The Youngest of Jesse’s Sons

Reflections on God’s Call in Our Lives

 

Rev. Moira Finley

Trinity United Church of Christ and St. John’s United Church of Christ

6 March 2005

Fourth Sunday of Lent

1 Samuel 16.1-13

 

In our reading from 1 Samuel this morning we hear the story of the call of David.  God comes to the prophet Samuel and commands him to go to Bethlehem, to the house of a faithful man named Jesse, in order to find the man who will become the next king of Israel.  Samuel is afraid.  He’s afraid that if Saul hears of the journey, Saul will try to kill him.  You see, Saul was supposed to have become king, but he disobeyed God.  And it was Samuel who called Saul to account for his actions.

 

Saul still has a lot of power in the area so Samuel’s fear isn’t unfounded.  But God is determined that Samuel should go to Bethlehem to find the one who will be king.  God gives Samuel a plan to avoid Saul’s anger.  He’ll go to Bethlehem and make a sacrifice, inviting Jesse and his family to the ceremony.  So Samuel fills a horn with oil for anointing God’s chosen one and then he sets off for Bethlehem.

 

They prepare the sacrifice.  Then, one by one, Jesse brings his sons before Samuel.  When each one walks in front of Samuel he’s convinced they’re “the one.”  But God cautions Samuel to be patient.  God says Samuel shouldn’t think about how they look, how tall they are, how strong they seem to be.  God says, “the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”

 

Samuel starts to lose heart.  It seems that they’ve gone through all of Jesse’s sons and he still hasn’t found the one that God has chosen.  So Samuel presses Jesse, aren’t there any more sons?  It turns out the youngest son is out in the fields, tending the families’ flocks of sheep.  Samuel says they’ll wait, that they won’t sit down to dinner until this youngest son has come into the house.

 

When the youngest son finally comes in, God speaks to Samuel and says that indeed this is the one who has been chosen to be king.  Samuel goes over to the youngest son, a healthy and handsome man, and anoints him with oil.  In that very moment, the spirit of God comes to him and remains with him the rest of his days.  That youngest son of Jesse will write many of the psalms in our Bible, will enrich and strengthen the people, and will become probably the greatest king in all of Israel’s history.  He is, of course, David.

 

I must make a little confession at this point.  Of all the leading characters in the Bible, David is just about my least favorite.  I don’t like David.  I don’t like the fact that during his reign he’ll rape Bathsheba and have her husband killed.  He’ll wage war after war after war, destroying entire nations of people.  He’ll be greedy and cruel.  He’s often not the kind of man you’d want your son to grow up to be, and he’s probably not the man you want your daughter to marry.

 

My friend Thomas, who pastors in Connecticut, and I were talking about this scripture during the last week.  I was telling him about my reservations with David and he sent me some words he’d written for their worship bulletin this week.  He wrote, “David makes the top ten list of bad boys in the Bible, as well as being the King of God’s people and an ancestor of our faith.  David was very much a human being, sometimes lonely, sometimes funny, sometimes in need of a friend.  David had an anger issue.  David fought wars.  David fell in love.  And David loved God, talked to God, prayed to God, and allowed God to make him great.  Nobody knew that, of course, when David was still a teenager, the youngest of ten, out there in the fields herding sheep.  Nobody knew but God.”

 

I think that is at least part of the story this morning.  David is certainly not the person I would have chosen to be king of Israel.  But I don’t get to do the choosing, none of us do.  We’re not God.  We don’t choose because we would choose by our very human standards, thinking about the way people look, judging often by superficial characteristics.  God, instead, looks into the heart.  God looks at people’s strengths and flaws together, sees the totality of who they are and who they can become, and calls them for particular ministries in the world.

 

All of us are called by God to do work.  We are all God’s ministers.  We all do the work of rebuilding the human family.  We reach out to those in need.  We bring peace and justice wherever we go.  God has called each of us by name, chosen us for specific ministries, using our gifts to change the world.

 

For some people, the voice of God calling them is very loud.  They get the message clearly.  They know what they’re supposed to do, where they’re supposed to go.  I have a friend who has known from her earliest ever memory that she was going to be a doctor.  It’s all she’s ever thought about, all she’s ever wanted, all she’s ever worked for.  And she’s a very good doctor.  She works at a free clinic, serving recent immigrants and people who don’t have health insurance.  If you ask her, it’s clearly something she believes God has been calling her to do all her life.

 

For some people, the voice of God is plenty loud, but they skillfully ignore it for a while.  They pursue other paths until the voice becomes so persistent that they eventually accept the call.  And for other people, for most people I believe, the voice of God is much quieter.  The message about what they should be doing with their lives seems to come in code.  They get subtle hints about their call.  They go through their lives and find things they enjoy doing and things they’re good at, and over time they find ways to see what they’re doing as God’s work.

 

Whether the call is loud and we listen, or loud and we ignore it, or whether it’s quiet and we only come to hear God’s voice slowly, we have all been called.  The things we’re good at, those are the things God needs us to be doing in the world.  The things we enjoy, those are the gifts that God needs us to share.  God needs all of us, as we are.  God needs us with our gifts and blessings, and with our flaws as well.  God needs us to participate in the kingdom, bringing it closer and closer to reality every day.  God has called us, chosen us, despite or perhaps because of our imperfections, to take part in the great tapestry of the world, spreading joy, nurturing hope and creating peace.

 

As we approach the midway point in our Lenten journey, my challenge for you this week is to think about the ways in which God is calling you.  Whatever our physical ability, whatever our financial resources, whatever the limitations on our time, there is something God is calling us to do.  Spend some time in prayer.  Ask God what you should be doing to work for the kingdom.  Ask God to help you see clearly the ministry set before you.

 

When we do, when we all embrace God’s call in our lives, we will work together for the common good.  We’ll become agents of peace in the midst of violence, beacons of light in the middle of the darkness, signs of hope in the midst of despair.  Then, and only then, will the world be whole, will the kingdom come in all its fullness.  Amen.