The Pinnacle of Success – 6/21/09 – 1 Samuel 17,18

A couple weeks ago Abbie and I watched a video online of a speech given by Elizabeth Gilbert, the author of the recent bestseller Eat, Pray, Love.  The subtitle of the book is “One woman’s search for everything across Italy, India, and Indonesian,”  with each country corresponding with one of these at times transcendent experiences of Eat, Pray, Love.  This is a book that Abbie has read and greatly enjoyed and one of the many on my ever-lengthening to-read list.

The surprising thing about the speech was that it was not about the book, per se, not retelling any of her stories or going more in depth with other things she experienced in her travels that didn’t make it into the book.  The speech was about her reflections on the possibility of this book, this best selling book with rave reviews, being the high point of her creative career, and some of her own fears and thoughts about what that might mean for the rest of her life.  As soon as the book became popular, she said, friends told her she was doomed.  Now, whenever she would write, she would be expected to come up with something just as, if not more brilliant.  She would always be in the shadow of this towering success, the person who wrote that Eat, Pray, Love book.  Which, she confessed, was a significant fear that she had.  She spoke briefly about writers and artists of the 20^th century and how some of the most insightful and praised artists were those who also had psychological struggles, some taking their own life, and she raised the question as to whether the rigors and expectations for creative output were connected with this.  And so, in a very honest, straightforward, and at times humorous way, she laid out some of her own thoughts on this.  What if, as a person only in her late 30’s, she has already accomplished her greatest life work?  Could she be at peace with this?  Where does that leave her now, especially as she is getting ready to release her “much anticipated” next book?

(To see the video of this speech, click HERE)

As I was reading and studying the David and Goliath story this week, I couldn’t help but make some connections between that speech and this event in the life of the young David.  Surely, by any variety of standards one could use, this story, this feat of David, would have to be considered one of if not the high point of David’s legacy.  The story itself has all the elements of a classic.  There is the perfect villain, the unlikely child hero who also happens to be a poor peasant shepherd, suspense, the promise of the king’s daughter in marriage, the battle scene, and the triumph of good over evil.        

Gauging from how the story has endured over time, it has truly been successful.  If Jay Leno were to do his Jay-walking and ask people on the street to name a story about the life of David in the Bible, along with the no-doubt bizarre and ill-informed answers he would receive would also most likely be the common answer of David and Goliath.  This is a story whose influence has become firmly embedded in our culture.  We love to cheer for the underdog, the David, and when a sports contest features a dominant team highly favored to win over a less powerful team, sports commentators commonly refer to it as a match of David versus Goliath.  

One recent example of a public embrace of a David type figure was the rise of Susan Boyle, the small-town, middle aged, plain looking woman who entered the Britain’s Got Talent contest.  As she came out on stage, the audience and judges acted more out of the impulse of the Roman Gladiator scenario, with the judges rolling their eyes in mockery of her desire to be a successful singer and the audience smirking in anticipation of her getting tossed to the lions as soon as she would start to sing.  When she did sing, “I dreamed a dream” from the musical Les Miserable, suddenly the scenario shifted to something like David and Goliath.  The audience, and the judges, after one beautiful line of music from her mouth, almost instantly, began cheering in amazement for this newly found David who was conquering the Goliaths of ageism and judge-a-book-by-its-coverism.  Susan Boyle quickly became a You-Tube sensation and the hero of just about everybody who has heard her sing.  And, by the way, if you haven’t seen the YouTube video, it’s very much worth watching, to hear her great performance and also to reflect on this massive shift of spirit that took place when people recognized they were in the presence of beauty.  We love David.  We love Susan Boyle.  We love the underdog.  The whole scenario has captured our cultural imagination.  

  (To watch this video, click HERE)

Internal to the story itself, this is presented as a high point of success.  Things are looking very good for David after he defeats the menacing Goliath and he goes from an unknown small town nobody to a national hero.  Instantly he has the attention and the praise of the King himself, Saul, and Abner, the commander of the army.  David’s charisma proves to be magnetic and he gains a soul mate.  Right after speaking with the king after the battle in 1 Samuel 17, chapter 18 begins this way: “When David had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan, the King’s son, was bound to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.  Saul took David that day (into his service) and would not let him return to his father’s house.  Then Jonathan made a covenant with David, because he loved him as his own soul.  Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that he was wearing, and gave it to David, and his armor, and even his sword and his bow and his belt.  David went out and was successful wherever Saul sent him.” 

David’s celebrity status makes it difficult for him now to go through towns without being praised and drawing the attention of everyone.  Songs and poems are written about him.  When he would go through a town with the king and his army, the women would come out and sing “Saul has killed his thousands, and David his ten thousands.”  Saul had been the first king of Israel, chosen in part because he was a head taller than all the other men, a Goliath in his own right, but this event is part of his fall from power and David’s rise.  Chapter 18 ends by telling how one of the king’s daughter loved David and was given to him as a wife.  It then concludes by noting that in all the battles “David had more success than all the servants of Saul, so that his fame became very great.”  In the course of a short time, as a result of defeating Goliath the Philistine, David gains a soul-mate, is the subject of poetry and pop music praising his strength, is rising toward the throne of Israel, becomes married to a woman who loves him, and becomes famous.  

Can it get any better for David?  Has he reached the pinnacle of success?  Or, maybe more important of a question for us, is this how we are supposed to remember David?  Is this his main legacy?  Is this what is most important about his life that we are to admire or even seek to imitate?  Elizabeth Gilbert was that person who wrote that Eat, Pray, Love book.  Susan Boyle was the woman who wowed the UK and online world when she sang “I dreamed a dream,” and David was the unlikely hero who defeated Goliath.  

One of the remarkable aspects of the Bible is that it keeps telling the story.  Our culture may decide to drop Elizabeth Gilbert and Susan Boyle as ‘so 2009,’ but the biblical memory extends beyond this moment of fame.  Which is to say, it holds up as valuable, as important, as worth remembering, other aspects of David’s life. 

And this is important in a couple different ways.  For one, what we learn of David is not always pretty.  Murderer, adulterer, liar, disobedient to God.  There is no attempt to maintain a clean image of this supposed hero, or promote any kind of hero-worship. 

But there is another part of this that I find interesting.  By continuing to tell the story, by giving us these other events in David’s life, it allows us to ask the question of what really is important from this life of David.  What kind of legacy does he give us in our tradition?  How does our memory of him inform our understanding of a faithful life?

David and Goliath is a story of the weak being lifted up and the strong being humbled, a central feature of the God the Bible portrays, and a good value for any culture to have, but it’s also a story of great violence.  This is, after all, a battle scene, a story about killing, and a little more than just killing.  After David strikes the Philistine in the forehead with one of his stones out of his sling, we are told, “Then David ran and stood over the Philistine, he grasped his sword, drew it out of its sheath, and killed him; then he cut off his head with it.”  A little later we learn that David takes the head with him back to Jerusalem, a lovely trophy of war.  We could spiritualize the story and say it’s about defeating the giants of our life and overcoming the odds stacked against us, a fair interpretation in many ways, but the fact remains that this story, as it is told, is dripping with blood.  The severed head of one’s enemies is being held up as a triumphal sign of victory.  Is this is the high point of David’s life?

What I’d like to suggest is – maybe not.  There are other stories that we can hold up that offer us a different picture of success. 

One example happens not too long after this.  King Saul has become jealous of David’s fame and success and has already made a few attempts at David’s life. David has become a fugitive, with Saul and a large cohort of men pursuing him.  At one point, David is hiding out in the back of a cave, and Saul who is hot on his trail, chooses this particular cave to take a pit stop from the pursuits and relieve himself.  So there’s this pretty funny and ironic picture of David the fugitive in the back of the cave, looking out seeing his sworn enemy in a rather compromised position at the front of the cave.  What to do?  He could have believed that this was a case when God has delivering his enemy into his hands.  He doesn’t even need a sling and five stones.  All he has to do is come up and put a sword through the king.  Saul will never know what hit him and David will be the new king.  It would be David and Goliath, the sequel.  Instead, while Saul is there doing his thing, David sneaks up quietly and cuts off a piece of Saul’s garment that he’s placed to the side.  Saul gets done with his business, gets dressed, and leaves the cave.  And this is what happens told in 1 Samuel 24 – “Afterwards David also rose up and went out of the cave and called after Saul, ‘My lord the king!’  When Saul looked behind him, David bowed with his face to the ground, and did obeisance.  David said to Saul, ‘Why do you listen to the words of those who say, ‘David seeks to do you harm.’  This very day your eyes have seen how the Lord gave you into my hand in the cave; and some urged me to kill you, but I spared you.  See, my father, see the corner of your cloak in my hand; for by the fact that I cut off the corner of your cloak and did not kill you, you may know for certain that there is no wrong or treason in my hands.  I have not sinned against you, though you are hunting me to take my life.”  And then Saul responds.  “You are more righteous than I; for you have repaid me good, whereas I have repaid you evil.  For who has ever found an enemy, and sent the enemy safely away?” 

Whether David knew it or not, this could be a more important legacy than his defeat of Goliath.  Not a public act, but something done in the isolation of a cave.  It was in his power to take life, but instead he had mercy.  He becomes a peacemaker and uses his power for reconciliation rather than destruction. 

Unfortunately, this story of David’s life is not as well known.  It’s not even a part of our lectionary readings, which contain a wide swath of scripture that are read in a three year cycle.  Which means, that if one were just to stick to the script each week, we’d never hear this story in a worship setting.  I wonder what difference it would make if we started remembering this story.  If, when people now were asked to name a story from the life of David, they would first name the story of David and the Cave, or David’s act of reconciliation, or whatever it would come to be called.   

The New Testament doesn’t mention the story of David and Goliath.  As far as I can tell, Jesus recalls just one story from David’s life, when he draws from this same period when David was a fugitive on the run.  Being out of food, David stops in on a local priest, and asks for bread for him and his men.  The priest has nothing but the holy bread that was to be offered to God and was only for the priest to eat, but gives David this bread to eat.  Jesus tells this story to those who accuse him of wrongfully healing on the Sabbath, showing that the purpose of the holy things of life – the Sabbath, sacred bread, whatever, are for giving and restoring life, not withholding it.  So, according to Jesus, perhaps this was the pinnacle of David’s success.  An obscure instance when his companions are hungry, and he and a priest cross over the sacred boundaries of the culture in order to give food where it is needed.  In this way, Jesus does fit the title of Son of David, that so many called him.

Elizabeth Gilbert ends her talk by noting that as much as we would like to believe otherwise, we are not completely in control of the creative process that flows through us.  At certain points in our lives we get caught up, filled, moved into a writing or a project that wants to find fulfillment through us.  It’s impossible to know when such a movement will happen.  The best we can do is to remain open to it, and, as she says, to keep showing up everyday.  Judging by scripture’s standards of success, I’m not even sure that we will know in our lifetime what has been our greatest accomplishment, or if it even matters to try and keep track.  We show up everyday for the work we’ve been given, remain open to the Spirit, and see the ways we may be instruments of God’s peace in ways we do and don’t yet recognize.

 

Provide For Me Someone Who Can Play Well – 7/20/08 – 1 Samuel 16:14-23

“Provide for me someone who can play well.”    

I can think of a few different scenarios where one might hear these kinds of words.  These could easily be the words of a high school coach speaking to his team during a timeout of a close ball game, trying to motivate someone to step up and take leadership so the team can come together and pull out the win in the final few minutes of the game. 

Words like these could come out of the mouth of an orchestra conductor during a tryout session, looking for the best players of the various instruments to fill out the available chairs and produce the best overall sound.

“Provide for me someone who can play well,” could be the chant of discontent fans after another rough season, getting more impatient with the team and hoping that soon a new player or a new manager will come along and turn things around.  I will refrain from making reference to any local teams in this case.    

A situation where these words appear that I wouldn’t think of right away is the one that comes from the scripture reading from 1 Samuel.  Here the plea to “provide for me someone who can play well” is not related to competition, winning, or assembling a successful ensemble, but, strangely enough, has to do with healing.  The physical act of playing is directly connected to mental and emotional restoration.  King Saul is in anguish, afflicted by an evil spirit as the text describes it, and his preferred medicine for regaining his health is someone with the gift of play.     

Of all the subjects we’re touching on this summer – Eat, Work, Play, Pray, Rest – play may come off as having the least amount of substance as it relates to our spirituality and relationship with God.  It has the feel of being light and fluffy and fun like cotton candy without a whole lot there for any kind of real sustenance.  How serious can play really be, after all?    

I read a couple articles this week that talked about some of the research that has been done on play from the perspective of evolutionary psychology.  The puzzle for these folks is why something that seems to be as useless and unproductive as play has come into existence in the first place.  Since the process of evolution is pretty good at selecting out these kinds of behaviors as unnecessary to survival, it’s surprising that an activity that uses up our limited time and energy, and can even make us vulnerable to injury, is still going strong in our species.  Perhaps we are evolving away from play as we grow more efficient and productive in how we live, leaving behind this lower form of interaction.  But what these researchers find is that in the animal kingdom, play increases, rather than decreases, with increased complexity of the brain, with humans being the most playful of all creatures.  One article even went so far as to say that “It can truly be said that we are made for play; after all, humans are among the very few animals that play as adults. What the evidence adds up to is this: we are most human when we play—and just because we play.” “ http://psychologytoday.com/articles/pto-19990701-000030.html

So play may be in itself something that has developed that helps us survive – and to thrive as human beings.

This story of King Saul and the young David is an example of this.  The story is only the second time we meet David, a part of a series of stories that tell about the rise of David and the decline of Saul.  We’re first introduced to David as a shepherd boy, the youngest of eight sons of Jesse who, despite his youth, is selected by God through the prophet Samuel to be the next king of Israel.  The king he’d eventually be replacing, Saul, had been successful early in his reign but had come to be mentally unsound, going into fits of rage and living in torment.  As a way to remedy this, Saul’s servants tell him, “Let our lord now command the servants who attend you to look for someone who is skillful in playing the lyre; and when the evil spirit from God is upon you, he will play it, and you will feel better.  Saul agrees to this plan, and, commands, “Provide for me someone who can play well, and bring him to me.”  Of all the people who could have been selected, they bring the young David into the court to be with Saul, who, aside from being a shepherd, we now learn is also a musician.  The plan works well.  Whenever Saul was afflicted by this tormenting spirit, David’s music would relieve him and make him better. 

What would Saul have done without someone who could play well?  Would he have been able to survive and have any kind of sanity during his remaining years as king?

Since I married a music therapist I have been more sensitized to the ways that music and other forms of play are healing agents.  Abbie has worked with art therapists, play therapists, and other music therapists who are using the power of play to relate with kids and adults in ways that open up new forms of communication and expression and health that wouldn’t happen otherwise.  Even though Saul’s servants had the right idea with David 3000 years ago, these are fields that are fairly new in our culture and are continuing to grow as they learn about the possibilities that play has to offer.  

Expanding play beyond music, I also relate this story of King Saul and David with my friend Shem whom I speak about from time to time.  Shem took his own life about four years ago and the year that we were living in Atlanta together was a year when he was starting to enter into some of the darkness of depression and emotional volatility.  Every once in a while the five of us housemates would go out to a local park and get a game of ultimate frisbee going.  I remember one time specifically when Shem made the off hand comment that he found it troubling that the only time he ever felt really alive was when he was playing ultimate frisbee – running around, throwing and chasing down and sometimes diving after the disk.  At the time the comment sounded like him saying that he just really had a lot of fun playing, but now I’m convinced that this activity of play meant something far deeper for him than just a fun time.            

Play is woven in to the very fabric of creation.  After six days of work, God took a seventh day and made it holy, a Sabbath whose purpose is purely for the act of rest and enjoyment, of which play is a part.  Creation’s climax is when God and creatures have no other duties, except the holy duty of enjoying the world together.   

We have traces in the way that our own language has developed that capture the connection between creation and play.  A common word for play is recreation, simply adding to the word “creation” the prefix that means “again.”  To experience play is to undergo re-creation.  To be made new, to start over fresh.  When we play well, our play re-creates us. 

One of the ways play may be so necessary for adults is that it frees us from being stuck in the same patterns of living day after day.  To play is to step outside of the norms and rules that we are used to living by and to take on an entirely new set of rules.  We also get to step outside of our social roles that we act out every day and take on other roles.  When we are playing, we are suspending the world that usually defines who we are, and allowing ourselves to be something different entirely, with a whole new structure of relationships.  Play reminds us that the rules and norms of the world that seem to control our lives are not absolute.  They don’t control every part of us.  Sometimes there are other rules, and it is possible to live under other norms as long we are all agree to play that way.  And this is a very freeing, very liberating thing to experience.  It’s one of the most powerful aspects of re-creation.

Maybe the reason kids play so freely is because they’re not yet caught up in any set pattern of how they are “supposed” to order their lives, and they haven’t settled into any single identity that supposedly defines who they are.  For them the world is soft and flexible, wide open to new possibilities.  So they’re constantly creating new worlds through their play, making believe that they are different characters.  When we age we come to believe that the world is less and less flexible, and we, in turn, become less flexible.  If we aren’t careful, we stop playing, and accept that we are destined to live under the one set of rules that have been given to us.  And we become, in a way, trapped, imprisoned, and enslaved.            

To talk about play as re-creation, and as a way of keeping us being enslaved is to begin speaking theological language.  This borders closely on one of the ways that the Apostle Paul speaks of salvation in his second letter to the Corinthians.  He says, “So, if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!”  In this, I find play to have a rich connection with the meaning of Jesus’ ministry and the creation of the church.  What if we were to think of Jesus’ ministry as an invitation to play the game of life by an entirely new set of rules?  We’re all trapped in the rules of self-preservation, survival of the fittest, and might makes right, thinking this is the only game in town, and then Jesus the game master comes along and says that he’s creating a new game that we can start playing right now if we so choose.  The game is called “The kingdom of God” and, like every good game, demands that the players step outside of the roles and patterns of relationships that usually define them and accept new rules.  It’s an extremely challenging game because so many of the rules are counter-intuitive, almost like reverse of the rules we’re used to living by.  Like what kind of a rule is “Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will wear?”  Or what kind of a rule is “Do not judge?” Or “take up your cross and follow me?”  The players have to keep relearning and rehearsing and practicing in order to unlearn the standard rules and act these out.  In case in our growing up we have become too rigid to be able to imagine that a game like this is even possible, Jesus teaches that no one can get started in the kingdom of God unless they become as little children.

Once we do get started we should know that some people will be at an advantage over others.  Everyone who wants can play, but certain people will have an easier time catching on.  Jesus calls them “Blessed.”  For example.  “Blessed are those who mourn.”  If you’re mourning the loss of a family member, a broken relationship, loss of your own health or a certain ability, or if you mourn your own failures, you’re going to “get” this kingdom of God game better than those who aren’t mourning.  You’re also at an advantage if you hunger and thirst for righteousness and justice.  If your soul is discontent with the way the world is, if you hunger for fairness in our laws, you’re going to do well in the kingdom of God.  If you’re merciful, if you’re pure in heart, if you’re a peacemaker, you’re blessed and will better intuitively grasp these strange rules that Jesus teaches.  Those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, harmed and treated poorly because they have chosen to do what is right, these people will understand how this game works.       

At the end of Matthew chapter 11 Jesus puts out an invitation that starts like this: “Come unto me, all you that are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.”  Given the picture of Jesus as the gamemaster, here’s a paraphrase of that invitation in this light:  “Come unto me, all you who are tired of the same tired rules that seem to be running the show and I will give you new joy.  Play the game that I have created, and try out my rules.  For I am humble in heart and ask only that you come ready to learn.  For my game will be a delight to your soul and my rules will nudge you toward wholeness.”

Play is powerful.  It opens us up to new possibilities and carries with it a healing power that puts us back in touch with the purposes of creation.     

In closing I need to point out a problem with what I’m saying.  Actor Steve Martin has said that talking about music is like dancing about architecture.  I think play could be substituted for music – talking about play is like dancing about architecture.  Talking is just a very limited and incomplete way to communicate its meaning.  The best way to know the gift of play is to do it, to be re-created through it.  Break out the instruments, the balls, the frisbee, the cards, the gameboard, and that kingdom of God game that doesn’t seem to come with any accessories except a guidebook.  And maybe, to our great surprise, we’ll find that we are most alive, most human, and most close to God when we are playing together.

 

Seeing and Being Seen Below the Surface – 1/20/08- 1 Samuel 16:1,4-13, 1 Timothy 4:6-16

Youth Sunday – Click HERE for a short description of the service in which this sermon was preached.

When a young person from the Lakota people reached their early teen years, they were prepared to set out on their Vision Quest. During their Vision Quest they would go out alone into the wilderness, taking nothing with them except water. They were to look for a spot, a place that caught their attention. When they found their location, they would sit down and settle in. It was understood that they would not move from that 10 foot radius for the next two to four days. Not to explore the woods, not to get food, not to avoid any animals that may come their way. Without any one or any thing from their life there with them, their task was simply to look and listen. What they were looking and listening for was a sign, or some kind of message or voice that would serve as a guiding vision as they entered their life of young adulthood. Because they believed that the Spirit spoke through all things, the message could come in any form. With no food of their own and the possibility of becoming food for any wild animals that may pass through, it was also a time to overcome personal fears. The experience was to take the youth outside of the smallness of their own self, and connect them to the Great Spirit who had a larger purpose and direction for their life. When their time was up, they would return to their people and meet with the spiritual leader who would help them interpret their experience. Whatever kind of direction they received from their Vision Quest was what became the defining part of their new life with the tribe. Undergoing this rite of passage was what marked the transition from childhood to the beginnings of adulthood.

Well, after many long hours of discussion, your parents and I came to the conclusion that we would not take you out into the woods and drop you off for several days. Even though we knew we had some connections in rural Indiana where there might even be a wild animal or two, we decided this was probably not the best idea. But we did think it was important to create a service that might be a similar kind of rite of passage for you, marking the transition you are making from childhood to adolescence.

You are entering a time of life when you are beginning to ask questions about who you are and who you want to become. It is an exciting, mysterious, difficult, confusing, age. The exciting part is that the world is wide open to you. One of the great things about our culture is our value that each person should be allowed to pursue their own interests without having to play out an assigned role. You’re at the point where you’re still a ways off from having to make any major decisions about your life path, but you’re beginning to ponder and explore and consider the possibilities. What are the ways you want to use your gifts to serve others? What are your gifts? What are your interests and passions? These are exciting kinds of questions to ask.

The confusing part is that this is a time of life of rapid change. Not only are your bodies and minds changing, but your relationships are in transition. You are still very much a part of your families, but you’re beginning to gain some independence from your parents, in what you do and in how you think. You’re taking more of your cues from your peers in regards to how you think of yourself. Peers can be difficult people. This is not easy territory. I’m probably not alone in this group in saying that my junior high years are not at the top of my list of all time favorite memories. Along with this is another type of question that you’ll be asking yourself over the next while. The question more difficult than what you want to become is who you want to become. What kind of person do you want to be and how do you become that person? What kind of habits will you need to form and what kind of spiritual disciplines will you need to have to help this along? It’s especially challenging since many voices around you are promoting a self-oriented approach to life rather than a God-oriented approach.

So, I picture that Lakota youth out in the wilderness surrounded by trees, birds, the wind, leaves, and stones, listening for what kind of voice may come out of her environment to guide her. I also picture each of you in your own environment, surrounded by friends, homework, activities, TV and the internet, church, and family, also listening and looking for what kind of voice may come out of your environment to guide you. I’m not so sure you get the easier path. Wild animals come in many forms. How do you face your own fears and be at peace with yourself in the world? How do you listen when there are so many different voices speaking to you? Which ones are God’s leading? Which ones are distractions?

A pastor and writer by the name of Fredrick Buechner says this: “When you are youth, I think, your hearing is in some ways better than it is ever going to be again. You hear better than most people the voices that call to you…When you are young, before you accumulate responsibilities, you are freer than most people to choose among all the voices and to answer the one that speaks most powerfully to who you are and what you really want to do with your life. But the danger is that there are so many voices…The danger is that you will not listen to the voice that speaks to you…To Isaiah, the voice said, “Go,” and for each of us there are many voices that say it, but the question is which one will we obey?” (Fredrick Buechner, 2006: 37-39 Quoted in Road Signs for the Journey, p. 35)

When we got together and looked through some possible scriptures for today the story that most caught your attention was the anointing of young David as king over Israel. This is a story very much about listening and looking. And one of the reasons you gave of why you were drawn to this story was that there is an unexpected ending. Samuel, the mature, experienced, prophet is sent on a mission to anoint the next king of Israel. If anyone had practice and expertise at listening to God it would have been Samuel. Ever since his mother, Hannah, dedicated him in the temple when he was just a baby he had served in the temple and been mentored by the other priests there. When he was a boy he had heard God calling his name, even though the older priest didn’t hear anything. Now Samuel is older and his task is to go to the house of a man named Jesse and choose one of his sons to be king. Unfortunately, it appears that Samuel’s hearing isn’t as tuned into God as it could be. He is immediately drawn toward the oldest son who is tall and strong. Not that there’s anything wrong with being tall, but Samuel isn’t looking very closely for what really matters. And so we get this line in the story that caught your attention: “humans look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” From David’s perspective, this story isn’t so much about seeing or hearing, as it is about being seen in a certain way.

There is an interesting relationship between how people see us and how we see ourselves. Or, how we think God sees us and how we see ourselves. We tend to see ourselves through the eyes of others. A psychologist by the name of Dr. James Fowler talks about how the movement into adolescence has to do with becoming a “self-conscious” person. And the initial way that we become self-conscious is that we learn to see ourselves as others see us. He has a little line that describes this which goes like this. “I see you seeing me, I see the me I think you see.” (Fowler, Becoming Adult, Becoming Christian, 2000, p. 46.) Dr. Fowler goes on to say that “this accounts for the (adolescent’s) rather sudden new depth of awareness and interest in the interiority (emotions, personality patterns, ideas, thoughts, and experiences) of people – others and oneself. It makes for a newly ‘personal’ young woman or man. I see you seeing me, I see the me I think you see.

Young David has the experience of being seen in a way that neither Samuel, nor David’s father or brothers, or David himself could have imagined. Each of these characters limited their view of David as being the youngest brother, the last in line for any kind of opportunity. But then God’s way of seeing changed all that. David was not only a sheep herder, but he was also the Lord’s anointed, full of the spirit of God.

This would have had to have been a startling and even disturbing experience. There’s no sign in the story that David was looking to be king. He hadn’t written any essays in elementary school of how he wanted to become to next king of Israel. But something new happens for him when someone else first sees him as the Lord’s anointed. He is first seen in this new identity, and then he slowly becomes that new identity.

Something similar is going on in the other scripture that you chose. Timothy is in the process of being shaped and taught by his mentor, Paul. Timothy might have seen himself as too young, too inexperienced, not good enough for the job, but Paul saw someone who God had gifted to be a leader and a teacher. One of Paul’s purposes in writing Timothy would have been to help Timothy see himself through Paul’s eyes, who was looking in the same way as Samuel learned to look at David, not at how things appear, but at the inner reality of things. Paul says “Don’t let anyone put you down because you’re young. Teach believers with you life: by word, by demeanor, by love, by faith, by integrity. Stay at your post reading Scripture… Cultivate these things. Immerse yourself in them. The people will all see you mature right before their eyes.” (Message translation).

An important experience for me when I was about your age, even a little younger, happened because people were looking below the surface in my life. When I was in sixth or seventh grade, I was asked to preach a sermon at my home church. We were a small group, maybe 40 people or so, and I knew everyone, so it I felt comfortable saying Yes. I chose for my text the entire book of Job, even though I had read only the first and last couple chapters, and not the 40 chapters in between. The sermon probably wasn’t all that ground breaking, but afterward something very important happened. People told me I did a good job and that I should keep studying and writing and speaking. The pastor joked with me that if he was ever sick he was going to give me a call to fill in for him. Because of the way others saw this experience of mine, it was the first time I was able to see myself as someone who may want to do this in the future. This didn’t mean I suddenly knew exactly what I wanted to do with my life, but it is a time I remember when I started to see myself in a new light. I would imagine that others here have similar kinds of stories from their own lives – when others pointed something out in them that helped them know themselves better.

We look for signs from God and we listen for God’s voice. We are all on our own Vision Quest, and we have to learn how to listen well to the calling on our life, whatever that may be. But as we ourselves try and look below the surface of things in this way, we will also find that there are others looking right back at us below our surface. Not seeing us just for who we appear to be, but for our whole person. These people are some of God’s greatest gifts to us.

We are called to look at each other below the surface, in the way that God sees us. One of the important things that we do together as church is to simply tell each other what we see when we look in this way. We may be able to see gifts and potential and the Spirit of God in others in ways that we can’t see in ourselves. We want to learn how to see each other in the light of God.

For each of you youth, I can say with confidence that there are a lot of wonderful things God has placed in each of your lives. I know this because I can see it, and because others here have seen it. We are blessed to have you a part of our fellowship as you move through these adolescent years. The surprise ending is that God has not only anointed young David, but has also anointed you. Whether you know it or not, we see the Spirit of God in each of you and pray you can tune your ears to the adventure of your calling. In a little bit, we’re going to get quite a bit more specific about this. I will ask each of you to come forward one at a time and listen to some of the voices from CMF speaking to you about what they have observed in you.

Before we do this, let’s sing together one of the songs the youth have chosen, which speaks to the reality of the voice of God that calls to each one of us.

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In their highly communitarian culture, the Lakotas sent their youth out into solitude to hear the voice that would guide them. In our highly individualistic culture, we are surrounding our youth with community and praying that within this faith community they are able to hear the voice that will help guide them as they listen for God’s leading in their life. It was common for the Lakota youth to take from their circle some kind of physical object, like a feather or twig or stone, as a reminder of their Vision Quest. And so as a physical reminder of this time we will be giving each youth a notebook to keep. The first several pages of the notebook were made by the youth and represent part of their personality and who they are. They second part of the notebook contains comments, notes, blessings, from the congregation. It’s not to late to contribute to this, so over the next few weeks you can still send notes to Jane Patty who will help compile them. This can be something that each of you can refer to anytime as a reminder of what people see when they look at you.

Now we get the chance to hear just a few of these comments for each of you.