this is just a draft--it's still more than 24 hours before preaching time, so lots can happen! ;-)
Rev. Teri Peterson
PCOP
judging by the cover
1 Samuel 15.35-16.13 (Psalm 51)
20 October 2013, NL 4-7
Samuel did not see
Saul again until the day of his death, but Samuel grieved over Saul. And the
Lord was sorry that he had made Saul king over Israel.
The Lord said to
Samuel, “How long will you grieve over Saul? I have rejected him from being
king over Israel. Fill your horn with oil and set out; I will send you to Jesse
the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons.” Samuel
said, “How can I go? If Saul hears of it, he will kill me.” and the Lord said,
“Take a heifer with you, and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.’
Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do; and you
shall anoint for me the one whom I name to you.”
Samuel did what the
Lord commanded, and came to Bethlehem. The elders of the city came to meet him
trembling, and said, “Do you come peaceably?” He said, “Peaceably; I have come
to sacrifice to the Lord; sanctify yourselves and come with me to the
sacrifice.” And he sanctified Jesse and his sons and invited them to the
sacrifice.
When they came, he
looked on Eliab and thought, “Surely the Lord’s anointed is now before the
Lord.” But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the
height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the Lord does not see
as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the
heart.” Then Jesse called Abinadab, and made him pass before Samuel. He said,
“Neither has the Lord chosen this one.” Then Jesse made Shammah pass by. And he
said, “Neither has the Lord chosen this one.” Jesse made seven of his sons pass
before Samuel, and Samuel said to Jesse, “The Lord has not chosen any of
these.” Samuel said to Jesse, “Are all your sons here?” And he said, “There
remains yet the youngest, but he is keeping the sheep.” And Samuel said to
Jesse, “Send and bring him, for we will not sit down until he comes here.” He
sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, and had beautiful eyes, and was
handsome. The Lord said, “Rise and anoint him; for this is the one.” Then
Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the presence of his brothers;
and the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward.
Samuel then set out and went to Ramah.
 |
| it's a weakness... |
I have a confession to make. Even after nearly 30 years as a
reader, I am still guilty of judging a book by its cover. If you write a book,
make the cover burgundy with gold or silver print, put a girl in a princess
dress on the cover, and I will probably buy it. There’s just something about
that look that draws me in and makes me absolutely certain I am going to love
the book enough to spend money on it, not even just put it on hold at the
library.
We all know that “don’t judge a book by its cover” is about
more than books. And we also all know that it’s not just books we judge by
their covers. Research has shown that people who are conventionally attractive
are more likely to get the job, the promotion, the raise—regardless of whether
the less attractive person is equally or even more qualified. We know that
appearance matters in politics, in dating, in the workplace. And yet today we
hear these words from the Lord: “I do not look as humans do. You look on the
outward appearance, but I look into the heart.”
How often have we overlooked a book that we might love,
because the cover wasn’t just right?
And how often have we assumed that the right look equals the
right choice? Or even gone to the other extreme and insisted that it’s possible
to look too good for something?
When the Israelites had first asked for a human king, one of
the signs that Saul was the chosen king was that he was head and shoulders
taller than everyone else in the assembly. Samuel and all the people said “He
has no equal among us!” Yet ultimately, Saul forgot that the job of a leader is
to work for the common good, and he worked for himself instead. Saul forgot
that the Lord is the true head of the body, and he acted as if he was the
powerful one. Saul may have been a mighty warrior, looked presidential, been
taller than everyone else, and had the right power tie and appropriate sized flag
pin, but his heart turned away from his call. And God was sorry—the Hebrew says
that God repented—for making Saul king.
We don’t often think of God repenting. To repent means to
turn away from one thing and toward another, to turn one’s life around. It’s
not just about feeling bad or apologizing, but changing, transforming. For God
to repent of making Saul king is for God to recognize wrong and to change to a
new path…and that new path leads Samuel straight toward Bethlehem.
The leaders in Bethlehem are worried when they see Samuel
approaching—makes me wonder what they had to be worried about? Whatever they
thought was happening, though, Samuel’s real task is much more disturbing. One
by one, the sons of Jesse present themselves before the prophet. One by one,
Samuel notes their trappings of worthiness—height, strength, haircut, eye
color. One by one, God notes something else that Samuel can’t see, and keeps
looking. Finally the youngest, least likely, least promising child, the one
sent out to do the dirty work no one else wants to do, sleeping in the fields
with smelly sheep, is brought in. His complexion is odd but his eyes are
beautiful. It is this one—the youngest, dirtiest, unsuspecting one—who gets oil
dumped on his head without warning and told he will be the next king of Israel.
Throughout scripture we read of the people God calls, and
it’s almost always the unlikely, imperfect, insane choice. The Thursday Bible
study has been overflowing with “oh look, another younger son chosen first.” It
seems God has made a practice of preferring the underdog, whether we’re reading
about Jacob and Esau, Rachel and Leah, Joseph and his older brothers. The
gospels continue the theme, with Mary the unwed teenager, Peter the impulsive
loudmouth, angry Paul transformed into prison correspondent extraordinaire. God
has a history of using the least of these to carry on the story.
And so we follow David, from the sheep pasture to the
battlefield to the palace. He ends up being a great warrior and the greatest
king of Israel, the one known as “a man after God’s own heart.” But remember
that the heart God saw in him was far from perfect. Even the chronicler says
that David walked with God…except in
the matter of Uriah the Hittite. You may remember that many years after the
story we heard today, David the wildly successful king saw a woman, took her,
and when he was about to be found out, he had her husband killed. He managed to
break basically all of the commandments in one fell swoop. That capacity for
hurt, for wrong choices, for evil—that capacity was in David’s heart that day
that God chose him to be king. And still he was the one anointed.
That capacity for wrongdoing, for acting on unhealthy
impulse, for hurting others, is in our hearts too. The question is whether we
also have the other thing residing in David’s heart, the thing that reflected
God’s desire for leaders: the capacity to be confronted with our wrong and to
repent. That was something Saul lacked. Rather than repent of his wrongs, Saul
tried to justify himself, as many political leaders often do. But the leader
God calls needs to be able to receive the feedback, recognize their own sin,
admit mistakes, and move forward on God’s new path—just as God did when looking
at the king situation.
This kind of self-awareness, critical reflection, and
willingness to be vulnerable is rare, not just among leaders but for all of us.
We would much rather pretend we were not in the wrong, keep doing the same
things over and over, or make excuses for our mistakes. It’s hard to admit when
we are not right. Though we practice every week during the prayer of
confession, we still have to work at being honest, open, and vulnerable with
one another as well as with God. Perhaps that’s what God saw in David’s heart—a
great capacity for faithfulness, for leadership, for wrongdoing, and for
repentance.
Not everyone is called to be king, any more than everyone is
called to be a pastor or an elder or a deacon. But everyone is called to
ministry, everyone is called to the transformational way of the Lord, everyone
is called to live into their potential for faithfulness and for repentance. We
may prefer to see ourselves as one of the brothers, passed over for unknown
reasons and therefore let off the hook. But make no mistake, Eliab and Abinadab
and Shammah and the others still had a part to play in God’s story, and so do
we—no matter what God sees in our hearts, no matter what people see when they
look on our outer appearance, there is a calling for us too. When we follow
this path, we will be changed, and the world will be too.
May it be so. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment