Passage: 1 Samuel 8: 4-20
At the
first church I ever served at, I would often have teenagers invade my office
all throughout the day. You see, there
was a Christian school that was connected to the church so during the school
year there was a certain segment of the youth group that had unlimited access
to stop in and visit whenever they had a study hall they wanted to get out
of. Many times they would come down to hang
out, eat my candy, play video games and just waste some time until the next
class they had to be at. But there was
one particular time that I remember that disturbed me.
I had a
young man come down to my office who at the time was an upperclassman. He was really wrestling with what he thought
his future plans were going to be after he graduated. And here is the dilemma he was having trouble
with. On one hand, he was beginning to
sense strongly that God was calling him to be a missionary. This excited me. I was more than willing to help him in any
way that I could.
But I
could tell that there was a problem, something that was causing him to
struggle. He began to tell me that his
parents, who were prominent members of the church and leaders on the school
board, questioned this calling and wanted him to go to their alma mater, Notre
Dame, and pursue a degree that would reflect the skills that stood out on his
various tests that showed where he had high scores.
Now the
way that this story turned out is that he eventually followed the advice of his
parents. He got his degree from Notre
Dame, is an outstanding member of the military, and has settled into the
American Dream. His parents couldn’t be
prouder.
But I
often wonder, what if? What if Bill would have followed what he believed to be
God calling him to mission work? I know, as a parent it can be all to
nerve-racking when God sidesteps our perfect plans for our kids and asks them
to do something that was not in our plans; something that we cannot be in
control of; something in which we can’t see what the future might turn out to
be.
In our
Scripture lesson for today we come across a story in which the Israelites stood
at the crossroads of deciding on an extraordinary life or an ordinary life.
Having to choose to live what they perceived to be the good life over what
could be the best life. For many years
the Israelites were lead by God himself.
Up to this point in the Hebrew Scriptures we can read of all of the
extraordinary ways in which God used prophets, priests and judges at specific
moments to rescue Israel in miraculous ways and establish them as a
nation. All of these offices were used
to always point the people back to the God who was directly leading them.
But now
that Israel has established itself as a nation, it began to look around at the
neighboring nations and comparing and contrasting themselves to others. All of a sudden, they realized that they did
not have a king like the other nations.
Forget
the fact that the King of kings and
the Lord of lords was already
leading them.
Forget
the fact that God used mighty and miraculous means all throughout their history
to set apart Israel as his special people.
Instead
of celebrating the extraordinary relationship they have with the God of the
Universe they wanted to conform to be just like everyone else. They wanted a
flesh and blood king. They wanted to
live by sight, not by faith.
We see
that Samuel takes this as a personal rejection for all that he did as a prophet
of Israel. But God assures Samuel that
this is not about the people rejecting Samuel more than it is about the people
rejecting God himself.
If
there is one thing that is clear in the book of Judges it is that the people
constantly drift away from God when times were good and began worshiping
idols. And then when God takes his hand
of blessing away from them they cry out to him.
God would send prophets to call them back and judges to rescue them from
their enemies. But as soon as they were
rescued and things got better again, they would turn their backs on the living
God and worship gods that were created by men.
So God
shows Samuel that this is the nation’s rejection of God. He tells Samuel to go ahead and give them
what they want, but it comes with a warning.
If you want a king, these are the things you will have to endure:
1. Your children will be used by the
government for military purposes (as
opposed
to a mighty God who would fight their battles for them).
2. You children will be used to serve the
government: in areas of
agriculture,
weaponry, military, and textiles all to prop up the royalty
over
themselves.
3. Your own hard work will be observed and the
best of what you have will
be
expected to go to the king: the best of your fields, servants and
animals. You will be taxed on all of these things.
In just
about every important area of your life you will have to help support and
maintain the government in a way that will ultimately feel oppressive. Sound a little bit familiar?
The
Israelites are wanting all of this over being lead by God. They want to trade
in a rather extraordinary life over a very ordinary life. Why?
And what does this story have to do with us?
I
believe that all of us, everyday are faced with this challenge. Do we go about the rather ordinary, mundane
patterns of regular life that we can map out and make some sense of, or do we
allow God to lead us to do the extraordinary, the leap of faith, taking the
step outside of our comfort zone?
I think
for our graduates, I personally catch myself asking the wrong question -
So what
do you want to study at college?
What
are your plans after you graduate?
I
wrestle with the fact that the question really should be:
What do you believe God is calling you to do
with your life?
Think
about the differences between those two questions.
One is
focused solely upon them. The other
calls us to seek God’s will for our life.
One is
about pursuing an occupation and a paycheck, the other is about pursuing a
calling and purpose in life guided by God himself.
I think
for adults, the reason we see so much pain with relationships that break up,
affairs, materialism and a overall narcissism is because many of those I
consider my friends have come to a point in their life where they are bored
with what seemed to be the perfect plan for their life several years ago:
get a
job,
settle
down,
start a
family,
buy a
nice house and cars for everyone,
get
that nice little vacation spot to get away for R&R.
We see
so many who achieve the apparent “American Dream” only to hit a wall called the
mid-life crisis. They have succeeded in
pursuing the ordinary life and now they have become bored with the routine,
mundane patterns of their life. They
feel that they need to do something to spark some new excitement or energy into
their life. And all too often, in their
pursuit for something extraordinary, they end up creating a bigger mess of
their lives.
We
constantly need to correct our thinking and shift from one old paradigm to a
new one. Instead of trying to plan out
our ideal life, it is time for us to open up ourselves to God who wants to give
us an extraordinary life.
Instead
of trying to pursue yet another new fitness program, or bigger house, or new
diet fad, or new car, or new girlfriend or boyfriend, what if instead, we
pursued God and allowed him to bring purpose and meaning into our lives that
transcends all our stuff.
What if
we actually believed the things we learn in church, to trust in the Lord with
all our heart, and to not lean on our own understanding. But in all our ways acknowledge him, and
allow Him to direct our paths, to pursue his ways over our ways, to set our
minds on heavenly treasures over earthly treasures?
Just
imagine what this world could have looked like if Israel followed God they way
they were supposed to:
1)
No manmade government. God is our
King.
2)
No mandated tax system. I could give freely as God leads me.
3)
No need for military. God protects us from our enemies.
4)
No boring life. God leads us to
do extraordinary things.
I can’t
imagine a more perfect world.
No more
electing imperfect people and political parties into office.
No more
sending off teenagers and the poor to fight wars to protect our “national
interests”.
No more
cable news talking heads arguing for or against the government.
A world
where God is our King and we are his children.
I have
good news! We have the opportunity right
now to start living into this reality, knowing that our future will fully live
into this when Christ ultimately returns.
Now I
know, it is a little bit scary.
Abraham dropped everything and followed, not even
knowing what the plan would be.
Joseph went through some extremely painful
experiences before he realized how God was able to use it all to save Israel
and Egypt.
Moses actually tried several times to say no. He didn’t
want to do it, but God convinced him otherwise.
Samuel gave his life to be a prophet of God. Only to feel very underappreciated at the
end.
Yet the
Israelites completely missed it all. With
a history full of amazing stories of God’s leadership, guidance, protection,
deliverance and care, instead they wanted to trade all of that in for a
man-made government.
Will we
be a people who learn from the mistakes of those who have come before us, or
will we continue to repeat the sins of those from the past?
Graduates,
have you wrestled with the deeper question of what might God be calling you to
do with your life, instead of just what you want to do to get a job and earn a
paycheck?
Adults,
by American standards, many, if not all of you have achieved more than you
probably thought possible when you were just a high schooler.
Have
you allowed God to fully redeem your life and give you purpose and meaning in
all areas?
Or do
you catch yourself looking at godless people who are trying to find meaning
through worshiping the gods of our culture?
Is your
life infused with a higher calling in all areas of your life knowing that what
we do here will impact eternity?
Or do
you catch yourself looking for the next quick fix?
May we
as a church body be focused on the mission and work of God who wants to use us
to do the extraordinary. Never, never,
never settle for an ordinary life that we can manage and control ourselves. Not my will, but THY will be done on earth as
it is in heaven. AMEN.
No comments:
Post a Comment