I remember one Sunday several years ago, just a couple of years after I went into the ministry. It had been raining non-stop for a couple of days. I was appointed, at that time, in farm country. Those folks are always praying for rain. My phone had rung all morning with people calling to tell me about this member or that member who wouldn’t be coming to church that morning. It wasn’t that they didn’t want to come. They couldn’t come. They lived on the opposite side of any one of several creeks in the area and most of those creeks had risen out of their banks. The bridges that crossed those creeks were made of wood and when a creek with a wooden bridge floods, the bridges will sometimes float away. And the rains continued to fall. It gave a very literal meaning to the old cliché, “If the good Lord’s willing and the creek don’t rise.”
As I opened the service that morning with a very small crowd, I said in jest, “Whoever of you has been praying for rain can stop now, your prayer has been answered abundantly.”
At times we are tempted to pray for things and yet we don’t stop to think through the things that we are praying for. I have always been told that we should never pray for patience because if we do, God will test that patience. If you believe that, it too shows we have to be careful what we ask for. All too often we don’t think through the things that we ask for. We ask for things we think we need and we think we want, without thinking through the potential repercussions of such a request. In other words, all too often, we think we know best, we think we know better than God. In every case, we are wrong.
The Israelites were in that mode in this morning’s lesson. If you think about it, it is not hard to see what they must have felt like. Enemies were all around them and they had no clear visible leader, at least not a military one. They must have felt threatened and without question they were very insecure. For those of us who need to feel organized, they looked out at the Philistines and saw organization and then looked at themselves and they were scared. What they wanted was to feel safe and secure and they believed that would come from having a clear, visible leader. It wasn’t that God wasn’t doing the job, it was that they wanted something more than a God they couldn’t see.
Any time we humans feel a need in our lives, our natural reaction is to try to take matters in our own hands. And, that is just what the Israelites wanted to do. They felt much safer when they looked at the world and saw a real-live breathing human being in control. Throughout the history of the creation we humans have looked past God for worldly answer to solve all of our problems.
If we look at the Biblical witness we can see that again and again, even before this story. Adam and Eve didn’t trust God. Instead they wanted to be like God. In the story of Abraham and Sarah, Abraham, not once but twice, when threatened tried to pass Sarah off as his sister instead of his wife. He took matters into his own hands and as a result he experienced some pretty disastrous results.
Later, after God has led the Israelites out of bondage, when Moses, the recognized leader isn’t there, the people stop trusting in God and begin to look with longing back to the leadership of Pharaoh, the same guy who oppressed them. We are always looking for ways to take control of things ourselves. We don’t want to let God be in charge.
In our lesson, the Israelites wanted and asked for a king to be placed over them. Samuel tries to persuade them against it, but they wouldn’t listen to him. They wanted what they perceived was safety and security and were perfectly willing to sacrifice to get it. They were placing their trust in the things of the world.
We often want something in life, something more than what we have. It could be power, money, things or even security and order. And, it is interesting what we will do or what we will sacrifice in order to get what we want.
The emperor Nero searched for happiness in the things of this world. He reveled in earthly possessions and set his heart on them. From his splendid throne as the ruler of the Roman Empire, he commanded that gorgeous porches a mile long be built around the palace. The ceiling of his banquet hall was equipped at great expense with hidden showers that lightly sprayed perfume upon all who came to visit him. His crown alone was worth more than a half million dollars. His mules were shod in silver. Whenever he traveled, a thousand chariots accompanied him, and he refused to sear the same garment twice no matter how costly or beautiful it was. Taxing the people unmercifully, he was able to pay extravagant sums of money to anyone who could devise new methods of entertaining him. Yet with all his riches and splendor he was a peevish, gloomy, dissatisfied man. The immense wealth he had amassed could not satisfy him Placing the importance of his life with the things of the world, he would never find satisfaction and Nero died at his own hand.
No matter how hard we might try, we will never find happiness or satisfaction or safety or security or order in the things of this world. And, the things of this world come with a price tag attached. Samuel knew that and warned the Israelites against the course of action they were so determined to follow.
As Samuel saw what the Israelites wanted and they would not listen to his warnings, Samuel consulted with God. Whenever we are faced with a problem that is greater than we can handle, we can find an answer in prayer. We can find answers because God answers prayer. Not knowing what to do, Samuel went to God and asked for help. God is where the Israelites should have looked for what they wanted and God is where we should look for what we need. Jesus said, “Ask and it shall be given you, seek and you shall find, knock, and the door will be opened to you.” When we accept the instruction, when we center ourselves on God and the things of God, we can pray with boldness.
It was a sense of being in the center of God’s will that gave the great sixteenth century Christian reformer Martin Luther his boldness in prayer. In 1540 Luther’s friend and assistant, Frederick Myconuis, became sick and was expected to die within a short time. On his bed he wrote, with a trembling hand, a loving farewell note to Luther. Luther received the letter and instantly sent back a sharp reply, “I command you in the name of God to live because I still have need of you in the work of reforming the Church… The Lord will never let me hear that you are dead, but will permit you to survive me. For this I am praying, this is my will, and may my will be done, because I seek only to glorify the name of God.” Those words are almost shocking to us as we live in a more sensitive and cautious day, but they are certainly of God. For although Myconius had already lost the ability to speak when Luther’s letter arrived, and in a short time he revived. He recovered completely, and he lived six more years to survive Luther himself by two months.
Like Luther, Samuel looked to God for the answers he needed regarding his problems with the Israelites. In turn, God gave Samuel a solution to his problems. God answered Samuel’s prayer by telling him it was not Samuel who was being rejected but God himself and that Samuel should listen to the Israelites and grant their request. He should give them a king. In essence, God answered Samuel’s prayer and the Israelites request all at the same time.
The Israelites request was answered despite the stern warnings Samuel had given them. It seemed, the more Samuel warned them, the more determined the Israelites were to have a king to rule them. Samuel prophesied what life would be like with a king. Samuel knew that in generations to come, the Israelites would regret the day they asked for a king as they lived under the weight of heavy taxes and more. Everything Samuel had said came to pass. He warned them and the people wanted a king despite the warnings.
You know friends, that says to me, we should be careful what we ask for, we just might get it. If we want to live a life apart from God, we can turn, as the Israelites did, to the things of the world. But if we want to live a life with God, and we ask, we need to be ready for the change that is to come.
A devoted missionary, home on furlough, was asked to speak in the neighborhood where he had spent his youth. After the service, a former boyhood companion approached him asking, “Bob, you have something that I don’t have. I’d give the world if I could experience your joy and victory.” The missionary replied, “John, that’s exactly the price I paid. It cost me the world! To renounce the world’s fleeting and unsatisfying pleasures is not actually giving up very much, yet it seems like it is the hardest thing for so many people to do.” His friend replied, “I never really thought about it that way. You mean that to please God a Christian must make a choice between the world and discipleship?” The missionary replied, “Yes.” John was thoughtful for a moment, and then he said, “Bob, I too want to make a full surrender and follow Christ completely as you have been doing.”
A life with God is available to all of us. All we have to do is ask. But there is a part of the puzzle that we tend to overlook. That is the call to radical discipleship; it is the part that calls us to turn our backs on the things of the world in order to live our lives totally for God. But the good news is, that is where we will find happiness, satisfaction, comfort, security, and order in our lives. What we are giving up is nothing more than a placebo measure to help make us feel good. The Israelites had that and were unable to see it.
Some wild ducks were taking their annual northward journey when a flock of tame ones came into view in a barnyard far below. Leaving his friends in flight, one of the migrants landed and mingled for a short time with those on the ground. After eating some of their corn, he flew away. Soon, however, he returned, this time remaining somewhat longer. The safety of the farm and the plentiful supply of food were so appealing that he lived among the domestic birds all summer. When autumn came, he heard the cries of his former companions as they headed southward. He felt a strong desire to join them, but his added weight from eating so much kept him from flying very far. So he settled down and stayed all winter. In the spring he again heard the familiar call of the migrating flock. His eyes gleamed, and he began to flap his wings but made no real effort to fly. That fall the sound of the wild ducks only caused him to raise his head, and from then on he paid no attention at all.
If we ask for and live for the things of the world, we just might get them and then we run the risk of forgetting who we are, children of God. The Israelites forgot all about that and let God begin to have the slop from their lives. Our faith should be in the God who created us, not in the creation itself, not in the things of this world. But if we ask for a life with God, we can get that too. If we place God first in our lives, in the center of our lives, we can live lives that are blessed and touched. Thanks be to God.
