Sunday, October 22, 2017

Greatness In Brokenness

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.


You can listen to sermons from St. Andrew's Military Chapel here.


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