Sermon: Sept 22, 2024 Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Preacher: The Rev. Maggie Enwright

Choosing and Chosen | Scripture(s):   1 Samuel 15:34 - 16:13

It was weeks ago now that Ryan signed me up to preach on this day and he let me know the scripture text would be the story of the ancient Israelite people choosing David as king, and in those days that meant as both political and spiritual leader. So Ryan’s “ask” came before I recently took on a substitute position with the Pacific Mountain Region of the United Church in which part of my job is to work with congregations looking to choose their spiritual leaders - which is often not an easy thing - and so I am witnessing the struggle of choosing first hand these days. I just want to say that I think the people of this congregation did a fine job (10 years ago now) of choosing Ryan to serve as your leader - so perhaps a biblical lesson on choosing in a Godly way is not all that needed in this community! Your fine and esteemed minister, the Rev. Ryan Slifka, spoke powerfully last Sunday about the need to steer clear of creating substitutes for the one true God.  Among the possible substitutes - he mentioned politics and admonished us to turn from obsessing over the rulers of our times - they are not God.  I totally agree AND I want to warn you - there’s going to be a bit of politics sprinkled in my sermon today.  With that in mind, we better pray!

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God, our rock and our redeemer.  Amen.

Several people have told me lately that they have stopped watching, listening to or reading the news – and these are fine intelligent people – the kind of people one normally thinks of as connected and concerned, not the type to bury their heads in the sand… but something has shifted for them… “it is just”, they say to me, “that the troubles of the world have become too overwhelming, too depressing.”  So I think of these folks not as unconcerned, but more like nuns and monks who withdraw from the world in order to keep themselves spiritually healthy, in order to keep their souls intact.  And so when these folks come to church, they are not looking to hear a précis of the news stories of the day in the prayers – they are looking for the soothing balm of the Eternal for the healing of their souls.

It has been an ongoing question for Christians, and indeed for the faithful of all religions: how much does one buy (and I do mean buy) into the values of this world.  Officially, church and state have been separated for a very long time, but I do think most of us still believe in bringing our beliefs and values to bear in our personal life decisions AND in the choices we make in society - as believers we want our faith to go with us when we go to the polls and when we react to the decisions of those in power. The esteemed Lois Wilson, one-time moderator of the United Church of Canada who died this past week, was fond of quoting Karl Barth - saying that lived faith at its best means having the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other.  

I don’t know about you, but in the political sphere, I am looking for a leader, a real leader who truly has the interests of the people at heart.  I’m tired of all the political hacks of our age who seem to be so clearly about padding their own pockets or their own egos – and I find myself wondering was leadership always as much about photo ops and opinion polls and hand-picked audiences?  It puts me in mind of an 18th century clergyman named Lyman Beecher, who once prayed, “O God, let us not despise our rulers and let our rulers not act so that we can’t help but despise them.” And I find myself wondering, wasn’t there ever a time that our leaders were more like prophets or pastors and less like kings - leaders who cared about the people and who were out there on the edge, like a voice in the wilderness, crying out for justice? 

I remember being moved by watching some old footage of Tommy Douglas around the time he was named “The Greatest Canadian”– this Baptist preacher-come-politician did seem to hearken back a bit to the days of the wild-eyed prophets and he combined his prophetic words with a warm and caring personality.  There was something truly stirring about seeing him cry out for medicare for every man, woman and child no matter what the cost! But I also recall my mother telling me that Tommy Douglas was her proof-positive that even the most honest of politicians was still a little deceitful, was still a little more about appearances than reality, was not always 100% straight with folks.  My mother would tell me stories of Tommy attending gatherings in Duncan in the last years of his career when he was the Member of Parliament for Cowichan, Malahat and the Islands.  And she recounted how Tommy would ask her to brief him beforehand on who would be attending the event, whether he had met them before, and a little bit about them.  Then he would walk into the room - smiling, and heartily greet folks like they were old friends, shaking their hands, slapping them on the back, pretending he remembered everything about them. The other thing I recall Mom telling me was that she hated to be in the car when Tommy was at the wheel.  She used to say he drove like a minister, like God was going to protect him! And perhaps any human leader is going to be subject to human foibles and failings.  and we need to accept that and even embrace it.  

…Because part of the problem these days may be that good (yet flawed) people are not willing to offer themselves for leadership.  We are reluctant leaders at best – oh we might be willing to be “co-chairs” of something – but taking on primary responsibility, carrying the ball as it were, does not seem to be on our radar.  The all-embracing mantle of leadership seems somehow more than we can bear.

One thing the reading today tells us is that our human vision of what makes for a good leader isn't exactly like that of God's - in our faith story, history takes its cues and prompts in whispers from the Spirit who blows where and how she will.  "My thoughts are not your thoughts, my seeing is not your seeing, nor your leaders my leaders, nor your rules my rules," says the Lord.  We also hear that we can look right at something dead in the eye and not see it.   We can be blinded by people’s outside appearance and not see their possibilities or how their destinies might intertwine with ours.   

In our Hebrew scripture story of God directing Samuel to choose a new king, neither Samuel nor Jesse the Bethlehemite could see the possibilities of youth, and were trapped in thinking that this child, David, was fit only for work in the fields.   But on the insignificant one the Spirit of God would fall, and it was David who forever afterward gave the name Pastor and Shepherd to good leadership. In spite of all his human failures, it was his origin as care-giver and guardian, protecting the life of the flock and not exploiting it, that would become the standard for all the expectations of our people for our leaders, even for the coming Messiah.  We in the United Church joke sometimes, making fun of that term pa-aa-aastor, but still we believe a good minister is one who shepherds well the flock in their care. 

But let’s back up a bit with the background to the choosing of David as king. You will recall that, in the passage we heard last week, God warned the people about having a king who would ultimately have his own interests as a priority.  Well, much of that came true in the person of Saul. So today’s story begins when God has had enough of King Saul, and was ready for a change. God told Samuel to go find a successor among the sons of Jesse.  Samuel is afraid of Saul.  So God tells him to make the whole effort look like a religious activity (and at the time religion and politics were pretty mixed up together) so Samuel went on over to Bethlehem and arranged for a rally to bring out all the candidates, for Samuel to have a look at them. One by one Jesse trotted out his sons, and the Lord said to Samuel, as perhaps the Spirit may say to us, "Now don't look on the “image” of the candidates, or the height of their stature in the polls, for the Lord sees not as humans see.  You humans look at outward appearances, P.R. images, manufactured by a compliant media, "but the Lord looks at the heart."

Seven macho men are exhibited before Samuel. Jesse the Bethlehemite was probably confused by this rejected assembly, for Samuel says, "The Lord has not chosen these."   And Samuel asks, "Are all your candidates here?"  Jesse replies, "I have one more, but this one's not yet a man, and doesn't fit the image of a big and powerful leader."  And then the narrator says, "But this one is darkened from the sun, has lovely eyes, and is  handsome."  Now this is the part of the story that disappoints me every time - we have just been told that God doesn't see the way humans see, and now we are told that God has a good eye for good looks.  But perhaps it’s a graphic picture of someone who not only looks pretty good but sees pretty good.  "This one has beautiful eyes." and maybe that is less about long lashes and more about having a long view and a broad perspective. And God says at once, "Get up and pour on the olive oil, for this is my candidate."  And so Samuel took the horn full of olive oil and poured it over David's head in the midst of all the other more impressive candidates, his brothers. "And the breath of God came mightily on David from that day." 

What this story tells us is that we should know there's a difference between looking and seeing when we look at our leaders.  Both Jesse and Samuel took a look at all the candidates, and both failed to see the one God had in mind.  The text says it was God who intervened in the election and changed the direction in which things were going. David was the person of God’s choosing.

It’s a hard concept – this chosenness, this specialness, this lifting one above others.  Hard for us mortals anyhow – because our limited brains and our limited capacity to love can only choose one thing or one person at a time.  There has been debate after debate about the value versus the evils of competition – and the question is asked: should we be picking winners? Should we be specially selecting people for positions? And should we be handing out awards or top honours in the fields of scholastic, athletic, and artistic endeavours? For you see, if you are chosen as the number one student, or the number one runner or the number one piano pupil, it necessarily means that others are not chosen… and that can indeed be damaging to our psyches and souls.  On the other side of the debate is the argument that we need sometimes to be singled out – to be told how special we are and given a unique and special mission. Religious writer, Henri Nouwen, describes our God as being miraculously apart from our human dilemmas regarding choosing – Nouwen writes that being chosen by God is not a thing that necessarily excludes others.  God has this amazing capacity to say you are my beloved, and you are my beloved and you are my beloved.  And God has power to choose each one at just the right time and for just the right calling - if we open our eyes to where we are being led to serve and to thrive.

I want to close with a story. There was a famous monastery which had fallen on very hard times. Formerly its many buildings were filled with young monks and its big church resounded with the singing of holy chants.. But now it was deserted. The buildings were showing neglect. People no longer came there to be nourished by prayer. A handful of old monks shuffled through the cloisters and praised God with heavy hearts. The abbot was stumped as to how to make things better and felt unable to lead.  It seemed no new monks were coming to carry on the tradition.  The community was all but dead.

One day a stranger visited the community of monks and he saw their devastation and hopelessness.The stranger looked at them all and offered simply this:  “The Messiah is among you.” The monks were startled by this saying. “What could it mean?” They asked themselves. “Is brother John the Messiah? Or Father Matthew? Or Brother Thomas? Am I the Messiah? What could this mean?” They were all deeply puzzled by the stranger’s teaching. But no one ever mentioned it again.

But as time went by, something happened - the monks began to treat one another with a very special reverence. There was a gentle, wholehearted, human quality about them now which was hard to describe but easy to notice. They lived with one another as men who had finally found something. But they prayed the Scriptures together as men who were always looking for something. They took on duties willingly and with tireless commitment.  Occasional visitors found themselves deeply moved by the life of these monks. Before long, people were coming from far and wide to be nourished by the prayer life of the monks and young men were asking, once again, to live with the monks for a lifetime.  All it had taken was believing the Messiah was among them.

May the Messiah be among us.  May God be with us.  As we make our choices and as we know ourselves chosen. May we be inspired to trust in God’s leading, daring to trust in our own call to leadership.  Amen.