We continue today, into this season of Epiphany, praying and hoping for God to be made manifest to us in ways we can grasp and comprehend. As we go, to help us and ground us, each Sunday in our worship service, we are renewing our fundamental commitments-first to God, through the renewal of our baptismal vows; then to God's mission, last week through the visit of two of our missionaries; today to God's kingdom of love and justice; and next week to God's church, on the day of our annual Church Conference.

Through it all, we are seeking God and seeking our deepest vocation as disciples. We are looking, listening and praying for God to be made manifest in our lives and through our calling. We are trying to hear God's voice, and trying to discern where God is leading us now. For, unlike those first three wise men, there's no one star in the sky now charting our course. It's up to us to figure out where God would have us go, and it is often hard to find our way. Sometimes in unexpected ways, God helps us.

We heard Brian and Linda read earlier from First Samuel the exchange between Eli and Samuel. Remember: Eli was an old priest with a reputation for prophecy. But, because of his advanced age, he was no longer able to guard the sanctuary, a job now entrusted to the young trainee, Samuel. Meanwhile, Eli's own sons were taking advantage of their father's weakness. They were abusing the power they were to inherit, cheating and stealing from the people. They were desecrating the temple and taking for themselves the best parts of the sacrifices the faithful people brought as offerings. They were licentious, horrible, abusive leaders. And, so the story goes, the Word of the Lord was rare in those days. Was God keeping silent in the face of such abuse, or were God's people just not listening?

In the midst of all this, Samuel was, perhaps, an unlikely hero. He had spent his childhood in the temple, assisting, and training to be a full-time servant of God. He was young, inexperienced, self-deprecating, as befits a servant. He was quiet, unobtrusive, certainly unaccustomed to autonomy and authority.

Young Samuel was on duty that particular morning. He was awake and heard someone address him. He kept thinking that he was hearing Eli calling him. Back and forth they go in something of a bad comedy. "Samuel, Samuel," the voice calls. Samuel runs to Eli and says: "You called?" "I didn't call you. Go back to sleep."

Finally, Eli, guesses what's going on, advises Samuel to lie back down and listen for the voice of God and what to say in response. Sure enough, God appears and speaks again and Samuel replies, "Speak, for your servant is listening," as Eli had instructed.

On his own, Samuel hadn't been able to hear God's voice. He needed Eli in order to hear God speaking to him. He needed Eli to interpret what was happening to him. And the fact of the matter is, you see, sometimes we all need each other, in order to hear God speaking to us, in order to hear what God is saying to us.

As we might imagine, the next morning, Eli asked young Samuel what he had heard. Samuel is reluctant to speak the bad news, but finally, at Eli's urging, he relays that Eli's corrupt house will fall and he, Samuel, will be lifted up, to rule over God's people with righteousness.

We gather today and hear the story of Samuel and Eli on the eve of our national Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday. For some of us, this is a day of memories. Of images of a man, and those days of the '60s. Images of marches and beatings. Images of singing and speeches. Memories of incredible courage and hope.

For some younger, these must be days of learning. About a young man born in Atlanta, Georgia on January 15,1929. Son of a preacher. Graduate of Morehouse College, top student in his class at Crozier Theological Seminary, PhD recipient from Boston University. Ordained in the American Baptist Church. Preacher. Scholar. Husband and father. Pastor. Nobel Peace Prize Winner. Student of the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. Disciple of Jesus Christ.

Martin Luther King, Jr. often recounted the story of his own life and calling. He certainly hadn't set out to be a national civil rights leader. His pastor father had pushed him into the ministry, and he was the kind of obedient child who did what his father said. He said he had wanted a quiet life as a professor, maybe someday rising to be President of his alma mater or pastor of a church in the South.

But, through a strange turn of events, being articulate and a more or less willing public speaker, he found himself thrust into the limelight of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. He began receiving threats on his life and that of his young family. He reports that he was very afraid and wanted desperately to run away from it all, to turn from this moment in history and resume his quiet, safe life. But he said, it was as if he heard a voice, God's voice, calling him, saying, "Martin, you do what's right. You stand up for justice. You be my drum major for justice. I'll stand with you."

At a time in our nation when some would say the Word of the Lord was rare, at a time when God's people were suffering, God sought out a new leader to bring vision and hope. Now remember, Martin Luther King, too, had his Elis who helped him know that God was speaking to him, and what God was saying and how he should respond. After this experience, he talked it over with his father and with his wife. He checked it out with a few close associates. As he began to live into his new vocation for God, he continued to test it out with those whose opinion he trusted.

I know that some of you out there today have heard God's voice just as clearly as young Samuel and young Martin came to know they did. You've told me about some of your experiences, and how it can be both empowering and frightening to hear God speaking so plainly to you. And so you test it out, with a trusted friend, your spouse, your pastor. You live into it to see if your experience bears out what you think you heard from the Lord.

And then, I know that others of you, like me, never seem to get such a clear signal from God. You're not really sure. Is it you, God? Are you talking to me? What was that you said? Sometimes I joke that I wish God would just leave a note under my pillow when there's something really important to be said. I call this the "Tooth Fairy" model of divine communication. If you're not going to speak to me in a loud voice, God, couldn't you at least leave me a note?

Well, so far, God hasn't taken me up on this proposition. No notes. Sometimes a "clearish" voice, I think. A glimmer. An insight. An intuition more than a clarion call. And so, I, too, need others to help me hear, even as the boy Samuel and the young man Martin did. As we all do, each in our own way.

I would be remiss today if I did not lift up the name of a saint of the church who has long been an "Eli" in my life. Mildred Hutchinson was 105 years young when she went home to be with the Lord last Friday. A very active laywoman in the United Methodist Church, Mildred served in her local Faith UMC, as President of the Conference UMW, as a member of the General Board of Church and Society and on our Conference Board, on the Board of the La Plaza Community Center and the Los Angeles District Urban Ministry Foundation.

Throughout her life, Mildred was a voice for justice and equality. She was quick to identify wrongs and make sure the church was addressing them to set things right. As she aged, she used the telephone as her tool in this prophetic ministry, phoning daily a whole range of people including the bishop, the district superintendent, pastors and laity, to lift up what "we" needed to be working on. When she called me, as she reguarly did, that "we" clearly meant "me."

I will miss her very much, and still imagine that I'll hear her voice calling to me from the pone. But, I take comfort in knowing that she is no doubt now pestering God with a long list of things to be set right on this earth!

Part of the imperative and invitation of the Martin Luther King holiday is to listen for the ways in which God might, indeed, be calling us today. To find and honor that part in the drama which each of us is called to play. To help one another hear God speaking to us today, and respond.

You see, God continues to raise up ordinary people to do extraordinary things in response to the many ways God's people are in need. God has a way of working in the world to bring forth justice and set things right. God has a way of restoring balance when things have gotten out of whack. The Lord does speak at the needful time. And when God sees the people being oppressed, mistreated, God looks around and finds a Samuel, a Martin, one of us-and God speaks loud and clear.

There are many, many things that must be done to make justice a reality in this world. Often we feel too young, too old, too inarticulate, too insignificant, to do anything at all. The small efforts we do make seem inconsequential. We don't think we hear God saying anything, to anybody, let alone us! And if we do, we worry that we're going crazy!

We need to be Elis to one another, and help each other discern among the voices competing for our time and allegiance. We need to support one another in finding the courage or maybe just finally being fed up enough to say "No" when we hear or see or experience something in our daily living that is just plain wrong. We need to help each other interpret what we have come to understand to be ultimately important, and then invite one another into deeper discipleship.

We heed, O Lord, your summons
And answer, "Here are we!
Send us upon your errand,
Let us your servants be.
Take us and make us holy.
Teach us your will and way.
Speak, and behold! we answer.
Command and we obey.