The Greatest Story Ever Told (sermon June 14, 2009)

Note: This sermon was originally titled "The Heart of the Matter" but as it developed I wished I could have titled it differently. So here I have!

1 Samuel 15:34-16:13
2 Corinthians 5:16-17

Just to keep things interesting, let’s start this sermon with some audience participation. Raise your hand if you’ve ever read a really good book -- a book that you actually thought about even when you weren’t reading it. How about if you’ve seen a movie that really captured your heart and mind, one that you think about every now and again because it touched you that deeply. Anyone? I won’t put you on the spot and ask if you’ve heard a sermon in the last year that’s stayed with you, because that would just be too much pressure, but the principle is the same for sermons, books, movies, television shows, newspaper articles...and what is it that all of these things have in common? They tell stories.

Stories affect us the way they do because it is through story that we both discover and remember what it is that makes us human. Stories evoke the full range of human emotion; they remind us of experiences we have had in the past and they prepare us for experiences we might face in the future. They also allow us to participate in experiences that we will never have personally -- to travel to countries we will never get to visit or to take on the perspective of a person who is completely different from us.

There are many stories that are well-known and loved -- Romeo and Juliet comes to mind, as well as children’s stories like Cinderella or The Three Little Pigs -- but there is a category of stories that stands apart. These are sacred stories, the stories that tell us who God is and who we are in relation to God. These are the stories contained in our sacred book, the Bible.

Over the next couple of months we are going to explore one of the most important stories of the Old Testament, the story of David, a young, lowly shepherd boy who became a powerful king, the first successful king of Israel. Today we heard the beginning of David’s story, when he was chosen by God through Samuel. Before I explore that story a bit deeper, I want to set up the journey we will take this summer through the books of 1 and 2 Samuel.

The very idea of Israel having a king -- well, a human king; a king other than God -- was a new development in the history of God’s chosen people. The defining story in the Old Testament is the story of the Exodus, when Moses led God’s chosen people out of slavery in Egypt and into the Promised Land. This story reinforces a key theme that shows up again and again in the Bible: that God hears the cries of God’s people and saves them.

Well, once the Israelites escaped slavery in Egypt, endured forty years of wandering in the wilderness, and finally settled in the Promised Land, it turned out their troubles weren’t over. They had taken the Promised Land by force and from time to time the twelve different tribes of Israelites joined forces to wage defensive wars and keep their land. Each time such a threat appeared, God appointed an individual to lead the people. These individuals were known as “judges” and their stories are told in the book of Judges which comes before 1 Samuel.

From the very beginning of 1 Samuel, it is clear that a major change is taking place in the way Israel is governed. You see, it turns out that the people were growing dissatisfied with having only judges as leaders. In keeping with the old “the grass is greener” motif, they saw that the countries around them were ruled by kings and that was starting to look more and more attractive. But 1 Samuel doesn’t open with the people’s desire for a human king. As is often the case in the Bible, this story begins with a woman and her child. Or, I should say, with a woman who can’t have a child. This woman is named Hannah. [1]

When we meet Hannah, she is distraught. Each year, she and her husband make a journey to a local temple to worship, and when she gets there Hannah weeps and prays and refuses to eat while she begs the Lord to grant her a child. She even promises God that if she has a son, she will dedicate him to the Lord by bringing him back to the temple and making him a priest.

When we recall the Exodus -- the story that reminds us that God hears and saves God’s people -- it should come as no surprise that the Lord listens to Hannah. The Bible says the Lord “remembered” her and opened her womb. The child that grows in Hannah’s womb is Samuel, and, as soon as he is weaned, Hannah returns him to the temple where he is raised by the priest Eli.

Now Eli’s sons are in line to become the next priests and judges, but it turns out that they are not good men. They take the people’s sacrifices -- both animals and money -- for themselves. God is thoroughly displeased with them and lets Eli know it. And God chooses Samuel as the next priest and judge over Israel. Samuel serves in this position until he becomes old and his sons have also become judges. But his sons were like Eli’s: they took bribes and perverted justice and were generally lousy men.

And this is the point when the people of Israel have truly had it with this method of priests and judges ruling over them. Clearly, it’s no longer working. The elders of the tribes visit Samuel and tell him that they want a king, a real king, a human, earthly king, like all the other nations have.

Samuel thinks this is a very bad idea; after all, the only true king of Israel is the Lord God. But the Lord tells Samuel to give the people what they want. Not surprisingly, it doesn’t go well, at least not at first. The first king is Saul, who seems to be chosen primarily on the basis of height, since we are told several times that he stands head and shoulders above all the other people. Saul serves briefly as king, but when he disobeys a command from the Lord, God rejects him and tells Samuel that it is time to find a new king and sends him to the town of Bethlehem to anoint a new king from the sons of Jesse.

Reluctantly, Samuel goes, worried, as he probably should be, that not even Saul knows he is about to be dethroned. But when Samuel meets Jesse and his seven sons, it’s obvious he hit the jackpot. Surely, in this group of handsome, strong young men there is an individual suited to be king. But the Lord isn’t going to let Samuel make the same mistake twice: “Don’t pay any attention to looks or height,” God tells Samuel. “All I care about is a person’s heart.”

Now that may sound like a pretty straightforward task; after all, we’ve all heard the old adage that we shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. The way Paul puts it in his letter to the Corinthians is that, as Christians, we shouldn’t look at people from a human point of view but with the knowledge that Christ makes everyone new. But the reason we need reminders not to judge others by their appearance is because it’s something we all tend to do. In fact, studies have shown that people who are taller and more attractive than their peers tend to get better jobs, make more money, and get bigger raises.

Regardless of how strong or handsome Jesse’s seven oldest sons were, none of them got the job. Samuel keeps looking at one capable man after another thinking, “surely this is the man God has chosen,” but with each interview he grows more certain that he has not yet seen God’s choice. This must have been pretty confusing to Samuel, since he was sent to Bethlehem to anoint one of Jesse’s sons king. We can imagine him scratching his head, puzzled, then turning again to Jesse: “This is Bethelehem, right? And you are Jesse, aren’t you?” When Jesse nods he asks one more question: “Don’t you have any other sons?” [2]

Well, says Jesse, there’s the baby. And the Hebrew word he uses has this derogatory meaning -- a castoff, a second thought, the youngest. It’s even a word that sometimes means the shortest. No wonder they didn’t bother to bring David in from the fields; there was no way the famous prophet Samuel could possibly want anything to do with him. You see, in Old Testament times the youngest son wasn’t the child who was doted on or spoiled; no, he was a second-class citizen with no particular rights or privileges. David isn’t back at home being pampered; he’s out in the field doing the dull but necessary work of tending the family sheep. But when Samuel asks for any other sons, Jesse dutifully has David brought before Samuel. It turns out that, even if he is on the short side, David has the same good looks as his older brothers, because the narrator can’t help but point out how handsome he is. But that’s not what matters here. What matters is that he is God’s choice. God has chosen David, the runt of the litter, the least expected, to be king.

We all need to be reminded from time to time that God isn’t interested in what we look like or what we’ve achieved or what rights and privileges society has granted us. God is interested in being God: in answering our cries of distress, in saving us from the things that hold us hostage, in being with us in our confusion and despair, in choosing us for the tasks God wants us to do. It should come as no surprise to us that God’s choice for king is the most unlikely choice because God is always in the business of choosing and saving unlikely people, even people like us, to do great things for God’s kingdom. Remember, David’s story in 1 Samuel opens not with David’s birth or coronation, but with Hannah -- a woman held captive by her despair, a woman weeping, fasting, praying, worshipping, hoping against hope that God will act in her story...and God does.

So how does this story compare so far with some of your all-time favorite stories? Well, if you’re unimpressed so far, just wait, things will get a lot more interesting in the coming weeks as we trace David’s path from unassuming shepherd boy to ruler over Israel.

In the coming weeks as we hear stories of King David we will hear echoes of today’s stories, the story of Hannah and the story of Samuel choosing David to be king. As this young boy grows into a powerful and deeply flawed ruler, we will see evidence that God hears our cries, both spoken and unspoken; that God sees beyond what the world sees and chooses us in spite of our outward and inward flaws; that God stays with us through our worst failures and greatest successes; and most importantly, that God is the author of each of our stories. And that means that every one of those stories is both deeply moving and deeply meaningful for God. David’s story is our story and when we hear it we remember that we too have been chosen to play a unique role in God’s story, which truly is the greatest story ever told. Amen.

Endnotes:
1. I am indebted to Walter Brueggemann’s work in the book Old Testament Theology for the idea of the connection between Hannah and David.
2. Eugene Peterson, Leap Over a Wall.