{"id":2451,"date":"2019-02-05T11:42:56","date_gmt":"2019-02-05T16:42:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/?p=2451"},"modified":"2019-02-18T21:38:50","modified_gmt":"2019-02-19T02:38:50","slug":"hearing-leadings-by-doug-bennett","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/?p=2451","title":{"rendered":"“Hearing Leadings,” by Doug Bennett"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

From a message given at Durham Friends Meeting, February 3, 2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the\nBible, Samuel is a boy who has been apprenticed to old Eli, the priest at\nShiloh.  One night Samuel hears a voice\ncalling him, and he goes to Eli, but Eli hadn\u2019t called him.  It happens again, and again.  Finally Eli tells Samuel it is the Lord calling\nhim, and Samuel says \u201c\u201cSpeak, for your servant is listening.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story is presented to us in a way that says God spoke to\nSamuel. God did not speak to Eli or to his wicked sons.  But I\u2019m not sure\nthat\u2019s how we should hear it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s another story, one especially\nimportant to Quakers.  The times are troubling.  There\u2019s war, there\nis inequality, there is corruption and deceit.  Sound familiar?  A\nconfused young man, let\u2019s call him George, is trying to understand how to be a\ngood person, how to know what God hopes he knows and how to do what God expects\nhim to do.  He asks a lot of wise people (let\u2019s call them the Elis of this\nworld) to help him figure this out, but they don\u2019t prove much help. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then\none day George is out for a walk, a long walk, wondering, thinking, praying,\nand he hears a voice say to him \u201cThere is one, even Christ Jesus, that can\nspeak to thy condition.\u201d  That George, of course, was George Fox<\/a>.  The year was 1647; Fox was 23. \nAnd so begins the movement, the spiritual revival we call Quakerism.  We\ngather here today and every first day inspired by that Leading. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Fox hears that day, what Fox realizes,\nis that God will speak to each and every one of us, if we still ourselves and\nlisten. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This suggests a different slant on the Samuel story, I\u2019m thinking.\u00a0 It is not that God spoke to Samuel and not to Eli and not to Eli\u2019s wicked sons.\u00a0 It\u2019s rather that Samuel heard what God was saying, and Eli and his sons did not.\u00a0 God is talking to all of us all the time.\u00a0 That is what George Fox realized.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We gather here each Sunday in that\nconfidence, that God will speak to us if we still ourselves and listen. \nThe question is, will we listen? Can we hear what God is saying?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How do we hear God\u2019s call to us?  It is\nclear we can miss it.  That\u2019s the main burden of the Samuel story. \nSamuel was in the best place, right there at Shiloh, but he was still confused\nat first. How do we prepare ourselves to hear God calling?  Eli helped\nSamuel hear what God was saying. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps we can help one another. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My\nfriend and mentor Paul Lacey wrote a wonderful Pendle Hill pamphlet on \u201cLeading and Being Led<\/a>.\u201d  He uses another example\nto understand leadings: the example of John Woolman<\/a>.  Woolman was an 18th<\/sup> century Quaker\nwho was among the first to call attention to the evils of slavery and to press\nhis fellow Quakers to renounce it as well.  And Woolman made striking\nefforts to befriend the indigenous peoples of North America.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But\nafter discussing Woolman\u2019s efforts, Paul Lacey says \u201chis example is instructive\nand inspiring, but \u2018be like Woolman\u2019 may not be helpful advice to those of us\nstill struggling to be ourselves with integrity<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That speaks to my condition.  I am\nstill struggling to \u201cbe myself with integrity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then Lacey adds: \u201cPerhaps more apposite\nadvice is to be \u201clike members of Woolman\u2019s meeting:\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLearn with and from one another how to listen and probe and wait ;<\/p>

\u201cHelp each other to be faithful to leadings;<\/p>

\u201cBear with one another\u2019s confusions and shortcomings;<\/p>

\u201cPersist in expecting the best from one another;<\/p>

\u201cPractice speaking the truth in love.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The entire message is available at Doug’s blog, River View Friend<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From a message given at Durham Friends Meeting, February 3, 2019 In the Bible, Samuel is a boy who has been apprenticed to old Eli, the priest at Shiloh.  One night Samuel hears a voice calling him, and he goes to Eli, but … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":213,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-message"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9rLvf-Dx","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/213"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2451"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2451\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2461,"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2451\/revisions\/2461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}