Worship on the Lord’s Day
Fourth Sunday of Lent
10:00 am March 19, 2023
Onsite & Online (Mixed Presence) Gathering as a Worshipping Community
led by Rev. Bradley Childs
Music director: Binu Kapadia
Elder: Jane de Caen
We gather to worship God
Music prelude
Greeting
L: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
P: and also with you.
Lighting of the Christ candle
Welcome and announcements
Silent preparation for worship
Call to Worship
L: Just as the Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness,
P: the Spirit leads us into places of uncertainty where we confront our weakness and insecurities.
L: Here we are taught to pay attention to those whom others ignore.
P: Jesus insists that God’s grace is revealed in unlikely people.
L: God’s realm is a place where all are welcome, regardless of their state or position. In a world of disparity, we recognize that some receive what is denied to others.
P: Let us break through barriers that keep many from receiving the grace that they need.
Opening praise: Great are you, Lord
Prayers of approach and confession
God of Great Wisdom,
You are beyond our imagining, beyond our control,
and sometimes beyond our comfort zone.
You amaze us.
You have given us more than we could ever earn or deserve,
and in response, we are not only grateful but determined to be faithful stewards.
Receive our worship this day, O God.
Speak to us in the sounds and silence of this hour
and amaze us once again in your presence.
God of Goodness,
You share your abundance with us and shower us with gifts.
But we confess that we have squandered those gifts.
We have wasted knowledge, friendship, beauty and wealth; we have squandered our time and energy, sometimes even our trust and love.
Forgive our foolishness.
Have mercy on us.
Teach us new ways of living out your love in the world today and every day, with the help of Jesus Christ, our Friend and Saviour. Amen.
Response: We come to ask your forgiveness, O Lord
Assurance of God’s forgiveness
While it is true that we have sinned and squandered God’s gifts at times, it is a greater truth that we are forgiven through God’s love in Jesus Christ.
To all who humbly seek the mercy of God I say, In Jesus Christ our sin is forgiven. Be at peace with God, with yourself and with one another.
Musical Offering: Pie Jesu (Linda)
We listen for the voice of God
Children’s time
Gradual: Open our eyes, Lord (445)
Story: There was a woman who went to go see a Catholic priest. She be;ieved that she had seen Jesus. She went to the priest, and she said, “Father, I have seen Jesus, and it was like, well, just like He was right there like you are – right there, right nw.”
The priest didn’t really believe the woman had really seen Jesus and wasn’t really sure what to say.
So he said, “Did he talk?“ The woman said that he didn’t
The woman went away, and a few days later she came back to the Catholic priest, and she said, “I saw Jesus again just as clear as you , standing there in front of me.” And the priest said, “Did he speak?” And the woman said, “Yes,” he said, “I love you and I forgive you and everything is okay.”
Again, the priest said, Hmm. Sounds a little suspicious. Why don’t you go back and this time you aske Jesus what you confessed in the confessional this morning?
So the woman went away and, a few days later, she came back.
She said, “I’ve seen Jesus again standing there in front of me, clear as day, just like you. And he spoke.
“What did he say? Asked the priest.
He said, “I love you, and I forgive you, and everything is okay.”
Then the priest says, “And what about the sins you confessed? How did he respond when you asked him what you had said in the confessional?”
The woman paused for a second.
Then she looked up the priest, and she said, ”He said, ‘I forget.’”
The little trick here is that once you confess, God says that our sins are as far away as East is from West.
They are forgiven.
They are gone. They do not exist.
Prayer: Our God. We don’t always do what’s right. Sometimes we’re rude to our parents, to our grandparents, to our friends. Sometimes we’re selfish. Sometimes we think just about ourselves. Lord, help us to be a part of a bigger family to do better, to be better.
The Lord’s Prayer (535 or 469)
Transition music
Today’s Message
Scripture reading: I Samuel 16: 1-13
Response: Jeus, remember me
Message: “Clean up”
A young man was playing basketball in the driveway when a lens popped out of his glasses. He looked all over for it but found nothing. For about 5 minutes he searched the ground but couldn’t find it. So, he gave up; went inside and reluctantly told his mother she would have to buy him a new pair of glasses.
Right away the boys’ mother marched outside. Within a single minute the mother found the lens sitting on the lawn and had popped it back into place. Impressed that his lens had been found, the boy asked his mother, “how did you find it so fast?” With motherly wisdom indeed, the mother replied with these words, “You were looking for a piece of glass. I was looking for $400.”
While the boy was looking for an object and gave up quickly, the mother saw the true value of the thing.
Okay, so the year is about 1025 BC.
Saul is the King of a divided Kingdom of Judah with its capital Jerusalem in the South and Israel in the north.
Samuel the prophet had anointed Saul King, but things have changed since then.
God had rejected Saul’s Kingship because Saul had become increasingly cruel, drunk on his own power, and had disobeyed God. Secretly Saul had even informed a subset of his own enemy forces about his plans to attack and thus allowing them to escape. This will not end well for him.
In addition, Saul had refused to wait in his attack on his enemies, the Philistines.
Samuel the prophet was in the process of traveling to the front line to offer sacrifices and to ask God to protect the people. But instead of waiting for him King Saul assumed both the prophetic and priestly roles for himself, made his own sacrifices and called for his own blessing.
Now, Saul did this not because Saul was a faithful person seeking God’s advice and favour. Saul did this because he wanted to go to war without having to wait.
And then on top of that, after going into battle Saul once more disobeyed God’s direction in order to plunder the Philistines. As a result, God would soon remove the anointing from King Saul and appoint for Judah and Israel a whole new King. But there would be no mutiny. This new King would not assume his role until Saul had died.
Eventually and sadly, King Saul would die by suicide on the battlefield while fighting against the very same Philistines he had allowed to escape in first place; killing himself to prevent the opposing army from claiming his life. (As a side note – If you have ever wondered about a possible biblical position on physician-assisted death or DNR’s, this is probably a good place to start.)
When we pick up our reading for today the prophet Samuel is mourning the fact that God wants him to appoint a new King. While YHWH felt sorry that he had ever allowed Saul to be appointed as the Prince of the People, Samuel mourned for Saul who he thought of as a mighty warrior and frightening figure in a world where war seemed all but inevitable.
Three thousand years ago Israel was in crisis. Only a few years before, the nation had insisted on getting a king, so that they could be like all the other nations that surrounded them. The prophet Samuel (the most respected man in Israel) had reluctantly given into their demands and had anointed Saul as leader largely because of his height.
But Saul had proved to be a very poor choice – moody, tyrannical, superstitious, hostile – a man that found himself at war every single year of his reign without fail. Clearly a new direction was needed for the nation of Hebrews. And so it fell on Samuel’s tired old shoulders, once again, to find somebody to be king – someone who would be worthy, somebody who could command the respect of the people. Where would Samuel find a man like that? God would send him.
As our reading today says, “the spirit of the Lord directed Samuel” to the household of a man named Jesse whom he had never met or heard of. Samuel was to find a new king for Israel among the several sons of Jesse and God would help him find the man that would be king.
The story starts off in a very interesting manner. Although it’s a short story – in its original language it’s full of political satire and word play as well as at least one extremely sticky point and one more I’ll give you for homework later.
God rejected King Saul who had become wicked and directs Samuel to the sons of Jesse in Bethlehem to anoint a new soon to be king. But Samuel is afraid. What he’s being asked to do, at first, appears tantamount to insighting a political coup and overturning an entire government system. Samuel fears for his life and says to God, “If Saul hears about it, he’ll kill me”.
Samuel’s fears are not unfounded. To get to Jesse in Bethlehem is just a 15km hike, but to get there, Samuel must leave Ramah and pass through Gibeah (where Saul lives). And not only is Saul King, but he also already assumes that something is amiss. He’s prone to fits of violence. He’s said to be 7 feet tall, and he’s spent his entire life on the battlefield.
What’s more if we were to glimpse into the future by turning ahead to chapter 18:10-11 we would see Saul, twice, throw a spear at a soon to be very famous young musician while he is attempting to perform a song.
And then something very odd happens.
If you would open those pew bibles to 1 Samuel 16:2 on page 259.
But Samuel said “How can I go? If Saul hears about it, he will kill me.” And “The LORD said, ‘Take a heifer with you and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the LORD.”
Did you catch that?
Samuel says I can’t go through Saul’s Village. If Saul hears about it, he’ll kill me. And God responds to Samuel’s objection by instructing him to take a young female cow with him and tell the people that he’s come to offer a sacrifice.
Now I want to be clear here. God doesn’t tell Samuel to lie exactly. But… the sacrifice is certainly not the main reason he’s there is it? Samuel is there to anoint a new King. He’s there to replace Saul.
God’s direction to Samuel is true (he will make a sacrifice) But it’s also perhaps a bit deceitful as it is clearly not the whole truth. (Let that one sink in for a moment.) Remember, this is purportedly God who proposes the sneaky solution. Also, just for future notice, I have a whole evening bible study on that topic coming up this spring titled: Deceit, Lies and Truth presented in the Christian Scriptures.
In any case in verse 4 it says, “4 Samuel did what the Lord said…” and tells the people who meet him that he has “come to sacrifice to the Lord.”
After this Samuel tells Jesse and his sons to “consecrate themselves” and come along to the sacrifice he will make. Now it’s fair to say that this is a spiritual practice (this consecration). They are readying themselves. But… to put it plainly it’s also just a bath. Basically, Samuel tells them to wash up, take their monthly bath, put on some clean clothes and then come for the ceremony.
The plan has worked but now Samuel is face-to-face with the sons of Jesse. He’s hidden his real motives, made it there alive and now he actually has to do the thing he was told to do – to anoint a new King.
Now, before we go any further, we need to know a couple of things about this particular place and time. You see, height and stature were very important to the ancient Israelites. To be tall was a thing of reverence. King Saul for example was chosen in part simply because he was said to be “a head above any other” (an imposing figure that would command the attention of the nations who sought to harm Israel). To be tall was to be respected. And this is something that is been repeatedly proven to-still-be true today. Studies often show that taller men and women tend to move up the corporate ladder at quicker rates and command higher salaries. It’s the same idea here.
But height wasn’t the only thing that garnered respect. In fact, if there was one thing most important for status at this time it would have to be family position.
Do we have any First-Born Sons here today?
Ah, you are the chosen people.
And for you non-first-born males – Good on you too. You are generally the Heroes of the bible.
(My mom might hear this – so, this is hyperbolic, lighthearted and completely jocular. No tears. Just smiles!)
I am not the first. I have an older brother who is also at least a half foot taller than me and by some perverse cosmic justice also much smarter. Did you ever see the 1988 movie Twins with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito where the one brother hit the genetic lottery and the other one was made up of all the left-over bits/ That’s pretty much it. So, I sort of get this story.
In my family Chad is the first-born son. Hannah is the first-born daughter. Amanda is the baby. And I am basically just the second money-sucking thing that should have been the first girl. I think I was supposed to be Cassandra (I may have that wrong).
Now, at this time in history the first-born son held a particular place of honour. And it mattered. As a leader’s child it meant that you would someday be the leader. It meant that you would be the leader of an entire extended family system within your clan. Massive numbers of people would count on you for water and food and protection.
When a father died for example, often the first-born son received ½ of everything from the father’s estate. In part this was because it carried the honour of caring for the matriarchal widow. Following this, the rest was to be split up among the remaining sons (sorry ladies, it was definitely not an egalitarian society). Please note that scripture is not telling everyone how it should have been or be – just how it was.
Nevertheless, there are some examples of money being split evenly between all children in this culture, but there are many other accounts of money being split up from the oldest male to the youngest (with each son receiving half of what was left before going to the next oldest son).
So, case in point… for the clan elder Jesse (from our story today) who had 7 or 8 sons depending upon how we read this story and/or what source material was first written (probably 8 children is correct). In any case, the youngest would receive only a miniscule amount. To be the youngest was a disgrace; the lowest position a person could have.
So, let’s say for the sake of argument that Jesse had $1,000,000.00.
Well (if Jesse were to die) the first son, Eliab, would get $500,000.00 (not bad). But the second would get $250,000.00 and the third $125,000.00 (still not too shabby). But the fourth would get $62,500 the fifth $31,250. the sixth $15,625. the seventh $7,812.50 (that might be the youngest one), or the eight sons (if there are in fact 8) would get just $3,906.25!
That’s the equivalent of giving one of your children a two-bedroom condo on the water in Victoria BC and giving another one of your children a used hot tub.
The first-born son would get half a million dollars and the last would get a fairly well maintained 2001 Pontiac Aztec with 240,000km’s and fresh back from it’s 6th factory recall. (I’m sorry if you bought a Pontiac Aztec.)
The oldest son was considered the most important person in any family. The oldest was the one that would receive the largest share – would later be responsible for the others, the head of the house, the person who fathers had to spend the most time with, to teach; to guide. The eldest son was the one the others envied; the one parents wanted their daughters to marry; the one with respect. Each son after that first son was worth exactly half as much as the last. This is the society the Prophet Samuel lived in when he visited Jesse and his sons.
And so, Samuel first sees the eldest. But not just the eldest but also the tallest: Eliab. And Samuel just new this guy was the one. It had to be. And even though God had told him that he would reveal the one who was to be King, it is so ingrained in Samue from society that the eldest and tallest is the best that Samuel actually thinks in verse 6 “Surely the Lord’s anointed stands here”.
But it wasn’t. Verse 7 reads, “But the LORD said to Samuel, ‘Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.’”
So Samuel moved on to the next son… ½ a man compared to the last… and then the next… and the next… and the next… and the next… and the next… and the next until at least 6 men had been passed over. And so, Samuel is confused. He has risked his very life to come here. God had promised that He would show him the next King of Israel and he’s looked them all over and no King was to be found. He must have wondered, “Is this a joke?”
And so, in nervousness he begs a vey important question. He says, “Are these all the sons you have?”
But no… These are not all the sons Jesse has. There is one more.
And so the father, no doubt surprised, tells Samuel, “There is still the youngest” “He’s tending the sheep”. And so, Samuel stops the presses. He stops everything he’s doing and then sends for this youngest child (literally ½ of a ½ of a ½ of a ½ of a ½ of a ½ of a ½ of the man Samuel had expected). A waste of his time. And they all wait… they wait until someone can travel all the way out to the fields, search them, and find the boy and return with him.
But then as soon as this youngest boy appears, Samuel is told what to do. “Rise and anoint him,” said the Lord.
The anointing of David indicated that “from that time onward” David was now king de jure dei. The following chapters describe how he became king de facto. All the deeds of politics, of guerrilla action and intrigue, of marriages of convenience and questionable service with the Philistines are trumped by this a priori fact: already at the start God had anointed David to someday be Saul’s successor.[1]
Now I want to stop the story here for just one second to point out something strange in the text. When David appears in the translation, it generally says, “He was glowing”. The contemporary English version says, He was “healthy”. But that’s not that accurate. The vast majority of translations say, “he was Ruddy”.
The Hebrew word here is ‘admoniy (ad mo nay) which actually only has one meaning. It means red. In other words, when David appeared before Samuel he was described as being red in appearance. Now, it could be that he was embarrassed as some have argued but that’s not really the way they described embarrassment in Hebrew so that is very, very unlikely. More than likely then this actually means that David has red skin (freckles) or most likely of all, that David is a red head.
Bet you didn’t know David was a ginger!
Now that’s not actually important to the text but I do think it’s pretty cool for red heads to know they aren’t alone. David is one of you soulless devils.
Now back to the story. In all truth it didn’t matter what David looked like. It’s a clean heart God is after. Sure, he’s described as being sort of handsome but that doesn’t really matter either. In fact, that’s kind of the point. David almost doesn’t matter at all. This isn’t about him. David is a completely passive participant in this story.
It sounds odd to say this but this story isn’t about David. Think about it, we don’t even know his name until the very last line in the story. This story isn’t about David so much as it is about God and how God works.
The point of the story isn’t about David’s looks any more than it is about Saul’s height or Eliab’s (the first-born son’s statue). The point isn’t who the people would choose or even who the religious icon Samuel would have chosen (he liked the first kid). The point comes from verse seven where it says that “people look at the outward appearance,” but “the LORD looks at the heart.” It is the clean heart that matters.
In religious circles a lot of people like to talk about Orthodoxy. That means Right Thought. It means having the right theology, knowing God correctly. Other people put a lot of focus on Orthopraxy. This means Right Acts. The idea here is that what you do might actually be more important than what you believe.
I think this is a false dichotomy because one must inevitably flow into the other from my perspective. How can you really do what is right if you don’t believe in what’s right? And how can you honestly believe in what right but then not do it?
What God seems to care most about in this passage is Orthocardia. Here God says that what he looks for is not just the right belief or the right acts but the Right Heart.
The world tells us that God is looking for the well-spoken, the young, or the wealthy. It tells us that the kid on the street corner with the blue hair and the torn jeans is worth less than the businesswoman. It gives us all kinds of criteria by which to measure and judge people. But God doesn’t work that way. God chose David: the youngest and the lowliest.
(½ of a ½ of a ½ of a ½ of a ½ of a ½ of a ½ of the man that the people were looking for) – a guy whose family didn’t even think to bring him – he was so worthless!
When God looks at people he knows what he’s looking for. He’s not like that boy in the driveway looking for a chunk of glass. He’s like the wise mother who sees the real value. When God looks at us, he sees the heart…
May you see (yourself and all those you meet) with the eyes of God – Eyes that judge not the appearance of a person but… the presence of a clean heart. Amen.
And now for your homework. Feel free to open those bibles (NRSV) back up to page 260 and Read 1 Samuel 16:14-15 and then ask yourself this question: “an evil spirit” from who? Have you ever read the introduction to Jesus being led out into the desert for 40 days. It’s the same line there. He’s led out by God to be tested by the devil. But God is fully in control.
Song: Open my eyes that I may see (500)
We respond to serve God
Reflection on giving: We have been giving faithfully since the beginning of the pandemic and we are committed to continuing the ministry and mission that define Dayspring – using the ways described below. Thank you all for your support of our shared vision and mission.
Prayer of gratitude and for others and ourselves
We give thanks to you, O God, because you have blessed us with all we need to do your work. May the offerings we share today become a source of healing for a world in need, for the sake of Jesus Christ, the One who sends us out in love.
Lord of every person and every part of creation, the world we live in is so complicated. We are grateful for your company, and for your compassion, as we try to figure out how to live well and respond to complicated challenges.
Thank you for your Word, and for its wisdom, even when we don’t entirely understand it. Thank you for Jesus, who can also confuse us. when he calls us to love and live in ways very different from what the world expects.
You are far wiser than we are, and we rest in this knowledge. Still, even as we thank you for your guidance, we plead for your mercy. Because we have sometimes been like the dishonest manager, distracted by money and making poor choices, we ask for your mercy.
Because we know people who suffer, people who are barely making ends meet, people who feel as if they have not even one person to help them, not even us, we ask for your mercy.
And because there are places in the world where chaos reigns, where clean water is just a dream, where violence is an everyday occurrence, we ask for your mercy.
Hear our silent prayers for those who suffer. and for those situations stir in our hearts this day…
Keep silence for 30 seconds.
O God, we trust that you hear us when we cry out, when we complain, when we whisper, when our words for you are angry, and when we have no words for you at all.
In your mercy, hear us and help us, not because of our own goodness but because of the mercy and love already demonstrated for us in Jesus Christ, your son and our Lord. Amen.
Song: I’m gonna live (work, pray) so God can use me (648)
Sending out with God’s blessing
And now we go into the days ahead. May we find strength. May we have wisdom. May we keep humble. And as we live and work together may we also build a new and better world for tomorrow in light of Christ our Lord. Amen
Response: Go forth into the world
Music postlude
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Numbers in brackets after a song/hymn indicate that it is from the 1997 Book of Praise of the Presbyterian Church in Canada. Those and other songs are being used in accordance with the specifications of Dayspring’s licensing with One Licence (3095377) and CLC (A735555).
The Rev. Brad Childs retains the copyright (© 2023) on all original material in this service. As far as Brad Childs is aware, all of the material that has not been attributed to others is his own creation or is in the public domain. Unacknowledged use of copyrighted material is unintentional and will be corrected immediately upon notification being received.
[1] Klein, R. W. (1983). 1 Samuel (Vol. 10, pp. 158–162). Dallas: Word, Incorporated.