“In the Middle of the Night” (I Samuel 3:1-20)

We have all heard the phrase, “If it was easy, everyone would be doing it.”  So it is with faith.  If having faith was easy . . . everybody would have it; but, alas, everybody doesn’t have it.  Faith is difficult, and even those who number themselves among the faithful find it difficult at times.  And, if we are going to be honest with ourselves, we would admit that we have struggled with faith and God’s call upon our own lives.

Author, psychologist, and Episcopalian priest, John A. Sanford, wrote a book many years ago called Dreams: God’s Forgotten Language.  In this book he argues that God--the living God, still speaks to us in a day and age that many have proclaimed that God has become silent.  And, he argues that the means in which God talks to us is in an ancient way . . . in a way that we have forgotten.  God speaks in dreams.  The problem, states Sanford, is that we have forgotten this language of God.

In the Old Testament, God spoke to Abraham in Genesis 15:1, where the writer tells us: “After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: ‘Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be great.’”   In Genesis 20:1-7, Abimelech, the king of Gerar, who took Abraham’s wife Sarah into his harem because Abraham had told him she was his sister . . . he was warned in a dream from God not to touch Sarah because she was Abraham’s wife.  In Genesis 28:10-17, we learn of Jacob’s dream of a ladder reaching to heaven on which angels ascended and descended . . . then later, in the middle of the night, his wrestling match with God.  And, then there was Joseph . . . one of the most famous dreamers.  God spoke to Solomon through dreams . . . and, also Daniel. 

There is much evidence that God spoke through dreams in the Old Testament, and the New Testament has its fair share of examples of God speaking through dreams.  A few weeks ago we heard about the old priest, Zacharias, who would have a son in his old age . . . that son being John the Baptist.  God spoke to Joseph telling him to marry Mary . . . to flee to Egypt, and to return from Egypt.  Pilate’s wife sends word to her husband to free Jesus because of a dream she had had.  Ananias is convinced by God in a dream to go to Paul--the persecutor of Christians, and to take care of him.  Peter has a vision . . . a dream . . . while he is praying  about eating clean and unclean animals, that heaven is open to all.  Paul, too, had dreams.

In the scriptures there is much evidence that God speaks in the language of dreams, says Sanford . . . and, yet we have forgotten this.  God is still speaking . . . still speaking to us in dreams.  The issue is one of waking up to this fact . . . of becoming conscious of this act . . . of listening and following.  We just have to listen.

Which brings us to another story of God speaking in the middle of the night.  In this story, God speaks to Samuel--a young boy who is under the care of an old priest by the name of Eli.  Samuel serves as a kind of apprentice to Eli.  It is during one night, after everyone has gone to bed, that Samuel is awaken by a voice talking to him . . . he assumes that it is the old priest, Eli, calling for him.  So he goes to Eli, awakens him, saying, “Here I am; you called me.”  Eli sends the boy back to bed.

Two more times this happens . . . a voice calls out for Samuel . . . Samuel runs to Eli and wakes him, only to be told to go back to bed before Eli realizes who it is that is calling Samuel.  At that point Eli tells the boy that if it happens again, he is to stay there and say, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.”  And, Samuel does as he is told.

Sure enough, a fourth time, the voice calls out Samuel’s name.  Instead of running to Eli, Samuel stays put and says, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”  At that point, God speaks . . . God tells Samuel of the impending judgment upon Eli and his sons for the sins they have committed.  The next morning the old priest wanted to know what God had told Samuel, but Samuel was afraid to tell him of God’s condemnation upon the house of Eli.  But, Eli insisted . . . and Samuel laid it all out.  And, so it came to be.  As Samuel grew, God took care of him . . . and, the writer of this story tells us: “The Lord was with Samuel as he grew up, and he let none of his words fall to the ground.  And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba recognized that Samuel was attested as a prophet of the Lord.”

God spoke to Samuel . . . in a dream.  Most of us think of dreams as something that happens to us as we sleep.  So it was for Samuel . . . God spoke to him in the middle of the night . . . told him of the fall of the house of Eli . . . something that Samuel feared telling his mentor.  The fear held him back, and it was only with the prodding and assurance of Eli, that Samuel finally told him what God had said.

The writer tells us that it was fear that held Samuel back.  Author Paulo Coelho, writes: “There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.”  And, so it is with faith.  Because we fear that we will fail God or even ourselves we never strive to heed the call of God in our lives . . . to step out to where God is calling us to go . . . to live as God wants us to live.  So, because of this fear, we hold back . . . and, we struggle . . . we struggle mightily . . . we enter into what the saints and mystics of the faith call the dark night of the soul.

In the gospel hymns we are told that the “darkest hour is just before the dawn” . . . a reference to the struggle of faith . . . of moving through the darkness to discover and embrace the light.  Think of Jacob and his dreams . . . the heavenly ladder as he struggled with his running away from what he had wrongly done to his brother . . . his wrestling with God.  Jacob was struggling.  Think of Joseph and the struggles he was dealing with when God came to him in a dream and told him to marry Mary.  These were dark nights of the soul . . . and, they came in the night.

So, God speaks to us in dreams . . . dreams that happen in the middle of the night.  It is in the night that we struggle.  Are we listening?

It was in 1993 that singer, Billy Joel, probably said it best in his song River of Dreams.  Joel wrote:

In the middle of the night
I go walking in my sleep
From the mountains of faith
To a river so deep

I must be looking for something
Something sacred I lost
But the river is wide
And it's too hard to cross

And even though I know the river is wide
I walk down every evening and I stand on the shore
And try to cross to the opposite side
So I can finally find out what I've been looking for

In the middle of the night
I go walking in my sleep
Through the valley of fear
To a river so deep

And I've been searching for something
Taken out of my soul
Something I would never lose
Something somebody stole

I don't know why I go walking at night
But now I'm tired and I don't want to walk anymore
I hope it doesn't take the rest of my life
Until I find what it is that I've been looking for

In the middle of the night
I go walking in my sleep
Through the jungle of doubt
To a river so deep

I know I'm searching for something
Something so undefined
That it can only be seen
By the eyes of the blind

In the middle of the night

I'm not sure about a life after this
God knows I've never been a spiritual man
Baptized by the fire, I wade into the river
That runs to the promised land

In the middle of the night
I go walking in my sleep
Through the desert of truth
To the river so deep

We all end in the ocean
We all start in the streams
We're all carried along
By the river of dreams

In the middle of the night

God speaks to us . . . speaks to us in the middle of the night . . . speaks to us in the language of dreams.  Shows us the possibilities . . . the hopes . . . the struggles . . . the love, and the grace.  Speaks to us of desire . . . intimate desire to reconnect . . . to make whole and holy once again.  Whispers upon our heartstrings . . . pushes our souls.  God calls to us . . . calls to us to come . . . to come into the bottomless pit of love and grace.  Isn’t that what we are all looking for?

And, yet, we struggle . . . we struggle in the middle of the night . . . struggle that we just might fail.  We experience the dark night of the soul.  It is that fear that keeps us from realizing the dream . . . of answering God’s call.  Being faithful is never easy.

But, take heart.  Take heart for we can defeat that fear and succeed in hearing and realizing God’s voice in our lives.  Take heart for we have been given an example through a small boy.  In the story of Samuel we are shown how we are to respond.  We are to respond with our presence . . . Samuel proclaimed, “Here I am.”  We are to listen . . . Samuel responded to God: “Speak, for your servant is listening.”  And, then we are to live the call placed upon us by God . . . to live it no matter how fearful we might be.  In doing so, just like for Samuel, God will not abandon us . . . even in the middle of the night.  Amen.