June 18, 2006, Father's Day

The King You’d Least Expect

by Rev. Dr. Jim Carlson

1 Samuel 16:1-13

Shaquille O’Neal – Greatest Center in the game: Averages 11.8 rebounds per game, 26.5 points per game. Height 7’1”, weighs 325 – can’t shoot free throws - 52%. Better than Kareem Abdul Jabbar in both categories.

Teams foul him constantly; Commentators are brutal. Why can’t people accept his imperfections?

Easy to be focused on what we’re looking at during any given moment.

Passage challenges us to look beyond present appearances, sometimes even at ourselves.

Monarchy in Israel represented big change in leadership structure. Whose idea is it? God’s or people’s? Differing attitudes toward monarchy in OT. (show slide)

Saul was the first king. More than one account of anointing. Spirit of God on him.

Saul depicted as disobedient. Livestock incident.

God removes spirit form Saul. Tells Samuel to anoint new king.

Samuel fears Saul will kill him for anointing rival. Plan to secretly anoint son of Jesse.

Ruse of offering sacrifice. Irony of using sacrifice as a ruse for ulterior motives.

Samuel goes to Bethlehem – elders worried about word of judgment. Samuel assures them – purports to be offering sacrifice.

Jesse’s sons attend sacrifice. Jesse has Eliab pass in front of Samuel. Jesse probably doesn’t know what’s going on.

Samuel expects Eliab to be the one oldest. God tells him not to look at outward appearance: stature. God looks on the heart.

Abinadab is next. Then Shammah. Seven sons. “To Jesse” not in the Septuagint. Conversation was strictly between Samuel and God.

Samuel asks if there are any other sons. David is keeping sheep – humble duty. David is brought to Samuel.

David said to have red complexion. Also physically beautiful. Doesn’t that destroy the point being made?

Samuel anoints David, but no one knows what for. Spirit of God descends upon David.

Raises the question of how we evaluate people. Premium put on image, from rich to poor. Mariah Carey insured “legs” for $1 Billion.

Expectation of perfection. David not perfect either. (Show Slide)

History has judged David as good, despite faults. Despite being anointed as a youth.

God approved of David’s life. Israel’s greatest king. Anointed before he was great, favored by God despite sin.

If God can accept David with his faults, shouldn’t we be able to accept ourselves and others with all our faults?

Something neurotic about a group of people who meet together to wallow in guilt and condemn others for not living up to a standard of righteousness which their own scriptures say is impossible.

Some may say that we should spend our lives trying to live up to that standard, even though we know we cannot do it. But the consequences of taking that approach to the Christian faith is that we can only see our lives in terms of failure, in terms of shortcomings, and not in terms of grace.

When we take this approach, counting ourselves as nothing more than miserable sinners who have stumbled into the biggest “get out of jail” card in the history of the world, then our faults continue to be a source of frustration, a reason to doubt God’s grace, something more to hate about ourselves.

Such a view tends to turn Christians angry – angry at themselves for the sins they will always struggle with, angry at others for failing to embrace the same concept of perfection that they themselves are unable to attain, and angry at God, who is their standard of perfection, for not intervening and infusing them with the willpower to be perfect.

This point of view has ruined many a good Christian, it has polluted the development of Christian children whose parents and church set a standard of behavioral perfection which, when not achieved, bring feelings of failure and inadequacy and alienation from God.

It completely disables people from being able to accept themselves with all their faults and sets them down the course of a life racked with guilt and sadness, never completely sure of where they stand with God, despite this thing we keep hearing about grace.

I would suggest that 1 Samuel 16 gives us a healthier, more balanced way of seeing our own faults. Let’s face it: we’re always going to struggle with sin. None of us is sinless, none of us is ever going to be sinless, and none of us can stand people who pretend they are sinless.

And if David was the greatest king of Israel, despite the list of heinous things I just showed you, then shouldn’t we also be willing to accept our own faults, and the faults of those around us? If our goal in life is to become as close to sinless as possible through our own righteous behavior, then we will never accept ourselves as fallen human beings who need grace. We’ll spend our lives wishing we were something else.

That’s no way to live. That’s no way to respond to God’s grace. That’s no way to raise your kids. It’s hard to have a healthy marriage when you hold yourself and your spouse to an impossible standard. You can’t love your neighbor as yourself, though you may end up hating your neighbor as much as you hate yourself.

God doesn’t judge us the way other people do. God doesn’t judge us the way the world judges us, and God doesn’t judge us the way the church judges us. God accepts us for who we are, warts and all. And if we want to see ourselves and others through the eyes of God, then we have to admit that we’re OK, even if we’d like to be a little closer to perfect