St. Paul's On-the-Hill Episcopal Church

The Rev. Stephen C. Holton, Rector

4 Lent; March 2, 2008

1 Samuel 16:1-13

Psalm 23

SEEING YOURSELF AS GOD SEES YOU

How do you see yourself? Do you see yourself as a little, worthless thing; as the youngest child, perhaps the eighth child of a large family, perhaps left out of everything, left out of all the celebrations that the big kids and the adults, the rich people and the powerful were a part of; while you were left to labor out on the edges, and to take care of the chores while they partied?

Is that how you see yourself – how so many of us see ourselves – left out of the fun part of the global economy, left to labor on the edges, mindless, faceless, unnamed, unknown, while the rich and powerful and important have all the fun and do all the important things?

Might that be how David saw himself, out there shepherding the sheep while his father and his 7 bigger, stronger, more important older brothers were back home entertaining guests like the all-important great prophet Samuel, who was so important he scared the whole village with his presence?

It turns out that David was not so unimportant as all that – for God saw him differently than he saw himself, and God instructed his great and important prophet Samuel to look around, and see people differently than Samuel had in the past.

Samuel was afflicted with bad vision – as many are. He was afflicted with bad vision, for he had no vision. He only had sight. He could not see the inside; he could only see the outside. He could not see beyond the horizon; he could only see what was up close. He could not see the future, dream the future; he could only see the past, and rue the day.

God wanted him to look differently, see differently.

Samuel could only see Saul, the present king of Israel. He could only see how Saul had turned out badly, how he had not lived up to his true promise – despite all the encouragement and correction and education and prophetic intervention Samuel could muster.

So the Lord finally says: Stop. Stop. “How long will you grieve over Saul? I have rejected him from being king over Israel.”

How long will you grieve over not living up to earlier expectations? How long will we grieve over not being what we'd hoped – even when we'd hoped wrong? How long will we grieve over not being big and rich and important and powerful? How long will we see ourselves for what we are not – as a church or as individual people – big and rich and important and powerful and free of worries and care, with all the abilities one could ever want?

How long will we grieve over not being that?

And how long will it take for us to see ourselves the way the Lord sees us? How long will it take before we see David instead of Saul? How long will we see ourselves as the precious ones of the Lord, rather than as the ones who did not live up to other people's expectations?

And so the Lord sends Samuel to Bethlehem to see Jesse's family. And the people are scared to death when he gets there for he is a prophet of the Lord and you never know what prophets are going to do.

He gets to Jesse's house and he wants to see all the boys, all the fine young ones in order to anoint a new king!

And Jesse is very proud of this possibility and he pulls out one at a time – each one tall and strong – Eliab and Abinadab and Shammah.

Which one will it be? Surely one of these.

No, actually, not one.

Is there anyone else?

Sometimes we have to give up on our quest before God gives an answer. Sometimes we shouldn't settle for what's before our eyes, just because there's no alternative.

Its none of these. God hasn't chosen anyone at all. We'll just have to wait.

Is there anyone else?

Well yes, there's the youngest, out in the fields somewhere. They don't even give his name. He's just out there working.

A lot of people don't even know your name, the names of any one of us. We're just out working for the global economy.

Go and get him. Go and find him. Go and find – you. Go and find you.

So they do.

And then you do get a description. Perhaps now we see as God sees. Perhaps now the writer writes as God describes features – as God describes our features, no longer a cog in the economic machine, unimportant in all we do – but as a beautiful person despite what we do or the job we have.

“He sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, and had beautiful eyes, and was handsome.”

Where you been hiding this boy?!

Where you been hiding yourself?

Well, that's the problem you see; we haven't been seeing ourselves the way God sees us. We've been seeing ourselves as might have beens, unimportant ones, worth only to work.

David is the trusting one, the one who may have written Psalm 23 - “The Lord is my Shepherd” - the one who knew God would take care of him the way he had taken care of the sheep.

His father, his brothers, his nation, Saul, saw themselves only in terms of their strength and power and might – or the lack of it. David, perhaps, saw himself in terms of God's strength and power and might.

When the time came to fight Goliath, the brothers saw only a mighty giant, a mighty power, a mighty opposition; and what they couldn't do. David saw God on his side, and what he could do.

David saw himself as God saw him – mighty and powerful in that way. His brothers only saw him as a human would – not mighty, not powerful, in that way.

How does God see you?

God sees a little church, here at St. Paul's On-the-Hill. God sees a little church of middle class people ready to spread the word of God to other middle class people; ready to spread the word of God to people who may also want to be devout, but also don't want to be fundamentalist. God sees a little church full of people who treasure God in their hearts, even trust God in their hearts; who know God doesn't beat up his enemies but loves them, who doesn't consign them to hell but redeems them and forgives them and loves them and died for them.

That's how God sees us – as full of his nobility and love and abilities; not as Samuel sees Saul – as someone who could be richer or more powerful or important or better if only he tried harder, but as Samuel finally saw David, just what God wanted to serve him at that time.

How do you see yourself? Not important. How does God see you? More important.

In Lent we spend a lot of time on our knees. We say the Penitential Rite. We give up things to see just how poor and powerless without them we are – without the petty comforts of dessert or alcohol or whatever it is. My we are weak without these.

What we need is God. We depend, surely, on him. We begin to see ourselves as he sees us, and as he wants us; beloved, worthy servants, ready to bring this message of love to others.

Later on the Choir will sing: “I love to tell the Story.” Its of Jesus and his love. But its of Jesus and his love, in us, for us.

Where's he been in your life, blessing you in small, important, unnoticed ways – unnoticed by the big, important, powerful people who think they have all the answers and that they are the ones whom everyone needs? Maybe not. Maybe you're the one everyone needs, because you've been blessed out there in the fields in ways no-one knows about – except you, and God who blessed you.