IS THIS ALL YOU HAVE?
A sermon by George R. Pasley
1 Samuel 16:1-13; 2 Corinthians 5:14-17
Once upon a time there was Sunday school class. To be specific, it was a seventh grade Sunday school class, and it had five members.
The class members all knew the story of David and Goliath, but they did not know the story we heard today- the story of God picking out David from among his older and bigger brothers, so they listened when their teacher read it to them from the bible.
They listened, and they liked what they heard.
Bob liked the story because he had 3 older brothers and they always got to do things he didn’t get to do.
Marcy liked the story because for some reason she didn’t have as many friends at school as the other kids in her class.
George liked the story because he was short and slow and he got picked last whenever the kids were picking sides to play a game.
Alicia liked the story because she wasn’t a good student in school.
Celia liked the story because kids teased her all the time and she didn’t know why.
They liked the story because they identified with David- he was left out of the party that his family was attending- in fact, David’s father and his seven brothers all but forgot David.
But God didn’t forget David and Samuel made everybody- David’s family and the whole
Their teacher told them that God never ignores anybody.
Their teacher told them that God never forgets anybody.
Their teacher told them that God knows all the good things about us, including some good things that nobody else can see.
So Bob, Marcy, George, Alicia and Celia liked that story and they remembered what their teacher told them for a long, long time.
Bob remembered that story three years later when his parents got divorced and he felt so sad and alone. He remembered that God never forgets anyone.
Marcy remembered that story four years later when nobody asked her to be their date to the junior prom. She remembered that God knows all kinds of good things about us that most people don’t see.
George remembered that story five years later when he got turned down for the first six jobs he applied for after he graduated from high school. He remembered that God turned down all seven of David’s older brothers because God was looking for just the right person- the person who had a good heart.
Alicia remembered that story six years later when she had to work harder at her job than the other people at work. She remembered that David was given a special gift from God, the gift of the Spirit with power.
Celia remembered that story ten years later when she lost her job. She felt very ashamed, but she remembered that God knows and remembers good things about everybody.
They all remembered the story- how David was the youngest and the smallest and the least important, but God made Samuel and Jesse and the whole village wait because David was the one God wanted.
It was good they remembered, but it wasn’t the whole story.
The story that day was, God knew about David and did not forget him.
God knew what was in David’s heart, faith in God and that’s what God liked.
God gave David the gift of the Spirit, and David did great things for a God.
That was the story that day in Sunday school, and it was a good story, but it wasn’t the whole story. In fact, maybe the most important part of the story was left out.
The important part was this: we all have things about us that aren’t so good. Some of those things matter to human beings and not to God, but some of those not-so-good things matter to God- but never so much that God will forget us or ignore us.
But there’s one more thing: God gives everyone a new life, and if we step into that life and live it, God changes us into new creations.
David didn’t know about that part of the story the day Samuel anointed him, but he learned it many years later, when he sinned, repented, and was forgiven. He wrote a poem about it and said, “Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.”
No, Bob, Marcy, George, Alicia and Celia didn’t know that part of the story- not that day in Sunday school. But they learned it.
They learned it in church, but they learned it for real in life.
Bob struggled at a lot of things- at least, he felt like he was struggling and he certainly wasn’t one of the movers and shakers in town. He had a hard time finding something he was good at and he changed jobs several times. He never could put enough money together to buy a new car and he rented the cheapest apartment he could find.
So when someone in the church asked him to help serve food at the soup kitchen, he laughed and said yes because he actually felt like he was just two days away from needing to go there for help.
But when he went there, he saw people in the church sitting down with people from the street, and having conversations with them. So he started to think.
Even so, when someone else in church asked him to be part of a committee that was planning a mission project, his first impulse was to say, “Why me? No, thanks.” After all, he hadn’t proved to be very good at anything.
But the preacher preached that week from 2 Corinthians chapter five, “So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view.”
The preacher said we can’t tell what God is working on inside anybody’s life, so we have to look at everybody as one of God’s special projects, no matter what. That very day, Bob said yes. After all, he was eager to see what God had in mind.
Marcy actually got in trouble with the law, and went to jail. It was just for a few months, but it made her think very bad things about herself. But then one day she heard a verse from Corinthians on the radio, “Jesus died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.”
For some reason that made her think about David, the youngest and smallest and how God picked him. Maybe God was picking her for something good, even though she had a criminal record. A friend told her maybe so, but the only way she would find out was to step into that new life that God was offering her.
George- well, it was the other way around with George. George knew some people, and he thought he knew all about them. They were no good- well, maybe not NO good, but not good for much. So he never paid them any attention, not if he could help it.
But then one day, when George was feeling really bad about something, one of those not-good-for-much persons noticed the dark look on George’s face, and that person said, “I’ll say a prayer for you, George.”
That stopped George in his tracks. He remembered David, ignored by his father and brothers but chosen by God. So that night he picked up his Bible and started reading the New Testament, and two weeks later he came to 2 Corinthians 5, “Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.”
When he read that, George dropped the book, and started praying right then and there.
Alicia never went to college. At least, not for along time. But then one day one of her friends started trying to talk Alicia into going.
Alicia explained that she wasn’t a good student, so her friend said part of that depended on the subjects a person was thinking. Then they added, “But Alicia, I notice you work really hard at whatever you do- you don’t give up, and that’s what counts.”
Even so, Alicia brushed it off. Or so she thought.
Because when she went to church a few weeks later, the sermon was about how God gives gifts of perseverance, and passion, and curiosity to people and they rise up to do things they never imagined they could do. That made Alicia think about David, the little one that God wanted Samuel to anoint, but when she went home she looked up the sermon text from that Sunday and it was, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
As for Celia, she was at her wits end. Nothing was going right, nothing at all. She got married and divorced. She had a daughter, and she had a job that wasn’t so good, and her family was on her case, all the time it seemed.
Celia didn’t have time for friends and she argued way too much with her daughter and that made her feel bad. Sometimes she was pretty sure she was doing a lot of things wrong raising her daughter, but most of the time she just tried not to think about it. After all, what could she do?
But then one day, during an argument with her daughter, her daughter snapped and said, “I just wish I had a mother who loves me.”
That stopped Celia cold. So after her daughter slammed the bedroom door, Celia started to pray.
She told God how sorry she was.
She told God she wished she could live her whole life over, from the very beginning.
She told God that she just wasn’t very good and would probably never be very good.
But then God started talking back, sort of. Because suddenly Celia remembered David’s seven older brothers, and how God passed all of them by even though they were all really good men.
Celia remembered how Samuel asked Jesse, “Is this all you have?”
Suddenly, she felt like God was asking her, “Is this all you have? Give it to me.”
So she did, and suddenly she could see herself through Christ’s eyes.
When she did, it made all the difference in the world.
Once upon a time that’s how it was for Bob, Marcy, George, Alicia and Celia.
So the question is, “How is it for you?” Because if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Amen.
