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June 14, 2009—Proper 6

Lectionary Texts: 1 Samuel 15:34—6:13 or Ezekiel 17:22-24; Psalm 20 or Psalm 92:1-4, 12-15; 2 Corinthians 5:6-10, 14-17; Mark 4:26-34

Sermon Text: 1 Samuel 15:34-16:13

Where the Spirit of the Lord Is, There Is Endless Possibility

Perhaps the memories are not as deeply etched in your memory as they are in mine, but for me (and all of Red Sox nation) October 2004 was magical. We had quite the team that year: full of talent, personality, and giving us just a few glimmers of hope throughout the season. In September, we began to think that maybe, just maybe, this would be the year that the curse of the Bambino was finally broken and we would make it to the World Series.

In the first series of the playoffs, we managed to squeak out a win against the Angels. Again the underdogs, the team who had not won a World Series since 1918, was down to the dreaded Yankees, and no team had ever come back from a 3-0 deficit. We knew, just knew, that it would be another year that the Red Sox had gotten our hopes up, and then crushed them mercilessly.

In game four at Fenway Park, in 15 innings--the longest game in ALCS history--the impossible happened: the Red Sox beat the Yankees. The series headed back to Yankee Stadium, and those of us who rooted so faithfully knew that it was just a matter of time until we lost the game and the team headed back home to clean out their lockers until next season. That, however, was not what would happen.

The Red Sox won three more games and went on to the World Series. It was just a short series against the St. Louis Cardinals. The next thing we knew--the team who had waited 86 years to hang a championship banner at Fenway Park could actually do it. No one thought it was possible, most people believed the “Curse of the Bambino” that had kept the city without a championship for so long would prevail. All along, however, there was a glimmer of hope, the possibility was still alive.

It was a bad time for Israel, things hadn’t been going the way that they had hoped they would. The fledgling nation had looked around at the other nations around them, and wanted to be like them. Through the prophet Samuel they asked Yahweh for a king. Yahweh saw what Israel was doing and what they had done since they had been brought out of Egypt: they were forsaking the God who had loved them, who had cared for them, who had provided for them a way out of slavery. Yahweh tried to warn the people, to tell them what would happen if a king was anointed to rule over them. They would not listen. They wanted a king someone to lead them into battle, someone to make them look like the other nations. Despite misgivings about a king, Yahweh relented and told Samuel to give them a king.

The Israelites were happy: they had their king. They had what they had asked for--they were now like the other nations. Things, however, did not go as well as everyone had hoped. Even though Israel had a king, Yahweh still was in charge and Yahweh would make the decisions. The king, Saul, could not understand this. Saul wanted to make the decisions and to go his own way. That’s just what he did. Almost as quickly as he found the Lord’s favor and was made king of Israel, Yahweh rejects Saul as king, and Israel, once again is without a king.

Now that they have had the taste of what it was like to be ruled by a flesh and blood human king, not a God whom they cannot see, Israel would not be happy without a king. Yahweh knows this, and sends out the faithful prophet Samuel once again to anoint a king for Israel. Samuel hears the instructions, but he does not want to follow them. He is afraid that if Saul finds out what he is doing, the treachery that he is involved in, he will be killed.

God shows no compassion for the plight of Samuel: there is work to be done, and Samuel is the one who must do it. Samuel goes to the house of Jesse in the town of Bethlehem and invites Jesse and his sons to come with him to make sacrifices to the Lord. As Jesse and his sons go with Samuel to make the sacrifice, Samuel begins to look them over one by one. The first son is tall and very handsome, Samuel is sure that this should be the one. Yahweh says to him, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him.” The next son comes before Samuel, and the next, and the next. Seven sons of Jesse go before Samuel, but the Lord rejects all of them.

Samuel asks Jesse if there might be another son. There is one more--out in the field, tending to the sheep. Obviously Jesse didn’t think that this son was one of significance. After all, he was the youngest, the one left behind to care for the sheep. Still, Samuel asks Jesse to send for him, and they all wait, standing, for the youngest of Jesse’s sons to arrive.

Given how Eliab and other brothers had been rejected despite their appearance, we might think that the youngest son will not be handsome. The text tells us, however, that he was ruddy, with a fine appearance and handsome features.

The reader (and the people of Israel) need not wait any longer for their king, Samuel is told to rise and anoint this one king over Israel. Samuel does as he is told and goes on his way. The text tells us that from that day on, the Spirit of the Lord, the same Spirit that had left Saul, comes upon David in power.

This text is quite interesting. We see the prophet Samuel doing something that he does not want to do. He is still grieving over the loss of Saul as Israel’s king, and yet the Lord sends him to Bethlehem to begin the next chapter in the journey of the Israelite people. As Samuel does as he is told, we can believe that he thinks that he is looking for the one who will replace Saul in the hearts of the Israelite people.

One who is handsome, who is strong, in whom the Israelites can place their trust and follow into battle.

It is no wonder, that as Eliab, strong, tall, and handsome walks across his path, Samuel believes that this is the one that will be anointed king. As the other brothers pass, Samuel may be coming to realize that his eyes do not see the same as Yahweh’s, that perhaps there is something more. Samuel looks at what man looks at, the outward appearance. Samuel cannot see the possibilities that God sees.

Samuel is not the only one who suffers from this lack of vision and foresight. We, too, are often guilty of judging people and situations by what we see on the outside. We pick the biggest kid on the playground to join our team. We become fair weather fans and root for the team we believe will win in the end. We find it easiest to follow a handsome leader who has all of the right things to say. We look at a person that we have just met and make judgments about what he can and can’t do. We decide immediately whether or not we will listen to what he has to say. Whether we like to admit it or not, we gravitate toward those who are dressed a particular way, who seem to have a particular education and upbringing, we are swayed by outside appearances. There are times when we are unable to look past what we can see on the outside to what might be happening on the inside. We forget that just as important as what a person looks like, or sounds like, is what is on the inside, what is happening in their heart. And we cannot see the possibilities that God sees.

The Bible is full of the kind of stories we think we love. The story where the unlikely is picked, where God uses the unwise of the world to shame and teach the wise. Where God takes someone the world sees as nothing, and uses him or her to do something extraordinary.

Samuel had a long and eventful life as God’s prophet. From the moment he heard God calling out his name while he was still in Eli’s house, Samuel had been doing what God had asked him to do. He did things that were easy and neat; things that were hard and messy. Samuel had walked with the Lord a long time, but there were still times when he just couldn’t see the way the Lord could. At times Samuel’s vision of what should be didn’t match that of the Lord.

This passage is one of those times. Samuel had loved Saul, had walked with Saul. He didn’t want to anoint a new king for Israel, partially for fear of his own life. Yet he was asked to do just that. In carrying out this task, Samuel’s vision of what needed to happen, or what would come next was not what it should have been. He thought that perhaps the son who was most handsome would be the one who should be anointed to lead the people of Israel. This was not the son God wanted to be the next king of Israel.

God did not chose the oldest, the most handsome, the strongest. God was not swayed by what was seen on the outside; God saw inside, to the heart of David. God knew that David was the man who should be king of Israel. One of the amazing things about God is that God finds possibilities in the most unexpected places. God chose the youngest son of a man in Bethlehem, a simple shepherd to lead God’s people. God does not do what people expect. God takes the conventions and understandings of our world, and turns them upside down.

This passage stands as a vivid reminder to us that God can see possibilities where we do not. This isn’t just the way God acted during Bible times, it is how God acts this very day. When God is picking teams, God doesn’t always pick the biggest or the strongest. Instead, God calls the weak and helpless to work on God’s behalf. God looks at the problems of the world, and chooses some unlikely answers.

I think that this passage has a two things to teach us:

First, God sees in others many things that we cannot. My friend Ryan runs a ministry in a pretty rough part of town. Everyday there are people who walk through his doors that are just as rough. They don’t look good, they don’t smell good, they don’t talk very well, and sometimes they can’t even walk straight. Most of us would look at people like this, and turn in the other direction. What good are they? What can they do for us? What can they do for God?

Most of us would do just what the world does, we would look at what is on the outside, and make our judgments there. But not my friend, Ryan. He treats everyone who walks through his door with dignity, with respect, understanding that no matter where a person might find themselves on this particular day, they are a child of God. Ryan sees each of these men and women through the eyes of God. Eyes that find the possibility in the lowliest of the low. Eyes that can imagine the possibilities of what the grace of God can do in someone’s life. As Christians, we are called to do just that, to go beyond our own view, and to see those that we come into contact with through the eyes of God, eyes that can see the possibilities.

Secondly, God not only sees the possibilities in others, God can see the possibilities in each of us. You see, we are often our own harshest critics. We look at something that needs to be done in our world, in our church, in our neighborhood, and we think that we could never do it. We look in the mirror and determine on our own that we aren’t attractive enough, successful enough, smart enough. Surely God would want someone different for that job. By the grace of God, people who look like us, and act like us, well really, they are us, are used to be God’s spokespeople and doers of God’s will in our world.

The good news is that God does not look at the things that humanity looks at, but God looks at the heart. God can look inside of us, and see things that the world cannot, can see things that we cannot. God looks at us, and where we see weakness and helplessness, God sees amazing possibilities.

The question for us this morning is what eyes we will look at our world, at our very selves with? Will we look with our own eyes, with a vision that is often cloudy and distorted? Or, will we allow the God who can see the possibilities to lead and guide us to places that we never dreamed we would go?