1 Samuel 16:1-13
For those of you who may not know it, June is Pride Month, a time for GLBT folks to stand up and feel proud of who they are. You may see rainbow flags flying from homes – Pennie and I have ours out. And there are Pride parades and other celebrations. It’s a way of affirming a group of people who have been rejected, outcast, stereotyped, labeled as sinners, demonized and dehumanized for as long as there have been people.
I recently saw something on Facebook that I wish I had written down. I can’t remember it exactly word for word, but it said something like, if we could see each person’s heart and soul, imagine how differently we would judge them. If we looked at a person and didn’t know whether that person was male or female, white or black, gay or straight, young or old, but only what was in their heart, what was in their character, would it make a difference in how we thought of them? Would we “see” them the same way? What if we could learn to measure a person that way all the time?
I have known some truly godly people, some good people, people with good hearts, people who follow the teachings of Christ, who will never set foot in a church again because of the way church people have treated them because they happen to be gay. They have been called names, they have not been allowed to hold church offices or teach Sunday School or be ordained as clergy in some cases. They have been told that they are sinners just because of who they are, who they were created to be. They have been blamed by well-known evangelists for 9/11. They have been told that their very existence is incompatible with Christian teaching. So why would they walk into a church?
But what if the church looked not at their sexual identity, but at their hearts, at their souls? What would we see there? We would see loving, caring individuals, responsible partners and spouses and parents, people who care about others and give generously. We would find people of faith who pray regularly to a God whom they are told finds them guilty, and yet who continue to believe in his love and grace. We would find people who follow the way of Jesus.
As we begin this sermon series on King David, we start with the story of his anointing by Samuel as God chose him to replace King Saul. God had rejected Saul for a variety of reasons, but mainly because Saul no longer was obedient to God’s commands and did not follow God’s leading. The verse just prior to our reading today says that God was sorry that he had made Saul king over Israel. And so God sent Samuel the prophet to anoint another king from among the sons of Jesse, a man who lived in Bethlehem.
Samuel was reluctant at first. After all, if Saul heard that Samuel was anointing another king, Saul might come after Samuel and kill him and the newly anointed successor. But God reassured him and sent him along to Bethlehem with a carefully concocted alibi as to why he was there.
When he got ready, Samuel had Jesse bring his sons along one at a time. When the eldest son, Eliab, came along, he was impressive. Apparently, he was tall and good looking. But God told Samuel not to pay any attention to his appearance. God said that he does not see as mortals see; while we look on the outward appearance, God looks at the heart. And so, one by one, the other sons of Jesse are paraded in front of Samuel. But God rejects all seven of these sons. Finally, Samuel asks, “Do you have any other sons?”
Can’t you just imagine his frustration? And Jesse’s? After all, these seven young men were probably prime specimens. They were all tall and healthy and strong, ready to assume leadership. But God was not impressed with any of them. Samuel may have been wondering if God maybe just got distracted and missed the one he wanted as he came by in that crowd of men. There was nothing left to do but ask if there might be any more sons hanging around somewhere.
Jesse admitted that there was, in fact, one more son, the youngest. David was out tending to the sheep. So Samuel told Jesse to send for him. When David came in, what does the scripture say? It says that he was ruddy and had beautiful eyes and was handsome. This seems so ironic to me, given that earlier God had said not to pay any attention to the outward appearance! But maybe this was to emphasize that David was the whole package, someone with a good heart AND good-looking. Anyway, God let Samuel know that this was the one. Finally! So Samuel anointed David with oil in front of his brothers. (Ever wonder what they were thinking? Maybe Joseph and his brothers all over again?) And the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David that day.
So what do we know about David so far?
David was a shepherd. He knew how to take care of sheep. That means that he had a certain amount of courage. There were wild animals out there that would try to kill the sheep, and he would need to be ready to protect his animals. He would have to have weapons – a sling, a shepherd’s crook – ready to defend them and drive off the predators. He would also need a certain amount of patience. He would have to sometimes track down sheep who had wandered off. They will, as my Bible professor used to say, “nibble themselves into lostness, one blade of grass at a time.” And, as Jesus said in a parable, the shepherd will indeed leave the 99 to go looking for the one who is lost. Both courage and patience would be good qualities in a king.
David was the youngest of eight brothers. Maybe he was spoiled, but I doubt it. I think he probably had to stand up for himself a lot. He wouldn’t have wanted to be pushed around by those who were bigger and stronger than himself. Maybe that’s what made him so confident that he could defeat the giant Goliath.
David became filled with the spirit of the Lord. In the next verse after our passage, it says that the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul. God’s Spirit that had enabled Saul to be an effective ruler now settled on David, even before he became king, a long time before he became king. And I believe that God’s Spirit shaped David and helped form and mold him into the king that God needed him to be. That Spirit that filled David is seen in the beautiful psalms that he wrote and that we still use today as we sing and pray. And that Spirit is what made David a man after God’s own heart.
If we could see into David’s heart what God saw that day, I think we would see a man of courage, a man of patience, a man unafraid of a challenge, and a man open to receive the Spirit of God. That is the kind of man God would choose to be king. That is the kind of man that would be a man after God’s own heart.
