1 Samuel 16:1-13
“Greatness in
Brokenness”
22 October 2017 St.
Andrew’s Military Chapel
(Show my photo)
Think back to your elementary or
primary school days.
Would you pick that kid as the
first choice on your sports team? Second? Or would you pick him last as often
happens?
The awkward looking boy in that
photo who was rarely picked first in his younger years stands here before you
today.
Anyone else have memories of being
the one person who is excluded from playing the game because of a perceived
lack of ability? Or the way they look, the way they talk, where they are from,
how much money they or their family make?
Suffering from exclusion, being the
last one chosen, or the one someone has to choose due to pity is painful.
If only that were a thing of
childhood, something we can grow out of as we mature and become more refined
and nuanced in our ethics and behavior. Sometimes it feels like those moments
in our childhood were paradise compared to the subtle, yet more brutal, way in
which exclusion plays out as we get older. If those of us who have experienced
such exclusion were to first remember the painful feeling of being left out
when faced with a choice of leaving someone for last, perhaps then we wouldn’t
perpetuate that pain over and over in life.
When this happens in a church
setting, the pain and the aftermath can be doubly devastating. This is the
place where all are welcomed by God and Christ. A place where all are equal and
chosen first together without regard to how society defines us, but rather by
how God sees us and defines us. People who are excluded by the church, or those
whom we gossip about, those whom we put on airs of superiority towards,
experience deep wounds and pain that we may never see because they don’t dare
darken the doors of our community again. And yes, it even happens here in our
idyllic St. Andrew’s Chapel.
(Play Video)
Those of us who grew up in the 80’s
and 90’s in America know of Michael Jordan’s greatness in basketball. As much
as this Duke grad would like to deny it, if we were teenagers in America during
his playing years we all wanted to “Be Like Mike.” He is widely considered the
GOAT, the greatest of all time, in the sport of men’s basketball.
But, did you know that when Michael
Jordan was a sophomore in high school (which was his first year of high school)
he didn’t make the varsity team? Like most high school athletes, he had to wait
until his junior year to play varsity basketball. Who knows, maybe not making
varsity was what spurred him on to dedicate extra practice and time towards
basketball and that rejection was the leading reason for his becoming how we
remember His Airness.
There is something else that we
need to know about Michael Jordan. He, like each one of us here today, was full
of brokenness. We are all flawed individuals. That is a hard truth to admit,
and when we get to choose the players on our teams we tend to look at only one
aspect of the persons we choose leading us to ignore brokenness of character,
of which we all have.
Today we read about the anointing
of the greatest king in Israel. David is remembered fondly for his
accomplishments, mostly for being a man after God’s own heart. Yet, he was the
last thought of his father when Samuel came to town looking to find the new
king. David’s father, Jesse, seems totally at a lost that his youngest son even
existed. When told to gather all of his sons, Jesse leaves David out in the
fields with the sheep. Then when asked if there was another son, Jesse replies,
“Oh my youngest, but he’s busy right now.” He doesn’t matter.
Oh, how David mattered.
Israel’s greatest king chosen from
an unlikely place as the unlikely youngest of 8 sons, far removed from the
standard greatness of the oldest son in a family. But isn’t that the way we
have come to see God operate in the world, through unexpected means and people.
Drawing out the greatness that lives inside brokenness.
Did Samuel see the brokenness
inside David when he anointed him as the future king of Israel? I highly doubt
that because even after seeing God reject multiple prospects that fit the
earthly outward model of a king, Samuel still noted the appearance of David
describing him as handsome with beautiful eyes.
Did God see the brokenness in
David? Did God see the traits that would lead to David’s downfall? Did God see
a future king that would have an affair and then send an honorable man to his
death to cover up his sins? I have to believe God saw all of that, because God
sees our inner self including all of our faults and problems. And yet, God
still chose David. God still chooses us. God still remains committed to
humanity.
When we encounter a broken vase, glass,
plate, television, or whatever other broken object crosses our path what is our
first reaction? Not God. God sees all of our brokenness. God sees the shattered
clay, the broken TV remote, the iPhone with the cracked screen, the pain and
even our future stumbles and says I can work with this. I can shape those
pieces into a beautiful mosaic in which everyone will know I was here.
Only through God does our
brokenness transform into greatness and beauty. It can be through God’s
inspiration in our lives, God speaking through another to help us recover from
our brokenness, someone leading us to healing in unexpected and different ways.
God sees and is with us in our brokenness because only there with us can God
lead us from the brokenness to greatness.
(Play Beautiful Things Video)
We are broken. God knows that. God
doesn’t pick us last because of real or perceived brokenness or oddness. God
uses that. God takes the dust of our lives and makes beautiful pottery. Yes, it
will crack and occasionally need repairs. God knew that when God chose us. God
continually chooses us and uses us to show God’s greatness through the broken
vessels that surround us each and every day. That’s the Gospel truth. We are
all valuable, awkwardness and all.
Let us go from here living lives
that do more than recognize the brokenness in ourselves and others. Let us be
the people who, like God seek out the brokenness in ourselves and others and
work to transform it into greatness and beauty that changes the world.
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