The Fourth Wednesday After Pentecost: Icons of hope

Lessons: Psalm 119:97-120, 1 Samuel 2:12-26; Acts 2:1-21; Luke 20:27-40

On Sunday when we are at Greenacre we go to two small Churches in order to have racial diversity. Such is life in rural NC.  This past Sunday at one of the churches there was a new altar server.  He was focused and encouraged by everyone it seemed.  When the altar candles were unlit, I noticed it just before the procession and gently went to the back to remind him.  It was in hand. No one could find the matches.  Once found, all went perfectly with a nod here and there to help him. I was encouraged by his presence, traveled back to remember when I was so young and focused on the altar.  At the peace he spoke with utter Southern politeness. I traveled back again. 

It turns out this was his first time serving at the altar.  He was small for fourteen, so seemed younger except for his manners and a confidence in his bearing.  When the two senior girls graduated high school, his grandmother, who is a core member, asked him to come, learn the role and help out.  That explained in part the tremendous care he was given and returned at the altar.  I hope we will all sustain him well and he continues to find this gift of self a place of import and encouragement.  He is an icon for me of the freshness of seeking God and being found in proximity to the altar.  I hope I may be an icon for him as one long in this search and service, but it is most likely his grandmother, who embodies this so well, will be this for him or is this for him.

The boy Samuel in the first reading today was such a youthful icon for Eli. By extension, he is that for us also. We read of Eli's sons today who have taken the holy place for granted and turned it from holiness and wonder to gain, casual misuse. It is as if they no longer see that people who come to Shiloh, come to touch the holy with their own offerings, which are by extension their very selves.  One might say Eli's sons are in some way jaded by too close a proximity or by inheritance of a position before God.  They have lost a fresh hope of expectation that here one grows into the eternal by daily steps, by faithfulness in ordinary things, like assisting peoples' hope and offerings to God by their own mere but reverent presence.

Perhaps they do not see their father as an icon of one long on this search and service. We do not know why.  It is suggested that they have been indulged by a father, perhaps by limited expectation.  We are told this displeases God. By contrast, "the boy Samuel continued to grow both in stature and in favor with the LORD and with the people." 1 Samuel 2:26

We each have the potential to be icons for one another.  An icon is an image we peer through to see the Holy Other or to encounter the search of one who seeks God. This encounter is based on the energy of faith.  

We read in Hebrews 11:1-, "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Indeed, by faith our ancestors received approval.  By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible."

Eli and Samuel are in some sense icons for each other.  Samuel looks to Eli to show him how to live faithfully in a responsible relationship to God.  His mother's annual visits of care are also an icon not fully valued here. She is now spoken of only glancingly.

Samuel is a place where Eli and Hannah also can see the wonder of God in fresh faith and practice.  Perhaps it causes them to remember when their faith was born, their wonder was new, their hope fresh and lively. 

Surely this is true for Hannah who was so long barren and now so fruitful.  It was her earnest prayer for a son like Samuel met by God's "yes" that is her core story.  Each time she looks on Samuel she remembers what it is in faith to hope. 

Perhaps that is what happens for me when I look on a young earnest altar server.  I am reminded what a gift faith is, how powerful hope can be when entrusted to God.  Don't we each live with some hope that others who see us, will also encounter God in some humble but true way.

Faith feeds faith.  Where now does mine feed others', perhaps someone young enough to feed yet others'?