Responding to a Patient, Seeking God with a “Yes.”

Devotional Reflection, Friday, June 20, 2025

Proper 6, the week of Trinity Sunday

The Rev. David W. Perkins, Th.D.

Key phrases for  reflection in today’s reading:

6The LORD called again, "Samuel!" Samuel got up and went to Eli, and said, "Here I am, for you called me." But he said, "I did not call, my son; lie down again." 7Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD, and the word of the LORD had not yet been revealed to him. 8The LORD called Samuel again, a third time. And he got up and went to Eli, and said, "Here I am, for you called me." Then Eli perceived that the LORD was calling the boy. 9Therefore Eli said to Samuel, "Go, lie down; and if he calls you, you shall say, 'Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.'" So Samuel went and lay down in his place. 10Now the LORD came and stood there, calling as before, "Samuel! Samuel!" And Samuel said, "Speak, for your servant is listening."

You will find the full texts of today’s Samuel reading at the end of this reflection.

Daily Office Lectionary Readings (BCP, 970)

AM Psalm 88; PM Psalm 91, 92

1 Samuel 3:1-21; Acts 2:37-47; Luke 21:5-19

David’s Reflections

          Robert Thomas, the poet, voices a child’s unique magical and personal understanding of God in his poem “Foxfire.”

God is my secret; he knows I'm his girl. You don't

know what he's like. Sometimes he licks my face

like a cat lapping cream. I almost caught him once,

but he disappeared down the bole of an oak.

I know he loves me because he gives me presents.

I found a bottle cap once, Red Fox Root Beer,

on the path I take through the aspens. You've never

seen it in a store, have you? A sign clear as candy. *

          The little boy, Samuel, was given to God for the service of the sanctuary.  His mother, Hannah, barren and desperate had promised God her child were God to bless her with pregnancy.  Now, the boy was there, given by Hannah to God’s service and sleeping in the sanctuary.  The narrator gives the reader a clue to the story in verse 7, “Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD, and the word of the LORD had not yet been revealed to him.”  Samuel here was being called as a prophet.  He had not experienced God in such a personal and immediate way before.

           God came in that very personal and immediate way.  In verse 10, we read, “Now the LORD came and stood there, calling as before, "Samuel! Samuel!"  The narrator depicts God like a person standing nearby and calling Samuel by name in an audible human voice.  You will find a similar image of God in Genesis 15, which relates Abraham’s experience of God making covenant with him.

          Thomas’s poem captures a child’s experience of God’s immediate presence in phrases like “Sometimes he licks my face like a cat lapping cream.”  Samuel was clueless initially.  He needed Eli as a mentor to guide him, but Eli betrayed signs of spiritual dullness—it took three repetitions before he realized that God was dealing with the child.

          I see the incredible, energized faces of children in church.  Can we not believe that God keeps constant presence with them, as it was with Samuel?  Can we not sense that God calls them by name and seeks to guide and shape their lives?  Do we not understand that they come to each day with a primal sense of God’s presence, a sense they cannot verbalize in adult language, that they do not yet “know” the Lord but they are experiencing what they do not yet understand?  If we watch carefully and listen deeply, we will catch the hints of their sense of God’s immediacy.  To expect them to voice their experience in adult terms or to be able to explain it might well stifle them.  Better to receive them and to give gentle guidance that values their child-like ways of expression.

          This poignant story paints a poignant and compelling picture of God’s personal and gentle ways of approach to us all.  What sage advice Samuel received, "Go, lie down; and if he calls you, you shall say, 'Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.'"  Would that I would hear God’s voice among the myriad noises in my soul.  Would that I would respond consistently as did Samuel.

          Eli gave Samuel very simple guidance.  It was all Samuel needed.  He experienced the God of Thomas’s poem.

God is my secret; he knows I'm his girl. You don't

know what he's like.

May you and I experience the God of Samuel personally today.

* Robert Thomas, Door to Door: Poems. (New York: Fordham UP, 2002), p. 8.

Collect of Trinity Sunday

Almighty and everlasting God, you have given to us your servants grace, by the confession of a true faith, to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity, and in the power of your divine Majesty to worship the Unity: Keep us steadfast in this faith and worship, and bring us at last to see you in your one and eternal glory, O Father; who with the Son and the Holy Spirit live and reign, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (BCP, 228)

Collect of the Day, Proper 6, the week of Trinity  Sunday

Keep, O Lord, your household the Church in your steadfast faith and love, that through your grace we may proclaim your truth with boldness, and minister your justice with compassion; for the sake of our Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.  (BCP, 230)

Of the Holy Cross

Especially suitable for Fridays

Almighty God, whose beloved Son willingly endured the agony and shame of the cross for our redemption: Give us courage to take up our cross and follow him; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.  (BCP, 253)

In the Evening

O Lord, support us all the day long, until the shadows lengthen, and the evening comes, and the busy world is hushed, and the fever of life is over, and our work is done. Then in thy mercy, grant us a safe lodging, and a holy rest, and peace at the last. Amen.   (BCP, 833)

A Collect for Mission

O God of unchangeable power and eternal light: Look favorably on your whole Church, that wonderful and sacred mystery; by the effectual working of your providence, carry out in tranquility the plan of salvation; let the whole world see and know that things which were cast down are being raised up, and things which had grown old are being made new, and that all things are being brought to their perfection by him through whom all things were made, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.  (BCP, 280)

Daily Office Old Testament Reading, 1 Samuel 3:1-21

3:1Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the LORD under Eli. The word of the LORD was rare in those days; visions were not widespread. 2At that time Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see, was lying down in his room; 3the lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the LORD, where the ark of God was. 4Then the LORD called, "Samuel! Samuel!" and he said, "Here I am!" 5and ran to Eli, and said, "Here I am, for you called me." But he said, "I did not call; lie down again." So he went and lay down. 6The LORD called again, "Samuel!" Samuel got up and went to Eli, and said, "Here I am, for you called me." But he said, "I did not call, my son; lie down again." 7Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD, and the word of the LORD had not yet been revealed to him. 8The LORD called Samuel again, a third time. And he got up and went to Eli, and said, "Here I am, for you called me." Then Eli perceived that the LORD was calling the boy. 9Therefore Eli said to Samuel, "Go, lie down; and if he calls you, you shall say, 'Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.'" So Samuel went and lay down in his place. 10Now the LORD came and stood there, calling as before, "Samuel! Samuel!" And Samuel said, "Speak, for your servant is listening."

11 Then the LORD said to Samuel, "See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make both ears of anyone who hears of it tingle. 12On that day I will fulfill against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end. 13For I have told him that I am about to punish his house forever, for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them. 14Therefore I swear to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli's house shall not be expiated by sacrifice or offering forever." 15Samuel lay there until morning; then he opened the doors of the house of the LORD. Samuel was afraid to tell the vision to Eli. 16But Eli called Samuel and said, "Samuel, my son." He said, "Here I am." 17Eli said, "What was it that he told you? Do not hide it from me. May God do so to you and more also, if you hide anything from me of all that he told you." 18So Samuel told him everything and hid nothing from him. Then he said, "It is the LORD; let him do what seems good to him."

19 As Samuel grew up, the LORD was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground. 20And all Israel from Dan to Beer-sheba knew that Samuel was a trustworthy prophet of the LORD. 21The LORD continued to appear at Shiloh, for the LORD revealed himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the LORD.

Daily Prayer Offices in The Book of Common Prayer

Morning Prayer, Rite 2, page 75, Book of Common Prayer

Noonday Prayer, p. 103, Book of Common Prayer

Order of Worship for Evening (Vespers), p. 109, Book of Common Prayer 

Evening Prayer, Rite 2, page 115, Book of Common Prayer 

Compline (Night Prayer), Page 127, Book of Common Prayer

Daily Devotionals, page 136, Book of Common Prayer