Gordon McPhee – delivered to St. Edward’s, Beauharnois

                                                Mark 3: 20-35

ARE YOU FED UP, WITH GOD?

Scripture:  1 Samuel 8:4-20 [MSG]

4-5 Fed up, all the elders of Israel got together and confronted Samuel at Ramah. They presented their case: “Look, you’re an old man, and your sons aren’t following in your footsteps. Here’s what we want you to do: Appoint a king to rule us, just like everybody else.”

6 When Samuel heard their demand—“Give us a king to rule us!”—he was crushed. How awful! Samuel prayed to God.

7-9 God answered Samuel, “Go ahead and do what they’re asking. They are not rejecting you. They’ve rejected me as their King. From the day I brought them out of Egypt until this very day they’ve been behaving like this, leaving me for other gods. And now they’re doing it to you. So let them have their own way. But warn them of what they’re in for. Tell them the way kings operate, just what they’re likely to get from a king.”

10-18 So Samuel told them, delivered God’s warning to the people who were asking him to give them a king. He said, “This is the way the kind of king you’re talking about operates. He’ll take your sons and make soldiers of them—chariotry, cavalry, infantry, regimented in battalions and squadrons. He’ll put some to forced labor on his farms, plowing and harvesting, and others to making either weapons of war or chariots in which he can ride in luxury. He’ll put your daughters to work as beauticians and waitresses and cooks. He’ll conscript your best fields, vineyards, and orchards and hand them over to his special friends. He’ll tax your harvests and vintage to support his extensive bureaucracy. Your prize workers and best animals he’ll take for his own use. He’ll lay a tax on your flocks and you’ll end up no better than slaves. The day will come when you will cry in desperation because of this king you so much want for yourselves. But don’t expect God to answer.”

19-20 But the people wouldn’t listen to Samuel. “No!” they said. “We will have a king to rule us! Then we’ll be just like all the other nations. Our king will rule us and lead us and fight our battles.”

Introduction:

“Fed up, all the elders of Israel got together and confronted Samuel at Ramah.” This is how our reading from the Old Testament scriptures begins this morning. Of the term ‘fed-up’ The Cambridge Dictionary says, “bored, annoyed, or disappointed, especially by something that you have experienced for too long.” Almost always it is expressed as ‘fed up with’ someone or something. There needs to be an object of ‘fed-upness’; something to point your finger at before you can truly be fed up. As it sounds, it comes from the idea of eating so much one is full to capacity, that not another bite can be had. At least, in my case, the cheesecake is presented and then we’re not so sure.

Sometimes we say we’re fed up and cite some obvious annoyances in our life but when examined they are not so over-the-top-completely-exasperating that we should be at the end of our rope; another great expression. We avoid putting into words the real, deep-seated, I love these expressions, the deep-seated cause of our annoyance. That is what the elders of Israel are doing, pointing out little annoyances rather than daring to face the real issue and admit the truth of what is in their hearts.

It’s something we can all learn from because I think it is something we all do. Smoke and mirrors to hide the truth that sometimes we’re just fed up with God.

Sermon:

“Fed up, all the elders of Israel got together and confronted Samuel at Ramah. They presented their case.” So, what exactly was their complaint that they should gather this national council and demand change? “Look, you’re an old man, and your sons aren’t following in your footsteps,” they said, and I suppose if Samuel was the king and passing the ruling authority on to his sons, they might have a case. But he wasn’t.

Samuel’s authority with them came from his relationship with God. He was a great prophet through whom, for many years, God had spoken to and judged Israel and, at Samuel’s hand, led them to victory. They may have been concerned that Samuel was getting along in years and would not be able to continue this work. But that’s a rather weak argument. They had never had a ruler, a king. When difficulties arrived God always, in response to their call for help, raised up a judge, like Gideon or Samuel, to lead the people to victory. It appears, in fact, that the only time they had any trouble was when they wandered away from following God, when they began dallying and experimenting with the gods and customs of their neighbours.

And Samuel wasn’t that old and frail as they seem to imply. We read in the later accounts of his work denouncing King Saul for his faithlessness, hacking King Agag of Moab to pieces as it testifies in 1 Samuel 15, and anointing David to be King after Saul. It appears God had many years of useful service in store for Samuel as judge and prophet in Israel.

Samuel, however; misses the real issue and gets caught up thinking they are accusing and rejecting him but, still, he faithfully does the right thing, he turns to God for answers. And God tells Samuel the way it really is, “They are not rejecting you. They’ve rejected me as their King.” He tells Samuel, “Let them have their own way. But warn them of what they’re in for.” It is in this warning, telling them, “the way kings operate, just what they’re likely to get from a king,” and in their response to it, that we begin to understand their motivation.

God, who knows and foresees everything speaks through Samuel and tells them, “This is the way the kind of king you’re talking about operates. He’ll take your sons and make soldiers of them—chariotry, cavalry, infantry, regimented in battalions and squadrons. He’ll put some to forced labour on his farms, plowing and harvesting, and others to making either weapons of war or chariots in which he can ride in luxury. He’ll put your daughters to work as beauticians and waitresses and cooks. He’ll conscript your best fields, vineyards, and orchards and hand them over to his special friends. He’ll tax your harvests and vintage to support his extensive bureaucracy. Your prize workers and best animals he’ll take for his own use. He’ll lay a tax on your flocks, and you’ll end up no better than slaves.”

Now I don’t know about you, but at this point, I’d be saying, “Whoa, whoa, hold it right there. Let me rethink this whole king thing.” This sounds almost as bad as the Quebec government today, definitely not an improvement. Surprisingly, however; the Israelites don’t respond as we might expect. “No!” they said. “We will have a king to rule us!” Certainly, their present situation wasn’t so bad that this litany of taxes and slavery would seem an improvement. In chapter 7 of 1 Samuel, they had just returned to serving God and had won a huge victory over the Philistines under Samuel’s leadership and decades of peace, prosperity, and freedom. So, what was so bad that in the face of such a clear warning, they would insist on having a king?

Well, when pushed and provoked they finally tell us what’s in their hearts, “We will have a king to rule us! Then we’ll be just like all the other nations.” We’ll be like all the other nations. And then they lamely add, “Our king will rule us and lead us and fight our battles.” Hadn’t God already done all of this for them for 400 years since he led them out of slavery in Egypt? He fought their battles without them ever having to lift a sword or be conscripted into an army. God fed them for 40 years without them ever having to plant a seed or prune a vine. God led them to a new land flowing with milk and honey, a land of prosperity, driving out the inhabitants before them so they could live in the houses and cities already there and eat the fruit of the land already cultivated and growing. They had the Priests and Levites to administer the Torah and rule justice in their daily lives.

God did all they wanted a king to do and far, far more without all the negative consequences. Even when reminded that, “The day will come when you will cry in desperation because of this king you so much want for yourselves. But don’t expect God to answer,” they still obdurately cry, “No! We will have a king to rule us!” And why? So they will not be different. So they will be like their neighbours, the people they have coveted after. They like the green grass on the other side. Their neighbours don’t have a god who tells them how to live, don’t eat pork, don’t allow prostitution, don’t be greedy and work to get ahead by cheating others. Their gods are molded to accommodate their desires, not the other way around.

God’s people are willing to give up the freedom, prosperity and peace they have enjoyed for 400 years so they can be like the other nations around them. This is insanity. They are insanely envious of their neighbours. And what is truly tragic about this is that God had planned all along to give them a king, an earthly ruler but one after His own heart; a servant king of God’s choosing and design.

Hundreds of years before, recorded in the Torah, in the Book of Deuteronomy 17:14-20, God laid out clear instructions for the Israelite king. His first act as king was to make for himself, by his own hand, a copy of the Torah scroll, and keep it at his side always, reading it daily “so that he may learn what it means to fear his God, living in reverent obedience before these rules and regulations by following them. He must not become proud and arrogant, changing the commands at whim to suit himself or making up his own versions. (Deut. 17:19-20)” This was the kind of king God had in mind for his people, not the one they would choose at their bidding who would enact all the warnings Samuel had spoken.

Like Jesus’ story of the prodigal son, God lovingly gives them the king they desire, Saul, just as the father gave his younger son his inheritance. I’m sure the father in that story warned his son of the dangers of his plan, reminding him of all he had at home. But that son, like the Israelites, sought to make his own choices, to crawl from under the rule of his father’s house no matter how good it was, and like the Israelites, to be like the other people around him.

Israel demanded a king for bad and carnally minded reasons, and God gave them a bad and carnally minded king. They got what they wanted and true to God’s word, Saul fulfilled all the warnings Samuel had laid down for the people.

You see the crux of the matter is that it was never God’s intention that His people, and that includes you and I, should be like other people. We are not to be like other nations. God chose Abraham and his descendants to be a peculiar people, to stand out. Some of the laws of the Torah are for everyone, the moral laws and ones about justice, but many, such as food restrictions, are simply to set the Israelites apart from other nations. Because God is holy, distinct and separate, his people must be as well, otherwise, how can they be identified with Him? How could anyone know God through His people if they were just like everyone else?

We often make the mistake of thinking of God as someone IN creation. An important, all-powerful, part of this existence around us, but still confined within it and defined by it. The God who created this universe and, in fact, this existence, is, by necessity and definition outside of all of this, and it is us and this creation of His that is only an infinitesimal part of who He is. The Israelites didn’t like being different and they particularly didn’t like having to answer to a god who was accountable to no one. They had been ruled by God for 400 hundred years and as good as everything was, as incomprehensibly faithful God had been to them despite their constant rebellion, they, like Adam and Eve, and the prodigal son, were fed up with being governed by God. They didn’t want to wait for God to get around to anointing and installing David as king because they didn’t know that was the plan. They didn’t want to depend on God and God’s timing for things. They were fed up with not knowing what was going on, and not being in control. So fed up, they took the bull by the horns and demanded they get their way.

And doesn’t that sound an awful lot like us? I know you’re protesting, “No! That’s not me. I don’t do that!”. Well, I’m willing to admit I do, and I’m going to use that to grant me license to suggest that often, you do as well.

Waiting patiently for God to do something is the hardest work we have as Christians. And it’s not just the waiting, it’s the reality that we don’t know what God is going to do. We may imagine a dozen good actions and outcomes for a situation, but we don’t know if any of them is God’s plan. We say to ourselves, “We can’t just sit around and do nothing!” Like Samuel, we hopefully seek God’s guidance in His word and in prayer, but we still have to wait. We can, out of necessity, and hopefully with great humility, move forward in our best guess at the path God wants us to take but always listening and ready to adjust graciously to His completely different plan and direction.

Like the Israelites before us, we like to take the initiative, make a good plan to do a good thing and we even bring it to our church the way the elders brought it to Samuel for approval. We do all the right things except the one essential thing; to wait patiently for God to reveal His plan. Oh Lord, it is hard to be humble! To wait. We are so easily fed up with waiting.

Believe me, I know and understand. It’s not just the situation in the world, wars and rumours of wars, disaster, disease and hunger; we were warned this would happen. But it’s the little things that wear us down. Our neighbours all around us who have no truck with God or church seem to be doing so much better than us. They didn’t get COVID like we did, no one is battling cancer in their family, they didn’t lose their job they got a promotion, they seem to renovate their house or yard or vehicles constantly and they’re right up there with all the latest woke generation morality flying the rainbow flag in June. And here we are sticking out like sore thumbs never having quite enough to keep up appearances and faithfully attending church and having to defend ourselves from accusations of intolerance, colonialism, and backward-thinking blindness.

It’s enough to make anyone fed up. Unless, of course, you realize that you’re supposed to stand out. You’re supposed to be different. People are supposed to see your faith because you are waiting for God, not your arrogance because you’ve gotten what you want. If you feel like you’re getting fed up waiting for God to work, pat yourself on the back, because you’re doing it right. When you don’t see the clear path in front of you so that you can take that certain sure step on your own, know you’re on the right road, the highway of faith that your Lord Jesus walked before you.

The whole storehouse of heaven’s resources is available to the one who waits and walks with Jesus Christ. We have nothing to fear about being out of step with this world when we are in step with the one who died to redeem us, rose to save us and reigns to lead us to new life. When we make Jesus our King, He always answers us. Thanks be to God.

Amen