We want a King. Really?

[Sermon preached on 2 Pentecost at St. Patrick's, Dublin, Ohio. Text: 1 Samuel 8:4-11, (12-15), 16-20, (11:14-15)]

 

It’s one of the most used and oft remembered Parent-isms.  It’s that phrase that escapes maternal or paternal lips when one’s offspring is trying to convince you that they should be able to do something that one of their friends is doing just because one of their friends is doing it. The action in question is usually fraught with peril from the parental perspective.  The child can’t see past their own wants and desires.   In frustration and impatience, the Parent-ism rolls out off the tongue:  “If your friend decided to jump off a bridge would you do THAT too?”

This is the image that comes to mind when I read about Samuel’s displeasure in hearing the elders of Israel ask for a king to govern them so that they “can be like other nations.”   The elders weren’t asking for a change in governance.  You might think that given the fact that Samuel’s sons were abject failures.  No, the elders said they wanted a LEADER.  That’s when Samuel knew they were in trouble.  That’s when Samuel knew HE was in trouble.  It was all confirmed in his prayers to Yahweh:  “They have rejected me from being king over them.” 

Yes, the elders said they wanted a leader.  But, that’s not what they really wanted. 

That’s never what we really want. 

We want order.

We want protection.

We want direction. 

And, we want someone to blame when it’s not handed to us freely. 

We, like the elders, want someone else to fight our battles. So, we appoint and elect and hire in the sincere hope that we will get what we want.  Then, when that person fails (and they always do because we’ve set the systems up that way) we don’t have to take any responsibility for failed leadership.

The LORD knew that Israel’s desire would not be good for them.  Earthly kings would conscript young men for war and force young women into work below their abilities.  Earthly kings would take the best of the fruits of their lands and labor – the tenth that belonged to Yahweh would become the spoils of the powerful.  Eventually, their earthly king would fail or betray them and they would be lost to neighboring nations. 

Israel’s dilemma, like that child’s request to be like one’s friends, is that the desire to be like others often results in the loss of one’s God-given identity.  The desire to be accepted and loved by the ones we admire combined with our need for protection, order, and direction, is a recipe for disaster. 

Even within a collective, protection, order, and direction are achievable only in the short-term.  Kings and so-called leaders are too often corrupted. The people eventually become slaves to the systems.

The formation of the nation of Israel was to be set apart.  The point was that they were God’s people.  They were not to behave like all the others. The purpose of Israel was to be the city on the hill; the example for all the other nations. The very reason for the existence of their community was the practice of justice for all, without regard to social station or economic advantage.  The request from the elders to appoint a king over them – the request to be like other nations – was a demand for Israel to forsake Yahweh.  Forsaking Yahweh meant forsaking justice.  Forsaking justice meant forsaking the essence of who they were.

Driven by fear and the desire for security, people have given themselves over to charismatic authority figures over and over and over again.  Are we still willing to jump off that bridge because our friends are doing it? Or can we begin to see ourselves as a community committed to a shared purpose – the proclaiming of God’s Kingdom and working toward God’s justice?

Before you answer that question, I have to give you fair warning:  There is no business plan.  We only know where we are.   Together, we have to determine where we want to go.  What makes it even more fun is that we will discover our limitations while we are on the road and will need to work through them as we move together.  

 There also is no room for apathy.  Everyone must participate in this leadership activity – shared purpose and shared leadership requires that all are engaged in activities that support it.  We require enough integrity to hold ourselves accountable to our shared purpose and call ourselves out when we begin to avoid difficulties by distracting ourselves with work or emotionalism.  

The proclaiming of the Kingdom and working toward God’s justice isn’t anything we are likely to accomplish in our own lifetime.  The children of Samuel lurk in the shadows of commerce, in the halls of government, and – yes – even in the sacred chambers of religious institutions. They work to undermine the children of God by insisting that the way we’ve always done things is the only way to do things.  Their desire is for the security they know, the direction they’ve always gone, and the order that continually feeds them the lion’s share of the system’s resources.  When the children of God ask why these are so, the children of Samuel respond with replies bound to pique our emotions and distract us from the adaptive work at hand. 

As God’s chosen community, we must find our security in the knowledge that God has never given up on God’s people.  Even though they desired a king, God blessed Saul.  When Saul fell to his own corruption, God blessed David.  On and on it continues, through the time of the Judges, through the times of the prophets, even to this very day. We must see order as a means to an end and not the end itself.  We must travel in the direction of our purpose, but not be afraid to listen for the Spirit telling us to take a left, right, or U-turn.

You know, there’s an interesting thing about the word purpose.  Its roots come from the Indo-European word that means FIRE.  Our purpose should set us on fire.  Our shared purpose should give us the energy to change the world.

On Pentecost Sunday, Stephen asked us to be a people on fire with the love of God.  Today, I’d like to ask you to be on fire for an even higher purpose – that the world come to know God’s love through our works of justice and that we commit ourselves to become more and more empowered to do those works.   

We do not need to jump off the bridge of conformity. 

We are not expected to be like other people. 

We should not be like other people.

We need to be who we were created to be:  the people of God.

Amen.

(c) 2012 Ciritta B. Park, all rights reserved. With thanks to the Clergy Leadership Project and Hugh O'Doherty. :-)