Seeing as God Sees. from the pulpit of Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania by the Reverend Rachel Pedersen.
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1 Seeing as God Sees from the pulpit of Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania by the Reverend Rachel Pedersen August 14, 2016 Psalm 139: O LORD, you have searched me and known me. 2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away. 3 You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. 4 Even before a word is on my tongue, O LORD, you know it completely. 5 You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. 6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is so high that I cannot attain it. 7 Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? 8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. 9 If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea, 10 even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast. 11 If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light around me become night, 12 even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day, for darkness is as light to you. 13 For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother s womb. 14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well. 15 My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. 1
2 16 Your eyes beheld my unformed substance. In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed. 17 How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! 18 I try to count them they are more than the sand; I come to the end I am still with you. 1 Samuel 16:1-13 The LORD said to Samuel, How long will you grieve over Saul? I have rejected him from being king over Israel. Fill your horn with oil and set out; I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons. 2 Samuel said, How can I go? If Saul hears of it, he will kill me. And the LORD said, Take a heifer with you, and say, I have come to sacrifice to the LORD. 3 Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do; and you shall anoint for me the one whom I name to you. 4 Samuel did what the LORD commanded, and came to Bethlehem. The elders of the city came to meet him trembling, and said, Do you come peaceably? 5 He said, Peaceably; I have come to sacrifice to the LORD; sanctify yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice. And he sanctified Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice. 6 When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, Surely the Lord s anointed is now before the LORD. 7 But the LORD said to Samuel, Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the LORD does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart. 8 Then Jesse called Abinadab, and made him pass before Samuel. He said, Neither has the LORD chosen this one. 9 Then Jesse made Shammah pass by. And he said, Neither has the LORD chosen this one. 10 Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel, and Samuel said to Jesse, The LORD has not chosen any of these. 11 Samuel said to Jesse, Are all your sons here? And he said, There remains yet the youngest, but he is keeping the sheep. And Samuel said to Jesse, Send and bring him; for we will not sit down until he comes here. 12 He sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, and had beautiful eyes, and was handsome. The LORD said, Rise and anoint him; for this is the one. 13 Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the presence of his brothers; and the spirit of the LORD came mightily upon David from that day forward. Samuel then set out and went to Ramah. 2
3 For those of you who were here last week, we had the opportunity to met Samuel as a boy in the temple. A few things have happened since then; mainly Samuel has grown up. He s no longer the up-and-coming prophet, he s just the prophet. In the years since he first heard God speaking, Samuel has lead the people into battle, he has negotiated on their behalf with God when the people decided they needed to be like the other nations and have a king. He was the one to anoint Saul as king to rule over them. Samuel had had a pretty good run; now, he was in trouble. God had rejected Saul as king. In Chapter 16 we meet a rather disheartened Samuel. Much like Eli a generation before, he s trying to figure out what his legacy will be. He s a little lost. Samuel is left with a kingdom, but no king. What will he do? As he s struggling, God is right there with him. Despite the years, despite the ups and the downs, Samuel still hears God speaking with clarity. They speak like old friends. God goads Samuel: How long will you mourn Saul? It s time to move on. I had a plan all along, there s a king among Jesse s sons. Now Samuel must trust God and must travel to new territory, past his established comfort zone to the town of Bethlehem. For those of you who love epic stories, this feels familiar doesn t it? How many stories can you name that include a wise elder seeking out the unexpected hero hidden in plain sight? It s like Merlin searching for Arthur or Gandalf looking for the right hobbit. It s a trope we understand. Hollywood loves it! Every good hero has a back story, the moment when that person comes face to face with their destiny; when suddenly you see them as more than just the nerdy kid down the street-- you see that person as a hero. For the people of God, we read this story knowing the outcome. We know that David, the son of Jesse, will be the greatest king. We know that little David will arrive on a terrified battlefield and with three little stones destroy the giant Goliath. We know that David will battle and unify a nation, build a capital, praise God with beautiful words and 3
4 leave his son Solomon to then build the temple. We know that God has provided a King in David; but Samuel doesn t have that hindsight. Samuel is just walking a long dusty road toward a tiny town and an uncertain future. Do you ever look back with regret, wondering what might have been? When you think about the people in your life and you wonder: If only I had told Saul, or if I had just helped him in that moment? Looking back trying to determine what it was that you missed; what it was you couldn t see. I m sure those thoughts accompanied Samuel on that long trek. Saul had been a good bet he looked like a king, he had the right connections. The people liked him. He wasn t heavy handed, he knew how to fight; and yet that wasn t enough. Saul couldn t quite figure out the role. He never quite listened to God and doesn t quite follow through. He s a good king, but he s not the right king. But how do you know the right king? Upon his arrival, Samuel meets the townsfolk and begins looking at Jesse s son on the surface they look good. In fact the first son who comes before him, he s ready to anoint. Dump the oil and run! God says it as explicitly as God can: Watch out Samuel. The way you humans look at things it s sometimes not good enough. Do not look at his appearance, his height, his stature, for the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. Seven sons you would think one in seven but the king is not there and God forces Samuel to put his foot down demand to see the youngest. The Youngest? You can hear the surprise in Jesse s voice. The one keeping the sheep? Why would you want him? Samuel doesn t say much, he doesn t announce God s way of seeing to Jesse, he just waits for David. 4
5 David arrives from the field and is ruddy, handsome, good looking. He looks the part, but then again so did Saul. God announces that this is his anointed king: The little shepherd, the eighth son, the one Jesse didn t even think to call. This is the son that God chooses! How is it that God sees? God looks at our hearts, not on our outward appearances. God looks at our hearts. There s something unbelievably complex about that statement. It s comforting God knows us better than we know ourselves. God looks at what s inside. God looks at who we are. God knows our hearts. It s the words of Psalm 139 before a word is on my tongue you know it Lord. You hem me in behind and before. It s difficult as well God knows our hearts. One of my middle schoolers who after reading this passage asked the all-important question, Sooo that means God knows the good and the bad? The Bad? God knows the bad? In other words, before a word is on my tongue you know it Lord. God knows us better than we know ourselves, God knows our hearts, the good and the bad, our possibilities and our failings, God knows all of that and God still chooses people. God anoints a boy to be king. God could see in David something that everyone else missed or maybe something that was yet to be seen. How does God see us? How is it that we see each other? We live in a world that loves to measure people. The past few weeks have been filled with the strange statistics that get thrown around during the Olympics. The training numbers, a 1000 th of a second, the weight of a shoe, the length of their arms. We discuss if bodies are too muscled or not strong enough. It s exhausting! How do they find this information? The near constant commentary is almost overwhelming. How do we measure people? By one race? By a 2 second lead? By a world record? By an Olympic record? By a powerful story of odds overcome? 5
6 How do we see people? As Christians we re challenged to try to see as God sees. In 2 Corinthians, the apostle Paul argues that we have a new way of seeing people. That we No longer regard anyone from a human point of view. Because we once almost made that mistake with Jesus and almost missed seeing God among us. So what does that mean? Do we turn off the TV? Do we close our eyes and plug our ears so that we can approach one another freed from our human ways of differentiating? Well that would be one approach. I don t think God would have created such a beautifully diverse world for us to keep our eyes closed. But then, how do we see as God sees? That is a discipline; that is a skill we have to cultivate. One of the constant refrains in teaching is the challenge to compliment character not outcome. So we say, Wow, I m so impressed by the time you took to complete that project; the diligence and care you showed. When you paused to help your friend, that was compassion. You get the drift. Sometime it throws children for a loop. You watch them struggle: Did I win? Is it right? Am I the best? They re watching your face, your body language, everything about you; wondering what it is you re going to say. They want to see how you are judging them. In those questions, they re asking us HOW DO YOU SEE ME? Do you see the project? Do see the grade? Do you see the score? Or do you see ME? The person standing in front of you? It s not just kids that stare back with that question. When we face one another, we have the same questions deep in our gut. We re in the same place. How do you see me? In my last church, it wasn t uncommon to have members of the homeless community come in looking for support or help. The conversations almost always began with this phrase: I wasn t always like this. The men and women who would pour out their life stories were often in desperate circumstances. More often than not, there was 6
7 little I could do. We had a list of resources, we worked with great agencies, we didn t give out cash. I would listen, I would pray and a few hours later I would see them out on a bench, or around town. I would see them later and try to greet them by name. Sometimes I could, sometimes I couldn t. Some days family members came in. They would have photographs, Have you seen my sister? She s in a bad place. She was here last year. Have you seen my son? He s a tall man? I have a letter for him. I would stare at the pictures and try to see the resemblances: could that be her sister? Was he his son? One particular day, I was asked to help with a funeral for a man who had been homeless. His daughter had driven two states to meet me in a coffee shop to think about the service. She brought a stack of pictures. We looked through them: her dad lifting her high at a picnic. A broad smile standing next to his daughter in her high school graduation gown. A nervous groom in a powder blue suit standing at the front of a church with a lovely bride. She asked me if I had ever seen him? If he had come to the breakfast at the church, or stayed at the shelter. I couldn t say if I had seen him or not. But looking at his daughter across the table, in those memories spread out, in the love that she held so close, I saw him there. How do we see each other? Sometimes it s pausing and putting aside out first reaction. Sometimes, it s looking beyond the first fact presented. Sometimes, it s a silent prayer saying help me God help me to see. Because when everything else falls away when our accomplishments come up short and when we make it to the heights of glory there is something more to each of us. God does not see as we see, God sees our hearts. 7
8 As the Psalmist explains: O LORD, you have searched me and known me. 2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away. 3 You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother s womb. 14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. May God give us eyes to see more clearly. 8
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