Relay for Life and David

(Written, but not posted, at Relay for Life of Fife-Milton-Edgewood.)

I'm writing this blog entry from the first ever Fife-Milton-Edgewood (FME) Relay for Life - I've just finished my shift carrying the baton around the track for our team. As I think about this week's passage (here), it makes me think of our FME community.

At this point in 1 Samuel, God has decided that Saul is not the right choice for Israel's king. God sends Samuel to anoint a new king: one of the sons of Jesse. Samuel meets the oldest son first and thinks it must be him because he's tall (which is clearly an indication of excellent leadership). God says no. They go down the line of Jesse's seven sons, but none of them are right. Samuel says to Jesse, "Don't you have any other sons?" "Well, yeah," Jesse says. "But it's just David. He's in the fields." (By the way, what's that about? Come on, Jesse.) They send for David, who is described as being "ruddy" and "handsome" and having "beautiful eyes" - more indications of leadership. When I come up for ordination in a couple of years, maybe I'll just point out that I'm so tall, handsome, and ruddy. Of course, I would have to be those things first. In any case, David is the one that God has chosen, and Samuel anoints him. As we'll see in the coming weeks, that doesn't mean that David is officially the king - this is just the first step.

So, back to Relay for Life: it's 1980's hour and there are some strange things on the track right now. Purple things on people's heads.

When I lived in Federal Way, Kent, and SeaTac, I knew Milton and Fife only by their signs on I-5. I had never really been to either town, and I didn't know anyone who lived here. I didn't even know Edgewood existed. I've heard Milton compared to Brigadoon: a half-mythical ideal town that only appears every 100 years. This is a somewhat unheard-of part of the Seattle-Tacoma area.

This year, a few folks decided to have a Relay for Life cancer-fighting fundraiser. The original goal of the event chair was to raise $35,000. That goal got increased to $50,000 - as the mayor of Milton said, $1 for each person in FME. As of right now, we've raised $75,000 and we still have hours to go.


This tiny, unknown corner is a powerful community. People take care of each other here. People come together. There is a lot of love here. Just like David was counted out because of his youth, I think sometimes FME gets counted out (if people know about it at all!). But we have something special here. I am so proud to be a part of this incredible community.

My challenge to us is to continue to be that powerful community, beyond Relay for Life, beyond anything we've ever done before. To take up that role of leadership that David took up. God has anointed us, too, to be leaders, even beyond the borders of FME - just as we have done this weekend at Relay for Life. As it says in 1 Samuel, God "does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart." And FME definitely has heart.

This community is amazing and surprising, just like David was. And like David, we have been called to leadership and to envision a better world together. How do you envision a better world? How is God anointing you today?

This week we see the beginning of kingship in Israel. You can read 1 Samuel 8:4-20, 11:14-15 here. A quick history of Israel: After God brought the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt, they went to the “promised land.” They set up their own society there, but unlike the other nations of the area (including the ones that the Israelites went to war with for this land), the Israelites did not have a human king. Their “king” was God. This was great in theory, but in practice it was much more difficult. The book of Judges chronicles the pattern that emerged: things would get worse and worse until God raised a judge (read: governor) to lead Israel. Then things would generally go along all right until the judge died. And the cycle would start again. Samuel, who we met last week, was the final judge.

In this week’s reading, the people of Israel know that Samuel is getting older, and they want him to appoint a king. After all, all the other nations have kings. And the judge system has been pretty unreliable and inconsistent. So Samuel prays about it (good call), and God says, “Yeah, yeah, it’s fine, they’re always rejecting me. But tell them what a king will do.” Samuel proceeds to list all the ways that a king will exploit the Israelites. Their response? “No! but we are determined to have a king over us, so that we also may be like other nations, and that our king may govern us and go out before us and fight our battles.” (“Go out before us” is another way of saying “fight our battles.”) Over the next few chapters, Samuel finds and anoints Saul as Israel’s first king.

I think the Israelites’ reasoning is interesting. They want to be like everyone else. They want someone to make decisions for them. They want someone to fight their battles.

What do I do so that I can be like everyone else? I clean. I put on make-up. I arrive on time. I write a blog. But what’s wrong with being like everyone else? Everyone else seems to be much more together than I am. Everyone else seems to have their life in line better. Everyone else seems to know what they’re doing.

But that’s the problem. Because I’m sure you’re all thinking, “Wait, I don’t have it together. She must not be talking about me.” But I am talking about you, because that’s how you all look to me. None of us know how un-together another person feels, and a wise person once told me: Don’t compare your insides to someone else’s outsides. Just because someone seems to me to have it all figured out, that doesn’t mean that’s how that person experiences his or her life. It’s not fair to compare like that. With the Israelites, God knew that the kingship systems that seemed ideal were in fact flawed, just like any other system. The Israelites were comparing their insides to the other nations’ outsides.

What about having someone else make decisions? There are definitely times that this would be amazing. And there are even times when we encourage this in church: turn it over to God, let God decide, listen to where God is calling you. These things are all good. But one of the greatest gifts that God gives us is the gift of free will. If we give that up entirely, we’re not doing God or anyone else any favors. God wants to help guide us, yes, but God also wants us to think for ourselves. That’s why God gave us these giant amazing brains. God does not ask us to give up our free will, only to use it in ways that bring more love into the world.

Finally, the Israelites want someone to fight their battles. In a time when they had just kicked out several other nations from the land that they were now occupying, this was a very real concern. There were battles to be fought.

This part is hard for me to deal with for a couple of reasons. First, I’m not really sure that they should have been fighting these battles at all. The Israelites were basically invaders – one theologian compares the Israelite takeover of Canaan, and the associated slaughter, with the European takeover of the United States and the killing of Native Americans. Not good. Second, even if I try to interpret this metaphorically and imagine spiritual battles – with the devil, with procrastination, with social injustice – I’m really not sure that battle is the best way to think of those things.

In our baptismal vows, we promise “to resist evil and injustice in whatever forms they present themselves.” Resistance seems to be more in line with Jesus’ command to turn the other cheek. Martin Luther King, Jr. resisted evil and injustice. Gandhi resisted evil and injustice. Jesus resisted evil and injustice. They all lost the “battles.” But their resistance continued even then. Maybe the best kind of resistance holds within it the willingness to lose a battle.

The kingship thing ended up working out all right for the Israelites for a little while, before it divided the nation completely. Whether it was good for them to have a king or not, though, their reasoning for wanting a king has not gone away. I still want someone to make me like everyone else, to make decisions for me, to fight my battles. But when I let those things happen, I’m giving up my identity, my free will, and one of the best forms of resistance around. Today, I pray for God to help me to take the responsibility that you have given me. Lord, hear my prayer.

It's a blog!

I was looking at the Scriptures coming up for the next few months, and decided we could go Old Testament or we could go New Testament.... OR we could do one during Sunday services, and one in some other form. Like, for instance, a blog. So I'll be posting some thoughts here about our Old Testament passages over the next few months.

A pastor friend of mine is calling this "The Summer of Samuel" because the passages come from the books of Samuel (there are two). Most of them will be about David (yes, the book is called Samuel, and it's mostly about David - it's weird). Today, though, we get to meet Samuel himself.

The first reading is 1 Samuel 3:1-18, which you can read here. A little history here: Samuel's mother Hannah prayed for a long, long time to have a child. She promised God to send the child to grow up in the temple. So when she finally did have a child - Samuel - she kept her promise, and Samuel grew up in the temple. Eli was the head priest, and he was good, but his sons were not so good.

And then this story happens. It's a very memorable story - Samuel is asleep and then the voice of God wakes him up. He thinks it's Eli and goes to see what he wants, but Eli doesn't know what he's talking about. This happens again. Finally on the third time, Eli catches on - God is calling Samuel. So he tells Samuel how to respond: "Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening."

So far, a very nice story. And we can think about how we hear God's voice but don't really notice that it's God, and we can think about how God speaks to each one of us and calls us to live God's message of love for the world. Definitely. Great.

But this isn't where the story ends. God tells Samuel that the house of Eli is going to be cut off from God completely. Very bad news for Eli. And of course, it falls to Samuel to tell Eli this very bad news. This is like Luke Skywalker telling Obi-Wan Kenobi, "Hey, thanks for the training and everything, but I found out last night that you're being cut off from Jedi-ness forever. Sorry, dude."

Even beyond the awkwardness of being the bearer of bad news, let's look at what the message actually is: the house of Eli is to be punished forever, and can never get back on God's good side. This is not how we usually think of God! We talk about God's forgiveness, that there's nothing that can separate us from the love of God (see Romans 8), so what is going on here?

I don't have a perfect answer for that question. It's hard for me to imagine a God who would say something like this. In fact, I'm not so sure I would want a relationship with a God who would say something like this. That's not what love looks like. And overwhelmingly in the Bible, in Christian tradition, in my own experiences of God and in the experiences that other people have of God, God is love.

Maybe our conception of love has changed so much over the past 3000 years that this is how people understood love at one time. Maybe the story that we have doesn't have God's words quite right. Maybe this truly is a part of God that I simply don't understand, and Jesus has changed the game to protect humanity from that part of God.

It's interesting that the sons of Eli were in trouble for taking what was supposed to be God's (see 1 Samuel 2). They would take the sacrifices for themselves instead of distributing them according to what God wanted. In this passage that I don't understand, maybe one thing to learn is to not try to take what is God's for myself. It's okay to not understand God (or even the Bible) perfectly: perfect understanding belongs to God. I can question, I can search, I can ask God to help me understand. But if I believe that I understand completely, then I'm putting myself in God's place. So today, I pray for patience, faith, and hope, even when I don't get it. Lord, hear my prayer.