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Reverend Plank's Sermons |
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Current March 2 Previous
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4th Sunday in Lent March 2, 2008 Omaha, NE Rev. Steven W. Plank
“A Different Viewpoint”
Text: 1 Samuel 16:7b – “… for the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”
Scripture Lessons: Ephesians 5:8-14 1 Samuel 16:1-13
Proposition: How many times to we make snap judgments, solely based on initial impressions of the things we see? God, however, looks at what is going on behind the scenes, within people’s hearts. We are invited to share “A Different Viewpoint” with God.
Prayer for Illumination: Almighty God, in you are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Open our eyes that we may see the wonders of your Word; and give us grace that we may clearly understand and freely choose the way of your wisdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
I find it utterly amazing how we human beings have the capacity to have what I would call “selective sight” – where we see new things in something which we’ve looked at dozens of times, or where we fail to see something that is as plain as the nose on our faces. How many times has this happened to you? You are at your desk looking for your favorite pen, or you are in your kitchen looking for the wooden spoon that you need, and you can’t find it anywhere. You look, and you look, and you look. You look under things. You look around things. You pick up things, move things, look in drawers. Then someone walks in on you in the midst of this ever-increasingly-frustrating situation, and asks what you are looking for. You tell them. Then they say, “Aren’t you carrying that in your left hand?” And they walk out with this strange look on their face, shaking their head in disbelief. A few months ago we were getting ready to have a worship service in the Chapel, and we were going to celebrate Communion. I have this beautiful set of Communion vessels – a chalice and a plate – that I’ve kept in my office, and I wanted to use those when we celebrated the Sacrament. I went into my office to get them… and I looked and I looked and I looked for them, but couldn’t find them. I looked in all my bookcases. I looked on top of file cabinets. I looked in the closet in my study. I then looked in the closet outside of the office… and then in the office… and then in the closet in the Grossman Room where we keep our other Communion supplies. I couldn’t find them anywhere. Frustrated, I went back into my office and was working on something else when Kris came in. I told her I was so frustrated because I couldn’t find that Communion set anywhere. She immediately looked to her right, on top of the bookcase by my door, and said, “You mean, those Communion vessels?” Now, I know for a fact that they were not there before! Yet there they were, as plain as day, defying either my ability to remember (which is certainly possible) or my ability to see (which is more likely, I think). We have this capacity somehow to miss things that we’ve seen before, not to see things that are right in front of us… and Kris has not let me forget this! In our Old Testament lesson, the question of being able to truly see and perceive things arises when Samuel is sent to anoint a new king as successor to Saul. Samuel rightly was fearful in doing what God has called him to do. After all, it is not usually wise to anoint a new king when the reigning monarch is still alive and well! And Samuel was enjoying his retirement anyhow! But God’s call was clear, God’s voice was insistent, and God’s guidance was evident. First Samuel, then the others who were around, were reminded by God that the Lord does not judge by what we see. Our vision is dimmed by many things: desire, “norms,” acceptability, propriety. So, if we were in the shoes of our barefoot Old Testament ancestors during this historical period, what would we be looking for in our nation’s chief ruler? Given the fact that we are in the midst of one of the most hotly contested presidential primary seasons in recent memory, this is not merely an abstract question! There are many things we might have looked for in a new king of Israel, because it was a critical time in the nation’s history. The Israelites had lived in their homeland for some 250 years by the time of our lesson, but their existence was not what we might consider “national” by any stretch of the definition of a “nation.” For some two centuries, the people were governed predominantly within their tribal groups. Only occasionally did the people come together as an entire group, and that was only when there was some external threat serious enough to warrant it. At those times, God raised up judges to unite the people and defeat the threat – people like Samson, Deborah, Gideon. The closest thing we have by which we can relate to this is in our nation’s history, between the years 1776 and 1789. During that time, our form of government was strongly state-centered, with only a very weak central government. Each state printed their own stamps, made their own laws, guarded their own borders, and had little to do with other states. However, after a decade of trying out this form of government for size, most folks decided it wasn’t working very well. So they called a constitutional convention, the ultimate result of which was the unique formation of our current form of government, which tries to balance state’s rights and federalism. Most of the time, it’s served us well. The people of Israel were at that same kind of juncture, transitioning from government by tribes to government by a king, and the king happened to be Saul, who was anointed king by Samuel after God told him to do that. However, Saul didn’t work out very well. Samuel had since gone into retirement, and suddenly God called him to go find and anoint a new king. What would he have looked for when he went to Bethlehem to the house of Jesse? What would we have looked for? My bet is that we most assuredly would not have picked out David to be God’s choice for being king of all Israel. After all, David was the youngest of eight sons of Jesse and his wife – a young, barely-teenage boy – whose résumé listed only one occupational experience: “overseer for gathering of ovine mammals in stable family business.” But God, we are reminded in this lesson, looks on the heart, looks to see where love and faith and hope and kindness and gratitude and humility and devotion all live together within us. And God wants to know what our way of perceiving is, if we know how to look for love, look for faithfulness, look for sincerity, look for God in our daily lives and tasks. What do we see when we look at other people around us? I want to urge us to go beyond the probably-expected point of this kind of message, which is to be sure to see beneath all of the externals that people show us… things which indicate occupation or national origin or economic status, although this is surely something that we need to continually remind ourselves to do, especially in this time of focus on both immigration and terrorism. We can’t assume that all Latino peoples are from Mexico and are here illegally… or that all young, black men are gang bangers who are waiting to rob us or harass us… and we sure can’t assume that all people who look or dress in an Arabic style or who are Muslim are extremists and terrorists! So the importance of how we view others certainly is not inappropriate for us to remember in our city and our nation at this point in time. However, I’d like to challenge us to take yet another step deeper in considering this. I’d like us to really think how it is that God might look at a situation, how Christ might view someone else, how the Spirit might be working within someone in ways of which we have no idea. After all, the word, “Christian,” means “Christ-like,” so learning to try to see issues and situations, people and institutions as Christ would see them is something for which we should strive. That’s the standard to which others in the world hold us, so it should be of primary importance for us as well. Gandhi once said, “I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” A sad commentary on the Christians that he saw, isn’t it? How does God view other people around us? How does God view us? In some ways, that might be the most unique way by which we can begin to grapple with this. How do you think God views you? What does Christ see when he looks at you? What does the Spirit think about when moving within us and working through us? Here’s something to consider. It is a poem by Edwina Gately, from her collection, There Was No Path So I Trod One. It is called, simply, “Let Your God Love You.” Be silent. Be still. Alone, Empty, Before your God. Say nothing. Be silent. Be still. Let your God Look upon you. That is all. God knows And understands. God loves you with An enormous love, Wanting only to Look upon you With Love. Quiet. Still. Be. Let your God Love you. Are we willing to be that open and vulnerable before God? Are we willing to let ourselves really imagine that this is how God views us, that loving us completely and utterly is what God most longs to do with us? Can we then begin to imagine that this is how God view all people… homeless people, crazy people, people with emotional wounds, people who are recent immigrants to our land, people who vote differently than we do, even people who are our enemies? Can we begin to believe that God loves us all, just as we learned to sing as little children: red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight? Samuel realized a new reality: “… the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” God truly has “A Different Viewpoint” on things and people than we usually do. Dare we try to gain God’s perspective? AMEN!
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