2008.07.27 What is Transformation: From Envy to Compassion

Scripture: 1 Samuel 18 & 20 (selected verses)

Last Sunday, we began our sermon series on transformation. In 1 Samuel 16: 7, God teaches us that, while we may look at the outward appearance of a person, God looks at the heart. We know that the spiritual disciplines—prayer, study, service, etc—can help us develop our hearts, but we don’t always remember why we are developing them. So this sermon series is meant to remind us about the big picture—why it is that we strive, with God’s help, to live a life of faithfulness. Why it is that we encourage one another to engage in the spiritual disciplines. Why it is that we share, listen and pray in our family groups and even have Sunday lunch fellowship.

We do these things to help us transform—from the old to the new. In 2 Corinthians 5:17, it is written: Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, you are a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! As men and women who claim Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we are new creations, made clean by the sacrifice on the cross. And in living as these new creations, we continue to be transformed every day. Last week, we looked at how a transformed life moves from fear to faith. This week, we are looking at how a transformed life grows from envy to compassion.

After David’s defeat of the Philistine Goliath, David became a very popular person in Israel.

6 When the men were returning home after David had killed the Philistine, the women came out from all the towns of Israel to meet King Saul with singing and dancing, with joyful songs and with tambourines and lutes. 7 As they danced, they sang: "Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands."
1 Samuel 18: 6-7

This song would have been great to hear.. if you were David. But the song was sung as King Saul—the king—was returning. As a result,

8 Saul was very angry; this refrain galled him. "They have credited David with tens of thousands," he thought, "but me with only thousands. What more can he get but the kingdom?" 9 And from that time on Saul kept a jealous eye on David.
1 Samuel 18: 8-9

Saul is envious of David, and because he has the power to do so—he is the king—Saul, from that day forward, keeps a close eye on David. It brings to mind the popular quote from The Godfather: “Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer. “

Yet what has David done up to this point to make himself an enemy to Saul? David has killed Goliath, the Philistine champion—the champion that none of the Israelite soldiers wanted to fight (Saul included) because they were afraid. David has done Saul a service—if David had not shown up and volunteered to fight, the Israelites might still be on the battlefield, extending the 40-day stalemate over who would fight Goliath.

Yet what Saul sees is that David has won the hearts and the respect of the people of Israel—the very same people for whom Saul is the king. Saul may have the title, but David is winning the popular vote hands-down.

And it turns out that David’s defeat of Goliath is only the beginning. In chapter 18, verse 30, we are told:

30 The Philistine commanders continued to go out to battle, and as often as they did, David met with more success than the rest of Saul's officers, and his name became well known.
1 Samuel 18:30

Some of you may know that my life has been a very stable one. All of my schools, from Kindergarten through college, are located within a 6-mile radius of one another. I attended the same church for 21 years before moving out to California. As a result, until I was an adult, I never experienced what it is like to move to a completely new community.

When I was in my late teens or early 20’s, my church called a new senior pastor. That pastor had a daughter—I’ll call her Claire—who was a year behind me in school. A long time after that pastor and his family came—I think it was like a year—a different pastor on our staff asked me to meet with him and Claire for a private discussion. I had no idea what the meeting was about, but I came.

It turned out that Claire had some serious issues with me. She was angry and deeply hurt. I was totally surprised by this revelation. I had no idea. What was explained to me was that it was my role, more than any other person in our church, to have reached out to Claire, to have befriended her, when she moved to Atlanta and to our church. This was not only b/c I was a long-time committed member at the church, not only b/c I was older and therefore should have taken the responsibility but especially b/c my dad is a pastor—and therefore, the logic went, because I was a fellow PK, that I should know more than anyone else how hard it is for a new PK to come and fit in.

The thing is, I didn’t know how hard it was b/c I’d never experienced that before. And in my interactions Claire, I was never mean to her; I just didn’t pay much attention to her. She was not really on my radar screen. She a grade behind me and went to a different school. I had no idea that her envy of me existed, and I was stunned at the extent to which it had developed.

This is envy—it is one-sided and it has everything to do with the person who is doing the envying and very little—if anything—to do with the person or object of that envy. In our scripture today, Saul begins to self-destruct. He allows his envy of David to consume him and overtake him. This leads to Saul attempting to kill David by his own hands—he throws a spear at David while David is playing music for Saul in the palace. He sends his men to capture David and kill him. And David’s response to this is, What did I do?

1 Then David fled from Naioth at Ramah and went to [King Saul’s son] Jonathan and asked, "What have I done? What is my crime? How have I wronged your father, that he is trying to take my life?"
1 Samuel 20:1

Have you every found yourself experiencing envy? In other words, feeling pain or anger when you see someone who has something that you don’t. You can feel dissatisfied or discontent about not having something, but envy goes further and takes that lack of contentment and blames it on a particular person who does have that something.

It could be material—a house or lots of “toys”—flat screen TV, Wii, iPhone, whatever the newest pricey gadget may be. Or our envy could be relational—a marriage, children, a good relationship with the in-laws. Envy can be based entirely on perception and not reality—a person in a perfect marriage, a co-worker that seems get all of the breaks.

One dictionary parses out the meaning of envy this way: Envy denotes a longing to possess something awarded to or achieved by another: to feel envy when a friend inherits a fortune.

The ways in which envy plays itself out is varied. In the news we can find accounts of people doing what Saul did: attacking the object of their envy—like the figure skater Tonya Harding who was involved with the attack on her competitor, Nancy Kerrigan, at the 1994 U.S. Figure Skating championships. But in normal life, envy plays out in more subtle ways. Gossip would probably be the most frequent—when we fixate on a person’s weaknesses or speculate aloud about a person’s faults or even simply repeat negative things others have told us. We can also express envy through unfair treatment that we justify in our own minds or the basic cop-out of “I just don’t get along with him/her.”

Envy is a longing to have something that another has received or achieved. King Saul envies David for defeating Israel’s enemies in battle and winning the hearts of the people of Israel. That is something that the king should do, and Saul knows it.

The complete contrast to Saul’s envy is found in his own son, Jonathan. Following David’s defeat of Goliath, we learn that

1b Jonathan became one in spirit with David, and he loved him as himself... 3 And Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as himself. 4 Jonathan took off the robe he was wearing and gave it to David, along with his tunic, and even his sword, his bow and his belt.
1 Samuel 18:1b, 3-4

Jonathan is the king’s son. He is the heir apparent—the one who is next in line for the throne. Even if his father Saul was not the one receiving the accolades of the people and winning the victories on the field—if anyone, if it was to be anyone other than King Saul, it should have been King Saul’s son, Jonathan. But Jonathan, rather than being envious of David, is his friend. And it is not a superficial acquaintance or a relationship of convenience. Jonathan and David are genuinely friends. They became one in spirit and made a covenant together. We are not told the content of that covenant, but we see that Jonathan gives David his robe, tunic, sword, bow and belt. These are generous gifts to be sure, but they hold more weight than that. The robe in particular, symbolizes the kingdom. Jonathan’s action is not material generosity; it is an acknowledgement that David is the one who will next be king.

These verses also mention twice that Jonathan loved David as himself. That love was not only the personal and emotional commitment of friendship, but recent studies have emphasized that the Hebrew word for love that is used here also carries the social and political weight of loyalty. Jonathan and David’s covenant, therefore, is very likely to be a formal recognition of their loyalty to one another, including David’s eventual ascent to the throne.

How remarkably different the situation was between Saul and Jonathan toward David. One chose envy that became murderous. The other chose compassion. But question is, why? Why did Jonathan hold such a different view of David, especially when, at least externally, it looks like Jonathan had all the same reasons as Saul to envy David?

We can find an answer by continuing in Chapter 20. As the friendship between David and Jonathan continued, Jonathan also remained loyal to his father. Despite what David said, Jonathan could not believe that Saul would really want to kill his best friend. A plan, therefore, was made to determine if David’s life was truly in danger from Saul. As they discussed the details of their plan, Jonathan said the following to David:

12 Then Jonathan said to David: "By the LORD, the God of Israel, I will surely sound out my father by this time the day after tomorrow! If he is favorably disposed toward you, will I not send you word and let you know? 13 But if my father is inclined to harm you, may the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if I do not let you know and send you away safely. May the LORD be with you as he has been with my father. 14 But show me unfailing kindness like that of the LORD as long as I live, so that I may not be killed, 15 and do not ever cut off your kindness from my family--not even when the LORD has cut off every one of David's enemies from the face of the earth."
1 Samuel 20: 12-15

In these three verses, we gain an understanding of why Jonathan could exercise compassion rather than envy. Jonathan saw the truth: it was God, not him, not his father Saul, who should determine the next king of Israel. Jonathan saw God as the one who was determined the affairs of the throne.

• In verses 12 & 13, Jonathan promises to fulfill the plan and he holds himself accountable, not to David his best friend, but to God.
• In last part of verse 13 as well as in verse 15, Jonathan acknowledges that it is God who made his father the king, and God will also be the one who makes David the next king, the one who will cut off all of David’s enemies.
• Lastly, in verse 14, Jonathan asks David for unfailing kindness, or in Hebrew, HESED. He asks for hesed “like that of the Lord.” Hesed is unfailing kindness, it is commitment/loyalty that comes from a deep, abiding love. Jonathan, who is acknowledging that God has chosen, not the king’s son, but David to take the throne, that this God is HESED. Unfailing kindness. Unfailing love.
  

This is a speech that Saul would have never been able to utter—at least, not honestly. Here we see Jonathan holding himself accountable to God, acknowledging that God is the one who is in control of these events and that God is HESED, unfailing love..

With that kind of understanding, with that kind of worldview, Jonathan was able to be best friends with a man who going to “take” everything that that the world said Jonathan had coming to him. And lest our suspicious minds think that Jonathan was simply being pragmatic, let me also note that Jonathan also stayed loyal to his father, to the very end. Jonathan never raised a hand against David, and he helped him escape Saul’s wrath. However, Jonathan also did not desert his father, and in the end died by his side in a battle against the Philistines.

If Jonathan was helping David simply b/c he thought that the “writing was on the wall” and that it was inevitable that David would become king.. then Jonathan would simply have been an opportunist. And in that case, he should have ditched the old man and signed up with the new administration.

But Jonathan was helping David b/c they were friends. Good friends. Friends who understood and demonstrated HESED toward one another. Unfailing love. Jonathan was able to do this—he was able to turn aside envy—because he understood, he believed, he acknowledged that God was in control.

Is God in control or am I? King Saul was the king by title, but what he did not have was the admiration and respect of the people. He did not have the continued successes on the battlefield. Those were given to David, and Saul was envious. He wanted those things and was willing to kill David to get them.

Jonathan, was, by title, the next in line for the throne. He also saw that David had the things that any good king—or king-to-be should have. Yet Jonathan lived his life knowing and believing that it was God who was in control. As result, his heart did not ask—how can I get what that person has taken? How can I keep what I am due? Instead, his heart was one of compassion, a heart that could both give and receive HESED, unfailing love, friendship, loyalty, generosity.

When God is in control, our words and our actions become generous, they become kind. For there is nothing that someone else can achieve or receive that we can’t be happy for them; that we can’t celebrate with them. This is not simply a question of perception management or the power of positive thinking. It is believing so sincerely that belief translates into action.

Jesus Christ, on the night of his arrest, prayed in the Garden that God may take away the cup of suffering from him. If envy had taken hold, Jesus would have dwelt on how good the other disciples had it—taking a nap while he was pleading for his life, running away when the going got rough. But it was not envy that grew in Jesus’ heart. It was compassion. It was compassion, love, HESED—unfailing love—that came from knowing, believing, living the truth that God was in control. Jesus Christ died on the cross b/c God’s HESED—that steadfast, unfailing love—is real.

As we seek to live transformed lives, we would do well in asking ourselves whether or not we truly, deeply believe that God’s unfailing love is real. Do we believe in our guts that God is in control, that God’s love is for our good? If so (or perhaps when this is so) we will find ourselves moving away from envy toward growing hearts of compassion.

2008.07.20 What is Transformation: From Fear to Faith

Scripture: 1 Samuel 17:1-50 (selected verses)

Last Sunday, we looked at 1 Samuel 16, with particular focus on verse 7—that God does not look at the things that we look at but instead looks at our hearts. It is important, therefore, that despite how much attention we give to outward appearances, that we give more attention to the development of our hearts.

Yet how do we do that? How do we grow hearts that love God deeply?

I was born into a Christian family, and I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior at the age of 15. My calling is to full-time ministry. My life is steeped in the ways of Christianity, and on the outside, I’d guess that most people would say that I am a committed Christian, one whose heart is totally sold out for God.

However, appearances can be deceiving. Last fall, Willow Creek Community Church, the 2nd largest church in America, released the results of a study that rocked the evangelical Christian world. For 3 years Willow Creek studied the effectiveness of their programs and other churches’ programs because they wanted to know what worked.

Speaking at a Leadership Summit, Bill Hybels, the senior pastor of Willow Creek, summarized the findings this way—I took this from Christianity Today’s blog titled Out of Ur:

“Some of the stuff that we have put millions of dollars into thinking it would really help our people grow and develop spiritually, when the data actually came back, it wasn’t helping people that much. Other things that we didn’t put that much money into and didn’t put much staff against is stuff our people are crying out for.”

Having spent thirty years creating and promoting a multi-million dollar organization driven by programs and measuring participation, and convincing other church leaders to do the same, you can see why Hybels called this research “the wake-up call” of his adult life.

Hybels confesses:
“We made a mistake. What we should have done when people crossed the line of faith and become Christians, we should have started telling people and teaching people that they have to take responsibility to become ‘self feeders.’ We should have gotten people, taught people, how to read their Bible between service, how to do the spiritual practices much more aggressively on their own.”

In other words, [what Willow Creek found was that]spiritual growth doesn’t happen best by becoming dependent on elaborate church programs but through the age old spiritual practices of prayer, bible reading, and relationships. And, ironically, these basic disciplines do not require multi-million dollar facilities and hundreds of staff to manage.

Willow Creek has been identified as the most influential church in our country for several years running. Yet this church, with its estimated 20,000 attendees, found that it was producing consumers rather than disciples.

So I come back to the question of the heart. By all appearances, I am one who loves God deeply, and in reality, I do. But at the same time, there are other things that compete with God in my heart. There are my kids. There is my ego. God does not always receive the firstfruits of my time, care and attention.

What I long for is transformation—yet what does a transformed life look like? We are all intelligent enough to recognize that basic spiritual disciples—prayer, study, simplicity, service, confession and more—the spiritual disciplines are training tools to help us. But help us to do what? Where is that we want to go? Who is it that we want to be?

To help us begin to grasp what a transformed life looks like, we’re going to spend the next several weeks looking at changes that happen when a life is transformed by God. I’m taking these changes from a Bible study called Transformation by Rebecca Manley Pippert. The content of the sermons, however, will be from the Bible, and our focus is on David.

Today we will look at how a transformed life is based on faith rather than fear. Our scripture contains a story that is familiar to Christians and non-Christians alike: the story of David and Goliath.

At the beginning of Chapter 17 in 1 Samuel, the Philistines and the Israelites are at stalemate. The challenge that is before them was called “single combat” or “representative warfare.” The idea was that a champion from each side would meet in the middle to fight. The people believed that the gods would determine the outcome of such a battle, although in reality these combats usually ended up being followed by an all-out response. Winning the single combat match, however, would give great psychological advantage to victorious side.

The Philistines seem to have the battle won already. Their champion, Goliath, is a huge guy, well-armed and fully armored. His description is intended to be dramatic so as to communicate how intimidating this man was.

4 A champion named Goliath, who was from Gath, came out of the Philistine camp. He was over nine feet tall. 5 He had a bronze helmet on his head and wore a coat of scale armor of bronze weighing five thousand shekels; 6 on his legs he wore bronze greaves, and a bronze javelin was slung on his back. 7 His spear shaft was like a weaver's rod, and its iron point weighed six hundred shekels. His shield bearer went ahead of him.

Every day for forty days, Goliath would go out to the front of the Philistine’s line and issue his challenge. And every day, the Israelites’ response was the same:

11 On hearing the Philistine's words, [King] Saul and all the Israelites were dismayed and terrified.

What dismays and terrifies you?

For me, the number one thing that scares me is death. There are other things, though—the possibility that our society’s anti-God agenda will take root in one of my children, the thought that God has entrusted me to pastor this ministry and that I’m doing a lousy job, the recognition that I am much more materialistic and superficial than I should be.

What do you fear?

Some of you, like me, may fear death. Other things the people fear: Silence. Failure. Doubt about God’s existence. Doubt about your spouse. Pain. Suffering. Losing financial security.

In the Bible study material for this series, the author wrote: “One need only experience real fear once to know that it matters desperately whether there is a divine power outside of ourselves that can neutralize and overcome any present danger.”

The summer after my first year of college, my dad accompanied me to Harvard, where I was going to attend summer school. I had never been in Boston before, and although I had some friends over at MIT, I didn’t know anyone in my program, on my campus. About 10 minutes after my dad said good bye and left for the airport, I was alone in my room. And out of nowhere, the reality that I was alone—totally alone—came crashing down on me. Fear gripped my heart, and I became panicked. A zillion thoughts rushed through my mind at once, the clearest one being a plan for how I could call a taxi and meet my dad at the airport in time to fly home with him.

It was a scary place to be—not Harvard, but that place of fear, that place of utter aloneness.

In the normal course of life, I do not think that we spend a lot of time on our fears. We are too busy going, getting, doing, moving. But the fears are there, and they will make themselves known one way or another.

What do you fear? What looks Goliath to you—big, imposing, intimidating. What causes you to be dismayed and terrified?

Enter into the scene: David. Just as Goliath’s description is dramatic, David’s is correspondingly unremarkable. Verses 12-20 tell us that he is the youngest of the eight sons of Jesse. His 3 oldest brothers are on the battle lines, but David is, essentially, an errand boy

14 David was the youngest. The three oldest followed Saul, 15 but David went back and forth from Saul to tend his father's sheep at Bethlehem.

As David comes to the battle front to deliver bread and cheese to his brothers and their commandeer, he witnesses Goliath’s daily challenge.

20 Early in the morning David.. loaded up and set out, as Jesse had directed. He reached the camp as the army was going out to its battle positions… 22 David left his things with the keeper of supplies, ran to the battle lines and greeted his brothers. 23 As he was talking with them, Goliath, the Philistine champion from Gath, stepped out from his lines and shouted his usual defiance, and David heard it. 24 When the Israelites saw the man, they all ran from him in great fear.

David starts asking around—what’s the deal? What’s going on? And he learns about the Philistine’s daily challenge. The Israelite solders also tell David that anyone who is willing fight Goliath has been offered a reward by King Saul—money, marriage and care for your extended family. It is a great package, but the soldiers can only talk about it wistfully, the way that one might talk about buying a winning lottery ticket—possible but not probable.

The Israelite soldiers and King Saul are thinking the same way that the Philistines are thinking—that the way to respond to this challenge is tangibly—with force, with strength, with size. In short, with their own efforts. And by all appearances, the Israelites’ efforts fall far sort of those displayed by the Philistines. Because their eyes see with human sight; their eyes see the outward appearance. As a result, the Israelites and King Saul are left in fear. Verse 24: They run when Goliath comes out.

David, however, sees things differently. The unanswered challenge is an insult to the nation of Israel and to King Saul, but to David, there is a greater insult—that which is being lodged against God.

26 David asked the men standing near him, "What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?"

So David volunteers to go, and this results in an interview with King Saul. Saul, remember, is functioning under the assumption that the power necessary for Israel’s deliverance is military might. So upon looking at David, Saul says:

33 Saul replied, "You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a boy, and he has been a fighting man from his youth."

David’s response is—You know something? I’m a shepherd. And in taking care of my sheep, I’ve faced and killed lions and bears because God was on my side. This Philistine is no different from one of those animals.

36 Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. 37 The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine."
Saul said to David, "Go, and the LORD be with you."

David demonstrates that he has experience in fighting, but even more so, his confidence about Goliath comes from the fact that God has been disgraced by Goliath—“this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God.”

So then, Saul acquiesces, but he insists that David must wear the king’s armor. Again, we see that Saul has placed his confidence in physical power, in what David can physically do. Yet none of the accoutrements fit and instead, David grabs his shepherd’s tools—his staff, 5 smooth stones and his sling. It’s like Luke Skywalker taking chopsticks and some marbles with him to face Darth Vader.

David goes out, and Goliath is totally insulted that a boy, not even a man, would be his challenger.

43 He said to David, "Am I a dog, that you come at me with sticks?" And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.

Was David afraid? Probably. Wouldn’t you have been? But there was something deeper that moved David away from fear so that he could act and to speak. It was, in a word, faith.

45 David said to the Philistine, "You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46 This day the LORD will hand you over to me, and I'll strike you down and cut off your head… and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. 47 All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves; for the battle is the LORD's, and he will give all of you into our hands."

It was David’s faith in the living God that gave him the courage to face the giant. Fear may have been present somewhere, but it was overshadowed by a heart that chose faith, a heart that had learned faith while battling bears and lions—lesser enemies, so to speak. Goliath, the Israelites, King Saul—the source of their power, the source of their courage was military experience, human effort. David, on the other hand, derived courage from God—a source higher and mightier. Verse 47: “ALL those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves.”

During the 2007 National Football League season, there was a team that was like Goliath—unstoppable. They were the New England Patriots. They were undefeated during the regular season, and by the time they reached the Super Bowl, they had broken multiple records. Their opponent in the championship game were the New York Giants. Although the Giants showed some promise, there was general expectation that the Patriots, with their #1 ranked quarterback and #1 ranked coach would dominate the game. In the end, however, the underdog won, and the Giants took the title.

This is the story that most folks hear about Super Bowl 42. It is similar to the story that everyone knows about David and Goliath—the little guy beat the big guy. The story of the New York Giants’ victory, however, starts earlier. While there are many details I could mention, I will share only one. Two weeks before the end of the regular football season, the Giants and the Patriots had a game. The Patriots, of course, won, but if you saw the game, you would know that Giants played an incredible game—and as a result, they saw the kinks in the Patriots’ seemingly undefeatable armor. What the Giants’ quarterback and the rest of the team saw was that it was possible—it was possible to defeat this team. The Giants played differently after that game; they had much more confidence.

By the time they go to the Super Bowl, it wasn’t a question of who had the best players or who had the best coach. There was confidence in the Giants’ team, and you saw it the entire week leading up to the big game. Players were at ease, making jokes and having fun. They went into the game with the larger vision—to win the Super Bowl, and their confidence did not come from what everyone else saw b/c they were no longer looking here (laterally). They were looking here (up) at the vision, the goal.

In a similar manner, when we, as Jesus Christ’s brothers and sisters, face things that cause us to be dismayed and terrified, we can put our confidence in our own efforts, the way that the Israelites counted on military strength. Or we can place our confidence in the power of Christ. To do so, of course, means that WE can’t control the outcome—it is his strength, not ours, so perhaps our fear will not be addressed exactly the way that we think it should be. But it will be addressed. It will be taken care of.

David and the Israelites were looking at the same person, the same set of circumstances. But b/c David chose faith, his perspective was vastly different. The battle was not about winning and losing. It was not about military prowess or human ability. The battle was about the honor of God and the power of faith in God. It was a vision that was larger than what everyone else was looking at. It is that vision—that faith in the Almighty God that distinguishes a transformed life from a regular one. It is faith instead of fear. Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection on the cross demonstrated for us that faith is more powerful than anything we can accomplish by our own means. So as we continue to learn what a transformed life looks like, let us remember that it faith over fear.

2008.07.13 Authenticity

Scripture: 1 Samuel 16:1-13

Illustration: There is a Dutch tradition where the windows downstairs are open (i.e. no window coverings). The purpose of this is so that the community could see the family dining and know if everything was okay with the family.

This openness/transparency to the community is similar to what the early church was like.

My instinct—and generally for our society—is the opposite: to hide. We use different words for the hiding: “discretion,” “privacy.” But whatever name you give it, it is taking something out of public view and hiding it.

There are things, of course, that we make open for public consideration. But even then, we will often put forward only the things that we have determined are “good” or “acceptable” for public scrutiny.

For example, there is a cartoon that was popular in the 70’s called the Jetsons. It was about a future world where cars were like mini spaceships and buildings were built high in the sky. Their phone was a video phone. One morning, a call came into the Jetsons’ residence very early in the morning. Mrs. Jetson was not ready for the day yet, so she hurried to grab her mask—when she had it on, her face looked perfect—makeup, hair. Then she answered the phone.

We hide the things that are considered unacceptable and show only that which is acceptable—even if it means that what we are hiding is the “real” us, the authentic us. This does not happen all of the time, but it happens fairly often. That is b/c we know, that despite the fact that all of us would agree that what is real is usually better than what is fake (particularly in relationships), we also know that people—us—often pass judgment about others based on what we see rather than what we know. There is a passage in Scripture that speaks to this. It is found in the 16th chapter of the 1st book of Samuel:.

As this passage begins, it mentions King Saul. Saul was the 1st king. He was chosen b/c Israel wanted to be like the other nations around them. In 1 Samuel 8:19, it says:

But the people refused to listen to Samuel. “No!” they said. “We want a king over us. Then we will be like the other nations with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles.
1 Samuel 8:19-20

Israel knew what appearances meant—to have a visible king was a morale booster for them and an intimidation tactic against their enemies. God, even if he was the God of the universe, was too invisible, too uncontrollable to be an effective leader for them.

So Saul was chosen. In chapter 9:2, we get a description of Saul:

[Kish] had a son named Saul, an impressive young man without equal among the Israelites—a head taller than any of the others.
1 Samuel 9:2

Appearances are important, so Israel’s 1st king is a man who is tall and looks “kingly,” with stature and height.

Interestingly, this man who was chosen for appearances ends up failing for the very same reasons he was crowned. In I Samuel chapter 15, the prophet Samuel confronts Saul for making a big mistake:

Then Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned. I violated the Lord’s command and your instructions. I was afraid of the people and so I gave in to them.
1 Samuel 15: 24

“I was afraid of the people.” He was afraid of looking weak and ineffective before his subjects, so rather than obeying God’s commands, Saul had gone his own way. He wanted to appear to be a good king.

Then today’s passage picks up the story in the next chapter, 1st Samuel, chapter 16.

The prophet Samuel is mourning b/c things have not worked out with Israel’s 1st king. God comes to Samuel and says, dude, it’s time to move forward:

1 The LORD said to Samuel, "How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and be on your way; I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king."
1 Samuel 16: 1

So Samuel gets up and goes to Bethlehem. He looks for and finds Jesse, who is the father of 8 sons. Jesse gathers his sons, and the first son that Samuel sees is Jesse’s oldest son, Eliab (I-LI’UHB). Upon viewing Eliab, Samuel makes an assumption based on appearance:

6 When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and thought, "Surely the LORD's anointed stands here before the LORD."

Samuel sees Eliab and figures that this tall one, who was probably handsome too, must be the one to take Saul’s place. Appearances did not help in selecting Israel’s first king. Appearances did not help Israel’s first king do an effective job. Yet here is the prophet Samuel, falling into the same mindset again—the oldest son, tall, very likely handsome—this must be the son of Jesse that God had chosen!

We can do this too—to allow perceptions to dominate our decisions, despite what real experience may show us. I want to read an excerpt from Nancy Ortberg’s book called Looking for God. There is a section that I think is a good example of how we can believe something based on perception and continue with it even when it doesn’t work.

For most of my growing up years, I heard about the daily “quiet time.”

It was revered and talked about as the bedrock of the Christian faith. It was described as serene and profound time in the morning (anything less than 30 minutes was quite unworthy) when one sat alone with God in mediation and study over a passage in Scripture. It also included a time of prayer.. and journaling.

After you had one—people always say they’ve “had” their quiet times—you talked about it. You might sneak it into a conversation in a way that was seemingly unpretentious, but always comparative. You’d talk about what a deep time you’d had that morning alone with God. How God has spoken to you. What a meaningful insight you’d received over a particular passage in the Bible.

…So for many years, I practiced my quiet time. Not quite daily, but close—and whenever I missed a day, I was filled with great consternation and guilt. Every day, I expected something profound to occur during my quiet time, but most days, nothing approached profound. And when I engaged in conversation with others about our quiet times, my experience never quite lived up to theirs.

She then goes on to describe a time in her life when she was unable to have a quiet time—when her oldest child was 3, her 2nd child was 1.5 and she was pregnant with their 3rd child. Then she writes:

Days and weeks would go by without a moment for me to sit and open the Bible. And when those moments came, I either lost my train of thought or I fell asleep! But quiet time had been presented to me as the main/only means of connecting deeply to God, so I panicked. During this.. stage.., I desperately needed God, but I was unable to connect with Him in the only way I thought counted.
I figured I could either meet with God again in about six years (when all of the kids would be in school) or I would have to find other ways to connect with Him. And I did not know any other ways.

From Looking for God: an unexpected journey through tattoos, tofu & pronouns by Nancy Ortberg

Samuel, Nancy Ortberg, we do this.. we allow reality to be defined by our perceptions. Although she had already found through the years that quiet times were not a fail-proof way to connect with God (most days, nothing approached profound; my experience never quite lived up to others), she continued to pursue this one way. What she goes on to share, however, is that she is able to connect with God during this period of her life, and it’s not through a traditional quiet time. Which takes us to the next verse in our scripture today:

7 But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”

You, me—we look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.

In the same book, different chapter, Nancy Ortberg addresses this as well. She writes about the word “model” in Christian vocabulary—how Christians, particularly leaders, are asked to be models:

Model implies that regardless of what we believe or feel or think on the inside, we should at least try to make the outside look good. This way of thinking causes us to live externally, for others, rather than internally, out of a center that is connected to God. It moves us toward unhealthy compartmentalization when we say one thing but do or believe something else entirely. Always in secret though, so no one sees that the two sides don’t match up.

We look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. What you are like in secret—or in the privacy of your own home? What do your unguarded moments reveal about your character? What kind of parent are you when there are no other adults around? What kind of spouse are you when there are no friends present? What kind person are you when no one might be paying attention?

I don’t ask these questions to imply that we are all awful, ugly people when no one else is around. I do, however, pose these questions to challenge us. To what degree do our public “selves” match our hidden “selves”? If there were no window coverings on the common areas of your home and people could see in at any moment, would there be a match between your public self and your hidden self?

Despite Samuel’s mistake in thinking that God has chosen Eliab, God tells him that it is not the outward appearance that will determine the next king’s fitness. It is, instead, the heart. Therefore,

10 Jesse had seven of his sons pass before Samuel, but Samuel said to him, "The LORD has not chosen these." 11 So he asked Jesse, "Are these all the sons you have?"
"There is still the youngest," Jesse answered, "but he is tending the sheep."
Samuel said, "Send for him; we will not sit down until he arrives."

It is not the oldest son, and neither is it any of the sons who are present. When Samuel first found Jesse, he invited Jesse and all of his sons to come. Yet it only the 7 oldest that are gathered for Samuel.

Several of you know that my oldest son is the son of an oldest son who, in turn, is the oldest of his family and his generation. His father, my father-in-law, is the oldest as well—of 5 sons. Last year, we found out that the grandfather was also the oldest son. In cultural tradition, that means that there are a lot of high expectations for my oldest child. He would traditionally be the one to carry on the family name, the family history, the family mantle.

Samuel goes through all 7 of Jesse’s oldest sons, and God says no, it’s none of these guys. God does not look at the things that we look at—whether it be superficial appearance or even cultural tradition. The Israelites did not have a society based on Confucius, but they certainly placed value and rank and honor to the oldest son. But again, God does not look at the things that we look at

So they send for the youngest son, who is out tending the sheep. He wasn’t even considered important enough to be called in for the initial time with Samuel.

12 So [Jesse] sent and had him brought in. He was ruddy, with a fine appearance and handsome features.
Then the LORD said, "Rise and anoint him; he is the one."
13a So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the LORD came upon David in power.

This is David as in King David—the one who wrote most of the psalms—the 1st psalm says “blessed is the one whose delight is in the law of the Lord and meditates on God’s law day and night.” David was the best king that Israel ever had. This David was the man who sought after God’s own heart—David wanted to do whatever God wanted.

The LORD does not look at the things we look at, but the LORD looks at the heart. This one, the youngest son of Jesse, is the one whom God has chosen to be the king. David is chosen for his heart. Contrast this with the former king Saul, who cared more about appearances and other people’s opinions.

And even though God has emphasized to Samuel that he does not look at the outward appearance but instead looks at the heart, it turns out that David is not so bad-looking. “He was ruddy, with a fine appearance and handsome features.”

Is God being a hypocrite? No. What these verses tell us is that God does not have a problem with our efforts to put forward a good face—good manners, civil conversation, basic hygiene, appropriate dress—all could be viewed as efforts toward the superficial. But God does not have a problem with things that look good, that are attractive. It is, rather, a question of priorities. Substance is the more valuable thing in evaluating a person’s character. David’s heart is what God looked at, and it was David’s heart—the heart that longed to beat in the same rhythm as God’s—that qualified him to be the king of Israel.

I want to share with you one more excerpt from a book. This is a secular book, called “The Price of Privilege.” Its subtitle is “How Parental Pressure and Material Advantage are Creating a Generation of Disconnected and Unhappy Kids.” It is written by a psychologist from Marin County, and it has many anecdotes of patients she has seen. I would like to share one of them with you.

Story from page 20, The Price of Privilege by Madeline Levine

This child and her parents are a real-life examples of how we can develop our outsides, or our appearances—well, yet make the mistake like King Saul of diverting our energy and attention outward, toward what other people will observe and what other people might think. My saying this may sound irrelevant to you—high school was when we were hyper-self-conscious about our appearance and what other people thought.

Yet be honest. To one degree or another, we live dual lives—the one that we will show in public and the one that happens behind the window treatments or behind the masks.

In this passage in 1st Samuel, we are reminded that God is not fooled. God looks at our hearts. It is true beauty on the inside that transforms whatever may be on the outside to be attractive

Stop and consider those rare individuals who live the Christian life in a way that is attractive—not the ones who do everything right, but the ones who live it authentically, genuinely. They celebrate with good news, they cry or get mad with bad news. They make mistakes—and admit them. They sometimes miss their quiet time. But they love God, and seek God with their whole hearts. And their insides match their outsides.

We look at outward appearances, but God looks at the heart. On one hand, this is really good news for the parts of us which we feel don’t measure up on the outside. On the other hand, to the extent that we have been neglecting our heart-work, making the space, giving priority, seeking God in whatever way we can—to the extent that we have been spending time on the visible and neglecting our hearts, our relationship with God and even with those closest to us—this scripture is a reminder to us that we are in constant need of the cleansing blood of the cross—that salvation in Jesus Christ is not a one-time event but is instead a lifetime of transformation, growing a heart that loves God so that our attractiveness begins from the inside and comes out.

When you go home today, look at your windows and think on this passage. Could you live like the Dutch did, with no window coverings in the common areas? What would those outside learn about state of your heart? What kind of heart is it that God sees?