Poems, Prayers, and Promises
I Samuel 16:12-23
So he sent for him and had him brought in. He was glowing with health and had a fine appearance and handsome features. Then the Lord said, “Rise and anoint him; this is the one.” So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon David. Samuel then went to Ramah. Now the Spirit of the Lord had departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord tormented him. Saul’s attendants said to him, “See, an evil spirit from God is tormenting you. Let our lord command his servants here to search for someone who can play the lyre. He will play when the evil spirit from God comes on you, and you will feel better.” So Saul said to his attendants, “Find someone who plays well and bring him to me.” One of the servants answered, “I have seen a son of Jesse of Bethlehem who knows how to play the lyre. He is a brave man and a warrior. He speaks well and is a fine-looking man. And the Lord is with him.” Then Saul sent messengers to Jesse and said, “Send me your son David, who is with the sheep.” So Jesse took a donkey loaded with bread, a skin of wine and a young goat and sent them with his son David to Saul. David came to Saul and entered his service. Saul liked him very much, and David became one of his armor-bearers. Then Saul sent word to Jesse, saying, “Allow David to remain in my service, for I am pleased with him.” Whenever the spirit from God came on Saul, David would take up his lyre and play. Then relief would come to Saul; he would feel better, and the evil spirit would leave him.
__________
"Poems, Prayers, and Promises" was a song written by John Denver in 1971 and was included on an album of the same name that featured several classic hits. While the album reached the 15th position on the Billboard 200, you might also recognize this song from the 1983 ABC special "Rocky Mountain Holiday" featuring John Denver and the Muppets. It's a song of life, friendships, hopes, and prayers reflecting on what was and will come. From our reading, we hear a similar story found in two men, both called by God, both righteous and started with good intentions, yet at specific points lost and regained their way. Saul and David represent in many different ways the complexities of life and the stories we leave behind, the good, the bad, the ugly, and everything in between. Today we reflect on the story and promise of our lives and the question posed by Denver's song, "What about our dreams and all the memories we share?"
There are two stories about the promise and unfolding of life in our reading for today. First, we have Saul, who is plagued with jealousy and rage at this point. However, Saul was not a king who was always haunted by an evil spirit. For context, Samuel anointed Saul to be the first king of Israel. The people were previously ruled by judges (prophets), but they began to grumble and ask the judges for a king because that is what other nations possessed. So God sent Samuel to find a king, specifically Saul, who came from the tribe of Benjamin (the smallest tribe in Israel). God told Samuel that Saul would be the one to govern the people of God, a promise that life would change Saul's life. There was nothing special about Saul; besides that, he was good-looking and tall, and initial military victories marked his reign. As time went on, however, the early promise of kingship became ambiguous as Saul rejected the words of God and the prophet Samuel, believing his own hands could obtain victory.
And then we have David, the king to be, the next one whom God would entrust with a promise. Samuel is called by God to anoint another and is led to the house of Jesse, where David's other brothers greet him. On the surface, his other brothers look more capable, though, in the end, it is David, a shepherd overlooked by his own family, who is anointed by Samuel and brought to Saul's home. David is filled with bright-eyed naivete about the world. Nevertheless, his heart has a zeal for God that will soon be tested as he is forced to flee, take refuge, and lead a rebellion against Saul for kingship over Israel. And at that moment, as David hides from Saul, the initial shepherd boy and the promise from God must feel so far away. Of course, David leaves a lasting legacy as one of the great kings of Israel and even leaves a legacy as an icon in the Christian tradition as a person of great faith. Though David, too, was plagued with his own evil spirits, revealing that the promise of life and kingship took on a more complex role.
Yes, the promise of life, the promise of our lives, grows more and more complex with each passing year. John Denver captures a piece of this complexity in his song, our reading from I Samuel grabs another, and the poem from Robert Frost, "A Prayer in Spring," touches on another. The poem begins with the speaker asking for peace and understanding through nature but is worried that the serenity will not come. So the speaker turns to God and requests in the form of a prayer, then goes on to see how in spring, we can all enjoy the beauty of the orchids, which appear before the fruit.
For this is love and nothing else is love,
The which it is reserved for God above
To sanctify to what far ends He will,
But which it only needs that we fulfill.
The poem's speaker knows that there is much in life that is unknowable, yet there is comfort easily and readily accessible to all in the gift of springtime. Again, through all our texts and our song for reflection, we hear a reminder that life is turbulent, unexpecting, and nerve wracking. However, that is not all there is to life; though the promise of God, the early promise of God, takes on a much more ambiguous hue, it is a reminder for each of us to be gentle to ourselves and to others who also are singing songs, saying prayers, and reciting the poetry of the heart.
Let us look back on the promise made to us by God. Let us look at yesterday and today and see how that promise has evolved. And let us take stock of the memories we share so that when the time comes, we can offer hearts of empathy and healing instead of hearts of judgment. Each of us still carries the promise of our baptism, the promise God made to us as we were sealed in that divine love. And so that even when the years pass and our hearts become jaded or jagged, we can cling to the foundational promise that our lives are connected to something more. That doesn't make us perfect or transform us into morally superior beings, but it does allow us to gather around a campfire and watch the evening tire knowing that in the moments where we cannot know or have made mistakes, the promise of God remains.