Scriptures: I Samuel
2:18-21, 3:1-10, Psalm 19
2 Timothy 1:3-7, Luke 2:41-52
Today we witness the baptism of Timothy ____. Timothy will make vows to profess
Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, to resist the powers of evil, to follow in the
way of Jesus by resisting oppression and evil, by showing love and justice, and
by witnessing to the word and work of Jesus as best he is able. And Timothy’s parents and godparents will
promise to support him in this life-long commitment. Through the waters of baptism, Timothy dies
to the power of sin and rises with new life of Christ within him.
Wow! That’s a mouthful!
That’s a lot to say, and a lot to accomplish in one morning. And, of course, today marks a beginning, but
only a beginning. Timothy isn’t going to
grow angel wings and be perfect in the next half-hour or so. He still has all the learning and growth
ahead of him that we all did at his age.
Yes, Timothy, your parents were your age once. So was I, although that was a really long
time ago. We had to grow a whole lot and
learn a whole lot – and make lots of mistakes along the way – for your parents
to be parents and for me to be a pastor.
But today is an important beginning, as you make promises to God, and
spend the rest of your life learning what those promises mean, and living into
them. And today Timothy begins, as we
here all did at some point along the way, by saying yes to God, by saying yes
to Jesus.
In our Old Testament reading from I Samuel, we see the young
boy Samuel – roughly Timothy’s age – say yes to God. And I should start by filling in some of
Samuel’s backstory. There was a man
named Elkanah, who had two wives, Hannah and Penninah. (Yes, one man, two wives - they did things a
little differently back then.) Penninah
had children, but Hannah had no children – and in those days, for a woman to be
childless was considered a failure on her part.
Again, things were different then.
Of course, they always blamed the woman, and didn’t consider the
husband’s role. We’re told they went to
Shiloh each year to sacrifice – Shiloh was the main site of worship and
sacrifice at the time, as the Temple in Jerusalem would not be built for many
years. One year, Hannah lingered and poured out her
heart to God, begging God to give her a son – and she promised that if God gave
her a son, this son would be dedicated to God.
God answered Hannah’s prayer, and after her son Samuel was born, Hannah
fulfilled her promise, leaving her son with Eli, the high priest, to be trained
up in the ways of God. We’re told that
each year as Hannah and her husband Elkanah went up to sacrifice, Hannah
brought a little robe for her son, the priest-in-training, and Eli, the high
priest, blessed them for having dedicated their son to God’s service – and
we’re told Hannah had more sons after Samuel.
And that’s where we pick up today’s story.
Our reading gives us lots of wonderful details. Samuel is ministering to the Lord under Eli’s
direction, andn we’re told that in those days the word of the Lord was rare,
and that visions from God were few and far between. Eli, the high priest, who is also described
as a judge, a leader who helped administer law and keep civil order, is
somewhat of a tragic figure. We’re told
that he’s very old, and later we also learn that he’s very fat, as he’d been
living well off the people’s sacrifices – and that his vision was failing. There’s a parallel there – we’re told that
there were few visions from God, and that Eli’s own vision was failing. He himself had served God faithfully for
forty years, but in a section of I Samuel that we didn’t read, we’re told that
his two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were scoundrels, grifters we might say
today, grabbing the best parts of the peoples’ sacrifices for themselves and
their father, and taking advantage of those who came to worship – and that
while Eli chastised his sons, he was unable to call them back from their
corruption, from the racket they had set up for themselves around the people’s
sacrifices – a corrupt racket from which Eli himself had benefitted. Perhaps Eli’s failing eyesight paralleled
the blind eye he had turned to his sons’ wrongdoing.
But, we’re also told that the lamp of God had not yet gone
out. The boy Samuel heard a voice
calling his name, “Samuel, Samuel”.
Three times Samuel heard this voice, naturally thought Eli had called
him, and went to Eli. Twice Eli sent
Samuel back to bed – in my head I have this picture of Eli sounding like W C
Fields as he tells Samuel, “Go away, kid, you bother me.” But the third time, Eli realized that Samuel
had indeed heard a voice – not Eli’s voice, but God’s voice. Eli instructed Samuel to lie down, and if he
heard the voice again, to say, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is
listening.” And Samuel did just
that. Samuel would go on to take Eli’s
place as priest and judge, and indeed was the greatest judge of Israel and the
last judge before the start of the kingship in Israel. Samuel’s was a name that would live in sacred
history forever. And it all began with Samuel
as a small boy, wearing a little robe his mom made, ministering before the
Lord. While Timothy’s life journey
probably won’t look exactly like Samuel’s, who among us knows what plans God
has for Timothy’s life, how he will make his parents proud, how other peoples’
lives will be better because of Timothy.
In our reading from Paul’s second letter to Timothy – a different and
long-ago Timothy - we learn that Timothy’s faith came from his grandmother Lois
and his mother Eunice. And we pray that
the faith of our Timothy’s parents and godparents will live on in Timothy.
In our Gospel reading, we see another boy in the Temple –
this time the Temple is at Jerusalem, not Shiloh, and the boy is Jesus. Like Samuel’s parents, we’re told that Jesus’
parents had gone up to Jerusalem every year to sacrifice. And this one year, like Samuel, Jesus stayed
behind at the Temple, though by his own choice and not his parents’. Indeed, his parents were half out of their
minds with worry by the time they found him, as any of us would be. But in response to their anxiety, Jesus
calmly told them, “Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”
Of course, Jesus called Mary’s husband, Joseph, father –
but he also called God father. Jesus knew he had an earthly father who
raised him, and he had a heavenly father.
The same is true of Timothy.
Timothy has you, the parents and family who raised him, and today
through baptism, Timothy becomes part of a larger family, the family of the
church, the family of faith…..as Paul wrote, Jesus became the firstborn of a
large family. And this large family
extends not only around the globe, but also through time, including all who
were faithful to God in their generation.
As Timothy is baptized, it is both his birth family and his family of
faith, the great cloud of witnesses of all the faithful in every time and
place, who with God will be present in this moment. And as Timothy makes promises and his parents
and godparents make promises, we also make promises, to provide our love,
support, and care for Timothy. And I can
tell you that the church of my childhood
– it was a little country church in Berks County - the church I grew up in
fifty years ago, faithfully kept those promises of love, support, and
care. As I grew up, particularly in my
teen years, that church provided safety and stability at times when my family
of origin couldn’t. That church saved my
sanity, and that church saved my life.
While I devoutly hope Timothy’s journey is easier, know that love,
support, and care are present here in this place.
In response to God’s call, Samuel said, “Speak, Lord, for
your servant is listening.” Samuel said
“yes” to God, and that “yes” set the course of his whole life. In a few moments, Timothy, along with his
parents and godparents, will say “Yes” to God.
May we, the family of Emanuel Church, support Timothy and his family in
their “yes”, and may our lives be a continual “Yes” to God. Amen.
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