“Great Things God Has Done: Samuel, Part II”
1 Samuel 12:19-25
Barbara J. Campbell, Pastor
The word of the Lord was rare in Israel until God spoke to the temple servant Samuel, as a young man, and Samuel became a prophet of God. This didn’t solve Israel’s conflicts however, at least not very quickly. No sooner do we read about Samuel receiving the rank of prophet, than we find the Philistines attacking Israel again; killing hundreds of thousands including the sons of Eli.
However, the loss that caused the priest Eli to fall off his seat backwards, break his neck and die, was that the Israelite army had carried the Ark of the Covenant, which carried the stone tablets of Moses, out into the battlefield for good luck, and it had been captured there and carried off by the Philistines.
Unfortunately, for the Philistines, in every town in which they tried to store the Ark, the people were suddenly inflicted with tumors all over their bodies and insisted that the Ark be moved to another location. Finally, the Philistines sent the Ark back to Israel with several peace sacrifices hoping their bad luck would turn around.
During this time, Samuel, the prophet, had been serving as judge in Israel. Once the Ark was returned, the Philistines never again conquered Israel “all the days of Samuel.”
When Samuel became an old man, he set his two sons to be judge over the people, but they followed in the footsteps of Eli’s sons and “took bribes and perverted justice.” Finally, the people came to Samuel saying, “You are old! Your sons are corrupt! So appoint a king to govern us like other nations.”
Samuel prayed asking the Lord what he should do and he heard the Lord telling him to tell the people how harshly they would be treated by such a king; that a king would take everything from the people for his own gain. But the people would not listen to Samuel’s warnings so the Lord finally told Samuel to go ahead and listen to the people’s voice and set a king over them.
At this time there was a young man named Saul, who was part of the tribe of Benjamin. Saul was tall, dark and handsome. He stood head and shoulders above everyone else. As Saul and his servant went out one day, searching in vain for one of their donkeys, the servant suggested they go to Samuel for help. The people also called Samuel a seer and he just happened to be in a nearby town. Of course, the Lord had also just told Samuel that a man from the land of Benjamin would be send to Samuel to be anointed as King of Israel.
When young Saul finally realized that Samuel had a plan to make him king, he was confused and afraid, to say the least, pointing out that he from the least of the tribes of Israel. A while later, Samuel, pretending to draw lots before the people to choose their king, declared that Saul was the chosen one When the people looked around for Saul, he was hiding among the baggage of the crowd.
As Samuel went to work writing down all the rights and duties of the new king, many of the people continued to complain about Saul being chosen, saying “How can this man save us?” It wasn’t until after young Saul, “coming in from the fields behind the oxen,” heard of a village that was being constantly persecuted by the Ammonites and led the defeat of these enemies, that the people agreed to crown Saul as their king before the Lord.
At the end of the inauguration the prophet Samuel recounted to the people the story of the saving acts of God through the times of Jacob, Moses and Aaron. He reminded them how God had saved them many times from the hands of their enemies so that they could live in safety, and how they had continued to as, none the less, for a king. Samuel concluded, “If you and your king will follow the Lord your God, it will be well; but if you will not, the hand of the Lord will be against you and your king.”
Our scripture reading today comes at the very end of this speech from Samuel, when he finally reassures the people saying, “Do not be afraid, but serve the Lord will all your heart. It has pleased God to make you God’s people and God will not cast you away. Serve God faithfully, as you consider what great things God has done for you.
The English colonists considered the great things God had done for them and held the first Thanksgiving Meal with their indigenous neighbors in 1621, almost 400 years ago. President George Washington in 1789 considered the great things God had done and declared a day of thanksgiving for the entire nation. President Abraham Lincoln considered the great things God had done, even in the midst of a brutal civil war in 1863 and set the last Thursday in November as the national holiday.
It’s not very difficult for most of us to think of the things or people in our own lives for whom we are grateful, but since are called to love one another, it’s also important to give thanks for those things which have blessed our neighbors and nation. If we were to consider the great things God has done today, and write a litany of all those times when we were rescued or blessed by God as a people, what would we name? What would our list include?
Many of us give a “nod” on Thursday to the great things God has done by struggling through that uncomfortable moment of saying grace with family and friends before the meal. Gilbert Chesterton, one of the most influential English writers of the 20th century wrote, “You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing and grace before I dip the pen in the ink.”
He’s got a point. Why is it that we only stop to give thanks before we eat? Is food that important to us? It might be interesting to see how many things you might stop and give thanks for in one day of your life.
For those of us who will hold hands on Thursday around a table bent under the weight of far too much food, gratitude will probably come easily. Those who eat a simpler meal, perhaps eating alone on Thursday, or who will have no meal at all, and yet are still drawn to thankfulness, know the truth of being blessed.
Author C.S. Lewis once wrote “the ability to give praise is inner health made audible. Anyone can find cause to criticize an excellent meal, but only maturity finds something to praise in a modest one.” Someone also once said, “The Pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts. No Americans have been more impoverished than these who, nevertheless, set aside a day of thanksgiving.” (Westermayer) The great things God has done may not include abundance or even security for many people.
A local retired pastor and friend, Jim Peterson, says that Thanksgiving is his favorite holiday because we’re not pressed to buy things, but rather to consider what we appreciate in life. He encourages folks to find things to appreciate in their life and in those who matter to them and then to share that thankfulness, for most of us are “appreciation-deprived.” Thanksgiving is a time of praising and thanking God, and we could do that very privately, but one of the real joys of the day, is the opportunity we may have to tell others how thankful we are for their lives and their gifts.
I suppose it would be impossible to feel grateful every day. I suppose that psychologists and Psalm writers would insist that complaining to God occasionally is not only healthy but normal. I still wish that I could learn to feel grateful deeply enough that it would override any anxiety, worry, disappointment, or frustration. I often think that feeling anything but grateful every day for the gift of life and the sustaining power of the Holy Spirit, is acting like a spoiled child.
Meister Eckhart once said, “If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, ‘thank you,’ that would suffice.” It is not enough to be grateful on Thanksgiving Day. We must strive to wake up each day and take a deep breath of gratitude; strive to take each step throughout the day counting our blessings, and close our eyes to rest each night, with the prayer of “Thank you” on our lips.