IMAGE ISN’T EVERYTHING

A Sermon based upon 1 Samuel 16: 1-13

Dr. Charles J. Tomlin, Pastor

Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership

Father’s Day, June 17, 2012

The Christian God appears to have an image problem.

If you enter a Muslim Mosque, even in America, you’ll probably find it full of men bowing and praying.   Allah seems to have no image problem among Muslim men.   But if you go into most Christian churches, even across America,  and even in the Bible belt, men worship much less than women.   According to statistical information, men seldom reach more than 39 % of the worshippers present.  Why do men tend to stay away from God?

In a recent article entitled “Why Men Stay Away?” professor Tom Long says “the reasons are complex, but a clue might be found in a Christian group that attracts men and women in roughly equal numbers: Eastern Orthodoxy.”  Orthodoxy's main appeal to male converts is that it's "challenging."  One convert said, "Orthodoxy is serious. It is difficult. It is demanding. It is about mercy, but it is also about overcoming myself."   One man said he was tired of “feel-good American Christianity."    If faith were more like football, more “macho,” more “manly” and more demanding, perhaps it would matter more to men.  http://www.christiancentury.org/article/2011-10/why-do-men-stay-away .   

GOD’S IMAGE PROBLEM: A HEART THAT DIFFERS

In our text today, we might discover part God’s image problem.  Samuel has been called of God to go and pick out a new King.  The first King of Israel did not work out so well.   Saul was strong, tall, heads above everyone else, and the Scripture says, “there was not a man in Israel more handsome than he” (1 Sam. 9.2).  But with his “highness” also came “haughtiness”.   He would not follow God’s clear instructions (1 Sam 13.13).  He laid irrational orders upon his armies (1 Sam 14: 28ff.).   The final straw broke when Saul did not obey God’s voice through the prophets, which directly instructed him on how to handle the spoil of battle (1 Sam. 15.3).  Since Saul has proven himself unreliable, God is now looking for a new king (1 Sam. 15.11). 

In the story of our text, Samuel has been sent to the house of Jessie, who has 7 sons present in his house.  Surely, there must be some royal testosterone here.  But one by one the strong, the able, the most fitting sons are allowed to go by.   God’s tells Samuel time and time again: “Nope!  Not that one.”  Keep going, going, going, gone!   Finally, after all the sons have passed by, Samuel asked Father Jessie: “Do you have any other sons?”  Well, there was only one other.  He’s the number eight son; the runt of the liter.  He’s out taking care of the sheep.  He likes to write poems and play the guitar.  

Now we begin to see an angle of the image problem men might have with God and his ways.   Of course, the ladies will like David, but will the men?  Is this David manly enough?  God’s pick is a man who seems to be touchy-feely, caring, sensitive, nurturing, shepherd type.   Already, we get a glimpse that this “man after God’s own heart” is not the kind choice men eagerly notice.  He’s certainly no Rambo—or Bruce Willis.  David seems soft.  He’s a shepherd, not a farmer.  Just like when God picked that mama’s boy Jacob instead the tough, hunter type Esau, David is just too smart, too clean cut, and too much dreamer for most men, even if he did kill a bear with his hands.  God’s selection is just not “macho” enough. The image of a man in David is not the kind of image men want to imagine for themselves.    

But God’s “image” problem among men with power drives and large egos goes back further than this.  If you turn in your Bible to Deuteronomy, you’ll see the first mention of the kind of King God is looking for.    “When you come to the land the Lord is giving you….you may indeed set a king over you whom the Lord will choose….EVEN SO…HE MUST NOT acquire MANY HORSES for himself…. he must not acquire MANY  WIVES…  When he has taken the throne of his kingdom, he shall have a copy of this law written for him…. It shall remain with him and HE SHALL READ IN IT ALL THE DAYS OF HIS LIFE, so that he may learn to fear the LORD his God, DILIGENTLY OBSERVING ALL THE WORDS OF THIS LAW….NEITHER EXALTING HIMSELF ABOVE OTHER members of the community nor turning aside from the commandment….so that his descendants may reign long over his kingdom in Israel.”  (Deut. 17: 14-20).   What man wants to limit his power, lessen his pride and become a humble servant meditating on the laws of God?  Isn’t a man supposed to be the head of his own castle?  Isn’t a man supposed to be strong, controlling, demanding and tough?  Is there any wonder men find God uninteresting, perhaps even threatening?

Move on closer to our text just a few chapters back.   The time came when the people demanded a king.  They demanded to Samuel: “You are old…your sons do not follow your ways….appoint for us a king to govern us like other nations” ( 1 Sam. 8:5).   You could say that Israel had their own image problem, and they wanted to be like everyone else.  What’s wrong with that?   Well, in the story, Samuel fells as if they were rejecting him, but God says the people are really rejecting “the Lord from being their King” (1 Sam. 8.7).  So, what did God do?  He gave them the King after their own heart instead of the King after God’s heart.  He gave them the King they wanted.  But what they wanted was not what they needed.  Yes, again, Saul was strong, a head above everyone else, and he was also handsome, the text says; but with that he was also hard-headed, often unreasonable, many times irrational in his leadership.  He was a man who was manly, but he also proved to be an emotional and spiritual train-wreck.   So, finally God had to reject him.  As a King, and as a man, he became a disaster.   

In our text today, God picks a very different kind of King, with a different Kind of heart.   He picks a King with a heart like God’s own heart (1 Sam. 13:14), which is obviously the heart of both a shepherd and a servant.   David is not perfect, and will fail in many ways, but it is what’s in his heart, soul and personality that matters. By the time we get to the New Testament, the kind of disciple God desires follows the “David” model.   While Jesus is the new David, he wants his disciples to be humble and servant oriented too.  Once when the disciples were arguing over who gets to be the head honcho in God’s kingdom---that is, having a very “manly” discussion----Jesus turns to scold them.  To James, John and the others he says, "You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant,  and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all.   For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many."  (Mar 10:42-45 NRS).

It’s much more fun and interesting to be “lord” over people than to “serve” or to “shepherd”; that’s very much the core of God’s image problem, isn’t it?   It just doesn’t fit reality of our world.  God is too much unlike us. But the Bible goes on and God’s image problem gets even worse.  The apostle Paul writes that “…God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God's weakness is stronger than human strength.   Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.   But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong;  God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are,  so that no one might boast in the presence of God.  "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord."  (1Co 1:25-31 NRS).  

God is a particular kind of God who is looking for a particular and even a peculiar type of people.  But to many God’s image of humanity appears weak; just not strong enough, not hard or tough enough.  The man “after God’s own heart” is not the kind of “heart” men seek or want to emulate.  This kind of God with a “heart” sounds good for women and children, maybe even O.K. for boys, when they are still with their mothers, but can this kind God get the “job” done in real life?   The God of the Bible has an image problem, especially among men.  The God of the Bible has got too much heart, and he’s just not macho or manly enough.

OUR OWN IMAGE PROBLEM: A HEART ONLY FOR SELF

The Revelation of God in the Bible portrays that “God’s heart” is often unlike ours.   Part of this is due to God being God, but the other part is due to our own human “image” problem.   The Bible teaches that all of us are created in God’s image, and that we are people created “after God’s own heart”.  But rather than live out the image of God in us, too often we become desperate to create and live out of a very different image---the image we want for ourselves rather than the image we have been given our creator God.        

Back in 1990, tennis star Andre Agassi, cut a commercial for the Canon EOS Rebel camera with an iconic tagline, “Image is Everything”.  The spot featured Andre riding in a Jeep, smoothing back his flowing, dirty-blond, lion-mane mass of hair, looking like the essence of California cool.   That was the “image “ that would sell.  The problem was that Agassi’s trademark hair was not his own.  In his 2009 Autobiography, Open, Agassi admits that he started losing his hair when he was only 17, and was actually wearing a wig during the commercial on the court---and it cost him the 1990 French Open.   Seems he was so worried about losing his hairpiece in the middle of the match, he played so stiff he got beat.  To his credit, Andre got real about his image after that and shaved off his hear, making his image about what happened on the court, not what happened on his head.

Even though Agassi’s hair got cut, the line didn’t.  “Image is Everything” became the mantra of the first two decades of the 21^st century.   The obsession with image gave us people like Paris Hilton, the Kardashians,  the outlandish cast of Jersey Shore, and the likes of lady Gaga.   Here are a lot of people who are only famous because of their image.  It used to take a certain amount of talent to become famous, but now you all you need is a flashy image without any substance at all.

It gets worse. In our culture today, you not only get to worship the image of your favorite celebrity, you can become a celebrity yourself; at least you can pretend to be one.  If you have enough time, money and desire, you can rent a designer dress like the celebrities wear on the red carpet.  You can also rent a 24,000 dollar necklace for $260 dollars.  Or why not rent  your dream car; a Bently, Maserati, or Rolls Royce.  It will cost you only 1,950 dollars a day.  That’s just pocket change compared to the retail price of $ 427,000.  And for $449 dollars , in select cities across America, you can even rent your own paparazzi to follow and photograph you.  It might sound stupid, but it can make your look real good.

We all know that the Israelites were just as obsessed with image as we are.   When people distance themselves from daily communion with God, humans become preoccupied with their own image.   In the Biblical story, Israel wanted a king so they could look like everyone else (1 Sam. 8).  They wanted to look just like the “other nations” completely forgetting that God called them not to look or be like other nations (Gen. 12 1-3; Ex. 19: 5-6).  God told them, “If you obey my voice, you will be my treasured nation out of all the peoples” (Ex. 19: 5) and said, “You shall be for me a priestly and holy nation” (Ex. 19:6).  As in the Old Testament, also in the New, God challenged his people to “come out from among them and be different” and refuse to “touch the unclean thing” (2 Cor. 6:13-18).    But being a different, peculiar, chosen and holy people who are to show God’s praises (1 Pet. 2.9) is the very thing God’s people had trouble doing.  Saul’s problem with obedience to God is symptomatic of the whole human problem.  He doesn’t go the whole way with God’s will, but he only goes half way.   He’s a strong man, but he’s strong on his own terms.  Saul keeps the spoils of war so he’ll appear to be bigger than he really is.  He doesn’t give God the glory, but he keeps it for himself.  Instead of destroying those spoils, he keeps them.   The trophies of victory must be his so they enhance Saul’s own lessening image of himself.  Saul no longer defines himself in God, but Saul only defines himself as he compares himself to with the other image seeking rulers of the world.  This is why God tells Samuel in our text: “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.“(16:7).

WHAT MATTERS TO GOD IS GOD’S IMAGE IN US

God does not want us to create an image for ourselves, which can lead to all kinds of madness in our world and in our lives.  But God wants us to live out his own image, an image that God has already placed in us.  

God looks deep into our hearts, passed our appearances of who we think we are at who we really are.  God looks past all the masks we wear and the faces we put on, and he sees the real person.   What God still looks for is the man and the woman who is after his own heart---not the oldest, the wisest, the strongest or most handsome.  God looks for the image of himself in us.   

David was a man after God’s own heart, not because David was perfect or a “big man”; but because David wanted a relationship with God in his own heart.   God created his people, both male and female, with a purpose; not just for the “job” they can do; for the fame they can reach; for the riches they can have nor for the image they build for themselves.  But God created humans for the “relationships” we can have, with God and with each other.  It is the image of God in us that is everything to God and should mean the most to us.   God defines our identity by seeing his own loving image alive in us.  And God has designed us to have the same kind of communion with God and others that has within himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.        

Most of us have had a powerful indication of the kind of image God is looking for in us with all discussion about a very unusual graduation speech recently given in Massachusetts.  English teacher, David McCullough’s speech went viral and he has been accused of belittling students when he told them to look at their diploma’s and notice that “None of you is special.  You are not special.  You are not exceptional.”   He went on to explain that even if some of them have accomplished high honors and grades, that this really means nothing for the rest of their lives; because “life is not about accolades, but life is about achievement.”   As students, as children and as young people, he said: “You have been “pampered, helmeted, bubble wrapped,…cajoled, feted and fawned over….even called sweetie pie”, but real life will not treat you as if you are special.    The statistics of risk, disease, divorce, failure are against you.   The world is not going to revolve around your every whim.  Get over it.  It’s not what you have done here, but it’s who you are, who you will be, and what you go on and should do with your life that matters now. 

This all might sound like a harsh word to graduates, belittling their egos, but McCullough defended his speech saying it reflects what he’s been teaching students for years.   His teaching them humility goes against the grain of the privileged life most of them have had.  Instead of affirming that by graduating, they are more special than others, he wants them to see that everyone is special.  He wants them not only to embrace their successes, but to know that they can also “embrace their failures”, which will come, and they can be more “selfless” people.  http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/06/11/12171953-english-teacher-behind-viral-video-kids-have-to-stumble?lite .

Scripture also tells us over and over that God is not looking for “big people” with “big ideas” and “big ways”, but God is always looking for little and big people, with good ideas and with faithful ways.  Most of the world pays little attention to the people that God cares most about.   God cares for sinners, for lost people, for poetic shepherd types; for dreamers and believers; for working class fishermen; for the weakest and the least likely.  God’s glory is able to shine brightest, not in the best and the brightest, but in the willing, the humble and the most passionate and dedicated.  In fact, if you do any kind of study you’ll find that most of the world today is not run by the “best and the brightest”—those who easily made the A’s and B’s.  But statistics show that the people that really hold the world together are the “C” people---those ordinary people who do extraordinary tasks each and every day.  It’s the “C” people who become the backbone of communities---the civic leaders, the club member, the faithful follower and the late bloomer who inspires and gives back the most to the world.   Today, it is especially important for us to realize, that a faithful Father and husband, who may be unexceptional to the world, is this kind of very ordinary person who can bring extraordinary love and hope into his own home and community by living out God’s image. (This concept of “C” people comes from Len Sweet).   

An African folk tale is told about a tribe whose men traditional obtained their wives by purchasing them from their fathers with live stock.  Were a woman especially beautiful, a man might offer her father five goats.  Were she plain, only one or two.  One year, as the tribe met at the oasis for their annual gathering, one young man set his eye upon one rather ordinary-looking maiden.  To the astonishment of all his friends, he went up to her father and bid for her with the princely sum of 10 goats.  The girl’s father was surprised and delighted at his good fortune.  He accepted the young man’s offer immediately, and the two of them were married straightaway.

A year went by, and the tribe gathered at the oasis once again.  The young men laughed and pointed their fingers at their friend, newly arrived from the hills.  “And how is your 10-goat bride?”, they asked snickering.  At that very moment, into their presence walked the most lovely woman any of them had ever seen.  “What’s the matter? Their friend asked.  “Don’t you recognize the woman I married?”  Truly they hadn’t.  She had changed.  What had change about her was the knowledge that her husband loved her so much, he had paid 10 goats for her.  It was this knowledge, this inner awareness that made her beauty flourish from the inside out.   Love has a way of doing that to people---redeeming them from the inside out.  And having a heart seems to give heart---changing our image and our image of world in the most powerful way possible.   Amen.