Dear St. Paul’s Family,
Just out of seminary, I served a small church in which I was the first ethnic minority pastor in its long, 185-year history. I knew from the beginning there would be a familiarity curve to negotiate in this all-white church, both for them and for me. After my first Sunday service, a woman came up to my wife, delighted to greet the two of us into their church family. In her sweetest, most well-meaning voice, she said to Jessica, “You know, Magrey doesn’t speak the way you’d expect him to.”
Jessica and I laughed about that for days. It has been no small temptation for me to arrive at a new congregation and begin with a broken, halted, “Sorry – me no speak no English,” and watch the faces of the people melt. I almost tried it two years ago.
Maybe that church member’s reaction echoed that of the prophet Samuel in this Sunday’s scripture reading. One by one, he evaluated the sons of Jesse, searching among them for Israel’s next king. On the outside, they were perfect fits: strong, handsome, well-bred. And one by one, their outward appearance didn’t match their inward condition. I could almost hear Samuel, muttering under his breath, “You know, these boys don’t quite match up the way you’d expect them to.”
Then God spoke 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.”
Perhaps when we hear these words, we feel duly reprimanded. Every bit of our glamour-addicted, tabloid-obsessed culture could take a good lesson from this subversive text. For every Britney, Paris, and Lindsay, this comes across as the scriptural equivalent of Susan Boyle. And when the last – and the least – of Jesse’s sons is anointed king, we get the message, loud and clear.
That is, until the very next verse: “Now he was ruddy, and had beautiful eyes, and was handsome.” Go figure; he was holy and hot. But at least he was beautiful from the inside out, rather than just on the outside.
From here, the Bible launches the story of David: the second, and greatest, king of the Israelite people. I’ve heard it said that we know more about the whole of David’s life than we know of any other character in the Bible. From his humble beginnings to his ascent to power, his life reads like an epic novel, replete with passion, conquest, transgression, and redemption. Through every episode of David’s life, we see a bit of ourselves, a mirror to both our darkest and our noblest capacities.
For our series, I’ll invite you to follow along with our new scripture bookmark, which you’ll receive in church this Sunday and will be available on our website next week. Also, I highly recommend to you the book Passion, Power and Praise: A Model for Men's Spirituality from the Life of David written by Jim Harnish, the senior pastor at my previous church in Tampa, Florida. It is an excellent, accessible overview of David’s story, and it would make a terrific gift for the fathers in your lives for this Sunday. You can order the book through the Cokesbury website: http://www.cokesbury.com/forms/ProductDetail.aspx?pid=439787.
Come along for this thrilling journey, and discover some great lessons from one of the Bible’s greatest figures. And for those who feel like they know this story already, come anyway. This is David, after all. There’s always more than meets the eye.
Grace and Peace,
Magrey
1 Samuel 16:1-13
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.
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