Our Old Testament lesson today is that wonderful story of how the Prophet Samuel went forth to anoint a king for Israel to replace Saul, Saul the king who had failed to measure up to what God required. Samuel was directed by God to go to Bethlehem and to anoint one of Jesse's sons as king, which one he would inform him at the right time. This was a dangerous mission because Saul was still king, with children to succeed him on the throne. If he knew what Samuel was up to, he would have used all his power not only to stop Samuel, but to see that he did not live another day. Samuel went to Bethlehem under the pretext that he was going to hold a religious service there, to make a sacrifice. The people of Bethlehem, a small hill town south of Jerusalem, were suspicious of Samuel. They knew that he had a mind of his own, that he was down on the king, and that he could cause trouble. They nevertheless accepted his story and didn't raise questions when Samuel invited Jesse and his family to the sacrifice. Jesse presented each of his seven oldest sons to Samuel, beginning with the tallest and most impressive, Eli'ab. The prophet thought that this must surely be the one that God had chosen, but God said to Samuel, "Take no notice of his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him; God does not see as human beings see; they look at appearances but Yahweh looks at the heart." And so Jesse introduced the next most handsome and powerful son, Abinadab. Again God said no, as he did to Shammah and the next four young warriors. Disappointed, Samuel asked, "Are these all the sons you have?" Jesse said that there was one more, but he was just a child out in the field with the sheep. On top of that he was a musician who wrote songs like "The Lord is my Shepherd..." He was hardly royal material! But Samuel asked Jesse to bring him in and when he came before them, God spoke to Samuel, "This is the one. Anoint him as king." And so it was that a few years later when Saul was dead, David ascended the throne to become the greatest king Israel ever had. "God does not see as human being see; they look at appearances but Yahweh looks at the heart."

The Bible is a book of surprises. What we expect doesn't happen. God is not impressed with our wisdom. God is not impressed with our wealth. God is not impressed with how handsome or tall or strong we are. God is not impressed with our family background or the color of our skin. "God does not see as human being see..." This is what all the lessons today are about. Things are not what we would expect. In the second lesson St. Paul tells us to be wary of judging by outward appearances and not the heart. Of course we all know that the important things in life are not the physical stuff we gather and with which we surround ourselves, but living that way is another matter. We humans do judge ourselves and others by the size of homes and cars and incomes. We want to be financially secure with all those things “that flesh is heir to.” But then we are told Sunday after Sunday that God “does not see as human beings see...” In the Gospel we are reminded that the Kingdom of God, God’s perfect state of things, his loving reign over all creation, may appear to be small and insignificant in our troubled world, like a mustard seed, but it’s final state will encompass the whole of creation. God’s vision is vastly different from ours. To David, God says, "You were a shepherd, a keeper of one of the least intelligent animals in the world. Now you are anointed. Now you are a king!" The good news, the Gospel, which we can never afford to forget, is that God does not judge by human standards, but by the heart. And hearts are what he has changed, and is changing, and will change. We are called to give up our shortsighted vision of ourselves and others for God’s infinitely different vision.

This means two very important things. The first is that God still does the unexpected with people. We humans may still chose by appearance, but God chooses by the heart. He chooses a shepherd boy to be king. He chooses a young Jewish girl to be the mother of the Christ. He sends him into the world in a stable in an obscure corner of the world, in the tiny village we know as the city of David. But God still has surprises for us. He picks a black southern preacher to be the voice and witness to break the power of segregation in America. He picks a nun in the slums of India to sensitize millions to the needs of the world’s poor and disenfranchized. God still has some surprises for us and we mustn't forget it!

The second thing this says to me is that we can not afford to give up on people. We never know who God will pick next to be a prophet or a leader or a liberator. It could be the teen aged school drop out down the street who has already spent time in prison. It could be the young man or woman in a crack house on whom everyone has given up. God has a way of changing people, of making things new. When I was directing the Field Education program at Seabury-Western Seminary one of the students came to me three weeks into the semester and told me that he could not work with the priest who was his Field Ed Supervisor because he was too much like his father. The man was an alcoholic. He missed sessions. He came to meetings intoxicated, smelling of alcohol. I told him that I would agree to find him a new placement if he would tell his supervisor why he was leaving. He said he could never do that, but I stood firm and he did tell him. It was a difficult meeting, but a few days later the priest went into treatment and began a new life of sobriety, overcoming the disease that was destroying his life and his ministry. We can never give up on people. "Human beings... look at appearances but God looks at the heart."

God turns a shepherd boy into a king, gives new life to the addicted, brings us from darkness to light, judges us not by our outward appearances but by our hearts To this God we give thanks and praise, through Jesus Christ our Lord.