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.’ 2Samuel 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.” 3Invite 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.’ 4Samuel 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?’ 5He 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.’ 7But 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.’ 8Then Jesse called Abinadab, and made him pass before Samuel. He said, ‘Neither has the Lord chosen this one.’ 9Then Jesse made Shammah pass by. And he said, ‘Neither has the Lord chosen this one.’ 10Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel, and Samuel said to Jesse, ‘The Lord has not chosen any of these.’ 11Samuel 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.’ 12He 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.’ 13Then 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.
Introduction: As I was reflecting this week on our Lenten preaching series on relationships this week and realized that we have reflected on sinfulness, unhappy relationships, and today, broken relationships as part of the series, I thought, “was I having a bad day last November when we were picking out the weekly sermon topics and colors and charms for our Lenten time together?
Maybe.
On the other hand, Lent is the journey to Easter - we start with repentance on Ash Wednesday and travel a journey of preparation for God’s glorious act of resurrection. How better prepare ourselves for resurrection than claim our sinfulness and brokenness and give it all over to God the God of resurrection.
So I invite you this morning to reflect on any broken relationships and brokenness you have in your lives
Move 1: “how long will you grieve over Saul?”
a. God’s question for Samuel reveals broken relationships at several levels.
1. King Saul and his trusted prophet/advisor Samuel now have a broken relationship.
2. King Saul and God now have a broken relationship.
3. and, in the Israelite world where their king’s relationship speaks to the Israelite’s relationship with God, it would even appear that God’s relationship with Israel is at risk.
4. Perhaps you experienced a broken relationship and know how it impacted you and reverberated through your life.
b. Maybe no one should be surprised that King Saul’s relationship with God and with Samuel ends up broken.
1. Remember how having a king of Israel came about? (Go back and read the 8th chapter of 1 Samuel this afternoon).
2. the Israelites were no longer satisfied with their relationship with God.
4. they wanted a king like all the other nations around them.
5. Samuel warned the Israelites on God’s behalf that they did not need a king and it would end badly.
6. But the Israelites did not listen;
7. they were more than willing to trade in the special relationship they had with God for a king.
6. The Israelites had insisted on having a king, and now it has gone wrong.
c. Regardless of whether these broken relationships were predictable, it still hurts.
1. Samuel grieves the broken relationships.
2. The Hebrew verb for mourning [grieving] here usually refers to mourning rites over one who has recently died.
It is the same verb form used when Jacob believes that Joseph had died (Genesis 37:34),
when the wandering Israelites mourn those dead after a plague (Numbers 14:39),
and when David mourns over the death of one son and the abandonment of another (2 Samuel 13:37). David G. Arber, Jr. Associate Professor of Old Testament and Hebrew McAfee School of Theology, Mercer University
4. Broken relationships often feel like a death.
5. They command our grief.
d. Grieving may also take time.
1. If we go back to the end of Chapter 15, we are told that Samuel is grieving the broken relationship with Saul.
4. We do not know how long Saul grieves.
5. in the text, it is just a few verses, but given God’s question, “how long?” we might guess that Samuel is like us - finding it hard to move on from broken relationships as we cling to our broken past.
move 2: “how long are you going to grieve over Saul?”
a. NOt just a question God has for Saul, but a sign that broken relationships are not the final word.
1. As if God is saying to Samuel, “get over it, get up, and go anoint the next king.” (David G. Arber, Jr. Associate Professor of Old Testament and Hebrew McAfee School of Theology, Mercer University)
2. Saul’s broken relationship with God will not be the end of God’s relationship with Israel.
3. Saul’s broken relationship with Samuel does not end Samuel’s role as Israel’s prophet and anointer of kings.
4. Out of brokenness, God will shape a new future for Samuel and for Israel.
5. that is the word of hope for us today - out of our brokenness God is shaping a future for us.
b. We see Samuel struggling to recognize the possibilities for the future.
2. he is in the pain of brokenness.
3. He cannot see beyond the moment.
4. when we experience broken relationships, we can get to where we cannot see beyond the brokenness.
c. But God is not done with Samuel and Israel.
1. Samuel may not be able to see the next step, but God does.
2. God will provide the next king - David.
3. A story we know well.
d. notice that moving forward from a broken relationship is scary for Samuel.
1. he rightly recognizes that Saul may be angry with him.
2. he does not follow a straight path, but sort of wanders and weaves into the future.
6. Moving forward in his life and the life of Israel will have its own set of challenges, but God is leading him so there is a path through the brokenness.
d. we also notice that the future path God offers Samuel has a surprising twist.
1. If Samuel were to anoint a new king, surely it would be one of Jesse’s older sons.
2. But one by one the older sons process by Samuel and none of them are the one.
3. Surprise - the future God lays out for Samuel and for Israel will be found in David, the youngest son so unexpected to be chosen that he stays out in the fields instead of coming to see Samuel.
4. Why? Because David has the heart God desires.
5. the healing of our broken relationships may lead us to surprising places and people.
Move 3: Our Lenten journey this year has invited us to reflect on the different relationships we have, even our broken relationships.
a. If our reflections along the way have not led us to see some of our own brokenness, just wait.
1. next Sunday on Palm/Passion Sunday, we finish the service reflecting on how we betray Christ.
2. Then, Holy Week arrives with a maundy Thursday, a wonderful celebration around our Lord’s Table, even as we remember that Christ’s disciples, his friends, will go from the Table into the night to betray Christ.
3. On Good Friday at the Tenebrae service, we will tell the story of betrayal and brokenness when the world breaks its relationship with Christ, leaving him alone and forsaken.
4. The journey through Lent to Easter is full of brokenness and broken relationships.
5. It calls to the forefront all our brokenness.
b. But lurking in the shadows is the empty tomb.
1. Lent leads us to Easter when we discover anew the possibilities of a God of resurrection.
2. the great proof that broken relationships, that our brokenness will not have the final answer.
3. The God who sent Samuel to anoint Saul,
and then calls Samuel to give up his grief over Saul and go anoint David;
this God is not done and will not be done until all our brokenness, and all our broken relationships are made whole.
Conclusion: In our Lenten reflection time after the sermon, you are invited to reflect on broken relationships in your life.
then, as you leave your pew at the end of the service, leave your fabric square behind - a reminder that we turn our brokenness over to God and trust in God to heal and show us a way forward.
Samuel asks God, “how can I go?”
We know the answer: we can go from our brokenness because God is leading the way.
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