The Fourth Sunday in Lent

1 Samuel 16:1 – 13

A Sunday School class was studying Jesus’ disciples.  The teacher told the class that Jesus reached out and chose ordinary, everyday people—fishermen, tax collectors, sinners all. Then he asked the class, “What does this tell you about Jesus?” hoping they would recognize the amazing grace of Jesus calling ordinary, very human people to do extraordinary things.

One of the boys answered, “It tells me Jesus was a lousy judge of character.” 

And maybe he was!

In fact, throughout the Bible, God consistently chooses the wrong kind of people.

Adam and Eve. God told them, “Don’t”, and three seconds later, they DID.

Noah. God told him to build an ark to save the world from drowning. He does, but when it’s all over drowns himself in booze.

Abraham and Sara. God promises them a child who will grow into a great nation that will bless the world. Abraham accomplishes it – but with another woman –  and then accomplishes it again – with Sara, his wife – and all these thousands of years later, the descendants of these two kids are still fighting over the inheritance as Arabs and Israelis.

God seems to be a notoriously poor judge of character!

And then there’s the story told in today’s text from First Samuel – the choosing of David to become king of Israel. It’s a familiar story that begins with God sending the prophet Samuel to find the new king in an obscure little place called Bethlehem. You see, not only is God a poor judge of people, but of places too. Bethlehem is one of those insignificant small towns, maybe  like the one George “Goober” Lindsey grew up in (remember him from the old Andy Griffith shows?). Goober said, “Our town was small, but we got two things we’re proud of – night and day. If you only have a year to live, move there – it’ll seem like a lifetime.” Bethlehem was like that. Nothing and nobody of importance would ever be found there. But that’s where God sent Samuel to find the next king of Israel.

And God sent him to see a man named Jesse who – if you know your Bible – was the grandson of a man named Boaz and his wife Ruth who was not even Jewish! If kings should come from the purebred lines of aristocracy – like champion dogs come from the loins of AKC champs – God isn’t very good at picking kings, and what God is doing here would be something along the line of running around the Westminster Kennel Club with a mutt on the leash!

By all standards, God seems to be a pretty poor judge of character.

And it only gets worse when God passes over all seven of Jesse’s sons, despite the fact that all seven are the cream of Jesse’s crop – tall and strong and smart and talented. If you had to pick a king from a mongrel family living in a backwoods town, you’d pick one of these guys.

But God doesn’t. Samuel asks Jesse if these are all the sons he has. Jesse says, “No, there’s one more – the little guy – the youngest – out tending the sheep.”

“Send for him.”

And Jesse does. And when David comes in from the fields, into the presence of Samuel, God whispers, “This is the one.”

God appears to be a pretty poor judge of character – at least as the world sees it. But the world is wrong!

Because, you see, God sees things we do not see. We look at the outside. God looks on the inside. As God said to Samuel about one of the older brothers, “Do not consider his appearance or his height…the Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

Maybe we could call it “Godvision.”

Superman has x-ray vision. Movie studios have panavision. Soldiers have night vision. Mothers have eyes in the back of their heads.

But God has Godvision – a way of looking into the heart of a person.

A way of looking into your heart!

Have you ever wondered what God sees when God looks at you?

Many of us have grown up in a religious culture that has taught us to think the worst about ourselves and others. It is a religion that immerses us into a sense of sin and guilt, into a pattern of finding fault, and into a mindset that sees people – ourselves included – through the filter of all that’s wrong with us. Even worse, it is a religious culture that causes us to never consider that God can use even character-flawed people like us in truly significant ways! We think we’re just “too human”!

But God doesn’t look at us like we look at ourselves. God looks into the heart.

And please understand what God means with this. The Hebrew understanding of the heart is that it is the ultimate source in our lives of all our physical, intellectual, emotional and volitional energies, and consequently, it is that part of us through which we achieve contact with the divine. In the recesses of our hearts dwell the thoughts, plans, attitudes, fears and hopes that shape our character. And there, in your heart, is where God works in secret to transform that character by implanting new thoughts and feelings.

In other words, the heart is where God is at work – right now – transforming you and me into all that God created us to be. David didn’t look much like a king, but God was at work making him a king! And only God could see it!

What do you suppose God sees when God looks at your heart?

I think, first of all, this story tells us that God sees a side of you that is a divine work-in-progress. The people of Bethlehem saw David as a kid, but God saw David as a king-in-the-making! There is a part of each of us that is God’s unpainted canvas. It has not yet come into view, and you and I cannot even imagine it. Only God knows what we will be when the work within us is done.

Only God.

You are a work-in-progress! God is at work in you! Will you be a king or queen? A missionary? An ambassador of grace to your family? An instrument of healing to broken people? A friend to those without friends? A peacemaker who brings the world closer together?

Only God knows. All that we know is that God sees into our hearts and all that is going on there

A second lesson of the story is that – like it or not – God chooses us for important work. I don’t know how David felt about being anointed king. I’m sure I would have preferred just taking care of the sheep, and playing Little League baseball, and chasing my dreams. David did not choose to become king. God chose David.

You know there are many choices in life that we make for ourselves, and there are many choices that are made for us. Who our parents will be, where we will be brought into the world, whether our eyes are green or blue, or we are tall or short are all choices that are made for us. And the true measure of our character is not whether we control the choices, but what we do with them once they’re made.

And one of the really beautiful truths about life is that, along with all the choices we make for ourselves, and those made by our parents and our genetics and our circumstances, God makes choices for us. God chose Abraham and Sara to be the parents of a great nation. God chose Moses to deliver the Hebrew slaves from Egypt. God chose David to be king of Israel. God chose Mary to give birth to Jesus. God chose Mary Magdalene to be the first apostle to preach the Easter message. God chose Paul to spread the Gospel all the way to the ends of the earth.

And God has chosen you – for some divine purpose!

I wonder what it is? Do you know?

Well, I hope you know that you are chosen. And I pray that you will be open to finding out what God has uniquely chosen you for.

And then one more lesson. You and I can never again look at other people the way we used to – externally – and through the limited eyes of our humanity. We need to pray for the gift of GodVision that peers into the heart of others, and sees God secretly at work.

When you look at children, can you see kings-in-the-making? Or scientists who will make the world a better place? Or researchers who will find the cure for AIDS? Or parents who will nurture a child of their own who will be like Jesus, or Gandhi, or Martin Luther King?

When you look at your family, can you see generations-in-the-making of people who will bless the future with the love of Christ?

When you look at the world’s worst sinner, can you see God at work in the heart?

GodVision is not something that only God can have. GodVision is a gift we can share.

Yes, God seems to be such a lousy judge of character! I mean, look at…YOU! And me!

What could God possibly see in US?

And yet, two-thousand years ago, Jesus journeyed to the city of Jerusalem, and there laid down his life for a world that many see as hopeless and lost, but that God sees as the kingdom-of-God-in-the-making.

I hope you see it that way, too!