Sermon
June 10, 2012
1
Samuel 8:4-11, (12-15), 16-20
Psalm
138
2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1 Mark 3:20-35
2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1 Mark 3:20-35
“Listening
to God”
When
I was fifteen and sixteen years old I wanted nothing more than to fit
into the mold that was valued by my peer group. But I was not
athletic, I wasn't interested in popular kinds of activities and I
wasn't attractive to the males my age. I saw that much of the
popularity was shallow and based on fleeting strengths and quickly
forgotten accomplishments. I was different, so I pretended that
that's exactly what I wanted—and somewhere in the middle of that
muddle, I realized that it was okay to be different, but it's still
really hard and painful to remember those weeks, months and years of
distance from my peer group.
I
think that communities who are creating structures and institutions
go through similar states of development to those of individuals. The
nation of Israel was born over a long period of time and in trying
circumstances. They came from wandering nomads and displaced kinfolk
and feuding families. They sold themselves into slavery, wandered for
forty years and were born by the waters of the Jordan into the
promised Land. They entered the land of Canaan and were governed as
tribes by judges, including Samuel. He was raised in the temple, so
he had priestly credentials, was a prophet chosen by God and was
respected by the people. It was his authority that the elders needed
if they wanted to have a king acceptable to the rest of the nation.
So they came to him and asked him for a king. “We are determined to
have a king over us, so that we also may be like other nations, and
that our king may govern us and go out before us and fight our
battles.”1
As
they entered their adolescence as a nation, they no longer wanted to
be a loosely connected group of tribe and tribal governments whose
major decisions were made by judges—they wanted the regal and
majestic wealth and power of a kingdom. The powerful nations around
them probably intimidated them—and may have even threatened the
tribes who could not defend themselves from a nation state. The
Promised land may have felt very vulnerable to them. They wanted the
army and the institutional power of a monarch for the kind of safety
and security it seemed to offer them. They may have seen it as moving
from childhood—with little structures for efficient government to a
new kind of adulthood as a nation. At least that's how I have seen
it—it's probably a very natural sociological movement from tribal
government to national identity and government, but that kind of
change has a price.
And
God told them the price—with the strength of a standing army, they
would lose their sons because a king needs soldiers and warriors to
march and drive the chariots of war. The warrior king and kingdom
they wanted—needs institutional structures to uphold the machine of
war. Then men who weren't fighting and and the women would be needed
to work in the palace and create the accessories of nobility and
monarchy. Namely, the bible says, there would be perfumers and cooks
and bakers out of the population of women. Women would tend the
vineyards that the king would take—or he would take at least the
fruit of the vineyards as his tithe or tax. He would tithe the grain
and the best of the all the produce of the land to use and to sell to
support the institutional standing army that would be necessary to
have a warrior king to defend and eventually extend the reach of the
kingdom.
“This,”
says Samuel, by the word of God, “is what you are asking for when
you ask for a king. You will rely on this man for your security and
your safety and he will take whatever is necessary in an attempt to
provide that security. Is this what you want? When you have a king,
no longer will you rely on God, but you will have a king.”
And
they said, “Yes, we want a king like everyone else.”
To
live like other nations, they had to live with the consequences of
their choice—as do we all. And God let them make this choice,
though God told Samuel, “It is not you they are rejecting, it is
me.” Samuel had just made his sons judges over Israel—and the
elders rejected his sons.
I
think that's really interesting—that God let them make this choice,
to reject the rule of judges, so that they could follow in the
direction of kingdom. And God doesn't completely abandon them, but
simply says that they will have to live with that choice. God will
not take back the kingdom structure, once this choice was made, it
was made forever, I guess.
They
listened, in a way, and chose to have a king anyway. And God listened
to their choice and didn't abandon them, but allowed them to live
with their decision to live as a kingdom until that kingdom fell
apart due to its own weakness.
When
we listen to God, as the elders and leadership of Israel learned, we
may not hear what we want to hear. God is a lot like a good parent
here saying, “I'm going to let you live with the consequences of
your choice. I will love you and care for you still, but this choice
is irreversible, and the consequences of your choice will follow.”
I
opened the sermon by describing that I was different from the very
small group of peers I had in high school. I think that's one of the
important parts of that time of life. In adolescence, at least as it
is understood today, we explore who we are compared to who our
friends are, who our parents want us to be and who we understand
ourselves to be. Many of us find this more easy than others—some
folks find it incredibly difficult and people are everywhere in
between for many different reasons.
In
their adolescence they chose to be a kingdom. And
God judges them according to this choice from this point on. I don't
mean that God holds it against them, but that God wants them to live
as a kingdom as justly and lovingly as possible. So God criticizes
how the kings take advantage of the poorest of the people. God
critiques the priests and other leaders for allowing the kings too
much power without check. God sends prophets to criticize the overuse
of power and violence against people.
Just
because God let them choose to have a king didn't mean that God let
them live without the standards of justice and love that God had
given them years before on Mt. Sinai. Love God and love your neighbor
were still God's standard code of conduct and one couldn't do one
without ding the other.
They
had to live within the choices and consequences they made—this
choice and many others. Within this choice they had to listen to
God's standards of living—and God would continue to speak this
standard, this wisdom and teaching throughout all time. God's
steadfast love and faithfulness were still sovereign—even after
they chose to have a king. The king might want to live outside the
law, but God stood firm in love and faithfulness.
Though
Jesus' life and teaching were transformative, his life and teachings
were also a continuation of the basic message of God throughout the
biblical witness. Hidden beneath layers of story and sometimes
frightening consequences of choice, God called the people of
Israel—and through them all nations—to love God and love
neighbor. Whenever Israel felt the consequences of injustice, they
understood themselves be punished, but truly they were just
consequential experiences. When they did not love God and neighbor,
their nation was broken and scattered (like other nations were). When
standards of justice (which includes fairness, faithfulness, equity
and mercy) was strong, they were stronger.
Jesus'
life was an example of this kind of living—he healed those who were
broken and taught that blessings were on the meek who would inherit
the earth. He fed thousands of people with a few loaves of bread and
maybe some fish and he taught, that blessings were on who hunger and
thirst because they would be fed. He was angry at those who hoarded
power and wealth; he got angry in the temple and threw out the
bankers and moneychangers and taught,
“.
. . woe
to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.
‘Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry.
‘Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep.
‘Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry.
‘Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep.
‘Woe
to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors
did to the false prophets.”2
When
he said, “Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and
mother,” he claimed all who embraced mercy, healthy relationships,
loving and healing and hope. He embraced all who stood up against
evil (or injustice) and embraced good (mercy and just ways of
living.) He said that those who didn't hadn't stepped into the
household of God.
When
we listen to God, we can tell if it's God who is speaking because God
has been pretty consistent over the millennia of divine messaging.
The steps may be complex, but the big goal is clear and simple. When
the poor and the vulnerable are damaged, that's not God's will. When
the weak and the oppressed are made weaker and oppressed more, that's
not God's will. When the sick and the lonely are ignored, that's not
God's will.
When
we are listening to God, when the vision of God appears on the
horizon of our lives, we have to decide how we get their using all
the tools that God has given us. If our table is welcoming, how do we
make sure everyone who comes has a place to sit?
Let
us continue to listen to God as we have been, stepping carefully, but
confidently forward, toward the table where we all have a place we
belong and where all of our choices will lead us.
Let's
listen as God speaks . . . Amen.
11
Samuel 8:19b-20
2Luke
6:24-26
