Introduction
How is your heart doing? In our modern Canadian context, a question about your heart condition would likely elicit one of two responses:
- First, you might assume I am asking about the physical condition of your heart. And you could tell me about your heart rate or your blood pressure level. You could describe any heart conditions you have –an irregular heartbeat, or a heart valve that doesn’t close fully. You could update me on any heart events you have had, like a heart attack or congestive heart failure. You could describe surgeries or procedures that you have had done on your heart: like getting a pacemaker or a stent put in, or having a valve replaced, or even open heart surgery.
- Second, if I ask how your heart is doing you might assume I am asking about the emotional condition of your heart. And you could tell me about your joys or sadness, what kind of feelings you are holding or carrying. Or you could tell me about your love relationship and how that is going.
In our modern Canadian culture when we think of the heart we think of it as a physical organ, or the centre of our emotional self.
Biblical meaning of heart
In our biblical story today however, “heart” means something more, quite a bit more. Biblical writers–prophets and Psalmists and chroniclers of history–pay a good deal of attention to the heart. The condition of the heart is a recurring theme in the book of Samuel, where our story today is centered, and in many other parts of the Hebrew scriptures. Jesus too emphasizes the heart in his understanding of what it means to follow after God.
Biblical writers would have thought of the heart very differently than we do. For them the heart was the centre of all parts of human existence: physical, emotional and intellectual. It had to do with our thoughts and affections, our motivations, our wishes and desires, and thus our choices. It was our place of knowledge, understanding wisdom, our conscience and our discernment.
The heart is mentioned 1,000 times in the bible. Ezekiel writes that the people have developed hearts of stone and how God wants to give them a heart of flesh instead (Ezekiel 36:26). The Psalmist writes about having a contrite heart and the desire for a clean heart (Psalm 51). Jeremiah says that the heart can be devious and deceitful (Jeremiah 17:9) and how God seeks to renew covenant with them by writing the law on their very hearts (Jeremiah 31:33). And of course, in the passage we read today, “people judge by outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7). God asks Samuel to anoint David as the next king by looking inward, at the condition of David’s heart.
Outward Appearances
It is this inner v. outer idea that I want to explore a little more this morning. Let me start first with the outward. When Samuel took one look at Eliab, presumably the eldest son, he jumped to conclusions. Surely this is the Lord’s anointed!” (1 Samuel 16:6). We can see Samuel uncorking the bottle of anointing oil, all ready to pour. But God says, wait. “Don’t judge by his appearance or height” I have not chosen him. “The LORD doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart (1 Samuel 16:7)” And we can imagine the gasp of surprise. What!? The firstborn son, the one who is due the birthright and the greater share of the inheritance, whose birth would have secured his father’s hope for descendants, and his mother’s value and status as a woman. And this son is being rejected!? Unthinkable. Unfathomable.
In this story God passes over all 7of Jesse’s sons. We don’t know why. Only that God doesn’t find in the hearts of these 7 oldest what God is looking for. I wonder why?
Samuel has to ask, “are these all the sons you have?” (v 11). Jesse’s reply is interesting. He doesn’t even call his youngest by name. He identifies him simply as “the youngest…out in the fields watching the sheep and goats” (v 11). One translation even has Jesse call him “the runt” (The Message), which seems harsh and dismissive. Is this just a cultural assumption that children had less status than their elders and that is why Jesse doesn’t even consider parading him in front of Samuel?
If we are looking at this story through a leadership lens we don’t have much to go on when it comes to why David is chosen. In some ways it would make a lot more sense to focus on Samuel. After all, he is the one God needs to remind that outward appearance and stature don’t necessarily make a good king. Remember that the previous king, the first one that Samuel anointed for the people of Israel was Saul, and he turned out not to be a good leader, even though he was handsome and stood a head above everyone else. Samuel is still mourning that God has rejected Saul.
Isn’t it ironic that Samuel is distracted by age and outward appearance? Has Samuel forgotten how he, himself was chosen, called by God when he was only a child? Even Samuel, with his years of experience and wisdom, can be distracted by the outward appearance.
Sons and their birth order, their responsibilities, their expectations matter in the bible. We know this from other biblical stories. And their sibling rivalries often make the headlines. Think Cain and Abel. Jacob and Esau. Joseph and his brothers. The parable of the prodigal or lost son. So when God passes over the seven older sons of Jesse, and chooses the youngest one we should be surprised, shocked, perhaps even offended. What on earth is this God up to?!
God is challenging Samuel and us to look beyond outward appearances, assumptions and expectations. God is not looking for height or handsome features. God is not looking for tall stature or physical strength. God is not looking for firstborn status or most successful. God is not looking for star power, charisma and influence. God is not distracted by polish and presentation.
How often are we, like Samuel, taken with first impressions and outward appearances? How often are we influenced by the way someone presents and projects themself. Impressed by the way they carry themselves. Inspired by their strength, charisma and confidence. We want to associate with them and offer them our trust, loyalty.
We have cultural assumptions too about who has the most value. Who are the ‘eldest sons’ among us? The ones we just assume will be blessed, and honoured, and praised, sit in the places of honour? Who gets all the accolades? Who gets the spotlight in our culture?
And yet, it would seem from this story and others, that God is not impressed by the ways we can appear to have it all together; the ways we carefully curate how we project ourselves, managing how we want to be seen and known; the ways we choose what we let other people see, in order to make the best impression, and hide the things that make us seem weak, inadequate, and inferior.
God is not impressed by those of us who think we have earned what we have, who take credit for our successes and think we deserve special recognition for how busy we are and how hard we work. God is not one to give out gold stars to those who strive to do everything right.
Some call this outer presentation of ourselves the false self or the ego. Others call it the defended self. It is the outer face we develop. The self we present in order to hide what we don’t want others to see or know. It is a projection of ourselves, based on appearance and ability. It can be deceiving and shallow. And it is often about comparison and judgment and the root of prejudice.
So what is God looking for in this story? The only thing we have to go on is this line about God looking at the heart. We already know that “heart” in biblical times is more than physical and emotional. It is the very essence of the person. The centre of all parts of their existence. So what does God see in David, the youngest, that confirms he is the one to anoint to be the next king?
God looks on the heart. Why?
Let’s take a closer look at what is meant by the heart, or the inner part of our being. At this point in the story we know very little about David, other than he is the youngest of 8 brothers, children of Jesse from the tribe of Judah, the town of Bethlehem and that he tends the sheep and the goats of his father’s flocks out at pasture. So when the text says that God looks at the heart and that’s how David was chosen over his brothers, we wonder what is it about David’s heart condition that stands out? One translation says ‘inner character’ instead of heart, so perhaps that gives us some clue. In another part of the book of Samuel David is described as a ‘man after God’s own heart.’ (1 Samuel 13:14) which seems to suggest a closeness to God.
This closeness to God is another clue. Having a relationship with God isn’t cultivated with the false self. It is nurtured in the heart–the inner self. What some call the True Self or the deeper self. The True Self is the essence of what it means to be human. It is the image of God alive in us, where we are anointed with the breath of God’s Spirit and where that life force or love energy comes from. It is the birthplace of all goodness, generosity and grace. It is where compassion and generosity and joy arise.
It has nothing to do with our appearance, our skills or our abilities. It is not about our strengths or our limitations. It is not about our characteristics or our circumstances. It does not have to do with our thoughts or emotions or even our gender. We simply are in the presence of God.
It is from this place of presence and centeredness that we can connect with God, the source of being. It is here in the very heart of who we are that we can trust that we are enough, and that God is enough.
Back to our story. In the very next chapter we get another clue. When David takes his slingshot into battle against the giant warrior Goliath, David describes how he protected his flock from lions and bears, and then he declares that the God who “has saved me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear” (1 Samuel 17: 37), will also save me from the hand of this warrior. I think this is an important clue that says something about David’s heart condition. Here we have someone at a very young age, declaring his trust in God. And so it would seem that the heart condition that God is looking for is trust. What God sees in David is a trusting heart. An openness to God. A willingness to allow God to be ultimate and central and allow God to guide.
Anointing
So David is chosen to be the next King, based on his heart condition–his heart of trust in God. He is anointed with oil. As I researched more about the ritual of anointing I learned that it is rooted in the Garden of Eden, and that the first anointing is God breathing the Spirit of Life into creation and into humans. This Spirit is the essence, the inner heart, the image or spark of God in each one of us. The oil, the liquid, represents the water of life at Creation and God’s Spirit combining together, marking a person or place as a bridge between heaven and earth. Priests and kings were anointed, marked or set apart as leaders to mediate God’s heavenly wisdom to the world. It is meant to symbolize the meeting place of the divine and the earthly.
Trust
Trust is such an important theme in the story of God liberating the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. Their forty years of wandering in the wilderness is all about learning to trust in God to provide and to guide them. It’s a long and hard journey. Trust does not come easy for them.
And then as they enter the Promised Land and settle there they can eat their fill and build fine houses, their flocks and herds multiply, they begin to prosper. And they exalt themselves and forget to trust their God who brought them out of slavery and led them through the wilderness. They start to think that it is because of their own strength, power and might that they have gained wealth and status (see Deuteronomy 8).
When the people beg for a king so that they can be like the nations around them, and have a king go out before them and fight their battles, it means they have rejected God as king over them. Even though Samuel warns them about the way of kings: he will take one tenth of your grain and your flocks as tax; he will take the best of your fields and your vineyards for his courtiers; and coerce your sons into his army and your daughters into servitude (see 1 Samuel 8) the people refuse to listen and insist on having a king. They have transferred their trust in God to trust in their king.
The whole story of these people is a story of trust in God. Trust made and established in covenant. It is a story of God who proves over and over again to be trustworthy. And it is a story of a people who forget over and over again, who chase after other gods, who put their trust in a king and an army, and exalt themselves thinking their might and their power and their strength is the reason for their success and prosperity. And they will be mistaken and eventually lose it all.
David’s story mirrors that of his people. From his humble beginnings, as a shepherd in the wilderness he learns to trust God. He is chosen and anointed, not because of his appearance of accomplishments or strength but because he has a trusting heart. After his anointing he waits a long time for the promise of kingship to be fulfilled. He spends much of that time in the wilderness on the run and hiding from the paranoid ravings of King Saul who wants him dead. David finally rises to the heights of power. His military campaigns are successful, he expands their territory, establishes a capital city in Jerusalem, and produces children to succeed him.
But in the end it is a tragic story. He reaches beyond his scope. He forgets to trust in God. Perhaps, after all the time he put in waiting to be king, he comes to think that he has earned this. He has put in his time and he deserves all the blessings that come with his reign. He certainly lives up to Samuel’s warnings about the ways of kings. He puts heavy burdens on his people. He recruits their sons to fight in his army. He uses his power to manipulate, to take whatever he wants. And the consequences are severe. In the next generation, his children do even worse.
It is at this point that I would like to disqualify him as a great leader. What happened to that rich symbolism in his anointing that mediates the heavenly to the earth? Did God make a mistake? Did the one Samuel anointed fail again, like king Saul did?
Here is where we find another clue about David’s heart condition. David is credited with writing over 70 of the Psalms in our bible. When we read many of them, we encounter raw, unfiltered emotions of all kinds from praise and adoration to pleas for help and trust in God’s unfailing protection. Psalm 51 stands out. After David is called out for some of his most spectacular failings–the killing of Uriah and the sexual assault of Bathsheba, forcing her to be one of his wives–he repents. Here is just an excerpt:
“You desire truth in the inward being, therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart…create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me…restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit…the sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart (Psalm 51: 6, 10, 12, 17). David is open his whole life to recentering, to coming back to that inner place of trust in God.
At the height of his power, David exhibits lots of qualities and characteristics that we associate with good leaders. He appears to be strong, confident, decisive, assertive, charismatic, inspiring, and a good communicator. He seems to be in control, have it all together and live a blessed, well managed life.
We all do it to some extent. We like to curate our own exhibit A – this is me at my finest. We shy away from vulnerability, which sometimes means we also shy away from honesty, integrity, authenticity. We simply can’t be real in front of people. Except those outer appearances don’t do you much good when your world falls apart and the false facade that you built up crumbles because life throws you a curveball. Then something different is called for. Appearances can be misleading, distorted, even dishonest and deceptive. The false self is a false front. It is hollow and shallow, and fleeting. Very few of us consistently appear as the truest form of ourselves. Sometimes it is the ones who have suffered much, who have been overlooked, who have been on the margins who also know how to be the most real.
When our outer appearances and our false self crumbles, then we have the opportunity to get to know our truest selves and to nurture our relationship with God from the centre of who we are. We can live from that inner place, and learn to exercise our trust muscle and develop a trusting heart–one that trusts that I am enough, one that trusts that God is enough, one that trusts that love is enough. It is to this trusting heart that we are called and anointed.
Our song of response, VT 636, Spirit, Open My Heart, calls us to tend the condition of our hearts.