Sunday, February 26, 2017

The Promise of Youth

Today the youth led our worship service at Vestavia Hills Baptist Church. I mean the WHOLE service! Our youth often participate in worship events at our church, reading Scripture, bringing special music, and ushering, but today they were in charge of everything. Even the sermon! Milligan Burroughs, a Vestavia Hills High School senior, delivered the message with all the poise and composure of a more practiced preacher. And a worthwhile sermon it was, pertinent and profound.

Milligan preached on the well-known text in 1 Samuel chapter 3 where young Samuel, asleep in the temple, hears God calling him in the night, but thinks it is the prophet, Eli.  Three times Samuel leaves his bed and goes to Eli's room in response to the voice he hears. After the third time, Eli realizes it is God calling so he tells Samuel to return to his bed and when he hears the voice to respond by saying, "Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening."

I have heard quite a few sermons based on this text over the years, but never with the emphasis Milligan brought. She asked us to imitate Eli! Every previous message I've heard using this Scripture, has urged the congregation to imitate Samuel: Listen for God to speak to you and when he does, answer that you are attentive and receptive to his words. And Milligan didn't neglect that aspect of the text, but additionally, she urged us to take on the mentoring role for other believers--not just our young people, but even for our peers. As she pointed out, Samuel might not have recognized God's call to him had Eli not pointed him in the right direction.

What makes this affirmation of Eli's role unusual is that Eli had become displeasing to God in the way he administered the temple. He had allowed his sons to assist when the people brought animals for sacrifice, and they would demand of the one offering the sacrifice to give the choicest part of the meat to them rather than allowing it to be burned for God. They refused Eli's attempt to restrain them and engaged in other sinful activities as well. When God spoke to Samuel in the night, God told Samuel He was about to bring judgment on Eli and his sons because of their wickedness. Consequently, Eli comes out of the story without praise or commendation.

Milligan's unique approach to the text, however, recognized that Eli also had a positive role: He pointed Samuel to God and encouraged him to listen and heed God's instruction. In that way, even though Eli's time of service was coming to an end, God still used him to affirm God's calling of Samuel. Milligan applied that lesson to her own journey and expressed appreciation for her family, friends, and church family who are encouraging her as she seeks to discern and heed God's call in her life. And then, she urged us to follow Eli's example in our relationships with each other as well as with our youth.

A simple message, yet profound. I came away not only resolved to look around for people whom I might help listen to God, but also reminded that God sees us as more than the worst things we have done. Even though Eli had displeased God, God had not forgotten the years of Eli's faithful service. God allowed Eli to be His instrument in helping Samuel grow into the new role and responsibility God had for him. I hope I remember this lesson when I may be too quick to surmise that someone can't be of use to God because I see them doing things displeasing to Him.

Thank you, Milligan, for a thoughtful and stimulating engagement with God's Word this morning. And let me take this opportunity to affirm the gifts I see in you and encourage you to keep on listening as God calls your name.

Friday, February 10, 2017

Black History Month, the Civil War, and Reconstruction

My knowledge of Black History is woefully limited, although I know much more than I am comfortable with. I was a teenager when Birmingham was making a name for itself during the Civil Rights demonstrations of the 1960s, and I ought to have known more about what was happening. What little bit I knew of those events at the time of their happening, however, came by way of newspapers and television news programs because I lived in a small town relatively unaffected by city happenings.

My knowledge of the Civl War is a bit deeper because we studied it in school. But my knowledge of the Reconstruction Era following the Civil War is more limited than that of either the war or the demonstrations. Thanks to a lecture I heard last year at the Hoover Public Library, delivered by Dr. John Mayfield of Samford University's History Department, I've begun a process of trying to rectify that a bit.

There are so many post-war issues I had never even considered such as the small and limited federal government of that time, which had no provision for re-building destroyed rail lines, for sustaining the lives of those who had lost home and property during the War, for re-assimilating Confederate soldiers into the political life of the nation, for re-establishing banking and commercial enterprises, and for so many other practical issues we take for granted as functions of the federal government today.

Philosophically, I lean toward less government rather than more, but this small introduction to the practical realities of trying to reconstruct the South, has made me much more mindful of how fortunate we are to have a central government that concerns itself with recovery from natural disasters, with protection and sustenance of its citizens in times of hardship and distress, with provision of free public education, etc.

Dr. Mayfield's recommended reading for his lectures was Stephen Ash's A Year in the South, 1865, which is on my near-term reading list. I've added to that Tanner Colby's Some of My Best Friends Are Black: The Strange Story of Integration in America, thanks to a knowledgeable friend's recommendation. I missed last year's airing on PBS of the documentary, Slavery by Another Name, which I'm told gave vivid testimony to the inhumane excesses of the Reconstruction Era here in Birmingham that continued the obscene devaluation of Black Americans. That's on my near-term watching list, if I can bear it.

Sometimes I feel so ignorant of local history, even history that I lived through. Sometimes it is history I wish I didn't know, that I wish didn't happen, because it is so gruesome and disturbing to confront. Still, I need to know and I am grateful for public libraries that sponsor informative lectures, for authors who research and write enlightening books, and for Alabama Public Television that provides educational programming to help me overcome what is lacking in my education. So much in life for which to be grateful. Such powerful testimony to why humankind needs a Savior.