God is NOT efficient…and that’s GOOD NEWS!

[This is the text to the sermon I gave at Tulip Christian Church this morning. It's a small country church northwest of Centralia, Missouri, and today was the first time I gave a message to another congregation besides the one I attend. They were gracious hosts and didn't wince too hard at the various mistakes I made during various parts of the order of worship, and they pretended to listen to the sermon. Polite people. :) But also very friendly and welcoming and I truly appreciated being there. Also thanks to Donna Ross for reading a draft of this and providing good feedback, and to Michelle Scott-Huffman for pointing out the 1 Samuel text in the lectionary this week fit perfectly with a theme I've been harping on lately.]

1 Samuel 15:34-16:13

Then Samuel went to Ramah; and Saul went up to his house in Gibeah of Saul. Samuel did not see Saul again until the day of his death, but Samuel grieved over Saul. And the Lord was sorry that he had made Saul king over Israel.

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.’ 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.” 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.’ 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?’ 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.

When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, ‘Surely the Lord’s anointed is now before the Lord.’ 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.’ Then Jesse called Abinadab, and made him pass before Samuel. He said, ‘Neither has the Lord chosen this one.’ Then Jesse made Shammah pass by. And he said, ‘Neither has the Lord chosen this one.’ Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel, and Samuel said to Jesse, ‘The Lord has not chosen any of these.’ 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.’ 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.’ 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.

We Americans are an efficient people. We’re proud of it. From Henry Ford’s assembly line to Google’s cars getting ready to drive without human intervention, we’ve automated everything we can lay our hands on. A lot of times that’s good. A lot of times it’s not so good. But we seem pretty stuck. If “we can do it better,” we sure try to.

We bring that efficiency into every aspect of our lives. Not just our work, but in our relationships, too. The very fact that we know what the term “quality time” means implies that we are trying to be efficient about our time with our family and friends. “We have to get chores and shopping and laundry and cooking all done today, and then we can spend two hours together watching a movie.”

We bring that attitude to church, too. We want to make sure we are good stewards, that our money goes the farthest. We want to make sure our church programs reach the most people. We want to keep the service moving – no dead spots, no long sermons!

But I’ve been thinking a lot about efficiency lately, worrying about it. Because a while back it hit me – efficiency is great. It maximizes what we get out of the resources we use. It makes sure we use the physical world God gives us in a way that honors His creation and His gift. Efficiency respects both of those things.

But when it comes to our dealings with other people, I think efficiency begins to have a problem. In fact, it may not even be biblical. When you think about the whole arc of the story of God and humanity, you start noticing something:

God isn’t very efficient.

Not when it comes to dealing with humans. Not when it comes to enacting his plans. Consider some examples:

• Abraham and Sarah – if you’re going to start a new nation of people, picking an old man and his sterile wife doesn’t seem very efficient.
• Moses – if you’re going to choose a leader for a people, picking a fugitive murderer who isn’t comfortable talking in front of others doesn’t seem very efficient.
• Paul – if you’re going to spread a new faith, picking the self-assured persecutor of that faith doesn’t seem very efficient.
• Jesus – if you’re going to save the world, sending the son of a carpenter from the boondocks, from a far corner of an empire where even the subjugated people in that area think of it as the sticks doesn’t seem very efficient.

God uses prophets that don’t want to prophesy (at least until they’ve been in the belly of a whale a while). He uses second (and in today’s passage, eighth!) sons in a culture that puts it value on firstborns. In a nation he himself set up to hold itself apart and be special, he uses foreigners like David’s own ancestor, Ruth. In a society that focuses on men he uses women, like Ruth and Mary and Priscilla! He uses slaves like Philemon!

None of that seems very efficient.

In fact, when you think about it, using humans at all for God’s purposes doesn’t seem very efficient. The Bible is a long series of stories of our messing up. Getting it wrong. Turning from God. Having to be saved, again and again and again.

And again.

And here we are at today’s reading. Let’s put this in context. God is having Samuel anoint a new king because the first Israelite king, Saul, didn’t work out so well. Which God had said would happen. Because he didn’t want the Israelites to have a king in the first place, but they insisted. A classic “watch out what you ask for” case. And Saul proceeds to do exactly what God warned he would. So now another king must be chosen.

Not very efficient.

And then we have the whole scene where Samuel goes through the first seven sons of Jesse, one after another. “Oh, look at this one! He’s nice and tall and strong!” “Not him.” “How ‘bout this one, God?” “Nope, not him.” “This one?” “Nah. Keep going.”

Not very efficient.

In fact, this reminded me of another story in Genesis 18 when Abraham is haggling (there is no other word for it) with God over saving Sodom if God can find 50, or 45, or 40, or 30, or 20, or finally just 10 good people there. I wouldn’t put up with that sort of persistence. I would shout, “Enough! Don’t say another word or you get the pillar of salt treatment, too!” But God lets his friend Abraham have his say, agreeing with him at each step all the way down to ten, although in the end it changes nothing.

Not very efficient.

And think about how it felt to be one of the sons in the room with Samuel. Think about how it felt to be their father Jesse, as Samuel went one to the next, somehow communing with God and then muttering, “Nope, not this one either.” I bet at least a few of them thought, “Man, can’t this guy make up his mind?” It’s not like Jesse asked for this. “Hey, would you come over to Bethlehem this weekend and make my eldest seven sons feel bad?”

And then they had to send out to the fields to get the youngest, the boy tending sheep. He wasn’t there in the first place because surely Samuel wouldn’t want him! If this story were happening today David probably wouldn’t even be able to drive yet. What could God possibly want with a kid? What can a young teen do to help God?

Not very efficient.

So, what’s the point?

The point is this – we have to be careful not to judge what we think God wants by human standards. We people are messy. We don’t follow directions very well. We bicker and argue. We keep losing sight of the bigger things in life.

If I were God, why would I want to bother with all this heartache? Why not just have the angels do my bidding and worship me without question? If God did judge us by human standards I don’t think he would have had Noah build the ark – he would have just wiped the slate completely clean and started over with some other more compliant, more obeying, more efficient species.

But he didn’t. God has decided not just to stick with us, but to “double down” and come to us as a human himself. To show us the way. To love us as he wants us to love him.

And love isn’t efficient. You can say a lot of good things about love, any kind of love – marriage, or childrearing, or friendship. You can talk about how it makes you feel and about the joys in it. But you can’t call love “efficient.” Love doesn’t “make sense.” I’ve long said “No couple makes sense from the outside.” And that includes the couple that is God and you. And God and me. Because love isn’t all puppy dogs and rainbows. It is also heartache and worry and sorrow. It can bring betrayal. It can HURT.

Love isn’t efficient. But God wants to love and be loved. And that’s Good News!

Why?

Because there’s something else to all this, too. Which is when we hear that “still, small voice” calling us, we shouldn’t judge what it is asking us to do by the world’s standards. We shouldn’t say “I’m not the one,” or “I don’t know enough,” or “Charlie would be better at that than me,” or “I can’t talk in front of others,” since that’s not how God works. God isn’t looking to just “get ‘er done.” Sometimes he wants US to change as much as to make something else change. He wants us to grow. To stretch. To follow in his son’s footsteps.

That’s scary. It can seem crazy. It’s certainly not very efficient. But it is Good News!

Because it means God sees value in each of us. Loves us. Wants us to be the best we can be, and is happy with us because he made us! God says, “Yes,” to us, even when we think he should say, “No.”

Likewise, when we see someone else being moved by the Spirit to do something, we have a choice. We can jump in to help or we can get out of the way and let it happen. But we probably shouldn’t first say why it can’t work. You all know the cartoon character, the rooster Foghorn Leghorn? He is one of my favorites. And he says something all the time that is the motto of too many people:

“I say, boy! You’re doing it all wrong!”

How many times do we say that? To a fellow church member? To our spouse? To one of our children who has a great idea for helping people? We’re all familiar with those heartwarming stories of some child who gets an idea to help people and ends up raising thousands of dollars or sending a family to Disneyworld or whatever. That didn’t happen by someone telling them “You’re doing it all wrong!” Because that’s the voice of efficiency trying to “talk sense” into the situation. No, instead, I am sure in every case where something like that happens, when the person, adult or child, with the wild idea tells someone else, they respond, “That’s a GREAT idea! How can we make it happen?”

Do we foster that in our own lives? In our families? Among our friends? Our work? Our church? Or do we always try to “talk sense” into people? Because efficiency is great for your pocketbook. It’s great for your business. It’s a good way to be a good steward. Efficiency “makes sense.”

But love, God’s love, doesn’t make sense. Grace doesn’t make sense.

Grace is not “efficient.”

Life isn’t efficient. Love isn’t efficient. Jesus dying on the cross wasn’t efficient. God’s patience and love isn’t efficient.

Good! Because that means there’s hope. Hope for me, and hope for you. Hope for all of us. God hasn’t done the efficient thing with us. He is willing to keep trying with us, over and over. And so should we, too.

My call to you today is simple – the next time you hear a wild idea about helping others, loving others, spreading God’s word to others, stop for a minute. Don’t think “Will it work?” Don’t think “That doesn’t seem very efficient.” Instead, step back and look at it from God’s point of view. And if you see that there is love and grace and giving and joy in the idea, then say, “That’s a GREAT idea! How can we make it happen?”

And if you hear that small voice inside you saying it should be you doing that, don’t argue. Just answer, “Here I am, Lord.”

With God, all things are possible. Not efficient, but possible!