The readings
1 Samuel 16
1 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.
Psalm 51
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and
right spirit within me. 11 Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not
take your holy spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and
sustain in me a willing spirit. 13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners will return to you. 14 Deliver me from bloodshed, O God, O God of
my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your deliverance.
The message
This morning, we hear the first moments of King David’s
story. As Saul, Samuel and David
participate in the religious life and political leadership of Israel, it will
be a story filled with conspiracies, civil war, failure, a war between David
and his own son, political chaos, repentance, victory and the building of the
kingdom of Israel. Martin Luther wrote a
lot on King David, assuming he was the author of Luther’s beloved Psalms and seeing
him as a model of repentance. If we
could pick one thing that started the Protestant Reformation, it would be
repentance or getting rid of sin, taking away the things that separate us from
God. Before getting into that part, I
wanted to share some background on Today’s reading. Last week, we heard the first time God spoke
to Samuel and our Reformation theme was accepting God’s will and ultimately
recognizing that God is in control of the world and the church. I wanted to
fill in some gaps between the call of Samuel and the anointing of David.
A few years before today’s reading, God sent Samuel to
anoint Saul as the first King of Israel. After some time of service (about 2
years), the Lord rejects Saul as king. This rejection is because Saul disobeys the
Lord and does not really repent. Saul offers a sacrifice to the Lord that
appears to be offensive (for reasons that are unclear). Saul also directly disregards a word from
the Lord. He told to completely destroy the Alamakites and all of their belongings.
Saul gathers his army, goes to war with the Alamakites and completely defeats
them. At that time, Saul and his soilders notice, “wow, these people have
really nice stuff”. Saul takes the best of their sheep and cattle and takes
Agag their king alive as a prisoner. When
confronted by Samuel, when asked “why did you not follow the Lord’s command”, Saul
explains his actions “ I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment
of the Lord and your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their
voice”. This admission of guilt is rejected (Samuel basically says “what didn’t
you understand about totally destroy” and “what sort of king listens to the
people over the Lord”). Samuel tells
Saul “the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel”. This rejection
will played out slowly over the next few years.
After this Samuel asks for King Agag to be brought before
him and proceeds to ritually execute him by cutting him into pieces. With that done, we come to today’s reading. Samuel, who is upset over the fate of Saul,
reluctantly follows God’s command and goes to Bethlehem to anoint a new king
for Israel. Now, there is all sorts of political and religious conflict. Saul is still king and obviously would not be
happy to learn Samuel is off anointing a new king. Samuel goes to do this work with fear and is
greeted with suspicion. Everyone wanted and expected Jesse’s first born, the
very kingly looking Eliab, to be God’s choice. God did not care about external appearances
and this is not a democracy. David, the last of Jesse’s children, the one Jesse
did not even bother to bring to the meeting, is chosen. After this David
manages to enter a position in the court of King Saul. David is called up due to his musical skill
at playing the lyre, a sound that Saul believes will soothe his tortured mental
state. Like everyone else, the very suspicious Saul, does not see the last
born, small musician as much of a threat. He unknowingly establishes his
replacement in a position of power. Once in, David becomes a great military leader
and when Saul is killed in battle, David becomes King. We will look at the life and work of David as
king during our bible study after church. For now, I’ll just say David did his share of
bad things, perhaps failing even more than Saul. The contrast between them
often looks at what they do after their sins.
Saul makes excuses and goes through the motions of repentance, saying
what he believes is the right thing.
This is little more than a public show, getting the God stuff out of the
way so he can move on the more important business of being king. David on the other hand, always knows why he’s
king, he was given this authority by God.
In the pleading of psalm 51, in
David’s seeking God’s help and expected that this grace will change things; we
see an example of true repentance.
In his preaching and teaching Martin Luther frequently
looked at biblical figures as examples of God calling people to repentance and
showing them his mercy Luther often looked at King David as one of those
examples of repentance and receiving mercy. Luther understood David as the
author of the entire book of Psalms, so a lot of what he looked at regarding
him centered on them. (from Robert Kolb)
For Luther David was 5 things 1- The
author of psalms that proclaim God‟s Word and lead his people in praise. 2. An ancestor of
Messiah. 3. A classical example of
repentance (seen in 2 Samuel
11- 12 and Psalm 51). 4. A model for Christian living as
a ruler (Psalm 82). And 5.An
instructor in how
to read the
Bible (especially in
Psalm 119). We’re going to focus on number 3. Repentance goes back to
the very start of the Reformation. Personally Luther found the sacrament to be
lacking in sharing real comfort or announcing real good news. As a monk, he would often go to the sacrament
only to be left wondering if his sins were truly forgiven.
Luther’s 95 theses,
whose first posting 500 years ago, we commemorate this year, is about repentance. They start by condemning
the inadequate model being used by the Roman Catholic Church and explaining the
cross centered gift of grace God gives
us. The first 3 theses
1. When our Lord and
Master Jesus Christ said, "Repent" ( Matthew 4:17 ), he willed the
entire life of believers to be one of repentance. 2. This word cannot be understood as
referring to the sacrament of penance, that is, confession and satisfaction, as
administered by the clergy. 3. Yet it does not mean solely inner repentance;
such inner repentance is worthless unless it produces various outward
mortification of the flesh.
Luther starts his debate with the church that ends up
splitting the church by saying the entire life of believers is one of
repentance, of knowing and acknowledging our sin so that we can experience true
grace. For Luther, the church was not
teaching and distributing true forgiveness and grace, it was dealing in some
lesser, pathetic thing. Repentance was
left up to human whims and the sale of papers. For Luther repentance was a life
long work, a constant remembering you are baptized, you are loved by God, you
are forgiven because of Jesus death and resurrection, repentance was not a ritual we did, it was
something God’s word did to us, It was not a one time thing, it was a way of
life, repentance was not a work, it was a gift from God that let us experience
God’s grace Throughout the 95 theses, These
two versions of repentance are set in contrast to each other and the reader is
invited to ask, which one sounds better, which one sounds like God’s word.
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