the world?  
• If God is calling us to be Quaker, how could we make the meaning of that clearer?   What might it mean to be a Quaker in 21^st-century Wichita?   
• What would it mean to be more visibly Quaker in our world?   How could we live out the SPICES? 
  • Simplicity
  • Peace
  • Integrity
  • Community
  • Equality 
  • Stewardship 
• If God is calling us to be a bridge among Wichita Quakers, how might that work out with our intentions?    
• If God is calling us to be a thriving community, how could we nurture that in our midst?  
• If God is calling us to have a robust relationship with Friends University, what would that look like?  What would we need to do to put feet to that call? 

Speak, God, for your servants are listening.  

Open worship

Benediction 

Postlude