[Propertalk] Proper 5 b 2018 - part 1 - b

[Robert P Morrison]

Sigh!
Bob

	 Samuel had been strong and hadn’t deviated from what he’d
learned about and from God. Samuel was in touch with God; he was in
touch with himself. AND he was in touch with what was happening around
him. He was honest, not manipulative, and he had a strong sense of
those things for which he had responsibility and those for which he
had not. For one thing, his sons were adults. For good or ill, they
made their own decisions. So what Samuel could do for them was exactly
the same as he could and did do for the nation. He laid things on the
line. He was rational. He spelled out what the consequences if they
didn’t listen to what they’d been told about God’s law of Love,
Justice and Righteousness. But then he said, “It’s your call.” 

	 There’s a troubling but incredibly fine line between what Samuel
did, how he talked, how he interpreted what he believed God had told
him and what we’ve seen down through their history to our present
day. Samuel gave warning after warning. He told the people about what
it meant to live righteously. And he told them that leaders are
incredibly human, in the worst sense. 

	 But the people yelled all the louder. It’s like the situation of
which we heard quite a bit over two months ago. Pilate stood on the
deck of his palace while the people yelled all the louder. “Shall I
crucify your king?” 

	 We all know how that worked out. 

	 The people – and, last I checked, WE ARE people – the people
yelled all the louder. 

	 You’ve seen and heard the cartoons, I’m sure. “What do you
want?” the leader asks. 

	 “We want a king,” the people yelled back.  

	 “When do you want him?” 

	 “We want him NOW!” comes the people’s answer. 

	 Impatience, a lack of understanding of all the details, an
overwhelming arrogance about self-pleasure all conspired three
thousand years ago, just as they did two thousand years ago, just as
they’ve continued to conspire down through every age. No matter what
was happening, some people thought they knew better than everyone
else. They thought that they knew how to behave, how to make
decisions, how to satisfy their desires on their own, often incredibly
short-sighted terms.  

	 And the problems three and two thousand years ago are the same as
vex us today. The people HAD a person who’d been chosen and used by
God to help the people care for themselves and care for everyone else.
They had had a whole slew of prophets. But, of course, the prophets,
the “real” ones, at any rate, were in the pocket of no one. They
spoke as they believed, from experience, from what God willed for the
people. These prophets could be highly embarrassing to the people.
They could make people blush when they’re condemned for all the ways
in which they were abusing others. They could make people REALLY
uncomfortable when the crowd was reminded of the ways in which God had
provided for them and saved their necks.__

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