October 12, 2025
Indianola Presbyterian Church, Columbus
“Speak, Lord, Your Servants Are Listening "
Sermon by Rev. Trip Porch
October 12, 2025 Based on 1 Samuel 3:1-21
It was the middle of the night. The lamps were still burning in the temple, but just barely. The old priest Eli was asleep in his room. The boy Samuel was lying down nearby. And Scripture says, “The word of the Lord was rare in those days; visions were not widespread.” You can picture the stillness: the heavy silence that hangs over a people who haven’t heard from God in a long, long time.
Maybe that silence feels familiar.
Maybe you’ve prayed and heard nothing back.
Maybe you’ve watched the news and thought, “Where is God in all this?”
Maybe the word of the Lord feels rare in our time too—rare in public life, rare in the church, rare even in our own hearts.
And yet—into that silence, a voice calls out. Not to the high priest, not to the powerful, but to a sleepy kid who doesn’t even know God yet.
Because even when the word feels rare, God is still speaking. Always.
The question is: will we listen?
We’ve been following the narrative lectionary this year which follows the narrative arc of scripture through the Hebrew bible and following that narrative arc, we’ve been with Moses and the people of God in exodus to now find ourselves in a new book of the bible, 1 Samuel. From manna in the desert to the work of building up a people. From way wilderness wandering to the forming of a society, a nation.
Between last week’s story and this one stretch the books of Joshua, Judges, Ruth, chapters of God’s people trying to find their footing in a new land, searching for leadership, for faithfulness, for purpose. and now Samuel, which moves us into the age of the prophets. People called by God to speak truth to people in their time.
And here, in this moment, when as the scripture says, “the word of the Lord was rare,”
God calls again: this time to a young boy named Samuel.
It’s a tender scene: the young boy, his old mentor,
a dim lamp burning in the sanctuary.
Silence. Stillness.
And in that stillness, the voice:
“Samuel… Samuel…”
This is a story that begins not with action, but with listening.
And here at the start of our stewardship season, I think it’s important to remember that’s where stewardship begins, too.
Before we talk about giving, about generosity, about mission or money
we must begin by listening for God’s voice.
Our stewardship starts with an attentive heart.
But I think this passage offers a lot of wisdom for this practice of discernment and listening,
Five things in fact.
1. to Listen, We Must Set Time Apart
The text says Samuel had lied down for the night. That posture matters.
he’s in a place where he’s not rushing or busy. He’s not working or talking or strategizing. He’s laid down in that liminal space between waking and sleeping, He’s still.
It’s in that quiet that Samuel hears something new.
Maybe this was the only still moment he had in his day, rushing from one thing from the next.
If he had been distracted: scrolling, solving, running, producing, he might have missed it entirely. Listening is a spiritual prayer discipline.
It’s not just hearing; it’s making space to be encountered by God.
How often do we practice that?
I feel like it’s rarer and rarer that we have time in our calendars to stop and listen for God’s voice: through Scripture, through silence, through the friendship of another person?
I feel like because it’s so rare, we crave space like this but also don’t know what to do with it when we find it… The silence almost feels deafening and we rush to fill that space… What if we don’t? What if we lean into that awkwardness, pause in the moment and listen.
In stewardship, this is the first step. Before we decide what to give, what to do, or even who to be as a church, we stop talking and listen. We ask: What is God saying to us now? What new word might be rising in the quiet?
2. God Calls by Name
God doesn’t start with a grand vision or a sweeping command.
God starts, as God so often does, with relationship, by calling Samuel’s name.
It’s personal, intimate. God knows this child’s name and calls him directly.
God’s call is not a vague broadcast it’s relational and unique to each person.
And it’s the same with us. God doesn’t just speak to “the church” in general; God calls particular people, in a particular time. God calls you, by name, into the work of love, generosity, and justice. God calls this congregation by name, in this neighborhood, This day, this month, this year.
Stewardship, then, isn’t about funding an institution, it’s about responding to a personal call. It’s about recognizing that the God who calls the stars by name also calls on each of us to live openly with the time we’ve been given, to serve faithfully as we are able, to give generously with what is ours to steward.
3. We Need Each Other to Hear God
This might be the most important one I think.
In maybe the most famous and also funny part of the story… Samuel doesn’t recognize the voice of God. Three times he hears it and assumes it’s Eli, the old priest sleeping in the next room over. Samuel; gets up to go ask what’s the matter, And Eli, for all his weariness, finally understands what’s happening and says, “Go, lie down; and if he calls you, say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’”
It takes both of them to hear God speaking. The young one’s openness, the elder’s wisdom. The energy of the new, and the discernment of the seasoned.
This is a picture of community, it’s a picture of the church: we help each other recognize the way God’s voice is speaking in ways we can’t understand on our own. Eli could see what Samuel could not. In the same way, we listen together, across generations, across differences to see how God is speaking in ways we may not be able to recognize.
Stewardship is a kind of communal listening as well. It’s not just about what I hear God saying to me, but what we hear God saying to us. It’s about discerning together what faithfulness looks like for this moment.
4. God is Persistent
Four times God calls Samuel. Four times! God doesn’t give up after the first missed attempt.
What a comfort that is. God is patient with our confusion, persistent in our distraction.
And God keeps calling: through the voice of a friend, the pull of conscience, the whisper of Scripture, the needs of our neighbors.
Sometimes it takes years for us to hear. Sometimes it takes a crisis or a conversation. Sometimes it takes silence. But God does not give up on us.
And if that’s true for us personally, it’s true for our church, too. Even if now we are in a time, as the scriptures say: when a word from the Lord feels rare, God has not stopped speaking. God is still calling Indianola Presbyterian Church: calling us into new faithfulness, new generosity, new life.
5. We May Not Always Like What We Hear
When Samuel finally listens, the message he received from God is difficult. It’s a word of truth about Eli’s house, a reckoning, a change, A hard word that God is asking Samuel to report back to his mentor.
Listening to God doesn’t always bring comfort. Sometimes it brings challenge. Sometimes God’s word unsettles us before it heals us.
So we might ask: what truths is God speaking to us that we don’t want to hear? What might God be trying to say that we are ignoring because its uncomfortable?
Maybe God is saying, “Let go of the way it used to be.”
Maybe God is saying, “We need to do the hard thing"
Maybe God is saying, “Trust me, I’ll be with you in this present moment but also in your future.”
Maybe God is saying, “Be generous even if you are afraid there won’t be enough.”
Hard words can still be holy words. And stewardship is the practice of responding faithfully, even when the call stretches us beyond our comfort.
When it all finally clicks for Samuel, when he hears God calling him by name and finally says what his mentor tells him, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening,” everything changes.
The silence of the sanctuary becomes a space for revelation.
The word of God, once rare, becomes alive again.
Our stewardship season begins there: with a posture of listening.
Before we act or give or plan, we listen.
Because stewardship isn’t just about what we have offer; it’s about responding to how we hear God calling us. It’s about making space for God’s call to take root in us.
So, over the next four weeks, I want to invite you the congregation into a kind of congregational listening and discernment practice.
A spiritual experiment in stillness.
Because the truth is—God is still speaking.
Even now in a hard time.
Even here in this old church.
Even when the word of the Lord feels rare.
So how might we, as a church, begin to listen more deeply in this season?
First, let’s make space for silence.
Samuel’s lying down in the quiet. Having stopped what he was doing for the day: stopped working, stopped talking.
Where are the quiet moments in your day? What if those moments became a prayerful act of Listening for God’s voice?
What if we collectively commit to sit quietly and attentively with Samuel’ simple prayer refrain on your heart, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening”?
Maybe while your coffee brews. Maybe in the car before you head home.
Find a daily rhythm of prayer that isn’t talking to or at God, but about inviting God to speak into the stillness of your life.
Second, let’s listen together.
Just as Samuel needed Eli, and Eli needed Samuel, we discern God’s voice in community.
In conversation, in prayer groups, in meetings, in choir rehearsals
let’s practice asking each other,
“What do you think God might be saying to us right now?”
Listening is not a solo act. It’s a team sport.
The vision God is giving rests with all of us, we all have insights, we all have a part of it. God’s vision for the church will be richer deeper if all of us listen and share what we hear.
Third, let’s listen try to listen outwardly to others.
God’s call on us is often echoed in the needs of our neighbors crying out for support.
How might we position in ourselves to be listen to God’s voice in the stories of those around us?
In students seeking belonging, in families at the food pantry, in those who feel forgotten?
Listening for God includes listening to one another.
Fourth, let’s share what we hear with each other openly. Whether it’s a good word or hard word.
Stewardship is about responding to what we hear God telling us.
As we listen for God’s call, pay attention to what God is stirring in your heart
where you are feeling drawn to give, serve, or share, and then please share that with us!
Tell someone about it in this church, shoot me a text, or come by office and tell me “You know, I feel like God is telling us to…” [blank]. We need everyone’s wisdom, creativity and discernment to understand what God is doing here.
Friends, this month let’s not rush to fill out pledge cards or meet a goal.
Let’s lie still in the temple, listening for God’s voice.
Listening for the word that may seem rare, but never absent.
And maybe, if we are quiet enough,
we will hear it:
a voice calling, tender and persistent “Indianola… Indianola…”
And may our hearts respond together,
“Speak, Lord, for your servants are listening.”
Amen.