As Mortals See
Sermon
THE WAY OF THE KING
Sermons For Pentecost (First Third)
I made a big mistake when I began to read and study in preparation for this sermon on 1 Samuel 15:34-16:13. I decided to go back first and read all of Chapter 15, just to see what could possibly have happened to King Saul to bring us to the tragic point in the story of Israel where we read: "Samuel grieved over Saul, and the Lord was sorry that he had made Saul king over Israel." (1 Samuel 15:35)
And that was my mistake, reading Chapter 15, because I got hooked on Saul! Instead of finding Saul a tyrant, blasphemer, apostate, I found Saul to be a perfectly reasonable, understandable, common-sense sort of guy. I found Saul a person who, faced with the situation he faced, made the kind of decisions you might have made or I might have made.
The situation was this: God, through Samuel, told Saul to do a certain thing. Saul went off fully intending to do this thing which God had told him to do. (It involved conquering an invading army and killing all the enemy. These particulars, however, complicate our hearing of the story with 20th century ears; so it is better simply to focus on the issue as something that God told Saul to do.) Saul would have done exactly what God told him, except that the complex nature of the situation, pressure from his own people and his own sense of his stature as merciful king all combined to convince Saul to do something a little bit different from what God had told him to do (not completely different - just a little bit different). God was furious with Saul. Samuel was furious with Saul. Saul was rejected by God and Samuel, and the scene was set for the appearance of David (which is what this sermon is supposed to be about in the first place).
But David, in this chapter 16, is a non-entity. David is a nobody who doesn't even speak on his own behalf, who's not even well enough thought of to be called in from the fields for Samuel's visit, who shows no particular competence or promise for the future that anyone can see, including his own father Jesse. David is such a non-entity that we are forced (based on a reading of this chapter alone) to ask what David can possibly offer in competition with Saul, great Saul, the warrior king?
And Samuel - who, in these days, can understand someone as sure of himself, and as sure of God's will, as Samuel was. Samuel is a gigantic figure striding through this story as he strides through Israel from the north to the south, making kings and breaking kings and speaking the word of the Lord, which Samuel hears directly from God. It is hard for my 20th century mind to grasp what it could be like to be Samuel, with that kind of certainty, that sureness about God's will.
But Saul - Saul, it seems to me, is a thoroughly modern character. Saul is flexible, merciful, at times confused, willing to look at both sides of a situation, willing to compromise. Saul, in fact, was rejected by God for acting exactly like you, or I, or the leaders of our own nation or our world might well have acted in his place.
And that was my mistake. I came to understand Saul, to empathize with Saul, to realize how much we are like Saul, just at the very moment, as chapter 15 ends, when Saul's day is done. And I don't understand why. So I must search chapter 16 for some insight into why Saul had to go. Why Saul was out and David in?
What was Saul's failure? Saul was neither a bad person nor a bad king (as kings go). He was neither a tyrant nor a demagogue. The worst thing the Bible can say of Saul is that Saul forgot. Saul forgot to listen and obey (a peculiarly modern failure, for listening and obedience are certainly not strong characteristics of 20th century people, we who are more prone to talk than to listen, and to question than to obey). Saul's failure to listen and obey was fatal. He had all the trappings of a king: power, wealth, status, stature, dignity. He had all the perceptions of a thoroughly modern leader: he was realistic, flexible, he had common sense, was ready to compromise. So what did Saul lack? Chapter 15 doesn't say ... but perhaps if we ask what chapter 16 says that David had which led God to choose David, when God said: "I have provided for myself a king;" if we discover what David had, then perhaps by contradistinction we will know what Saul lacked. And also, perhaps, we will understand a bit more about what God wants from us as well.
What did David have? It is certain that David did not have status, age, wisdom or stature. When Samuel invited Jesse to bring his sons along to the sacrifice, Jesse didn't even think it worthwhile to get little David from the field where he was tending sheep. After all, with seven fine, good-looking sons like Eliab, Abinadab and Shammah, why should anyone pay much attention to the baby of the family. David was the one his older brothers probably called "runt," "pest" - and told to get lost when they had really important things to do, like work in the fields, or go to war, or stand proud and tall before Samuel the prophet, the king-maker. And they looked good to Samuel too. Samuel liked what he saw when he looked at Jesse's boys - liked what he saw well enough that he was all ready to pick the eldest, Eliab (handsome, strong and tall), and proclaim him king. But God broke in and stopped Samuel saying, it's not Eliab and it's not Abinadab or Shammah, nor any of the other four, good as they look, "for the Lord does not see as mortals see." And there we get our first hint about Saul: we have been looking at Saul as we want to see him. We have been looking at Saul in the same way we want to be seen ourselves.
But God saw something about Saul (and David) that we don't see. "The Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart." God saw something in David's heart which was missing in Saul. Perhaps Saul's fatal flaw was that he did not have it in his heart to listen to God and obey God above all else. Yet this is exactly what being king under God meant: to listen to God and obey God above all else. Yet this is exactly what being king under God meant: to listen and obey, in spite of all other pressing considerations of the moment.
Do you get frustrated as I do by politicians who are always turning in the wind? One day they say one thing when they are speaking to this group, and something quite different when speaking to that one. They change their positions constantly in response to: polls or special interest groups or their handlers. One of the most refreshing moments in a recent campaign came when a candidate became so angry at a heckler that he left the script and told him off - that, at least, came from the heart.
Saul had God and Samuel telling him to do one thing. Saul had his soldiers and his people telling him to do something else. Saul needed a heart reminding him to listen to God. And that, apparently, is what Saul did not have, or, if he once had it, he had lost it. So much as I feel for Saul, much as I sympathize with Saul, much as I at times feel like Saul ... it is time to move on, as God moved on, to David.
It was like Advent-time when Samuel came to Bethlehem and said to Jesse, "Are all your sons here?" Jesse stuttered out, "Well, there is the youngest, out keeping the sheep; we could send for him, if it matters all that much to you." Suddenly it was like Advent all over again, with everyone waiting in Bethlehem for the coming of God's chosen one. And his arrival - when he came running down from the hills, tunic aflutter and hair uncombed - his arrival was as unimpressive as the birth of a baby, to two poor travelers, in a Bethlehem stable, just 1,000 years later. When Samuel took the horn of holy oil and poured it over David's head in the presence of his brothers and Jesse, their father, there was no immediate discernible change in David or in the world. David was still a young shepherd boy and Saul still sat on his throne. There was no immediate, discernible change, but the world had changed. The world just doesn't know it yet. And this change came about not because David was strong, wealthy or competent, but because of what God had seen in David's heart.
Saul's day was over. God introduced a new possibility onto the scene. What was Saul's failure? That his heart did not lead him to listen and obey. So what did God see in David's heart? Perhaps the possibility that David's heart will be so attuned to God that he will both listen and obey? I can't really see what else it could be. David was certainly not chosen because he was competent to be king. At that time no one thought of him as king-material. In fact, the scripture clearly implies that David was not competent for anything more than tending the sheep - a child's job.
His brothers were competent. Saul was competent. David had a good heart. David was not even chosen because the spirit of God was upon him (which after all is a kind of competence). It was only after he was chosen and anointed that the spirit came upon him with power and made him competent to be king. But that's later. What was in David's heart? What did God see in David's heart? A heart which can listen, and having listened, a heart which will obey?
Do you understand why I say that we, in the modern world, are far more like Saul than like David? We have a constant dilemma with listening; we are bombarded with a multiplicity of voices pulling us from one side to another of any given issue. We yearn to understand clearly what God wants and there is no Samuel to tell us. Since we don't know how to listen for the word of God in our time, the whole concept of obedience has become foreign to us. Chapter 16 does not solve our dilemma (they, after all, had Samuel; we do not), but it does point us in the direction of a solution when it points us inward, to the heart.
David had nothing to recommend him. There was no reason for him to be chosen by God, except for his heart. "For the Lord does not see as mortals see, the Lord looks on the heart." What we call the human heart is a fairly dependable instrument of God's will - leading us in God's way. It is dependable when we listen to our heart. It strikes me that most of the times I have been in trouble - times when I have done something I later regretted - were times when I did not listen to my heart. They were times when I second-guessed what I knew deep inside was right, or when I yielded to pressure from others to do something which my heart told me was not the wisest thing to do. Every time, hindsight tells me, I should have trusted my heart. I believe God has put a good heart in most of us, to help us listen for the word and will of God. Certainly not in all of us. There are enough blatant exceptions - those who seem rotten to the core - to make us mistrustful of one another. Yet in most of us God has put a good heart to begin with; maybe even in Saul, to begin with. Yet fear and anxiety, harsh experience and self-interest, can keep us from trusting our heart and even, in some cases, erode that heart away. Is that what happened to Saul? I don't know. I just know that Saul forgot to listen and obey. Saul experienced heart failure, and God, looking into David's heart, saw some new possibilities.
Would you listen to the voice of God? Listen to what your heart is trying to tell you. Listen to the voice of God speaking to you through the heart which God has given you. Jesus once said:
"For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." - Luke 12:34
I think this is another way of saying: when God is in your heart and your heart is with God, and you treasure God above all things, then trust your heart. Given half a chance, your heart will lead you where God would have you go.
Forgive us, O Lord, for those times when we look only at the surface, and see only what we want to see. Help us to look beneath appearances and see into the true depths of the human spirit. Expand our perceptions, and give us a greater appreciation for the persons we encounter in this life. You have made human beings in varied shapes and forms, nationalities and races. Grant to us a new awareness of the wonderful diversity of human life, which is your gift to us. Amen.
And that was my mistake, reading Chapter 15, because I got hooked on Saul! Instead of finding Saul a tyrant, blasphemer, apostate, I found Saul to be a perfectly reasonable, understandable, common-sense sort of guy. I found Saul a person who, faced with the situation he faced, made the kind of decisions you might have made or I might have made.
The situation was this: God, through Samuel, told Saul to do a certain thing. Saul went off fully intending to do this thing which God had told him to do. (It involved conquering an invading army and killing all the enemy. These particulars, however, complicate our hearing of the story with 20th century ears; so it is better simply to focus on the issue as something that God told Saul to do.) Saul would have done exactly what God told him, except that the complex nature of the situation, pressure from his own people and his own sense of his stature as merciful king all combined to convince Saul to do something a little bit different from what God had told him to do (not completely different - just a little bit different). God was furious with Saul. Samuel was furious with Saul. Saul was rejected by God and Samuel, and the scene was set for the appearance of David (which is what this sermon is supposed to be about in the first place).
But David, in this chapter 16, is a non-entity. David is a nobody who doesn't even speak on his own behalf, who's not even well enough thought of to be called in from the fields for Samuel's visit, who shows no particular competence or promise for the future that anyone can see, including his own father Jesse. David is such a non-entity that we are forced (based on a reading of this chapter alone) to ask what David can possibly offer in competition with Saul, great Saul, the warrior king?
And Samuel - who, in these days, can understand someone as sure of himself, and as sure of God's will, as Samuel was. Samuel is a gigantic figure striding through this story as he strides through Israel from the north to the south, making kings and breaking kings and speaking the word of the Lord, which Samuel hears directly from God. It is hard for my 20th century mind to grasp what it could be like to be Samuel, with that kind of certainty, that sureness about God's will.
But Saul - Saul, it seems to me, is a thoroughly modern character. Saul is flexible, merciful, at times confused, willing to look at both sides of a situation, willing to compromise. Saul, in fact, was rejected by God for acting exactly like you, or I, or the leaders of our own nation or our world might well have acted in his place.
And that was my mistake. I came to understand Saul, to empathize with Saul, to realize how much we are like Saul, just at the very moment, as chapter 15 ends, when Saul's day is done. And I don't understand why. So I must search chapter 16 for some insight into why Saul had to go. Why Saul was out and David in?
What was Saul's failure? Saul was neither a bad person nor a bad king (as kings go). He was neither a tyrant nor a demagogue. The worst thing the Bible can say of Saul is that Saul forgot. Saul forgot to listen and obey (a peculiarly modern failure, for listening and obedience are certainly not strong characteristics of 20th century people, we who are more prone to talk than to listen, and to question than to obey). Saul's failure to listen and obey was fatal. He had all the trappings of a king: power, wealth, status, stature, dignity. He had all the perceptions of a thoroughly modern leader: he was realistic, flexible, he had common sense, was ready to compromise. So what did Saul lack? Chapter 15 doesn't say ... but perhaps if we ask what chapter 16 says that David had which led God to choose David, when God said: "I have provided for myself a king;" if we discover what David had, then perhaps by contradistinction we will know what Saul lacked. And also, perhaps, we will understand a bit more about what God wants from us as well.
What did David have? It is certain that David did not have status, age, wisdom or stature. When Samuel invited Jesse to bring his sons along to the sacrifice, Jesse didn't even think it worthwhile to get little David from the field where he was tending sheep. After all, with seven fine, good-looking sons like Eliab, Abinadab and Shammah, why should anyone pay much attention to the baby of the family. David was the one his older brothers probably called "runt," "pest" - and told to get lost when they had really important things to do, like work in the fields, or go to war, or stand proud and tall before Samuel the prophet, the king-maker. And they looked good to Samuel too. Samuel liked what he saw when he looked at Jesse's boys - liked what he saw well enough that he was all ready to pick the eldest, Eliab (handsome, strong and tall), and proclaim him king. But God broke in and stopped Samuel saying, it's not Eliab and it's not Abinadab or Shammah, nor any of the other four, good as they look, "for the Lord does not see as mortals see." And there we get our first hint about Saul: we have been looking at Saul as we want to see him. We have been looking at Saul in the same way we want to be seen ourselves.
But God saw something about Saul (and David) that we don't see. "The Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart." God saw something in David's heart which was missing in Saul. Perhaps Saul's fatal flaw was that he did not have it in his heart to listen to God and obey God above all else. Yet this is exactly what being king under God meant: to listen to God and obey God above all else. Yet this is exactly what being king under God meant: to listen and obey, in spite of all other pressing considerations of the moment.
Do you get frustrated as I do by politicians who are always turning in the wind? One day they say one thing when they are speaking to this group, and something quite different when speaking to that one. They change their positions constantly in response to: polls or special interest groups or their handlers. One of the most refreshing moments in a recent campaign came when a candidate became so angry at a heckler that he left the script and told him off - that, at least, came from the heart.
Saul had God and Samuel telling him to do one thing. Saul had his soldiers and his people telling him to do something else. Saul needed a heart reminding him to listen to God. And that, apparently, is what Saul did not have, or, if he once had it, he had lost it. So much as I feel for Saul, much as I sympathize with Saul, much as I at times feel like Saul ... it is time to move on, as God moved on, to David.
It was like Advent-time when Samuel came to Bethlehem and said to Jesse, "Are all your sons here?" Jesse stuttered out, "Well, there is the youngest, out keeping the sheep; we could send for him, if it matters all that much to you." Suddenly it was like Advent all over again, with everyone waiting in Bethlehem for the coming of God's chosen one. And his arrival - when he came running down from the hills, tunic aflutter and hair uncombed - his arrival was as unimpressive as the birth of a baby, to two poor travelers, in a Bethlehem stable, just 1,000 years later. When Samuel took the horn of holy oil and poured it over David's head in the presence of his brothers and Jesse, their father, there was no immediate discernible change in David or in the world. David was still a young shepherd boy and Saul still sat on his throne. There was no immediate, discernible change, but the world had changed. The world just doesn't know it yet. And this change came about not because David was strong, wealthy or competent, but because of what God had seen in David's heart.
Saul's day was over. God introduced a new possibility onto the scene. What was Saul's failure? That his heart did not lead him to listen and obey. So what did God see in David's heart? Perhaps the possibility that David's heart will be so attuned to God that he will both listen and obey? I can't really see what else it could be. David was certainly not chosen because he was competent to be king. At that time no one thought of him as king-material. In fact, the scripture clearly implies that David was not competent for anything more than tending the sheep - a child's job.
His brothers were competent. Saul was competent. David had a good heart. David was not even chosen because the spirit of God was upon him (which after all is a kind of competence). It was only after he was chosen and anointed that the spirit came upon him with power and made him competent to be king. But that's later. What was in David's heart? What did God see in David's heart? A heart which can listen, and having listened, a heart which will obey?
Do you understand why I say that we, in the modern world, are far more like Saul than like David? We have a constant dilemma with listening; we are bombarded with a multiplicity of voices pulling us from one side to another of any given issue. We yearn to understand clearly what God wants and there is no Samuel to tell us. Since we don't know how to listen for the word of God in our time, the whole concept of obedience has become foreign to us. Chapter 16 does not solve our dilemma (they, after all, had Samuel; we do not), but it does point us in the direction of a solution when it points us inward, to the heart.
David had nothing to recommend him. There was no reason for him to be chosen by God, except for his heart. "For the Lord does not see as mortals see, the Lord looks on the heart." What we call the human heart is a fairly dependable instrument of God's will - leading us in God's way. It is dependable when we listen to our heart. It strikes me that most of the times I have been in trouble - times when I have done something I later regretted - were times when I did not listen to my heart. They were times when I second-guessed what I knew deep inside was right, or when I yielded to pressure from others to do something which my heart told me was not the wisest thing to do. Every time, hindsight tells me, I should have trusted my heart. I believe God has put a good heart in most of us, to help us listen for the word and will of God. Certainly not in all of us. There are enough blatant exceptions - those who seem rotten to the core - to make us mistrustful of one another. Yet in most of us God has put a good heart to begin with; maybe even in Saul, to begin with. Yet fear and anxiety, harsh experience and self-interest, can keep us from trusting our heart and even, in some cases, erode that heart away. Is that what happened to Saul? I don't know. I just know that Saul forgot to listen and obey. Saul experienced heart failure, and God, looking into David's heart, saw some new possibilities.
Would you listen to the voice of God? Listen to what your heart is trying to tell you. Listen to the voice of God speaking to you through the heart which God has given you. Jesus once said:
"For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." - Luke 12:34
I think this is another way of saying: when God is in your heart and your heart is with God, and you treasure God above all things, then trust your heart. Given half a chance, your heart will lead you where God would have you go.
Forgive us, O Lord, for those times when we look only at the surface, and see only what we want to see. Help us to look beneath appearances and see into the true depths of the human spirit. Expand our perceptions, and give us a greater appreciation for the persons we encounter in this life. You have made human beings in varied shapes and forms, nationalities and races. Grant to us a new awareness of the wonderful diversity of human life, which is your gift to us. Amen.
