Give Us a King

Give Us a King!
This Sunday, we continue our foray into the time and back story of David. We are in a series of messages entitled, After God’s Own Heart, walking with God in the challenges of life. In the person of David, God was said to be delighted and described David further in the books of Samuel as being a man after God’s own heart. It is an interesting phrase as David often missed God’s full focus and invitation for dependence in order to live out upsweep and poetry of human possibility, including sin and woe.

But this Sunday, we pick up the story of David, before focusing on David, where we hear about the prophet Samuel and the soon to be, King Saul. Samuel was a unique combination of prophet, judge, and seemingly, one-man band. When he wasn’t out in the field trying to fight off the Philistine incursion, he was riding his circuit trying to keep the tribes of Israel on the straight and narrow or calling them back again for cheating on Yahweh every time a new fertility god showed up in the area. When Samuel reached retirement age, he might have considered turning the reins to his sons, but they sold justice to the highest bidder, and the Israelites said maybe he’d better get them a king instead. Unlike so many of the surrounding lands, Israel had never has a King before, but they felt the time had come. They were sure that they knew what they needed….the prophet, Samuel saw more than they did and tried to dissuade them. He knew what was coming.

Samuel reminded them that there was only one king worthy of adoration and worship, and Yahweh was his name. He also told them kings were of their very nature demanding and dependent, and Samuel spelled it out. They were always either drafting you into their armies or strong-arming you into taking care of their farms. Kings took your daughters and put them to work in their kitchens and perfume factories. Kings filled their barns with your livestock and got you to slave for them till you dropped in your tracks. What was more, if the Israelites chose a king, Yahweh would be done with them. Samuel had it on the highest authority. But the Israelites insisted, and Samuel finally gave in after consulting with God.
The people were going to get their king, the one they had asked for. God had chosen Saul. Saul was his own character. Saul was too handsome for his own good, had a rich father, and when it came to religion, he tended to go off the deep end. He did not have a big heart for the God of the Israelites. Samuel fed him, explained the job description , and then, anointed him with holy oil against his better judgment and made him the first king Israel ever had.

It was Samuel’s regret, until the day he died, that Saul was made king. In the writings of Shakespeare, we hear the phrase that prophet Samuel tries to tell the people and that Saul lives out for himself. Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown. Shakespeare is referring to England’s Henry IV, but it may well be true for any crowned head, including Saul. Certainly, Samuel drug his feet in making a king for the people. And Saul, who had a brilliant beginning, would end badly. But that’s down the road.

Despite Samuel’s warning, they are determined that they want a king so they can be like other nations. Both Saul and the people might have been well served by the adage “be careful what you wish for…” Israel is unique in that all other royal stories include the gods setting up the royal court and the ultimate monarchy with humans kowtowing to the god in question. Given all of the warnings and negative associations, why did the Israelites call out for a king? Why do we call out today, Give us a King!? We are looking for safety and security in whatever place we can find it. We are willing to sacrifice freedom and relationship with God for the beauty of a relationship, every time.

We have been a people over generations who have explored our own ways of government and our own ways of taking care of people. We as a people have explored monarchies and democracies. We have experimented with feudal lords and military-led governments. We explored communal living and religious control communities. How often do we find ourselves looking for someone else to make the decision for us? How often do we wish someone who has taken responsibility for saying yes and no to the life and choices we make.

Do we not forget the cost of a king, ourselves? Do we know forget that every time we turn to a king, other than God, we, too pay the high cost that Israel paid when it chose the immediacy of an earthly king over the long term security of a heavenly king? In the Gospel lesson, we hear the short parable of the strong man. Jesus tells the story of tying up the strong and then being able to taken over the home and loot it of its possessions. How often have we let our desire for security, happiness, or to be liked take over desire to in deep relationship with God?

Every so often, someone asks me why we study and preach on the Old Testament/ Hebrew Bible, if we have the Gospels and the New Testament. They posit that Jesus’ coming changed everything and we can disregard all that came before. Indeed, the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus did change everything – thanks be to God. And one of the ways that Jesus changed the world was to draw all things to himself through redemption. Redemption means saving and redemption also means to give meaning to that which previously had limited, confused, or no meaning. When we learn about Hebrew Bible/ Old Testament, we do not do so in order to have some additional information about our history. I am preaching about Saul and Samuel, because they are us. And through a deeper understanding of God’s character, we can understand ourselves better. Their need for a King, is our desire to have someone who will solve our problems for us. Their insistence on being right is our insistence that we know what is best ourselves. Their ultimate failure in turning away from God again and again, happens to us, too. We, too call out for a human, a single human to guide us – whether we depend on the government or a pastor, a mental health professional or a best friend. God calls us again to depend on God.

Just like the Israelites, every time we cry out that we want a King – God gently reminds us – here I am, Lord of lords, and King of kings. Turn back to me. I will never leave you or forsake you. Don’t tie me up in your life, giving me only Sunday mornings from 8:30-9:30 (11:00- 12:00). Let me loose and THEN! See how I can change your life. Give us a King – we already have a King!

This is the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, thanks be to God, Amen.

Old Testament Lesson: 1 Samuel 8:4-11, 18-20; 11:14-15

Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah, and said to him, “You are old and your sons do not follow in your ways; appoint for us, then, a king to govern us, like other nations.” But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to govern us.” Samuel prayed to the Lord, and the Lord
said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. Just as they have done to me, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so also they are doing to you.  Now then, listen to their voice; only—you shall solemnly warn them, and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them.”

So Samuel reported all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking him for a king. He said, “These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots; And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves; but the Lord will not answer you in that day.”

Samuel said to the people, “Come, let us go to Gilgal and there renew the kingship.” So all the people went to Gilgal, and there they made Saul king before the LORD in Gilgal. There they sacrificed offerings of well-being before the LORD, and there Saul and all the Israelites rejoiced greatly.

Gospel Lesson: Mark 3:20-27

And the crowd came together again, so that they could not even eat. When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, “He has gone out of his mind.” And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, “He has Beelzebul, and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons.” And he called them to him, and spoke to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but his end has come. But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered.