Tuesday, 2nd Week of Ordinary Time (II)

January 20,2004

by Rev. Herbert Nichols

2004 -- Leap Year and presidential election year. And the primaries are about to begin; a long, drawn out and very expensive process of campaigning, in which candidates literally sell themselves to the American public. Unabashedly they proclaim their qualities and virtues and ashamedly, sometimes, they resort to negative qualities of their opponents. This year you may have noticed that each candidate says: I approve of this message. That might cut down some of the mudslinging. At least theoretically this process is designed to produce the most qualified candidate for the office of national leader. Whether it does or not I will leave to the discussion of political analysts.

My purpose was merely to compare one method to another. In stark contrast God’s method of choosing a new leader to replace Saul was to send his prophet Samuel to a little out of the way town of Bethlehem.

He did not tell the prophet to search out a famous governor or mayor or someone with experience or even someone with wealth or education. God’s ways are not our ways. His values are not always our values. One of the characteristics which the Bible often marks of God is that he is different.

Samuel was told by God to anoint as the next king, one of the sons of Jesse, not the first born, but the least likely, the youngest, still an adolescent. We all know how patterns of power can become entrenched in family dynasties. But God finds possibilities for grace and spiritual glory in the most unexpected places and through the most unlikely people.

What is said of David can also be said of each and every one of us: We have been chosen by God to be a kingly and holy people. This choice has been freely made by God. It is not as if God looked around to discover the most qualified people, the most intelligent, influential or wealthy. It was not a democratic process.

Whoever we are and whatever our position on the social ladder, whatever others may think of us, we can become spiritual giants and spiritual royalty not because of, but even in spite of, our families and ourselves.

The hierarchy of holiness has nothing to do with the social, financial, and political hierarchies around us. Our standing in the eyes of the world is not necessarily the same as our standing in the eyes of the Lord.

Jesus attempts to make that clear in the gospel admonition to the Pharisees. Their vision is legalistic and myopic. They focus on a tree and fail to see the forest. David in spite of his numerous and serious sins was chosen by God to be king of Israel and ancestor for Christ Jesus himself.

It was God who recognized David’s potential for holiness as well as for sinfulness; and he recognizes that same potential for all of us: holiness as well as sinfulness. In our personal moments of frustration and self-doubt we need to recall that God can always find possibilities of grace for us.

And we do well always and everywhere to give thanks and praise to God for the unmerited goodness in which he invites us to participate.