In “preaching study” posts, I share study & reflection as I prepare the Sunday message . I welcome interaction in this process, so feel free to share your thoughts. All Scripture quotes are from the NRSV unless otherwise noted. Thanks!
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This coming Sunday, February 4, I’ll continue preaching about OT characters. This week is Samuel. I intend to look at his life as a whole, but we will use the classic story of his calling in 1 Samuel 3:1-10 as the text we read. You can read it here.
Samuel is sort of a bridge person between the days of chaos in the period of the Judges and the days of glory under David. Eli is important, yes, but Samuel is the more significant. Samuel is something of a miracle child and is made an offering to God by his mother before he had any say in the matter. He then is called to prophesy against the house of his mentor Eli. Samuel leads Israel as a judge in the days prior to a centralized government with a king, then faces the rejection of the people, though God does reassure him that it is he, God, that the people are rejecting and not Samuel. Samuel anoints Saul, and watches him fail, then anoints his successor David. All in all, quite a career. More to come, but I welcome any thoughts even at this early stage about the life of Samuel. One other rather obvious striking thing about Samuel is that the stories that encompass the beginning of the kingdom of Israel are named for him as the period’s most prominent prophet rather than for David, the period’s most prominent king and the “man after God’s own heart.” Remarkable that as great and influential as David was, and as revered as he is by the tradition, the place of privilege in naming the collection of stories goes to the prophet and not the king.
Thoughts?
Guy M Williams 
Man Guy,
I missed your series. I will have to plan ahead so I am not doing things at my usual church next time you preach.
PAX
JD
Well, I’m preaching on Elisha this coming Sunday (11th) in the evening and then on the following Sunday (18th) in the morning services…on something in the bible. Look forward to meeting you sometime. What church is your current home?
First United Methodist Downtown. We are in a re-building phase, well I call it that, and I thought of going to The Woodlands for a while, but after prayer and a few intercessory people and events, I stay where God wants me right now.
I believe I am going to Leeland Sunday evening, maybe, for my b-day, I hope. I will make it a point to be there for the random sermon on the 18th. Which morning service?
PAX JD
Cool. First has always been such a great church and a leader in our conference. Congrats on the birthday. Our morning services are at 8:30 and 11:00am. Look forward to meeting you. Hopefully I’ll get to blog that sermon’s prep more that last week’s, or this week’s for that matter–which I haven’t begun blogging!
Looks like I will be missing Leeland tonight. My wife has some school work to finish, which means I am in charge of the entertainment of our daughter. :) No problem there. So will you be preaching both services? I look forward to meeting you to.
PAX
JD
Yep, both morning services. It’s Scouting Sunday…so we’ll see how that relates. I’m an Eagle Scout, so I’ll have to explore ways to connect. I actually preached the morning services a couple of weeks ago for UMW Sunday and preached from Exodus 1, the story of Shiphrah and Puah.
See you Sunday. Assuming I blog this sermon prep (as I’d like to), feel free to interact if you like.