Trust in What God Sees
1 Samuel 16: 1-13; Psalm 23
Rev. Patricia D. Barth
March 6, 2005
Introduction to the Scripture: A little background to this story of King David’s anointing might be useful. Samuel, the Lord’s prophet, anointed Saul to be the first ruler over the people of Israel. The people had begged for a king, and Samuel had resisted, saying it wasn’t God’s will. He pointed out that a king would only steal from then anyway. Then God relented, realizing the people needed a champion to lead their fight against the Philistines and the many other enemies that surrounded Israel. God chose Saul, and Samuel anointed him king. Saul’s fortunes rose and fell, and he fought many battles with the Lord’s support. In the end, Saul was disobedient to God and had to be replaced. But since Samuel had made him king, and worked with him so long, he was very sad to see Saul go.
“Looks can be deceiving.” Those words were spoken to me by a rather odd-looking man as I was sitting in Savory having a coffee and working on my sermon. He was elderly, dressed in rumpled clothes. He looked like he might have been drinking, or perhaps was a bit unbalanced, but I wasn’t sure. After all, looks can be deceiving! His words were so on point to this story in Samuel that I wondered if he might be God speaking off the cuff, like the interesting characters on the TV show “Joan of Arcadia.” If you haven’t seen that show yet, I highly recommend it. One of the fun elements in it is the variety of persona for God. God appears to Joan as a teenage Goth with multiple piercings; a studious little girl with glasses; a handyman on a ladder; an African-American female school custodian, and more. God usually has a job for Joan; which often begins with a cryptic message when she least expects it.
“Looks can be deceiving!” The man went on to talk in my direction about some girl and a boy, and whether they should date each other, or something like that. It was hard to follow. The moment was no longer so “fraught” with significance, and he walked out the door mumbling.
We so often make snap judgments about people, deciding on a first impression that someone is uninteresting, or not very smart, or making some other judgments based on other prejudices and preconceived notions. Then when we get to know the person a little better, and we wonder how we could have been so wrong! Of course, it works for good and for ill; we may dismiss someone at first, and later come to enjoy their company; or, we sometimes are taken in by people that later prove to be scoundrels.
U.S. society places such a premium on appearance. One of the many things that bugs me about presidential campaigns is our need to elect someone who looks “Presidential.” I hate the concept, but I buy into it just as much if not more than the next person. Looks can be deceiving, especially in a president!
The prophet Samuel was sent on a “presidential” sort of mission by God, except his duty was to anoint a new king for Israel. He was understandably nervous; if Saul found out, he would have considered it treason, and executed Samuel. But God found a way for the prophet to get into the area by subterfuge—he invited Jesse and his sons to join in the sacrifice that Samuel planned to offer to the Lord.
Samuel was almost fooled by his first impressions and prejudices! In that society, the eldest son was usually thought to be the best and the wisest, so Samuel assumes God will choose the oldest, Eliab. He’s not only the oldest, but also the tallest and has the best appearance. I guess he looked kingly. But God says, No! He’s not the one! God doesn’t see as mortals see—they look at the outside, but only God can see a person’s heart.
Seven of Jesse’s sons pass by Samuel, and God says “No” to each of them. The one God wanted was the youngest, David, considered not even worth thinking about by his father Jesse. David was off taking care of the sheep, as young people had to do in those days. His father called him in, and God said, “That’s the one!” And Samuel anointed him with oil, and from then on, the spirit of the Lord came down mightily on David.
He would have to wait a long time, and undergo many trials before he took the throne; but he was God’s chosen from that day forward.
We are God’s chosen people, too, but we often forget that. Our fondness for superficialities and surface appearances applies to our self-image as much as our judgments of others. Only God can see deep into our hearts, and know our true selves, and our real abilities. We may not see these things about ourselves. Sometimes we put ourselves down, or listen to old tapes in our heads of family members putting us down; or we remember stupid things we did in the past. We all do things like that, don’t we? In addition to our own old stuff, some of us are also weighed down by racism, sexism, homophobia, and other biases of systemic sin. And all that garbage piled on our heads makes us feel like we are inadequate. But God can see what is true, what is good, about each person. God doesn’t buy into all of our –isms, or listen to old tapes. God sees right into our hearts. We just need to trust in what God sees, and not pay attention to anyone else.
There is a story of a beggar who was sitting across the street from an artist's studio. The artist saw him and thought he would make an interesting portrait study so from a distance he painted the defeated man whose shoulders drooped, and whose eyes were downcast and sad. When he was finished, he took the portrait over to the beggar so he could look at it.
"Who is that?" the beggar asked. The painting bore a slight resemblance to himself, but in the painting before him he saw a person of dignity, with squared shoulders and bright uplifted eyes, almost handsome! He asked the artist, "Is that me? I don't look like that." But the artist replied, "But that is the person I see in you."
God is like that artist; always seeing our true, best selves. We should trust in God’s vision, not our own. We are all God’s beloved children
We see flaws that aren’t there, cracks in our self-worth, but it also works the other way. We often fail to see sins we have committed or omitted. We deny being sinful. Or we might see our failures to love God and neighbor, but we make excuses or minimize them. How about blaming others? We all usually take a turn at the blame game; some are more skilled at playing than others.
Only God knows the real person inside each one of us. Only God knows the truth about what we have done and left undone—the good and the bad of it; and the part each experience and action has played in making us who we are.
As Samuel learned, we don’t have a clue as to what The Holy Spirit sees inside of us. To God, looks are never deceiving. Can we trust the truth that God sees, instead of relying on our own faulty vision? Can we ask Jesus to help us seek out our sins, so that we may own them, and be forgiven? We are sinners, yet we are all gifted people. Each of you have been given a spiritual gift that Takoma Park Presbyterian Church needs to carry out God’s vision for this little community. I hope that in our time together we can study our spiritual gifts, and seek out the job God has for each of us for building up the Body of Christ, right here, right now, and into the future. Amen.
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