The buildup to this narrative is
vital to understanding the magnitude of what’s happening here. At this point in the story, we know that Samuel,
the great priest, has served God for many years. Through Samuel, God heard the cry of God’s
people. God granted their request
(demand?) to establish for them a King. And
so God did. God (through Samuel) chooses
Saul. And Saul is a good King. Kind of.
He’s a great King. Almost. He’s a mighty King. Definitely.
Saul takes the reigns of power and is most known for his military
achievements….and failures. It is a time
of bloodshed, war, and uncertainty. But
at some point, Saul rejects God’s word, and stops listening to Samuel. In an emotionally raw scene in chapter 15,
Saul is confronted with this sin, the responsibility of turning an entire
people away from the Lord weighs heavily on him. Desperately, he confesses, promises to turn
back to God, begs Samuel to return with him, and begs God to stay with him. But Samuel, listening to God, offers this indictment,
“I will not return with you; for you have rejected the word of the Lord, and
the Lord has rejected you from being King over Israel.” Samuel turns to go, and Saul grasps into the
air, and, kneeling on the floor, grabs Samuel’s robe, tearing the hem. You can feel the desperation, “Please don’t
go!” But Samuel responds, “The Lord has
torn the kingdom of Israel from you this very day, and has given it to a
neighbor of yours, who is better than you.”
Samuel leaves, and alone and afraid and left with nothing, Saul turns to
worship God.
Heartbreaking. It’s not too terribly difficult to put
ourselves in Saul’s proverbial shoes. Anyone who’s ever worked for anything,
given your whole life for it, and watched it slip away, can identify with his
plight in this story. Be it a
relationship, or retirement savings, or a career, or a house and possessions,
at some point, we will all encounter hardships.
Because life, dear friends, just isn’t easy. We live in a world where made up words like Enron
and Equifax bring to our mind betrayal and loss; where our lives are fragmented
into segments according to their purpose…school, friends, family, work, ball field,
cornfield, arena, and mall. It’s hard to
be one authentic person, whose heart is firmly locked on God, especially when
this world offers so many bright, shiny, and fun things. So I want to stop for just a moment here and
consider these two Kings: Saul, a man
with considerable experience as King; and David, a boy shepherd with none.
It is devastating. To work and work and work, and find that your
accomplishments are all…gone, and that you have sacrificed the one thing that
matters. The cautionary tale here is
this: “without love, I am a noisy gong,
or a clanging cymbal.” Stay firmly
rooted in your faith, and love of God.
Grieving.
And into that grief, just the
beginning glimpses…if we are able to hear them, to perceive them…of hope. That’s what this David story, of anointing a
new King, is all about. It is about that
time of transition. When what we thought
was certain – our livelihood, our relationship, our patterns and traditions,
our purpose and our hope – turns out to be a source of grief and sorrow. When God, very slowly, starts revealing what
has been happening all along, and that we have not known…that even when we come to an ending point in our
journey, God has been preparing something new.
Our eyesight is limited.
So here’s my challenge to us from
this text…what I believe is a very strong lesson to all of us…as a congregation
and as individuals in it….
And that doesn’t mean we won’t
have times of feeling almost overwhelming loss.
That doesn’t mean we won’t grieve what we thought would be. That doesn’t mean God doesn’t feel sorrow.
It’s a long transition from Saul
to David. This is just the beginning of
the story. These events have happened,
but only Samuel, Saul, David, and God know it.
Saul is left to work as King, a
hollow task without God’s presence resting on him. It’s clear that he’s become the placeholder
for what God will do next. A reminder of
all there is to lose. Bruce Birch point out that what happens to Saul is not a
matter of retributive justice. It’s not about what Saul does or does not
deserve. God’s interests here are in the
future of a nation, God’s nation. And
Saul over and over again showed that lacks the attribute that God is looking
for. “It has simply become clear in the
story that Saul cannot be God’s future for Israel. Disobedience to God’s Word, Saul’s need for
the assurance of ritual and oath, his indecision and inability to assess
situations clearly…have made this evident.
Israel’s future is at stake, and God acts to move toward a new future in
David.”[1]
Friends this morning, this
Stewardship Commitment morning, I ask us to live into the future God is
preparing for us. Perceive it, listen
for it, pray for it, work for it, love for it.
Amen.
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