Things Are Not Always What They Seem

A sermon written and preached by the Reverend Scott Dennis Nowack on June 10, 2012

at First Presbyterian Church, Kilgore, Texas.

Things Are Not Always What They Seem

1 Samuel 8:4-20

The world mirrored to us in the Bible is often a world in which things are not what they seem.  Abraham and Sarah, although apparently much too old to become the parents of a child, become the parents of an entire nation.  Jesus, who seems to be defeated by his execution as a troublemaker, is proclaimed as resurrected and vindicated by God.  A group at the margins of a marginal religion takes its new faith to the heart of the Roman Empire. 

As we read our text this morning, things are not what they seem.  The people of Israel come to Samuel and demand a king, one who would "govern us like other nations"(8:4); one who would "govern us and go out before us and fight our battles"(8:20). 

Let us remember for a moment that the Israelites live in a covenant relationship with God as their king.  Judges were appointed by God to be his representatives to the Israelites.  The people lived in their localized tribal states as a confederation.  They were very different from neighboring countries.  Their neighbors had an earthly king with vast wealth and military power.  The Israelites don’t.  They were seen as weak and defenseless by their neighbors; an easy target.  The Israelites were accustomed to invaders and enemies, and their success or failure in battle against them depended upon the state of their relationship with Yahweh.

With the Philistines fighting them on their door step, the Israelites were trying to find their own way to defeat them.  They thought that if the Ark of the Covenant was carried into battle, they would prevail.  It did not, and --to their horror -- the Ark was captured by the Philistines, an outcome that was so shocking, old judge Eli keeled over and died. But the Ark brought bad luck to the Philistines, so they promptly sent it back to the Israelites, and we read in 1 Samuel 7 that Samuel urges the people to turn from foreign idols and worship Yahweh. They did, and they went out to defeat the Philistines. With this renewed evidence linking fidelity in their worship to success on the battlefield fresh on their minds, they come to Samuel, now an old man, asking for a king.  It’s a sign that the times were a changin’. 

The Israelites are less concerned about their relationship with God and more concerned with their reputation among their earthly neighbors.  They wanted to control their own life; take matters into their own hands; and expect God to take care of the tough issues of life.  Pro-monarchy sentiment was running high.  The old world order of a decentralized confederation of twelve tribes ruled by God and managed by the Judges is out of vogue.  New questions have arisen, including the questions of kingship and of monarchy; questions of faith and power; questions of God's leadership; and questions concerning the crisis of their social institutions. 

The Israelites were experiencing large changes that affected every dimension of life in Israel.  With great change comes great anxiety.  They are living in desperate times, anxious times where what’s real and true can no longer guard against illusion, and then even the most basic, learned ideas begin to function as superstitions.  New patterns were emerging of power, wealth and land control.  There was a growing desire toward constructing a centralized system of kingship to defend and maintain the economic and political interests of the Israelites.

            What is significant is that this request would prove to be a game-changer in the history of Israel.  We are essentially in the middle of a big, tense dispute concerning the character and identity of their community: moving from a life based on the Torah and God’s love to living by earthly rules and influences.  This is a major shift in Israel’s foundational beliefs.  In other words, Israel is not willing to have Yahweh as their source and rule of life. 

            Samuel is hurt and upset by the people’s request for a king.  The Israelites don’t understand what they are asking for.  Life under the rule of a king is no bed of roses, it’s not all that it’s cracked up to be.  Samuel follows God’s instruction to set the record straight with the Israelites about what living under the rule of an earthly king would be like.  There is a price to be paid for a monarchy: a redistribution and concentration of wealth through a system of taxation, a monopoly on land control, a military draft, and the oppression of the people. A monarchy is a system of rule that “takes”: through taxation, military draft and confiscation.  Such practices enable a monarchy to exist.  It lives for the sake of such a concentration.  It generates destructive inequality and the stratification of society.  Such a request takes us back to the days before the Exodus living under Pharoah.  God had freed the people from their oppression and created a new people who crossed the desert to the Promised Land.  Now they want to undo the work of the Exodus.

            Like the Israelites in Samuel’s time, we in 2012 are living in a season of anxiety, fear and uncertainty; of theological disputes and daring reinterpretation of social realities.  We are experiencing in our current day a floundering housing market and banking system that perpetuates economic injustice and inequality.  Today we witness the negative power of polarizing political rhetoric in election campaigns and debates in our legislatures.  Today as we read the writing on the wall we discover the deconstruction of the social norms and obligations that most of us took for granted.  We live in a choice-based society, one driven by preference and desire instead of custom and obligation.   

            We must not rush to judgment.  We must take the time to reflect upon the very nature of the faith community, the very nature of the church in relationship to power, influence, security and fidelity.  Is the church permitted to devise modes of power that secure its own life?  Or is the church destined to NOT build its power “like the nations”?

The end result of living under a monarchy, Samuel says, is that the people will be slaves just like their ancestors in Egypt.  Under a monarchy, human power replaces God’s power.  The people of God, whether it’s the Israelites or us today, cannot resist the urge to take God’s matters into our own hands.  We are motivated by fear and a hunger for security in uncertain times.  Fear, anxiety and insecurity are powerful things.  They will turn your heart black and kill your God-filled soul.  We don’t know who we can trust anymore for the truth about our current reality. 

When we are fearful and insecure, we go into survival mode.  We only worry about ourselves and those things that matter to us.  When we are fearful and insecure, we are blind to the oppression and injustices in our world.  We are unable to see that it is unjust to place some people in bondage for the well-being of others.  We are unable to see the injustice of racial discrimination, of systemic poverty and oppression that is dominant in our nation’s minority communities.  We are unable to see that whatever affects me directly, affects everyone indirectly.  Fear and insecurity blind the hearts of men and women to the heavenly presence of the Kingdom of God in the world.

            Things are not always what they seem.  God is present and active in our world although we don’t always see it.  Through the Holy Spirit, God is working in us, around us and through us to make his Kingdom a reality even though sometimes it seems that God is far off.  We are called to be God’s people, to live our lives based on God’s Word and the teachings of Jesus.  There are many in our spheres of influence who are seeking, but not finding; yearning but not fulfilled.  We must show them that things are not what they seem.  If not us, who, and if not now, when.  Amen.