Upper Path Valley Presbyterian Church

1 Samuel 8:1-22

“Who’s Calling the Shots?”

Rev. Meagan Boozer

I want to begin by reading a paragraph from a book I’ve been slowly working my way through over the last several months. The book is entitled, Becoming a Blessed Church by E. Graham Standish.

“How do we form a church that is spiritually vibrant and integrated (meaning it is healthy in spiritual, mental, physical, and relational ways p. 36)? It begins with both pastoral and lay leadership. The pastor first must make a foundational decision to become spiritually open at her core. If the pastors (especially the lead or senior pastor) are closed to the Spirit, the church will be, too, no matter how many members are open to the Spirit. The past must become a person of prayer and discernment who seeks God’s guidance in everything. The pastor must pray for the church and for the members. The pastor must pray over her sermons, asking that the sermon ring with God’s voice, not her own. The pastor must pray for the board, committees, task forces, and teams of the church. The pastor must pray sincerely over his own ministry, asking whether he is God inspired and led, or ego driven and prideful. The pastor must also pray for God to reveal and bring forth other leaders to become more open to the Spirit as individuals and as a group. Everything said about the pastor also is true of lay leaders. The lay leaders must take God seriously. They must want God to guide them in their leadership and personal lives. If lay leaders refuse to become open to God, they will end up leading the church on a path of disease. The church will slowly sicken, and perhaps even die.”(p. 44)

Now, let’s read the Scripture for today from 1 Samuel 8:1-22. (please read now)

Most often this Scripture is used to teach about keeping God as the King of our lives- not replacing anything on the throne of our lives (most especially ourselves), when God alone is worthy of reigning there. In our new members class I talk about this as part of a Bible study we do together- helping potential new members assess where they are in their relationship with the Lord. Are they on the throne, as God deserves to be? It’s a good thing to think about regularly- and was indeed the direction I was ready to take, too, with this Scripture for this morning. In fact I had a whole sermon written and ready to go. But God would not leave me alone with that sermon. It was my sermon, not God’s sermon. And so, in light of reading the Scripture God has for us today, I want you to listen again to the words from Becoming a Blessed Church.

“How do we form a church that is spiritually vibrant and integrated? It begins with both pastoral and lay leadership. The pastor first must make a foundational decision to become spiritually open at her core. If the pastors (especially the lead or senior pastor) are closed to the Spirit, the church will be, too, no matter how many members are open to the Spirit. The past must become a person of prayer and discernment who seeks God’s guidance in everything. The pastor must pray for the church and for the members. The pastor must pray over her sermons, asking that the sermon ring with God’s voice, not her own. The pastor must pray for the board, committees, task forces, and teams of the church. The pastor must pray sincerely over his own ministry, asking whether he is God inspired and led, or ego driven and prideful. The pastor must also pray for God to reveal and bring forth other leaders to become more open to the Spirit as individuals and as a group. Everything said about the pastor also is true of lay leaders. The lay leaders must take God seriously. They must want God to guide them in their leadership and personal lives. If lay leaders refuse to become open to God, they will end up leading the church on a path of disease. The church will slowly sicken, and perhaps even die.”(p. 44)

I want us to put these two readings beside each other. Think about Samuel, Israel, and their call for a king. Think about what Mr. Standish is saying in this book called Becoming a Blessed Church.

Did you notice that Samuel, the judge of Israel (he’d been their judge, their leader for his whole life) appointed his sons as judges when he got older? Before this, God made the appointments. God raised up Gideon, Deborah, Samuel. And here, Samuel goes against what God has done in the past, and appoints his sons to lead Israel. He named them right. The one son’s name was Joel whose name means “God is King.” The second son’s name what Abijah, which means, “Jehovah is my Father.” Their names sure sounded right- but their actions were wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. They did not judge Israel in the way of their faithful father, Samuel, who judged Israel in the way of the Lord. How does this line up with what Mr. Standish said about leaders? They must be persons of prayer and discernment who seeks God’s guidance in everything. The pas (the main leader) must pray sincerely over his own ministry, asking whether he is God inspired and led, or ego driven and prideful. I’d say Samuel was self-driven and prideful in appointing his own sons as the next judges over Israel, wouldn’t you? He should have waited for God to appoint the next judge and not been so worried about his age. A person’s age certainly is no stumbling block for the Lord. Samuel should have been in conversation with the Lord about raising up the next judges, but quite obviously, he was not.

Then look what happens: When the elders of Israel realized how bad things were going with Joel and Abijah, they went to Samuel and ask for a king. What should the have done” To whom should they have gone? The Lord!!! Of course! But it seems as if they got themselves all in a tizzy and forgot their main focus- which was to do what God wanted them to do! Did God want them to have a king? It certainly doesn’t seem that they asked God this question. They simply decided to do what the other nations were doing- get a king to rule over them and do what kings do for their kingdoms.

So you see the problems right here at the start? Samuel didn’t go to the Lord- the leaders didn’t go to the Lord. Only after the leaders came to Samuel do we see what he prayed. And at this point things had gone so far that God told Samuel to go ahead and give them their king. He did make sure they knew the down side of how their lives would change, but it didn’t change their resolve. In fact, no in verse 19 we read that is wasn’t just the elders who said they wanted a king, now it is all the people choosing to take a road that was not chosen by God, but was in fact, against God’s plan for them.

From the moment I set foot on this property as your pastor, I have tried to be the kind of pastor God wants me to be. I think Mr. Standish’s words in the paragraph I have read this morning describe very well what I believe God calls me to be and do as a pastor. My primary job is to pray. Pray. Pray for God’s guidance for us a church, and for me personally. Pray for all of you. Pray for the boards, committees, Sunday school teachers, for the youth leaders, for the staff; pray for worship each week, and pray over sermons. My primary job is to pray. I must admit I struggle with doing more praying than what most of us call “working” which I would entail administrative stuff, visiting, counseling, studying, etc. I struggle to pray first and “work” next. I struggle to accept that prayer is my most important work, way more important than anything else I do.

But I remember when I first arrived, when the building was dark and quiet for hours and hours on end every day of the week, when there was next to nothing on the walls to show who we were and what was important to us, I prayer marched around this sanctuary, and I prayer marched around the education wing. I marched around declaring, “LIFE!” to the property! “I declare LIFE!” I said. “I declare CHILDREN!” I said. “I declare JOY!” I said- not out of any need for these things for myself, but out of obedience to Scripture. I know God wanted life, and children, and joy in his Church. And I knew the devil wanted none of it. And I believe those prayers were heard, and have led us to make some important moves as a congregation to welcome, LIFE, and CHILDREN, and JOY. And I say, “Thank you Lord!”

But I want us all to heed the teachings of the Scripture for today. I want to heed God’s instruction to always, always come to him first in prayer before asserting my own will, or ego out of pride (which we all are inclined to do). And I need your prayers to help attend first and foremost to the work of prayer as your pastor. Please pray for me that I will heed God’s instructions. But also, let’s agree to pray for each other, and especially for our elders, that they too, will be persons of deep and consistent prayer. We saw how quickly and completely the whole nation of Israel went down the wrong path by the influence of the elders in choosing to go with an earthly king instead of waiting for God’s leadership appointment. It didn’t take long for the wrong direction to be accepted as the right direction when everyone stayed on their feet in pride, instead of getting on their knees in prayer.

I want us to be a blessed church. I want us to be the kind of church, the kind of spiritual community that God is so delighted with, that God chooses to bless us with LIFE, with CHILDREN, and with JOY as we obey him as the ONE and ONLY King worthy of our allegiance.

I’m so glad I preached God’s sermon today. Because I needed to hear what God had to say, and I trust you did too. Let us pray:

Lord God Almighty, forgive us for only acknowledging you with a quick prayer here and a quick prayer there. Forgive us for thinking that is all we need in order to be the kind of people, the kind of church you have called us to be. Please Lord; teach us to pray. Call us to pray. Pursue us until we truly become people who are literally panting to be with you in prayer- thirsting for your living water- dependent on the wisdom and the discernment that you provide by the witness of your Holy Spirit. This we pray- and we continue to pray- by the grace of Jesus Christ the King of kings and Lord of Lords, Amen.

6-26-2005