we've been testing you
& you failed
Today God calls Eli’s charge, Samuel. Samuel, the boy. Samuel, the prophet-in-training. When God first calls Samuel, though, Samuel isn’t sure what’s happening. As a novice in all this God-business, he thinks it’s his supervisor calling. An innocent mistake for a trainee.
Eli, however, should know better. After all, discerning the voice of God is the stuff his career is made of! When Samuel goes to Eli, though, it takes Eli not once, not twice, but three times to figure out what’s going on! And sadly, that’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Eli’s blunders.
There was the time Samuel’s mom, Hannah, was in the temple thanking God for giving her a child after she and her husband had been unable to conceive. When Eli saw Hannah praying, though, he thought she was drunk! Eli couldn’t tell the difference between a grateful parishioner and someone who’s dipped into a little too much of the communion wine!
Then there were Eli’s sons, which is central to Samuel’s prophecy today. Eli’s boys grew up in the parsonage. And although they didn’t have any strong feelings when it came to all that God-business, they did like the perks of the job. So when it came time for them to choose a career, they used their connection to get placements in the finest churches on the right side of town.
The “blasphemy against God” in Samuel’s prophecy is a reference to the boys’ practice of skimming a little off the top of the offering plate! When Eli caught wind of it, though, he couldn’t find it in himself to bring the hammer down.
And then, to top it all off, there’s Eli’s pathetic response when it comes to Samuel’s prophecy. When Eli learns God intends to replace him, rather than pleading with the Lord, Eli just shrugs! “Well, it is the Lord,” he sighs, “let him do what seems good.”
Not much of a priest, if ever there was one.
…In business, this is referred to as the “Peter Principle.” The “Peter Principle” asserts that people tend to be promoted to the level of their incompetence. The principle of the Peter Principle is that we promote people for doing a good job. And that’s an effective strategy. But only until it isn’t!
At a certain point, promoting someone is the last thing you want to do! At a certain point, even the best workers will turn out to be disasters! This is because, at a certain point, what you’re asking someone to do is work they’re not cut out for! In other words, the reason your boss is such a dolt at work is that, well, they are! At least, in that position, anyway.
While the Peter Principle may be a useful tool for businesses, it’s also helpful for all of us here today. The Peter Principle is named for the gentlemen who came up with the concept, Laurence J. Peter. For us, though, we might think of Jesus’ disciple, Peter.
Peter was, all things considered, not a half-bad disciple. Things tended to go sideways for him, though, when he tried to bite off more than he could chew when it came to all that God-business. Which he regularly did.
The truth, though, is we tend to do the same thing, too. Don’t we? But, while this principle may spell disaster in the business realm, it spells salvation here in Christ’s realm, the church! This little outpost of his Kingdom on the edge of town!
…Martin Luther put it like this, “Christ bore his suffering and cross and thereby transformed all suffering and every cross into a blessing—doing us no harm and even being salutary and most beneficial.” In other words, when Christ came down from heaven, he buried his salvation in all those places we crash and burn!
When Samuel delivers the prophecy that Eli is about to be defrocked, Eli’s entire career comes crashing down. But God used that smoldering future to do something new! When Eli lost what was his all along, he finally received everything only a true minister of the Lord can deliver!
In the words Samuel spoke to Eli, Eli couldn’t manage his failures anymore. But as they all came crashing down on him, Eli caught a glimpse of something he’d never seen before! All those sacrifices and offerings he had presided over weren’t any accomplishment on his part. On the contrary, they were a gift of God! A pointing ahead to what God has been up to since the very Beginning, himself!
In these words, “It is the Lord; let him do what seems good,” Eli sees that he cannot do a thing about his sin, that there’s no sacrifice or offering he can give to expiate it! Eli admits he’s as hapless of a priest as he’s ever been in his entire unremarkable career. And that’s when he starts to be as good of a priest as you could ever hope to be, or get!
These words of Eli, “It is the Lord; let him do what seems good,” they are not the end of his career. Rather, they are the beginning of it! In these words that sound to our ears like resignation, Eli finally starts to sound like a real priest! A priest none had ever heard before, in fact!
In those words, Eli sees ahead to what no priest before him had ever dared to glimpse, God taking matters into the divine hands! Christ’s divine hands pierced for our inequity. God expiating sin, not with a sacrifice or offering on our part, but by God’s own Son! In other words, Eli sees ahead to Jesus Christ! Jesus Christ, the last and perfect sacrifice! Before Eli could see all that, though, he had to witness his entire career come crashing down.
In fact, after this, all we ever hear of Eli again is him sitting by the side of the road. He’s blind by then, but his heart is well attuned. He’s trembling for the Ark of the Lord.
There was a battle going on, and Israel had taken the Ark out onto the battleground. Well, Eli was sitting there, fretting after the Ark. And when he found out it had been stolen, Eli dead on the spot. Eli was a faithful priest. But first, he had to fail at trying to be one.
These words of Eli, “It is the Lord; let him do what seems good,” they’re not the culmination of a failed priesthood. No, they’re the beginning of a faithful one! They’re the confession of a priest who’s finally grasped what his calling is all about. “It is the Lord, let him do what seems good.” And these words are the beginning of faith for you, too!
When you can’t manage your own career, family, or even faith anymore. When you can’t cover up your sin. When all you can do is cry out, “it is the Lord, let him do what seems good,” then you will be standing at the open door of faith!
And that’s not all, either! Because the Lord will do what seems good in that moment! God will give, not demand, a sacrifice! God will send the Holy Spirit to deliver to you every last benefit of Christ’s perfect sacrifice for you! His blood that covers all your iniquity. His death that conquers your death. And his resurrection that raises you up to new life in him, too!
These words, “It is the Lord, let him do what seems good,” they’re not the end of faith. No, they’re beginning of it! So let’s say them together: It is the Lord, let him do what seems good. Yes, it is. And yes, God will.
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* Luther’s Little Prayer Book, the Second Part of the Creed
* 1 Sam. 4:12-18
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