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!
