“The People Puzzle”
July 7, 2024
Seminarian Henry Norkplim Anyomi
Opening Prayer
Almighty God, this is the day that You have made; we rejoice and receive it with gratitude. We surrender our individual needs and situations to You, God. Would You take our hearts and longings and set them on You? In this moment, we invite You to speak because we are ready to listen for Your word. Transform us that we may go out from here to live for You. In Jesus’ name. Amen!
Message
“Familiarity breeds contempt,” it’s often said. Most of us tend to relish, or even revere the unfamiliar, but the familiar is sadly sometimes resented, treated with a pinch of salt. Though this tends to occur at both personal and interpersonal levels, it also occurs at the group level, too. Personally, I’ve sometimes looked upon some things mundanely until they are stripped away or have become unavailable. Then, I’d go like, “how I wish I had A, B, or C …” I’ve tried to do better in recent years, but I pray things get even better.
As I think of familiarity and our humanity, a conversation that transpired between a childhood friend I reconnected with in college comes to mind. This old friend and I were raised in the same home church in Ghana. As kids we were cast in the same Sunday plays and danced in the same choreography group. We chatted often on rehearsal days and celebrated group successes together back then. Later, my family would change mother church and we would lose touch until I got to college. So, we both were pretty pleased to see each other after over a decade of losing contact. But my friend thought I had changed so much she couldn’t resist asking me about it. En route to lectures one afternoon, she asked bluntly: “what happened to you?” To her, I was less outgoing, less casual, and perhaps less playful.
I saw differently, however – that I had become more self-aware, more purpose-driven, and more intentional. I was sad she couldn’t connect with me the way she wanted, but I couldn’t go back to age 9 or 10. I simply couldn’t.
How does this background square with today’s readings? In 2 Samuel 5, our first reading, we are met with a happy ending of sorts, David acclaimed king by all of Israel. But we know that’s not where he began. He didn’t always receive unanimous endorsement; familiarity blinded his contacts and neighbours from seeing him for who he truly was. He was the eighth and last son to be called upon during his anointing in 1 Samuel 16. A shepherd boy, not much was thought of him, not even by Jesse, his own father. His brothers spoke unkindly to him. For instance, he is accused of coming down to see the battle when his father sends him to take provisions to his brothers near the Israel-Palestine frontlines in 1 Samuel 17. After killing Goliath and winning the people’s hearts, he is later envied by Saul and pursued all over Israel, even well into Philistine territory. Though a wanted man among the Philistines then, God sustains his life and those of his men through the years he spent in their land and gave them an escape route every time his location was disclosed to his enemies. Upon Saul’s demise, one would have thought that David would have emerged as automatic king, having been anointed years earlier by Samuel, but no! All of Israel, but Judah chooses Ishbosheth, Saul’s son, as king instead of David.
So, it is really an interesting turn of events when all the tribes make their appeal to David to be king in chapter 5. For this purpose, we are told, “all the elders of Israel came …” I asked myself: “did this include the Ziphites, David’s fellow Judeans, who had previously reported David’s whereabouts to Saul?” “Were the northern territories which were pro-Saul’s lineage there?” Yes, they were! What had changed? Scholars seem to agree that at least two things informed this outcome:
1. David’s past reputation in battle
2. Yahweh’s promises to David
We’ve established how much resistance David faced from his anointing to ascension to the throne. But what people’s earlier resistance couldn’t do, however, was take away David’s dexterity in warfare and God’s pronouncements over his life. Scripture underlines that even the Philistines knew David was Saul’s best man (1 Sam. 29:3-5). Were the northern elders only now waking up to David’s heroic exploits and suitability for kingship? No. But this was a repenting nation, per my reading. Literally, they had come to supplicate David about their common heritage and to affirm what they had known all along – David’s leadership (see 2 Sam. 5:1-2). They even buttressed their pleas with God’s word to David: “It is you who should be shepherd of my people Israel, you shall be ruler over Israel” (v. 2). I perceive that they were so keen, they wouldn’t take “no” for an answer!
The very unconducive environment that David had weathered made him the man of war and the “shepherd” that the leaders of Israel were now seeking after! David rehashed the behind-the-scenes preparation that he had received to Saul in lobbying to fight Goliath in 1 Samuel 17:
“Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it, and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God …”
David would go on to show that shepherd-like compassion to many he would come across both at home in Israel and abroad in Philistine, including sparing the life of Saul, his adversary, twice. When he was cornered by enemies, he ran to God in prayer. For instance, when the Ziphites reported his whereabouts to Saul, he would say in Psalm 54:
“But surely, God is my helper, the Lord is the upholder of my life … I will give thanks to Your name, O Lord, for it is good. For He has delivered me from every trouble, and my eye has looked in triumph on my enemies.”
So, verse 10 of our first reading (“the Lord of hosts was with him”) simply affirms what was David’s lived experience from his teenage years – his preparation up until now. David knew God as his “helper” and “deliverer.” So, whether he was treated contemptuously by his older brothers, or driven from the palace by Saul, or pursued in the wilderness by his enemies, he clung to God as his helper and deliverer, who was always with him.
Let’s come to our second reading now. This involves Jesus, our Messiah and David’s descendent, who emerged centuries later on a mission to seek and save the lost. Last week, we looked at how he evidenced God’s character as a God of connection, love, and relationship. Then, we saw how he was surrounded by crowds literally everywhere he went. That story is followed up by our Mark 6 reading where Jesus visits his native town of Nazareth to an estranged people.
It opens with Jesus teaching in the synagogue after arriving in Nazareth. He is met with sharp unbelief and is spited for going about his life’s mission. Remember as a boy, Jesus was found among the teachers in the temple listening to them and asking questions. His reason for doing so if you recall was “to be about his Father’s business” (v. 52). So, preaching, teaching, and healing were his niche, in sync with his calling. To ask him to do anything else would amount to asking him to not be himself – to be inauthentic; to deceive!
But his townsfolk thought that knowing the household he came from and the primary trade he was introduced to as a boy sufficed to understanding his purpose. Familiarity clouded their worldview! Indeed, so overconfident were they that he took offence at Jesus (Mark 6:4).
Professor of New Testament, Matt Skinner, points out that “the “offence” they take in Mark 6 entails “rejection or disengagement” and surpasses “confusion or hurt.” Jesus’ neighbours had grown so familiar with him, they were blinded by God’s saving work through him.
Shocking how Jesus was treated by his kin. But did he abandon ship? No! He was visibly touched, as verse 6 reveals, but unrestrained by their unbelief. He persisted in what he knew was God’s calling for his life – bringing abundant life to all people who would believe in him. Puzzling how the resistance he faced didn’t create a phobia for the people of his town and region. But as we would later find out, it didn’t! He persisted in his mandate to bring new life to all who wanted it and by that not only healed few people in his hometown, but also went into the villages with his disciples to teach and do miracles.
Jesus stuck with the plan, uninterested in changing the disengaged and unbelieving. He was a God pleaser and streetwise. Considering the limited time he had to pursue his earthly ministry, if he wanted to be bogged down by those who wouldn’t accept him nor believe in the works he did, many others wouldn’t have got to encounter him before his death. So, he went everywhere God led him. Peter would later testify about his grit and wide influence in the house of Cornelius:
“How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed of the devil, for God was with him” – Acts 10:38 (NRSV)
Peter had such firsthand knowledge of the power and good works prevalent in Jesus’ ministry because as a disciple, he was with Jesus and witnessed all the signs and wonders himself. Indeed, according to the second reading, Jesus sent him and the other disciples out into the villages to teach. So, he not only saw Jesus minister, but he also learnt the culture and praxis of ministry – teaching, exorcising, healing, among others with utmost simplicity. As is always the case, God had the final say, bringing good out of the bad – out of painful rejection, the message of Christ would spread among the villages neighboring Nazareth and in Nazareth among the few who were healed.
In our post-pandemic world, there is so much skepticism on display. Widespread cynicism is exacerbated by such developments as vain promises and untruths by the political class, accusations, counteraccusations, and suspicions by those in leadership, fake news and deep fake images in the era of artificial intelligence (AI), cyberbullying and cyber fraud, police brutality and militarisation, hate speech and rising Islamophobia and anti-Semitism, bribery and corruption … You may add to the list. Within such an atmosphere, many have turned to the church for answers even as the church continues to reimagine itself within this complex climate. A good lot of people have also turned away from the church for various reasons, with different commentators labelling post-pandemic church experience in varying ways. The point, however, is that the church has probably faced its harshest scrutiny and critique yet in the post-pandemic era.
As a church and as individual believers, there are ways we tend to suffer amid the growing scepticism. People may not fully appreciate our role in society. Their remarks and rejection may make us want to abandon ship – renege on the God-given mandate we have towards people. Let’s not seek to coerce them to have our viewpoint by all means, but may we not amend our activities and identity in a bid to please them. Let’s demonstrate faithfulness in the calling God has given us – stay true to God and ourselves, continuing in all that God called us to do. When others don’t take us seriously or belittle our potential, God doesn’t. God believes we will have a prosperous and an expected end.
Like David, may God’s promises for our lives make us the clear choice among contemporaries and may our giftedness and leadership speak for us through and through. And like Jesus, even when amazed at others’ unbelief, may we work at least few miracles where we are planted and go on to spread all around. When the going gets tough, may God give us helpers with whom we can pursue our God-given mandate. May we be authentic and may we be God-honoring in our walk with God. Above all, may God supply our every need on this journey of knowing Christ and making him known. The grace of God be multiplied to us. Amen!