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Someday is Today

Someday is Today
I Sam. 15:34-16:13
by the Rev. Dr. E. Scott Jones
Cathedral of Hope – Oklahoma City
Anniversary Sunday
6 August 2006


Why do we still tell the story of David? David, the ancient king of Israel, is the most prominent character of the Hebrew Scriptures, a favourite of artists and filmmakers, and his story is among those most taught and enjoyed by children in Sunday school.

But why do we still tell this story? Walter Brueggemann, the prominent Old Testament scholar, writes that this “story should only be told when we intend to make [the] subversive claim” that “the marginal ones can become the legitimate holders of power.”

David is a complicated character. When we look at all the stories told about him and the different perspectives on his life that are recorded in scripture, we see someone who is a great warrior whose violence can sometimes astonish us. Here is a loyal friend and lover, who will also commit murder in order to protect his own honor. Here is a father who mourns for his dead sons, all the while sowing discord in his family that erupts in rape, war, and assassination. Here is a great poet and songwriter, who left a legacy of civil war. This is a hero who is a real person.

Maybe that’s why we love the David story so much, because here is this great, fantastic figure, who seems more messed up than we are.

I would also argue that that’s why God loved David. We are told that God considered David a man after God’s own heart. Yet we are puzzled by that description when we see his violence, his sin, his failures.

I think, however, that it is David’s weakness that attracted God, because that weakness revealed a basic desire to do good by others who were also weak. And that is close to God’s heart.
In First Samuel 22, David has fled from King Saul and is hiding in caves in the wilderness. He’s become something of an outlaw and a insurrectionist, fighting the political and military powers. There we are told in verse two:

Everyone who was in distress, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented gathered to him.

David attracts the needy, the outcasts, and the weak, those that did not have access to the wealth and power of the state. David’s story is a story of liberation, and that’s what makes it a God story. Despite and maybe because of David’s personal flaws, he was able to represent those that God is closest to.

Maybe that’s what God saw that day in young David when Samuel came to anoint a new king in Israel. This is a fun story.

Samuel has previously anointed Saul as king over Israel, but there is grief over Saul, who has failed as king. So, this is a story that begins with grief over lost possibilities. And notice that it is not only Samuel who is grieving, God is grieving as well.

But in God’s story grief over lost opportunity doesn’t mean despair. God scolds Samuel for wallowing in his grief. God has grieved as well, but God has also awakened to new opportunities. In God’s story, we don’t allow our grief to sink into despair, instead we pick back up and make a fresh start, which is exactly what God does.

Notice the reaction to this fresh start; it is fear. First Samuel is afraid that Saul will discover Samuel’s mission and kill him. Then it is the elders of Bethlehem who are afraid. When God’s prophet makes a surprise visit, this isn’t a good thing. These elders might know that Samuel and Saul have had a falling out; they too might be afraid of the king.

Our old buddy fear always has the tendency to show up whenever we are starting a new project, taking on a new mission. In God’s story, almost every time God begins a new work, fear shows up, attempting to thwart God’s efforts.

But this time neither grief nor fear win the day. Samuel comes to Jesse and his sons, intent on anointing one of them the new king of God’s people. How clever this story is. The first son, Eliab, looks like a king. If you will recall when Saul was chosen as king, he was taller than everyone else and had a kingly bearing. But we’ve been down this road before. Those that look like a king, might not make a good one. We pass through all of these sons of Jesse, each of which might fulfill some expectation of what a king would be, but God looks on their hearts and rejects each of them. Seven sons are rejected. Usually in Jewish stories, seven is the number of completion, the divine number. However, this time, we must break with tradition, and examine the eighth son.

Walter Brueggemann has a great insight into why God rejects these whose appearance and bearing suggest that they could be king. He writes, “[The episode] warns against looking on appearance, because the monied, landed people tend also to be the beautiful people.” Aha! Maybe God is rejecting these elder sons because they’ve had it too easy -- they are beautiful because they haven’t really worked, they’ve been privileged, and God wants someone who can identify with the common people?

So, they sit and wait for David, the overlooked eighth son, the one whom Jesse has left out working in the field, guarding the sheep. This son has encountered predators; he has labored; he has lived on the land; he is not privileged even in his own home and his own family. When he arrives he too is beautiful, but it is an earthy, ruddy beauty. God looks on his heart, is drawn to David, and pours out God’s spirit mightily upon him.


We Christians are part of an on-going story, that shapes our identity and tells us how we ought to live. This story tells us about grief and fear, about God’s mission in the world, about how we can participate in God’s work. A great text, then, for our anniversary Sunday when we remind ourselves that we are God’s anointed in this time and this place, sent out on a mission.

We, like David, have been called to draw the needy and the outcast. And also like David, God has appointed us to this task because we have experienced brokenness and weakness ourselves. It is more difficult for the privileged, the powerful, and the comfortable to minister because they can become so removed from those that God is closest too. We have a special gift.

Our guests last week marveled at our worship service. They talked about how welcoming and loving we are. And they talked about how the spirit of worship moves so strongly in our service. I hear this all the time. Kevin Sinclair, our guest preacher at the beginning of July, said that he had never encountered a liturgical worship service with as much energy and enthusiasm. My parents talk about how they always leave our service feeling that they have really worshipped and been in the presence of God.

I know that I feel it in our worship and in the services I attend in Dallas. What is the source of this specialness? I think it is because when we come to worship, we are still overwhelmed with gratitude that we can worship together. We are overwhelmed with the power of God’s love. We realize that God loves everyone, despite what those in positions of religious and political power have told us before. And because we’ve experienced this liberation, this salvation, we are overcome with joy when we worship together. That’s our secret – we’ve encountered God’s love and, therefore, we overflow with that love.

Last week Jon Trushenski shared a story with me. We were among the group from Oklahoma City that had traveled to Dallas to participate in Cathedral of Hope’s thirty-sixth anniversary celebration. The service in Dallas last Sunday morning was incredibly moving. All of us who attended talked about being moved to tears or otherwise touched by the power of that service.

Jon told me that as he sat there, he had a thought. As much as he loves our worship and is always moved by it, we don’t yet equal the size or grandeur of the Dallas service, which has a full orchestra, a large choir, and hundreds of people in the congregation who sing with unbridled enthusiasm. But in his mind he knew that some day our service would have as much power and emotion as Dallas’ service.

Jon had renewed his vision, a vision he first captured over six years ago when this congregation was in the process of formation. It is a vision that constantly inspires us in the actions that we take and the decisions we make. It is the vision to truly be a Cathedral of Hope in and for Oklahoma City.

Then Jon came to church Sunday night here and experienced what he thought was the most powerful worship service in our six year history. Last week we baptized Rich and Sandy, and baptisms are always moving moments. We also honoured Bruce Lowe as our first Hero of Hope. Bruce, who is 91, delivered an eloquent statement of love and concern for gays and lesbians and explained why he keeps at his ministry of advocating for their equality within the religious community. He shared from the thousands of letters he has received of the people he has helped. And Bruce told us that these last five years spent in this ministry have been the most rewarding of his life, a life that had always been dedicated to civil rights and fighting for the outcast. When Bruce was done, almost everyone I looked at was crying.

Jon came up to me after the service and told me his thoughts that morning in Dallas, how he hoped that someday we could match the power of that service, and then he said, “You know what, someday is today.”

We may not have the full orchestra, the large sanctuary, the crowds of hundreds, but what we do have is an overwhelming joy that comes from realizing that God loves us. Our lives are filled with grief and fear and other emotions that would hold us back, but we will not allow those emotions to overcome us. We have a story to tell about God, and a hurting world that needs to hear that story. We’ve been anointed by God to share it.

Not someday in the future. Not someday when we’ve got more people or more money or a building of our own.

Or maybe our someday is the day when we have achieved equality, justice, and peace. When we no longer have to fight for our civil rights. When the war is over. When the immigration fight is completed. When we’ve achieved success in the political or economic arenas.

We can’t live for someday. You as an individual can’t live for someday. We as the Cathedral of Hope can’t live for someday. We as the body of Christ can’t sit around waiting for someday to arrive.
Someday is today. God’s story tells us that when one opportunity failed, God grieved and then created a new opportunity. We have a vision. We know what our mission is in this time and place. We’ve been anointed by God to fulfill that mission. Today. Because if we start living as if someday is today, then today will really be all that God desires for it to be.

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