Bible Text: 1 Samuel 16:1-13a | Preacher: Judi Restemeyer
Harry Winston was a successful gemologist and diamond broker who became known as the King of Diamonds and Jeweler to the Stars. In 1958, after owning it for a decade, Harry decided to donate the Hope Diamond to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC, as his ‘gift to the world’. Today that stone would be worth about a quarter billion dollars. News of such philanthropy travels quickly, so picture this scene in your mind. It is the pre-announced delivery day of this rare blue diamond to the Smithsonian; hundreds of people, including journalists, photographers, the elite of society, and ordinary citizens, on the streets clamouring and jostling for a front-row position to catch a glimpse of this exquisite and priceless stone. Now add into this picture in your mind an ordinary postman. He’s just trying to finish his day’s deliveries, fighting his way through this huge throng of people, with his big bulky mail bag sticking out on either side of him. But he can’t get through. Everyone is blocking the sidewalk, straining their necks, waiting for the armored police car and security to arrive with this most precious and extraordinary package. But the postman—who’s just trying to do his job—tries to squeeze his way in and around everyone, but they’re pushing back and some are even accusing him of just wanting to get closer so he could see the famous diamond himself! But the postman is persistent. Finally he makes it through to the front of the crowd. And he walks up to Harry Winston, reaches into his mail bag, and pulls out and hands over a small ordinary package wrapped in brown paper and tied with a piece of ordinary string. It’s all wrinkled and covered with a few cancelled stamps. And there, right on that street corner, Harry Winston opens the package and pulls out the Hope Diamond, holding it up in all its glistening glory for everyone to see. No one but harry had expected this most extra-ordinary diamond to be delivered by ordinary everyday mail in an ordinary brown-paper-wrapped small box. You see, Harry Winston was a very smart businessman. He regularly had his packages delivered by mail; he trusted this ordinary everyday way to transport these amazing and valuable gems because would-be thieves never saw the ordinary US Postal Service as the source of anything so incredibly extra-ordinary. I think sometimes the world is amazed at how God can take something quite ordinary and use it to become extra-ordinary. Because for the most part, just like our opening illustration, we tend to dismiss the ordinary in our lives and in our world. Our culture’s obsession with beauty, wealth, grandeur, and fame can make us feel that our ordinary lives are somehow lacking and therefore unworthy and inadequate to be or do anything of worth, both for now or in the future.
It reminds me of a cartoon in one of my resource books. Picture two cows grazing in a pasture, and a milk truck passes by. On the side of the truck are the words, “Pasteurized, homogenized, standardized, vitamin A added.” One cow turns to the other and says, “Makes you feel kind of inadequate, doesn’t it?” The world can make us feel inadequate if we are so-called ‘ordinary’, but you know what? Ordinary is OK, because God LOVES to choose ordinary; God loves to show what HE can do if ordinary people are willing to open their hearts to what can be done through HIM, and our Old Testament lesson today is a wonderful example of that. To begin, a bit of background. For centuries, Israel was led by prophets who spoke God’s word to the people, but every other country had a real live king. Many of the people complained to God, so God said OK, you want a live king? I’ll give you one. And God chose a man named Saul as the First King of Israel. Initially Saul proved—by the world’s standards—to be the perfect candidate. The bible tells us he was a head taller than everyone else, and he was apparently quite handsome. His family was wealthy and influential. So he had what the people thought a king should have: looks, money, influence, and fame. And, at first, he was a good king, seeking God’s direction and giving God credit for his successes. But over time, his leadership didn’t match the expectations created by his appearance. He was impulsive by nature, he tended to overstep his bounds, and in time he became proud. He specifically disobeyed God on several occasions and took credit for things he had not done or not done on his own, with no consideration at all for either God’s hand or anyone else’s hand in his successes. So in time, God rejected Saul and said he’s got to go. The final verse preceding today’s reading says “The Lord was sorry he’d made Saul king.” God literally regretted his choice, and told the prophet Samuel he was to anoint a new king. So God told Samuel to visit a man named Jesse, a man with many sons, because God had chosen one of those sons to be the new king. He said, “I’ll tell you which son to choose.” So Samuel filled his horn with oil and headed off to the house of Jesse, and a feast was prepared for the occasion. And, one by one, Jesse’s sons pass before Samuel. The first is Eliab, a fine physical specimen, and Samuel thinks surely he’s the chosen one. But, God says, no, not him. Next is Abinadab. He too is big and manly. He too is passed over by God. Next is Shammah. Another tall, dark, and handsome man. But he too is rejected! And one after another, from the eldest on down, seven of Jesse sons pass before Samuel. But to each one, God says no, not him. Samuel doesn’t understand it. But Samuel is still looking through human eyes. You see, each of the sons of Jesse all look the part of what everyone thought a king should be. But what Samuel could not see, and God COULD, was the condition of their hearts. That is always key to God’s choice, the condition of one’s heart, someone with the qualifications identified in Psalm 51 today: a clean heart, and a new and right spirit.
THAT is what God is looking for. It is the condition of one’s heart for him that helps God choose to call on to do his will. But Samuel doesn’t get that, and after each of the first seven sons are rejected, we can picture Samuel turning to Jesse and saying, Have you got any more? Jesse perhaps exchanges embarrassed looks with his sons, scratches his head and says “Weeeell, yes, there’s the youngest.’ Jesse doesn’t even identify him by name. You see, in Jesse’s mind, his youngest son David is insignificant: he’s the family shepherd, that most lowly position in the family hierarchy, always given to the youngest, the most lowly. To Jesse, David is so ordinary that he is not even remembered enough to be invited to join this family gathering and feast…… But Samuel insists David be brought in, so this young boy, his clothes, his hair, his feet, all smelling of sheep, is called in. Suddenly this teenager, this lowly shepherd boy, this ordinary young man, stands before Samuel, and Samuel finally hears the word from God: THIS is the one I choose to be king. Anoint him, my chosen one. Why would God choose David over all his bigger, stronger, older brothers? Because as we heard this morning in our Old Testament reading God does not look at the things that man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart. God saw David, this ordinary young man, and knew his HEART. God saw David’s heart and recognized his belief and unshakable faith. So God took this ordinary young man and helped him do extra-ordinary things. God took this ordinary lowly shepherd boy and helped him become the greatest king Israel ever had. Ordinary can become extra-ordinary if the heart is willing to give all to God. Our New Testament reading reminds us once more of the kinds of people God chooses: the weak and the lowly and despised. Our world often disregards those with physical challenges, but consider how God used a young woman named Fanny Crosby. In her lifetime, Fanny wrote more than 8,000 hymns and gospel songs, had more than 100 thousand copies printed, despite being blind from shortly after her birth. She was an ordinary woman who God chose to do extra-ordinary things because she had a heart to hear God’s voice and say yes. Paul also wrote that God also chooses both the lowly and the despised. Consider God chose a tiny Albanian nun who started out as a high school geography teacher in India. But God loved her heart and she listened as God chose her to serve the poorest of the poor in Calcutta—and the world came to know her as Mother Teresa. At the time of her death, her Missionaries of Charity organization had over 600 missions in 120 countries. She was an ordinary woman with a heart that heard God’s voice and she too said yes. Consider how God chose a former Fuller Brush salesman to become the greatest evangelist this past century ever had—in Billy Graham. God uses the ordinary if the heart is willing
God is always at work in the ordinary, and through Him, extra-ordinary things can be achieved. Know that God works in our ordinary lives—to transform us and the lives of those around us as he uses ordinary events and ordinary people to do extraordinary things to serve His purposes. Because if God only looked for perfect, beautiful, and famous people, every one of us is in trouble. Throughout Scripture we find God chooses men and women for His service who would not have been our obvious choices! Consider this list someone made: 1) Noah got drunk and stumbled around naked. 2) Abraham was a liar and his wife Sarah was impatient. 3) Isaac played favorites and his wife Rebecca was deceptive. 4) Jacob was a cheater and stole his brother’s inheritance. 5) Joseph was a dreamer.
6) Moses was a murderer and a stutterer. 7) Moses’ sister Miriam was a gossip. 8) Samson was a womanizer. 9) Gideon was a scaredy cat. 10) David had an affair with a married woman and murdered her husband. 11) Elijah battled with discouragement. 12) Jonah ran from God. 13) Jeremiah was a whiner. 14) John the Baptist ate bugs. 15) Peter was a braggart. 16) James and John were ambitious. 17) Martha was a worrywart. 18) Thomas doubted the Lord. 19) Mary was demon-possessed. 20) The other Mary was just a poor teenager. 21) Zacchaeus was vertically challenged and a crook. 22) Paul was a vigilante and a murderous Pharisee. 23) And Lazarus was dead…… You see, God does not take the majority of His workers from the ranks of the wise, the mighty or the noble. Someone once said: Let it never be forgotten that glamour is not greatness, applause is not fame, prominence is not eminence. The man of the hour is not apt to be the man of the ages. A stone may sparkle, but that does not make it a diamond, people may have money, but that does not make them a success. You have heard this before: God doesn’t always call the equipped, but he does equip the called. So God chooses those who the world might not choose: God is not looking just for handsome hunks or beautiful babes; God is not looking for people with the fattest bank accounts, biggest mansions, most corporate connections, or the loudest voice. God cares more about the state of your heart than any of those things.
God doesn’t qualify us if we’re useful; he is far more interested if we are usable. God doesn’t start us out with big monumental tasks. Not even David. Once he was anointed to be king, it took fifteen more years of serving under King Saul—in a servant role, and then as a military commander, and enduring Saul’s death threats, before he finally became king. David’s maturity, faith, and character continued to grow as God gave David bigger and bigger tasks to accomplish. So God invites each of us to join him in small assignments first. In the small tasks God tests us and builds our character and our faith. When we are faithful in the smaller projects, God gives us larger and larger tasks. There is a story about Michelangelo walking down the streets of Florence, Italy, one day and he saw a block of marble laying in an empty lot. Inquiring about it, he heard the owner say, “It’s worthless now, good for nothing but paving blocks.” Shaking his head, the sculptor artist replied, “Send it to my studio, there’s something special imprisoned in that stone!” Later, the master sculptor chiselled away at the rejected stone and created the masterpiece “David” that is still renowned today. You may not think you look like much, you may not think you are very significant and to be honest, not many of us here will ever be known as celebrities in the walk of fame or fortune, but it is an awesome thing when we allow God to take our humble ordinary lives and turn them into a masterpiece for Him. Each of us may be just an ordinary person, but God knows what he can do through us, if our hearts are willing to hear his call and say yes. God looks at the heart, we read this morning. May he love what he sees when he looks at yours. Amen