First there is Samuel.
A shy little kid whose mother, after years of infertility pleads her case with the Lord.
Promising him that if he grants her wish of a boy
she will send him to seminary to study for the priesthood.
In those days that did not necessarily mean celibacy but it did mean no hair cuts, not alcohol and no carousing…
The most famous of what where called Nazrites.. was Samson others included John the Baptist, the prophetess Anna possibly the Apostle Paul. Acts. 21.20ff.

So, at age two, little Samuel came into the foster care of the aging, half-blind priest Eli.
It was during his teen years, late one night or early one morning that Samuel thought he heard the old man call for him.
He presented himself to Eli and asked what he wanted..

This happened several times. . Each time Eli told Samuel to go back and to quit waking him up… finally the old man
wises up or wakes up or both, and tells Sam that if he hears his name called again to say “Speak Lord, for your servant is listening”
Samuel is just about to doze off again, and he hears his name –
He responds and is told that God is about to do something that “ will make anyone who hears it of “tingle”

Which is another way of saying it will make the hair stand up on the back of their neck.
In a nutshell Sam learns that Eli and his priestly Dynasty is about to come to a screeching halt.

In the NT the process of the call is a little different.
This time the call comes to grown men already in the full time vocation of the fishing business.

After an encounter with Jesus some of them decide to leave the work of sea for a more philosophical career and they become fishes of men.
The thing that is clear from the reading of their encounter, is that nothing is clear at all.
Like little Samuel they are not sure what it all means and how this man Jesus knew so much about them when he had never laid eyes on them before… as one of them said about Jesus “can anything good come out of Nazareth?” “Come and See!”

With both Samuel and the disciples there must have been a few “what if” moments.
As a matter of fact most what if moments come after we sign up. And it so for them as well.

All of this raises the question
How do we know when God is speaking?
I recall the interview with a psychologist as part of my application for seminary.
The pace was Huntsville Al. the same Lutheran Church – where Dr. Verner Von Braun was a member.
After a bit of chitchat, (called establishing rapport),
the good Dr asked if I felt called to the ministry.
I said yes. He said how do you know? He asked if god had written me a letter or called me on the phone?

From then on, the interview went down hill.
It got especially interesting when he asked me about my name and I told him that it was the name of my mothers OBGYN.
But I’m digressing.
That brings me to someone else who has wrestled with the “what if’s “
In two days he will become the 44^th president of the U.S.
In his book the Audacity of Hope (which continues to head the NY Times best seller’s list),
Pres. Elect Obama writes about his life.

The what - ifs really got to him as he writes about first attempt at the Ill. Senate seat…I held a press conferences to which no one came.
We signed up for the annual St. Patrick day parade and were assigned to the last slot – a few paces ahead of the city’s sanitation workers who where cleaning up.
I had to rely on my friends and acquaintances to invite who ever might come to their homes.

Sometimes after several hours of driving I would find just two or three people waiting for me at the kitchen table. I would sit through church services and the pastor would forget to recognize me.
He summarizes his values. .
I am angry about politics that consistently favor the wealthy and powerful over the average American.
I am suspicious of using government to impose anyone religious beliefs - including my own- on non-believers.
I believe in free speech whether politically correct or incorrect.
I believe in the free market, competition and entrepreneurship.
I carry few illusions about our enemies – and revere the courage and competence of our military.

Whether you are a Democrat or a Republican –
Mr. Obama will be your president, so let us pray that God will sustain him and give him the wisdom, knowledge and courage to lead us for the next four years, without getting shot.

So, how do we know that it is God’s voice that is calling out?
Biblical epiphanies give us a clue.
We know that Spirit blows where it wills and that it is not for us to control the wind..
Like the proposed windmills for energy – we can put ourselves into the Spirits path..
in such places where there are those work for justice, those who worship weekly, places where the hungry are fed and the homeless are given shelter, and those in prison are visited..
But even that is no guarantee that God will not choose her own time and pace .. all of which may come as a surprise to those of us who don’t like surprises.

Fred Beuchner in writing of God’s way of getting through to folk in unlikely places writes

I discovered that if you really keep your eyes pealed and your ears open and if you really pay attention… even such a limited and limiting life as I was living on Rupert Mountain, opened to extraordinary vistas – taking your children to school and kissing your wife good-bye, eating lunch with a friend, trying to do a decent day’s work, hearing the rain patter against a widow.
There is no event so common place but that God is present within it, always hiddenly, always leaving you room to recognize him or not recognize him (her), but all the more fascinatingly because of that, all the more complellingly and hauntingly.

Amen