It is no secret that I am a huge college basketball fan. From filling out brackets to cheering on my Tarheels, March Madness is one of my favorite times of year. And while it’s exciting, of course, for my team to win, the thrill of the NCAA tournament often comes through those teams who weren’t expected to go very far, but then take us all by surprise. Any enthusiast knows to pick a 12-seed to beat a 5-seed, but there are always others who become highlighted as that year’s “Cinderella story.” In 2011, it was VCU who made it all the way to the Final Four as an 11 seed, a feat only 21 other teams below the 4 seed have done since the expanded format of the tournament[i]. Last weekend, we saw a good number of higher seeds fall, including favored teams like Villanova, who won it all last year. Even casual watchers get drawn in by the underdog stories, as eyes turn to teams like South Carolina as potential Cinderella stories, wondering if they will end up with a glass slipper that fits. These stories do more than entertain. They give us hope that anything is possible. And it can be kind of fun to root for the little guy.
In many ways, 1 Samuel 16 is a Cinderella Story. Here, we have a literal line-up for God to select the next king through the prophet Samuel. The sons of Jesse line up, and parade in front of Samuel almost like a beauty pageant, eager to be selected. In the end, the one chosen isn’t even on the radar. It’s the youngest boy, David, who has been relegated to the medial role of tending sheep. Brought in, he is the one named by the Lord, anointed and filled with the Holy Spirit to lead. As we know, David became a mighty and powerful king. Though not without some considerable faults, his story dominates the next 55 chapters of the Bible. Our text for today is a watershed moment in which much of Israel’s history is put into motion, and it begins with an unlikely boy chosen for the most important role in the land – a Cinderella story in its finest. And it won’t be long, the next chapter in fact, that we learn just how mighty this young man can be, as he steps into battle and defeats the Philistines with a sling and a stone, Goliath falling to the ground. This action leads him to find favor with the king Saul, eventually moving to live with the King and provide him comfort.
Did you catch that? The one anointed to be king in 1 Samuel 16 then meets the king in the next chapter. This is not normal. It is not like an election where the new president is greeted by the outgoing one as a part of a peaceful transfer of power. In these days, new kings either took power by some sort of coup, or more often, were chosen after the death of a great leader. To understand what is happening here, we need to remember the history at play. Saul, who has been chosen to be king by God and anointed by Samuel in 1 Samuel 9, has not exactly done well as king.
Saul had early victories and did win the approval of his people; but he let the prerogatives of power go to his head. Kingly control emboldened Saul to assume authorities not ascribed to him in his anointing: his call and covenant with God and the people[ii].
By 1 Samuel 15, God regrets making Saul king (see 1 Sam 15:11, 35), and Samuel delivers the message to the king that God was going to go in another direction. That is how we get to today’s text.
Samuel is grieved by this rejection of the king he himself was in part responsible for, but is approached by God in our passage today to make a new start. Even through his frustration and disappointment, Samuel follows God, although we might imagine he did not know to expect such a surprising next step from the divine. A king would have been someone from a strong line, like that of Jesse, who presented clear signs of strength and vigor. Saul was noted as being tall, an unusual trait seen among the people of God. Samuel would have expected a similarly equipped leader to follow. But God is a God of surprises, and instead sends David.
God gives good reason for this selection. Rather than looking at physical appearances, God is judging by different criteria. God’s perspective is drastically different than ordinary human perception. It is outlined in verse 7 – God “looks on the heart.” It is from this place where knowledge, decision making, intentionality, and compassion reside. The heart is the seat of all that is, the very core of who we are. Today, we are more apt to use the term “soul” to describe this all-encompassing part of our beings. From our text we know that God sees what is there with David, and from there bestows on him high honor.
We aren’t sure exactly what it is that God sees in David, but as David Hester notes:
though we are not explicitly told what God seeks in the heart of those whom God chooses, implicitly we are invited to remember what we’ve heard to this point from our Deuteronomic writer. The theme that dominates this history, from its beginning to its end, is the covenant call to the wholehearted love of God, demonstrated in the whole-hearted obedience to the commandments of God and, negatively, in watchful avoidance of showing devotion or loyalty to things that are not God[iii].
We might assume, then, that what God saw in David as a young boy was a purity in heart and a devotion to God, markers of what we come to know as his gentle spirit from the Psalms, and characteristics that will lead him to develop a deep faith even in the midst of trying times.
God’s selection of David is a beautiful story to read in the Season of Lent. Just four weeks ago, we began our journey together with Psalm 51, ironically attributed to David much later in his life after his interactions with Bathsheba. In it, we offered our prayers of confession and begged for God’s mercy, but perhaps most importantly, in Scripture and then in song we said, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10). Our intention in Lent is to search our own hearts, our thoughts, our actions, everything that makes us who we are, so that we can be more faithful to the one who created us. In Lent, we ask God to look at our hearts and clean up the mess. And we trust that God will do this, because we believe that our God is a God of grace, who sees who we are, even into the depths of our being, and offers mercy.
In Lent, we are preparing ourselves for the good news that through Jesus Christ, we are forgiven and freed from all that would hold us back from our relationship with God. Our text from 1 Samuel reminds us that rather than keeping a chart of our good and bad deeds, or looking at our appearances, God judges by looking at our hearts. Perhaps this is because, as those God has created, we are close to God’s heart. And that’s good news.
In Ephesians, Paul writes about what it means to be close to God, as beloved children who have been claimed by Christ. He speaks about the importance of living into the covenant relationship God intends, as understood in God’s commandments. Then, he presents us with the verses we read today, a clear distinction of how we have been chosen by God, and brought into the light.
Paul’s description lines us up, much like the sons of Jesse were for Samuel, and tells us that it is time to pick teams. How many of you remember doing this during recess in the school yard? In elementary school, this was how we started every recess by picking teams for kickball. Of course, we all know how it plays out: the athletic and popular kids are picked first. And there is always the same kid that is chosen last. Many adults still carry scars and hurt from this selection process. But, if we apply our texts from today to this metaphor, we realize that the ways God selects is all-together different from other team captains. God looks beyond popularity and physical prowess, and sees into the heart.
In Lent, we, too, line up, but are surprisingly chosen to be on the team, even though there are others around us who we might think are more capable or qualified. God accepts us. This is the gift our texts reveal today. The gift that God accepts us, and loves us beyond compare. We are children of light, now, claimed and loved by God. For many of us, this moment was signified with our baptisms. Sometimes it happened so long ago that we may have forgotten what it means to be a part of God’s team. Lent is about recovering that basic identity, which includes returning our hearts to God in humility and faith. There, we will find acceptance beyond compare.
This is a gift, though, with some pretty big implications for those of us who have received it. As children of light, we are called to live like it. We are called to trust in God, the team manager, in Jesus Christ, the coach and in the Holy Spirit, our cheer squad, to make the decisions and guide us. This means we have to get on board with their game plan, and see the court the way that God does.
It starts by trying to see others the way God sees them. This means letting go of our pre-conceived notions about who is favored, or even who God loves, and instead try to look beyond the superficial and see into the heart. David Hester says that:
This, I suggest, is the logic of seeing through the eyes of faith and a logic that participates in the divine point of view. Christians practicing faith by this logic of “heart-seeing” are looking at others and at life through a storied perspective that pays special attention to the heart of God made flesh in Jesus Christ. Such “heart-seeing,” conversely, pays less attention to wondering about the character and behavior of others in the human community and the created order, to who we are sent as Christ’s disciples[iv].
This is what God called Samuel to do. To let go of what he had done and seen in the past and instead pay attention to how God was seeing the world. He did this from a position of grief, and perhaps from a place where he felt totally unqualified. After all, the one that he had sought out and stood beside, Saul, had not worked out. I wonder if Samuel doubted his ability to even see or hear anything God was calling him to do. But God promises to sit alongside him, if he will be open enough to let his eyes be God’s eyes. And he does, and in that allows God to point him to the most unlikely scenario. Samuel is presented with the opportunity to practice God’s gift of acceptance, extending that to David, the unlikely king.
There is a church up the street from us that I pass almost every day. Their sign lists some sort of theological quip or inspiring comment. Recently, what has been posted is something very close to “Do not judge by mere appearances, but judge righteously.” Admittedly, this got under my skin a bit the first time I saw it. Yes, we shouldn’t judge by appearances, but generally the idea of judging others isn’t one that I find particularly helpful in my life of faith. The preacher from Montreat this summer challenged us at being “Judge Judy” in our lives, looking down and judging others for a number of reasons. I am admittedly guilty of this, from appearances to decisions others make. It is something I struggle to keep in check. I’m not helped by the instruction to judge, even righteously. This sign even has bothered me after I realized that it was quoting scripture (John 7:24). But, given 1 Samuel 16, I am seeing it in a new light this week. Rather than being legalistic and divisive, what if the “right judgment” is the kind of judgment God shows through Samuel to David? The kind that looks at the heart, through the eyes of the one we know looks at us with love, so much so that life was given for us. The kind that leads to acceptance?
We are called, like Samuel, to listen and discern where God is leading us, ready to offer acceptance ourselves to others that we may meet, even when they are the smallest or youngest or last in line. Cinderella stories like David’s selection as king remind us that there is more to success or selection than meets the eye. Just because a team is bigger, literally taller, or stronger or more experienced doesn’t mean they will be victorious. Of course, the author in our text notes that while being the youngest, David was ruddy and handsome. So while you could be good looking and chosen by God, the two aren’t necessarily connected. The chosen by God part has to do with far more than outward appearances. Given this, we must look beyond the superficial and use different criteria than the world would otherwise demand. We have to look with our hearts, and see with our hearts. Then, we might be prepared to accept others who are also God’s children. We might also be able to find our own place in God’s story, hearing our own name called and taking our place alongside others who are children of light. In both, we might begin to understand the radical nature of God’s gift of grace and love. God’s acceptance marks the start of our Cinderella story, but it is just the beginning.
~Rev. Elizabeth Lovell Milford
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[i] http://www.sportingnews.com/ncaa-basketball/news/march-madness-2017-ncaa-tournament-first-round-upsets-1-vs-16-odds-final-four-sweet-16-elite-eight/137gk4v5k3lzv1e9cxsj6aqjxv
[ii] Donald P. Olsen, “Pastoral Perspective: 1 Samuel 16:1-13,” Feasting on the Word: Year A, Volume 1, David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, editors. (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010).
[iii] David C. Hester, Interpretation Bible Studies: First and Second Samuel, (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2000).
[iv] Hester.
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