Sermon Transcript: October 19, 2025
1 Samuel 16:1–13
The Lord said to Samuel, “How long will you grieve over Saul? I have rejected him from being king over Israel. Fill your horn with oil and set out; I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons.” Samuel said, “How can I go? If Saul hears of it, he will kill me.” And the Lord said, “Take a heifer with you and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.’ Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do, and you shall anoint for me the one whom I name to you.” Samuel did what the Lord commanded and came to Bethlehem. The elders of the city came to meet him trembling and said, “Do you come peaceably?” He said, “Peaceably. I have come to sacrifice to the Lord; sanctify yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice.” And he sanctified Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.
When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, “Surely his anointed is now before the Lord.” But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him, for the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” Then Jesse called Abinadab and made him pass before Samuel. He said, “Neither has the Lord chosen this one.” Then Jesse made Shammah pass by. And he said, “Neither has the Lord chosen this one.” Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel, and Samuel said to Jesse, “The Lord has not chosen any of these.” Samuel said to Jesse, “Are all your sons here?” And he said, “There remains yet the youngest, but he is keeping the sheep.” And Samuel said to Jesse, “Send and bring him, for we will not sit down until he comes here.” He sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy and had beautiful eyes and was handsome. The Lord said, “Rise and anoint him, for this is the one.” Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward. Samuel then set out and went to Ramah.
For the Word of God in scripture,
For the Word of God among us,
For the Word of God within us,
Thanks be to God.
***
This is Dudley. Dudley is a part of our family. I didn’t have a dog growing up, but I used to joke that if we did, my mom would have called his name before mine. You see, when I was young and my mom was frustrated with me for some reason she would list all of the male names in the household starting with my dad, then my older brother, then finally me: Jim! David! Mark! You know who you are! If we had a dog, it would have been Jim! David! Fido! Mark!
Jump ahead. We now have a dog named Dudley. Thank goodness I do not give my wife many reasons to yell out my name, but I still suspect I am below Dudley on the totem pole. One piece of evidence that I have to support my case is that if you look at our monthly household budget, and if you zoom in to the category of grooming, you will find that we spend more to get the dog’s haircut than we spend on mine. (Some of you aren’t surprised by that, I can tell.)
In fact, just this past week I took Dudley to the groomers. What you need to know about Dudley is that he is a people dog. He loves to meet new people! Some of you have met him and can attest. He loves people! In fact, there are some names we need to be careful saying around him because he will get excited. Tony, our sexton is one. The groomer is another. He loves his groomer!
Another thing you need to know about Dudley is that he is no scaredy dog. He isn’t intimidated by lightning. He isn’t afraid of fireworks. He doesn’t run away from big dogs. The only time you see him shake is in the car. Even if we are going to one of his favorite places to see his favorite people. Every car ride to someplace, he is as nervous as can be. Shaking. Whimpering. BUT, and this is the bizarre thing, only on the car ride to someplace is he scared. Never the return car ride. The return car ride he is cool as a cucumber. He is relaxed. Enjoying himself.
Every time. No matter where we go. No matter who we are going to see. No matter how excited he is. The car ride there, a nervous wreck. The car ride home, just fine.
This past week as I was taking him to the groomer and he was shaking like a life, I was talking to him. Trying to reassure him. Let him know it was okay. That he happy to be there. That he had nothing to worry about. That I was there for him.
And I wondered to myself: why does he get nervous every time? I always take care of him. Look after him. Nothing bad happens. Quite the opposite. Usually our car rides lead to things he loves. Yet he still gets frightened. Every time.
Suddenly a thought occurred to me: I wondered if this is what God feels like with us. I wonder if God thinks it’s cute that we still get nervous in the back seat every time we get in the car with God. I can hear a tinge of that sentiment at the beginning of our passage for today when the Lord says to Samuel, “How long will you grieve over Saul?”
This is not their first time at the rodeo. Ever since he was a young boy sitting at Eli’s feet, God has been speaking to Samuel and Samuel has been listening to God. Much of their dialogue has to do with the people’s desire for a king. In a reverse of this weekend’s No Kings rallies, the people of Israel wanted a king. They saw their neighboring nations prospering from afar. They saw the apparent success of their king. Why not Israel?
“Because,” God told them, “I made you to be different. I want to be your king, if you will let me.” To which the people say, “Gee thanks for the kind offer, but we would rather have king like the other nations.”
It’s like God keeps telling us to get in the backseat, that it will be okay, that God will look after us and stay with us, and no matter how many times we get in, we shake. We forget how to trust. That was last time that everything went fine. What about this time? Surely our luck is running out.
And in our passage today, God says, Okay, let’s try this again. Let’s go for another ride. You said you wanted a king, I tried to warn you. You insisted. I gave you Saul. That was great, until it wasn’t. Now you want me to do something about Saul, but instead of trusting the set up that I designed, you want to try a king again. Okay, fine, but this time instead of picking the candidate you think is best, I am going to pick the one I think is best, not a warrior, but a shepherd, not a politician, but a kid. Not the one you expect, but a surprise.
The Rev. Dr. John Buchanon passed away last year. He was pastor of Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago for many, many years and the editor of Christian Century Magazine and a die hard Cubs fan. He almost always started his prayers the same way, “Surprise us, O God.” He worries that we lack awe, that we lack the ability to be surprised by God’s love and grace, that we have come to NOT expect these things and so we miss them, even when they are right in front of our face. And so every Sunday for over two decades he prayed, “Surprise us, O God.”
One of the most consistent surprises throughout scripture is who God can use to fulfill God’s purposes in the world. It is not always the self-assured. It is not the one everyone expects, the first born, the homecoming king or most likely to succeed. Rather it is the youngest too. The overlooked. The forgotten. The one who is picked on. Looked down upon.
Why? Why does God operate this way? To impress us? To show us who is boss? Nah, its much simpler than that: it is simply the reminder that we each have a part to play, a role in God’s kingdom plan. And our role may not be what we expect.
What is yours? What is your role?
As we stand together and sing our hymn, let us pray that God will once again use us for a purpose and plan not of our own devising, that God surprise us. Oh, surprise us again, O God.
Amen.
