Our
Old Testament reading seems to me to be a prime example of the Law of
Unintended Consequences! Or, indeed, the necessity to be careful
what you wish for!
Up
until now, Israel has been a theocracy; in other words, it has been
governed by God, as ministered by the various judges and prophets,
most recently Samuel. It hasn’t always gone well – there have
been wars; the Ark of the Covenant had been captured and taken away
by the Philistines, but then it was returned with all honour. At the
time of which we speak, there was peace in the land – for one of
the only times in history, it would seem.
But
this peace was precarious. Samuel was getting old now, and his sons,
who were his obvious successors, weren’t doing a good job. Unlike
their father, who was as upright as – well, as an upright thing,
they were susceptible to taking bribes, and justice was not always
served as it might have been.
Also,
the people of Israel had been looking round at how things were done
in other countries. They didn’t have dreary prophets
interpreting God’s will at them all the time. They weren’t
led into battle by priests guiding an ox-cart with the Ark on it.
They had a King! They were led into battle by a King
on a beautiful horse, wearing armour glittering in the sun. They
didn’t have to spend hours in prayer before they could get on with
it….. Anyway, everybody had kings. Why couldn’t they have a
king?
So,
as we heard in our first reading, they went to Samuel and said, “look
here, you’re getting old, and your sons aren’t anything like you
– we want a King, please, now.”
Samuel
is very hurt by this, and does what he always does in time of trial –
he goes and prays about it. And God says to him, more or less,
“Well, now you know what I feel all the time, the way people reject
Me. And really, it’s not you they are rejecting, it’s Me.”
And, at God’s instruction, Samuel goes and asks the people if they
are sure they want a king. Sure, there is the grandeur and the pomp
and circumstance – but there is also the tithes; the conscription;
the droit de seigneur where the king thinks he can, and will, have
any pretty girl he chooses….. there are a lot of bad things that
might and will happen along with the good.
But
the people are convinced. Prophets and judges are old-fashioned;
they want a King. Monarchy is definitely the way to go.
And,
as we know, they got permission to have a King, and Saul was
appointed – and anointed – King. But as we know, he wasn’t
altogether satisfactory, and there was war again, and, eventually,
David became king, and then his son Solomon, but after that it all
went rather pear-shaped, and the Kingdom was divided into two. And
after a series of rather ineffectual, weak kings, the majority –
the Ten Tribes – were taken into captivity and absorbed; the two
tribes of Judah were also captured, but managed to retain a distinct
identity. Mind you, we are not told what would have happened had
they remained a theocracy….
So
what is this all about, and what does it say to us today? I’m
certainly not advocating a return to theocracy – one only has to
look at so-called Islamic State or Boko Harum to see that it can and
does stifle people’s freedom of choice. And monarchy itself is
nearly obsolete. Our own Queen reigns, but she does not rule.
The King may well have done all the dreadful things Samuel warned
against: “He will make soldiers of your sons; some of them will
serve in his war chariots, others in his cavalry, and others will run
before his chariots. He will make some of them officers in charge of
a thousand men, and others in charge of fifty men. Your sons will
have to plough his fields, harvest his crops, and make his weapons
and the equipment for his chariots. Your daughters will have to make
perfumes for him and work as his cooks and his bakers. He will take
your best fields, vineyards, and olive groves, and give them to his
officials. He will take a tenth of your grain and of your grapes for
his court officers and other officials.”
But
a good King – and there have been many throughout history – a
good King protects his people, as well as exploits them. And a good
King leads by example. C S Lewis, in his novel “The Horse and his
Boy”, expressed it thus:
“For
this is what it means to be a king:
to
be first in every desperate attack and last in every desperate
retreat, and when there's hunger in the land (as must be now and then
in bad years)
to
wear finer clothes and laugh louder over a scantier meal than any man
in your land.”
Being
a King is not just about privilege and luxury – but for a bad King
– and probably for every good King there has been a bad one – for
a bad King, it is all about privilege and luxury. The people needed
to be careful what they wished for.
But
one of the main problems of a Kingdom, mostly, is that it is up
against others. Kings have to fight because other people want their
Kingdoms. Sometimes these are kings from other sovereign states, and
other times they are internal contenders for the throne; people who
think that the king really isn’t doing as good a job as he might
and they would do a better one. Civil War. Satan’s Kingdom
divided against itself – as Jesus points out in our Gospel reading
– is always going to fail and spiral down into chaos and darkness.
So
let’s contrast this with God’s kingdom, that Jesus tells us so
much about.
He
told us lots of stories to illustrate what the kingdom was going to
be like, how it starts off very small, like a mustard seed, but grows
to be a huge tree.
How
it is worth giving up everything for.
How
“the blind receive their sight,
the
lame walk,
the
lepers are cleansed,
the
deaf hear,
the
dead are raised,
and
the poor have good news brought to them.”
And
some of the stories were very unsettling to his hearers. Imagine, if
you will, that there is a place you’ve always wanted to visit.
It
sounds as though it’s really wonderful –
permanently
great weather, fantastic scenery,
lots
of great places to visit,
lots
of walking, or swimming,
great
bars and restaurants,
you
name it, this place has it!
And
you long and long to go there,
but
you don’t know how to get there,
and
what’s more, you don’t know anybody else who has been there.
All
the things you’ve heard about it are rumour or hearsay.
And
then one day someone comes along who very obviously has been there,
and he starts to tell you all about it.
But
–
oh
dear –
it’s
not at all what you thought!
Weeds
everywhere, attracting masses of birds which could and did eat all
the crops!
And
the food, far from gourmet, is rotten bread made by women!
And
then, he goes on to tell his special friends in private –
but
you hear about it later –
the
place is so infinitely desirable that people sell all they have to
get tickets there!
That’s
the Kingdom of God for you. The mustard seed that Jesus spoke of –
well, mustard was a terrific weed, back in the day – grows like the
clappers, and still does – and nobody in their right mind would
have planted it. Besides which, it would have attracted birds, which
would then have eaten the other the crops. And the yeast that
leavens the whole of the dough? Well, for Jews, what was really holy
and proper to eat was unleavened bread, which you had at Passover.
You
threw out all your old leaven –
we’d
call it a sourdough starter, today, which is basically what it is –
and
started again.
I
remember being told in primary school that this was a Good Idea
because you need fresh starter occasionally.
But
the thing is, leavened bread was considered slightly inferior –
and
the leaven itself, the starter –
yuck!
It
isn’t even the bread that is likened to God’s country, it is the
leaven itself!
And
did you notice –
it
was a woman who took that leaven.
A
woman!
That
won’t do at all!
Again,
for male Jews, women were slightly improper –
and
who knew that she wouldn’t be on her period and therefore unclean?
And
she hid the starter in enough flour to make bread for 100 people!
She
hid it.
It
was concealed, hidden.
Not
what people would expect from the Kingdom of God, is it?
Be
careful what you wish for! You wanted a King, instead of God; a King
who would introduce conscription, would confiscate your bit of land
and give it to one of his favourites. A King whose country would be
manifestly unfair and unequal. But that was what you thought you
wanted.
And
then you got God’s Kingdom. A place that was totally not what you
expected. A place of justice and mercy and love and forgiveness; but
also a place where your most entrenched ideas are turned upside-down;
where what you thought you knew about God turned out to be all
wrong…. And yet, a place so worthwhile, so wonderful, that you
would sell all your possessions to get there.
Perhaps,
just perhaps, it was worth wishing for a King so that we could know
Christ as King of the Kingdom of Heaven. Amen.
