Read 1 Samuel 8:4-20
I have to admit that
sometimes I hate going out to eat with Heather, not because she’s not good
company, but because sometime she is so frustrating when she orders. For
example we’ll go to a Chinese restaurant that we have been to before and she’ll
order the Kung Pao and I’ll remind her, you didn’t like that last time, but you
liked my General Tso’s, are you sure you want that? And she insists she does,
but lo and behold when the food comes out she doesn’t like her food as much as
mine. And the worst part of it all is that she then eats my food. Heather is not alone in this; we are all
stubborn about certain things. Even when others try to show us the mistakes we
are making, we at least want it to be our mistakes to make. We don’t like
others telling us what is good for us or what we want; we want to decide that
for ourselves.
As we read the Bible we see that time after time the
Israelites fall into this same arrogance. Here in 1 Samuel we see the beginning
of one of these fateful decisions. The
Israelites have been trying for some time to figure out a leadership style that
they like. First they had Moses and Aaron and later Joshua as their leaders,
but this later evolved into a group of Judges that would lead them. Now however
the Israelites looked around them and saw all of these powerful nations with
great militaries and enormous wealth and they were all lead by a King. Seeing
the success of these nations, the Israelites began to demand a king. This upset
Samuel, and certainly didn’t go over very well with the King of Kings. God even
says to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in
all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have
rejected me from being king over them.” For as upset and as offended as
God was by this demand, like a parent who has to let their child make their own
mistakes, God allows the Israelites to have a king, but first he has Samuel
give them a strong warning. Samuel tells of all of the bloodshed, abuse and
corruption that will come with a king, but even after this warning the people
still cried, “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."
We should not jump into thinking that we are any better than the Israelites. Far too often we act as though we know what is best for us and not God. Our actions are only proof of this costly arrogance. I personally am probably one of the biggest culprits. I don’t know how many times that I have come to making a tough decision, not primarily through prayer but through trust in my own abilities. And when I did pray it was often a short quick prayer asking for an easy answer, and then later asking that God endorse my decision. I am no better than the Israelites who had already made it up in their mind that they were going to have a king, and then ask for God’s permission. This is a fundamental flaw however, we have gotten our roles reversed. It is not our job to come up with the plan and make decisions and then ask God to make it so; it is our job to listen and follow the will of God and respond to what is asked of us. Unfortunately, like the Israelites, we make great mistakes when we are arrogant enough to think that it is we and not God who should be calling the shots.
For as difficult as the itinerant system is in the United
Methodist Church can be for pastors and churches alike, I truly believe that it
is a system that humbles us before God and reminds us that the church and its
future is in God’s hands, not ours. Especially with our current bishop, you can
be assured that the decisions that are made are made out of a prayerful
discernment of God’s will. For individual churches and for pastors, moves
aren’t always what we wanted, and sometimes they don’t make sense to us, but
often the work of the Holy Spirit doesn’t make much sense. Just look at some of
our congregational brothers and sisters and we can see the strength in our
system. I have seen pastors fired from their position simply because they
preached the Word of God that the people didn’t want to hear. Likewise, there
are smaller churches that desperately need a new pastor to come with great
leadership, but the pastor they really need overlooks them because they are too
small. For as difficult as the itinerant system can be, it really does remove a
lot of the arrogance both from the churches and from the pastors that we are
the ones who are supposed to make all the decisions, and it helps remind us
that God is in control.
I say this today having learned this lesson first hand,
as I prepare to leave this place and head to my new appointment. I love this
place and all of you, so in all honesty this would not have been my decision, I
would not have wanted to leave and I have heard that many of you feel the same
way. And yet I am reminded that it is not my decision to make for God has
something great in store for both my ministry at Lane and for the Ministry that
Pastor Marci will bring here at Lambs/Evington. I say this with confidence because
it was only three years ago that this same trust brought me here as a city boy
fresh out of seminary to rural Altavista, a place that honestly I had confused
with Buena Vista until I looked for it on a map. If I had had to make the decision myself it
would have likely brought me not here but somewhere closer to home in Richmond.
I think about that and the wonderful ministry opportunity that would have been
lost. I would not have met you all, would not have been part of this wonderful
community and would not have been part of this fruitful ministry these past 3
years. And so I leave here humbling myself, not crying for anything other king
than the Lord who has led me here, and leads me forward in ministry to serve. I
pray that you may also humble yourselves before the Lord and know that even if
this is not what you asked for, this is what the Lord is providing, and it is
good. With the Spirit’s guidance the ministries of this church will continue, not
by our own hands or decisions, but through the power of the King of Kings.
No comments:
Post a Comment