I'd like to begin by reading from a letter received by the committee of a church in New England that was seeking a new pastor.

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1 OUTWARD APPEARANCES March 2, 2008 I Samuel 16:1-13; I Corinthians 2: 1-5 Michael L. Lindvall, The Brick Presbyterian Church in the City of New York Theme: God often works through unlikely people. "Loving God, you reveal yourself to us in all life: in the high and the low, in simplicity and in wisdom, in happiness and sorrow, in words and in silence. May we hear your voice today in Holy Scripture read and heard. May we also hear your voice in the voices of people around us. May we hear your voice in the ebb and flow of our days. And now may the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. Amen. I'd like to begin by reading from a letter received by the committee of a church in New England that was seeking a new pastor. The letter began: "I understand your pulpit is vacant; I should like to apply for the position. I have many qualifications... I've been a preacher with much success and also had some success as a writer. Some say I am a good organizer... But, I am over 50 years of age. I have never preached in one place more than three years. In some places I have left town after my work caused riots... I have been in jail three or four times My health is not good, though I still get a great deal done. The churches I have preached in have been small, though located in several large cities. I've not gotten along well with religious leaders in towns where I have preached. In fact, some threatened me and even attacked me physically. I am not good at keeping records. I have been known to forget whom I baptized. However, if you can use me, I shall do my best for you." The Pastor Nominating Committee was incredulous that such a candidate could honestly think he might be worthy of their pulpit. File that letter away. We ll come back to it

2 That jewel of a tale Annabel just read from the Old Testament Book of First Samuel is even better when you know the back-story. In much-abridged form, it goes like this. For ages the nation of Israel did not have a king. But about one thousand BC, kings had become the rage. All the cool countries had kings. So Israel complains to God, Why can t we have a king like everybody else? The initial answer is, Because God is your king, that s why. You re not like other nations. But national whining wears God down: OK, OK, you can have a king. The choice falls on one Saul to be the first king of Israel. This Saul, we are told, is the tallest, handsomest guy in the whole country. Talk about outward appearances. But in no time, the king job is not working out for Saul. It s a long, sad tale, but the short of it is that God tells the prophet Samuel it s time for a new king. This prophet, Samuel, is a sort of ancient super-delegate. In fact, he s the only superdelegate and there are no elected delegates. Samuel didn t much like the king idea in the first place and he s none too happy about a leadership change. God tells Samuel that the new King will be one of the sons of a farmer named Jesse from Bethlehem. Now, Samuel the super-delegate has a problem, a problem he points out to God in verse 2 of today s reading. How can I go? It Saul hears of it, he will kill me. The next verse is an earthy twist. God actually suggests a cover-story. Just tell Saul you have to go to church. Specifically, Tell Saul you have to Bethlehem to offer a sacrifice, you know, the old gotta sacrifice a heifer excuse. The story does not even need to note the fact that this Jesse clan was not exactly your fine old Upper-East-Side-of-Bethlehem family. In fact, there is no U.E.S. of Bethlehem. Bethlehem is nowhere Yonkers, central Kansas, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan where I went to high school. Not the kind of place you go kingrecruiting. And then there s the family good grief! This Jesse s grandmother was Ruth, an illegal immigrant. Jesse s grandfather was Boaz, whose ancestors included both a Canaanite woman named Tamar who nearly got herself executed for adultery, and another heathen Canaanite, a prostitute named Rahab. Samuel goes to this unlikely family in unlikely Bethlehem and tells pleased-aspunch father Jesse to line up the boys. Seven strong young candidates stand before - 2 -

3 the old prophet-priest. He looks each of them in the eyes, and awaits some voice that would tell him this is the one. From oldest to youngest Samuel passes by, each time thinking that the young star before him looks like to be of the cloth from which monarchs are cut. But each time the voice says, No, and then come those haunting words: for the Lord sees not as humans see; humans look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart." So it goes for all seven. Samuel says to the perplexed Jesse, "Are all your sons here?" Well, the old man answers, That s the lot except for the runt who s out watching the sheep, but you wouldn t want him, not little David. He s just a kid, and vertically challenged at that. I didn t even think to clean him up for inspection. +++ This story is anything but an isolated incident in the Bible. It s one incident in a theme running through the entire biblical narrative. Here are some other examples: - Long before David, there d been Moses, a murderer on the lam who d told God he was a lousy public speaker and didn t want the job. An unlikely choice to lead a nation out of slavery. - There was a prophet named Amos, who admitted that he was nothing more than a "dresser of sycamore trees" basically a migrant farm worker. Another unlikely choice. - In the New Testament, there s the stunningly unlikely John the Baptist, who lives in the desert, dresses in a loin cloth, eats bugs, and addresses his listeners as a brood of vipers. An unlikely choice to prepare the way for the coming of the Christ. And this litany of unlikely choices stretches beyond the pages of scripture. To name a few: - A teen-ager named Francis, the spoiled child of a noble Italian family from Assisi who leads the middle ages in a return to spiritual values. - John Calvin, a bookish and sickly French lawyer expelled from the Sorbonne and on the run who leads the spiritual reformation of half of Europe

4 - The man who wrote the hymn Amazing Grace, John Newton, pastor and ardent abolitionist. God called him even though he was the captain of a slave ship working that horrific trade between West Africa and the Caribbean. - Perhaps the only theologian of the 19th Century who has not gone stale is Soren Kierkegaard. Yet Kierkegaard was a friendless, forlorn, love-sick, cranky, humpbacked misanthrope, so unpopular in his day that Danish parents actually stopped naming their sons Soren. Yet this Soren leads a theological uprising against the lifeless bourgeois Christianity of his day and becomes the father of existentialist philosophy. - Theresa, Mother Theresa, was a displaced Albanian countess no court, no castle before she was called to wash the feet of the wretched of Calcutta. - A black Baptist preacher from Atlanta oddly named after a German Protestant reformer comes by the grace of God to stand before a million Americans gathered on the great mall in Washington DC and said, "I have a dream," uttering four of the most powerful words spoken in this century, naming the tragedy and the hope of racially-divided nation. - And Jesus himself: born in a barn to a not-quite-married mother, not thirty when he set out to save the world, uneducated by most standards, never traveled more than a hundred miles from home, never owned more than the clothes on his back, and died a criminal's death. Yet for billions of people the pivot point of human history and the core of life s meaning We live in a world of credentials, work applications, and school applications, a world of ERBs and SATs, a world of truckloads of HR criteria, an alphabet-soup of degrees lined up after names, a world of too much fussing about the right school and the ideal career track. There are the informal and sometimes incestuous credentials of birth status, race and personal connections. There are the unofficial but face it powerful credentials of physical appearance, verbal eloquence, and simple winsomeness. Please don t hear me wrong, these are not evil things, but they are, well, outward appearances. If the Bible teaches us anything, it at least teaches us the very truth that the voice whispered to Samuel during that sons-of-jesse lineup for the Lord sees not as

5 humans see; humans look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart." This is a thread running scripture and history, a thread that reminds us time and time again, that it is the unlikely choice, the un-credentialed choice, the odd choice that is right choice in fact, God's choice. David was not a logical choice, neither was Paul, nor was Jesus, nor were any of the people in my litany of the unlikely. But as unlikely as they were, perhaps the most unlikely choice of all is you. And if it's not you, the most unlikely choice God ever made is me. So don t think you can dodge God by having or not having the right credentials; don t think you can dodge God by passing or not passing the tests; don t think you can dodge God by getting or not getting the grades, having or not having the looks. Right school, wrong school, money, no money, smart, not-so-smart, eloquent, not very eloquent outward appearances just don t seem to matter much with God. Oh yes, that letter I read at the beginning of the sermon, the letter to the church committee in New England looking for a new minister. I am over 50 years of age it began never preached in one place more than three years... left town after my work caused riots... in jail three or four times... health not good at keeping records..." The letter was not legit. It was a spoof, but it was an accurate description of the putative applicant. The letter was signed by the guy who wrote the words Amelie read from I Corinthians, that sickly little Pharisee from Tarsus named Paul, the man who brought the story of Jesus to half the Roman world. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen