Text: 1 Samuel 16:1-13
April 3, 2011 / Lent 4A
It was election year in Israel. Israelite kings were not on a four year cycle like American presidents today. There were no primaries—no electoral college—no negative campaign advertising. An election is ancient Israel consisted of a majority of one—God made a decision—and a prophet made it known. No wonder the prophet Samuel was a little nervous when God told him it was time to anoint a new king—the present king was still alive and had no intentions of giving up his throne. Samuel was reluctant to risk his life by naming a new king but that is what God demanded. It was a volatile situation. God was planning a coup. We don't know the actual details of the political background of David's struggle for the kingship. All we have is this story from the Bible that wants to teach us the wisdom of uncertainty.
Prophet Samuel was not a young man and neither was King Saul, the first king he had anointed some years earlier. But God now told old Samuel to name a youngster named David as the next king of Israel. David was the most unlikely candidate for king. David's own father—his own brothers—thought David was childish. It is possible to see some ageism here if you read between the lines. Perhaps Samuel thought David was too young to be king. After all, he had very little experience of life so Samuel wondered if David would be able to handle the back room bargaining that comes with the position.
Hokusai, the great Japanese woodblock artist, began life as a prodigy—he could draw proficiently from the age of 6—but he tells us that he was not satisfied with his skill until he turned 70. Looking further ahead, he predicted that "at 80 I shall have considerable talent, at 100 I shall be sublime, and at 110 I shall render life to a single line, a single point." Hokusai did not live to be 110—he died in 1849 as he was turning 90—but however old he was, he believed that the best was yet to come.1
Perhaps the Prophet Samuel was thinking about the wisdom that comes from age when he looked at young David. Samuel thought David was too young to be anointed king but Samuel obeyed God and anointed David anyway. Samuel knew his perception was limited. Being human means we can see only so far. Being human means we can imagine only a few of the infinite possibilities in any situation. Samuel was learning the wisdom of uncertainty. Samuel was learning the ways of God.
A rabbi in Russia once summoned all of the Jews of his town to assemble in the main square the next day at noon. He had an announcement of the greatest importance to make. He ordered all the merchants to close their shops, all nursing mothers to bring their infants. Everyone, no exceptions, should be there. The people wondered what the announcement could be. Was a pogrom imminent? Would there be a new tax? Was the rabbi going to leave? Or was he perhaps seriously ill?
At noon the entire community was present. Everyone waited with baited breath. Precisely at twelve, the Rabbi rose and said, "I, Levi Yitzhak, son of Sarah, have gathered you here today in order to tell you ... that there is a God in the world."
At first the people were perplexed. Was this the big announcement that they had left their homes and closed their shops to hear? Had the rabbi convened them only to tell them something that every school child already knew? But then, as they thought about it, they began to say to themselves, "Hey, what could be more important than to know that there is a God in the world."2
Yes! There is a God in this world and that gives us hope. But the God of the Bible is a God whose ways are not our ways. We do not always know how God thinks. We do not always see know what God sees. We are not always sure what God may be calling us to do. According to our story today, whatever God is calling us to is more than we would ever have imagined. That is certainly true for the little shepherd boy named David whom God would anoint as King of Israel.
The wisdom of uncertainty is evident even in the scientific realm. Scientists in quantum physics tell us about the uncertainty principle. The Heisenberg uncertainty principle posits that both position and momentum cannot be simultaneously known to arbitrarily high precision. That is, the more precisely one property is measured, the less precisely the other can be measured. Published by Werner Heisenberg in 1927, the principle implies that it is impossible to determine simultaneously both the position and the momentum of an electron or any other particle with any great degree of accuracy or certainty. This is not a statement about researchers' ability to measure the quantities. Rather, it is a statement about the system itself. (For more about the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle see wikipedia online: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncertainty_principle#Uncertainty_principle_of_game_theory)
In other words, precise knowing is neither possible nor required in order to conduct fruitful experiments in the field of quantum mechanics. This theory would have a profoundly liberating effect if we applied it to our own lives. We don't have to know everything there is to know about who we are, why we are here, or where we are going. In fact, once we fall into the trap of thinking we do know such matters we find God comes along and does something so unexpected it makes our jaw drop. That is what happened to the Prophet Samuel when God told him to anoint a young shepherd boy named David as King of Israel. That is the meaning of this story.
If you think you have already seen the future of this church—look again! If you think our future is dull compared to our past—look again! God took a chance on young David. God may take a chance on us. What if we were like young David—called by God to greatness! That may be God's message for us in Lent, 2011. God may have plans to anoint our heads with oil; to make our cups overflow. We don't have to know with precision where God is leading us or how to get there. We may be sure that God will lead us by the hand into the future. We don't have to know exactly where we are going in order to benefit from the journey. In fact, as you may have heard before, it is true that the journey is the destination. That is worth remembering in the uncertain times in which we live.
It seems that everything is in a state of flux these days. For instance, a recent study reported at the American Physical Society meeting in Dallas, Texas claims that religion is on its way to extinction in Australia, Austria, Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Switzerland. These are the findings of a survey based on mathematical analysis of census data reaching as far back as a century. The study was conducted by researchers from Northwest University and the University of Arizona. Using an analysis technique called nonlinear dynamics and a model of human interaction that posits that social groups that have more members are more attractive to join, the researchers concluded that religion was on the way out in the nine countries studied.
Dr. Richard Wiener, one of the researchers, explained, "In a large number of modern secular democracies, there's been a trend that folk are identifying themselves as non-affiliated with religion; in the Netherlands the number was 40 percent, and the highest we saw was in the Czech Republic, where the number was 60 percent." The idea is that as the non-affiliated group grows, it becomes the more attractive group for others to join for social and utilitarian reasons.
While this study is new and applies to religions of all stripes, previous research has concluded that young adults are leaving the church today at a higher rate than in previous years. A 2009 study from the American Religious Identification Survey found that the percentage of Americans claiming "no religion" almost doubled in about two decades, climbing from 8.1 percent in 1990 to 15 percent in 2008.
Some observers point out that Christianity's appeal has always gone through cycles of decline and revival. And others argue that models based on statistical probabilities are not nearly as reliable when applied to human systems where conditions cannot be controlled.
Still others mention that while Christianity may be declining in some parts of the world, it is experiencing great growth in places like Africa and Asia.
Yet for many of us, Christianity's vigor elsewhere in the world is not a comfort if our own congregation is in decline or if our loved ones raised in the church have chosen to leave it. We are uncertain about the future of the church. Yet even in the midst of our uncertainty we have faith in God. In fact, during such times of uncertainty as this – when religion is in decline and with all the ongoing turmoil in the Middle East and Northern Africa and with Japan wading its way through nuclear fallout after a massive earthquake and tsunami – we turn once again to the ancient text which has guided our way in times past. There we find a song, a psalm, attributed to King David, that soothes our souls and helps us deal with the wisdom of uncertainty. The lyrics to this song are familiar and supportive especially in the translation some of us learned it by called the King James translation.
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures;
He leadeth me beside the still waters, he restoreth my soul.
He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil;
for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff—they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies;
thou anointest my head with oil; my cup overfloweth.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. (Psalm 23—A Psalm of David, King James Version)
When it came time to choose a new king, God told Samuel, "Looks aren't everything. Don't be impressed with his looks and stature. God judges persons differently than humans do. Men and women look at the face; God looks into the heart." (v 7, The Message) God looked into David's heart and saw something on the level of quantum physics. It was something that was not visible to the naked human eye.
Samuel took his flask of oil and anointed him, with his brothers standing around watching. The Spirit of God entered David like a rush of wind, God vitally empowering him for the rest of his life.
Samuel left and went home to Ramah. (v 13) In other words, Samuel didn't stick around to see what happened. To do so may have been hazardous to his health considering King Saul was still alive and kicking. There is always a risk to following God's orders. But then, there is also the risk of going our own way. Life is full of risk. Such is the wisdom of uncertainty.
1Deepak Chopra, Ageless Body, Timeless Mind, pg. Harmony Books, 1993.
2Norman M. Cohen, in his sermon "There is a God in the World," printed in The American Rabbi, Feb., 1993.
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The Rev. Dr. Jon Burnham preached this sermon at St. John's Presbyterian Church in Houston, Texas on April 3, 2011.
