Listen to the Sermon or the Entire Service
June 7:
Call: 2 Corinthians 4:13 - 5:1
Reading: W&S #83
Text: 1 Samuel 8: 4-20
Closing: 1 Samuel 11: 14-15
Conformity
I found today's text to be unnerving and disturbing.
I share it with you without joy and without pleasure
I share it with you with disappointment and even shame.
Now when you first hear it
You will think that I am being overly dramatic
You will think that I have overreacted.
You won't immediately experience
Either disappointment or shame
You won't find it unnerving
You won't find it disturbing.
To the contrary,
Your first reaction - as was mine -
Will probably be
To wag your pointer fingers at the people who spoke to Samuel, and say,
"No! No! No! You should know better!"
But then as we try to bring the scripture alive by looking for ourselves in it
We realize that
We are wagging and we are pointing those fingers
at ourselves
And That it is our very own selves whom we are chastising
with our "No! No! No!
You should know better!"
For we cannot help but find ourselves in
those people who asked Samuel for a human king.
With that introduction, I share the text: [1 Samuel 8: 4-20]
The people of Israel wanted a king.
A real human king.
Why?
(and don't you just love this?) Because everybody else had one!
Just like the boy who tries to convince his parents he should have something
"Because my friend Johnny has one"
or the girl who tries to convince her family that she should be allowed to do something
"Because Mary's parents let her."
Just like that boy and that girl the Israelites thought they knew
What they wanted
They thought they knew what would be best for them.
They had confidence that they would be better off with a king
For since everyone else had one,
It had to be the superior approach.
But superior to what?
Superior to their present leader?
Their present leader was God!
God who had set them apart as a special people
A special people
To do God's work
To reflect God's goodness and glory
What they were saying in their request for a king
Was that they preferred to be like everyone else
Than to be God's chosen servants.
They were choosing humankind, human values, and human ways
Over God, God's values and God's ways.
God told Samuel to warn them - and Samuel did
He told them that the king would impress their children into his armies;
He told them that the king would tax them and take their property;
He told them that the king would make servants of them.
But the people had made their choice.
After all they knew better.
They chose having a human king.
They made a choice reflecting
greater faith in the human than in the Godly
They chose the flesh over God's kingdom.
And each day of our lives
You and I do just that.
We choose human activities over worshipping God
We choose human activities over our personal devotions & prayer
We choose human behavior over doing what God expects us to do
We use the gifts God gave us
For self indulgent purchases
For ourselves rather than for those who need our gifts.
And there are few in the pews
- and certainly no one behind the pulpit -
who cannot see herself or himself
in the people who demanded an earthly king.
Just reflect on the last month
How many nice but unnecessary things did we buy using money that might have fed, clothed, or sheltered others?
How many times did any of us use our time or energy to please our friends or indulge ourselves
When we could have done something for one who was hurting or needy?
Isn't doing this rejecting God? Isn't it?
Don't we look a lot like the people in our text?
Interestingly, there is another character in this scripture
To whom we - as professing and active Christians -
And particularly - to me as a pastor -
must relate.
That character is Samuel.
He had two responsibilities
To speak to God for the people
To speak to the people for God
When Samuel had to tell God that the people preferred a human king
He must have felt like a failure.
He must have felt like he had done a poor job of sharing God's words and God's expectations with the people.
And yet what God told him was,
"... they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me ..."
I doubt that this made Samuel feel much better.
I believe that he must still have thought
"I could have and I should have done this or done that."
And he was probably right.
The people may have rejected God
But if he had done his job better they might not have.
Well, you and I have a job to do
We are expected to be witnesses to and make disciples for Jesus Christ.
I have no doubt that you can do better - much better.
I have no doubt that I can do better - much better
I have no doubt that you and I must do better - much better.
We can do that by giving priority
to what God wants us to do
and what God wants us to be
Priority over what the humans around us
want us to do and what they want us to be.
That will require sacrifice on our parts..
It might help if we both compare those expected sacrifices
With and to the sacrifice celebrated
in the our communion service - the last we will have together.