“The Place of Our Anointing”

Fourth Sunday in Lent

March 6, 2005  

Scripture Reading:  1 Samuel 17:1-20

Rev. Dr. Carol Kerr

Blue Point Congregational Church

King David in the Bible started out as an ordinary shepherd boy.  From all outwards appearances there was nothing special about him.  He was born into nothing special.  He lived in an out of the way village.  He was the youngest of many brothers.   He was the one sent out to do the grunt work of the family.  Lowest on the totem pole.  No one would have guessed that David was going to become the greatest king Israel ever knew.  He himself had no idea except that the Lord sent the prophet Samuel to go out and find him.  Saul, the current king, had gone mad.  The Lord told Samuel to go and anoint someone else king, even while Saul was still alive.  This amounted to treason.  So the Lord told Samuel how to sneak around.  He was to pretend that he was just going to a village to offer a ritual sacrifice of a heifer.  Even though the village was outside of Samuel’s normal route, the religious ceremony that he was to perform would raise no eyebrows.  Kind of like me going to Aroostook county ostensibly to give communion.  The Lord said he was to go to Jesse the Bethlehemite and invite him to the ritual.  Then the Lord would show him what to do.  Samuel goes through all the older brothers but the Lord says that it is none of these.  Finally, confused Samuel asks Jesse if he has any other sons.  Well, there is the youngest who is out tending the sheep.  David the youngest comes in we can imagine smeared with dirt and the Lord says, “Bingo!” or something to that effect.  “Rise and anoint him.”  Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the presence of his brothers.  The spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward. 

Tulip bulbs look dull and brown.  They are dormant all year until the first rays of spring.  Then green leaves unfurl and the colorful blossoms.  David unfurled like a flower as he lived out his destiny.  A lot was going to happen.  Certainly Saul was not happy with David.  But, eventually he wins out and wins over the people and becomes a great king.  He brings the arc of the covenant into Jerusalem.  He subdues their enemies.  The country prospers.  He is creative and poetic, writing some of the best psalms in the bible.  So great is David that the people believed that when the Messiah came he would be a descendent of David himself.  But, the hidden potential in David started as a secret of God’s.  It then had to be found and recognized. 

A similar thing happened to the Dalai Lama.  The Dalai Lam is one of the most influential and widely respected religious leaders of the world.  He is the 14^th Dalai Lama and considered to be the reincarnation of the 13^th Dalai Lama.   Whether you believe in reincarnation or not, everyone agrees he is a profound advocate for peace, leader of the exiled Tibetians, great proponent for world unity and understanding.  Plus, he is an all round nice guy.  Undoubtedly the Dalai Lama is a great men.  Yet, his potential started as a complete secret of God’s.  It was totally unrecognizable from all outward appearances that is until it was discovered. 

The story of how the 14^th Dalai Lama was discovered is, at least to my western ears, seems very strange and quirky.  After the death of the 13^th Dalai Lama the regent of Tibet went to a holy lake and saw a vision.  The vision was of three letters, a picture of a monastery with roofs of jade green and gold, and house with turquoise tiles.  The vision was kept secret and high lamas and dignitaries were sent to all parts of Tibet in search of the place that the Regent had seen in the waters.  A small village in north eastern Tibet matches the description of the secret vision.  They went to the parent’s house disguised.  However, one of the dignitaries was wearing religious beads that had belonged to the 13^th Dalai Lama.  The little boy, about four years old at the time, recognized the beads and demanded that they be given to him.  Then the boy answered a series of questions correctly about their identity, what their real names were, choosing the correct articles that had belonged to the previous Dalai Lama.  With this, plus other things that matched up, they concluded this little boy, from an obscure village who looked ordinary in every way, was the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama, the real thing, the mother lode of their countries spiritual life.  So they took him with his parents, trained him, and ordained him.

How they found the Dalai Lama seems totally strange, quirky, and superstitious to me.  Except that you can’t argue for success. He did win the Nobel Peace Prize.  He is in an inspiration to millions.  His writings are profound.  Plus, Samuel found King David in equally strange way.  Like the ugly duckling from the outside no one would ever have thought these two boys would amount to anything much.  They were so ordinary, common, and humble.  Yet something in them, some small seed,  resonated to their destiny and they  became truly magnificent.  Something that lay dormant in them awoke and some power worked mightily upon them and with them, so that in the end they accomplished things beyond anybodies wildest dreams. 

Then there is Harry Potter.  You know, the wildly popular children’s books by J.K. Rowling.  The books that have broken world wide records in sales and number of copies published, number of languages translated, etc.  Harry Potter, is not real like King David or the Dalai Lama.  Harry Potter is fiction.  But there is something in the story that captures the imagination of millions and millions of people, young and old.  I believe it is the same thing that happened to King David and the Dalai Lama.  Harry Potter is an ordinary boy by all outward appearances.  Yet, there is something hidden in him that is truly extraordinary that is to be discovered.  The five books and counting revolve around the unfolding of this mysterious something that is embedded in this boy.  Up to his 12^th birthday Harry is raised by his aunt and uncle, the Dursley’s because both his parents are dead.  They live at four Privit Drive .   They are the last people in world who would have anything to do with the strange and mysterious. “They didn’t hold to such nonsense, thank you very much.”  Then upon his 12^th birthday amazing things start happening.  He finds out that he is a wizard and his parents were wizards.  Furthermore, there is something exceptional about him even for wizards.  When Harry was one year old his parents were killed by the evil Voldemort.  Voldemort turned to kill Harry too.  He zapped him with his most evil and powerful death spell.   Yet, it didn’t kill him.  It should have killed him but it didn’t.  In fact it back fired onto Voldemort.  No one knows why it didn’t kill Harry.  The only thing that remained of the encounter was a  zigzag scar on his forehead.   Ordinary Harry turns out to be very special.  This specialness is hidden and slowly becomes revealed through the series of books.  It is this basic plot, that captures the hearts of millions.  There is something in us that resonates with the truth here.  The tulip bulb blossoms into a flower, the ugly duckling turns into a swan, the orphan finds his true inheritance.

We love these stories because they are not just about kings and Dalai lamas, and wizards, but they are about us too.  We know in our heart of hearts that God has made us special for some purpose, and we have to discover what that is and live it out. 

How do we discover what that special something inside of us is?  After all we don’t have a prophet Samuel to come and anoint us.  We don’t have Regents and ministers to discern our destiny through visions and puzzles.  We don’t have Hogwarts, the school of Wizardry to educate us.  We do have the church.  (Which when you think about it is sort of like Hogwarts.  It is gothic with stained glass windows.  There are pictures of past ministers hanging around.  We have big suppers.  We are sort of eccentric sometimes…)  Well, we are not exactly Hogwarts.  But, we can support each other in discovering this special gift of God’s that is to become manifest in us.  This is our calling.  I have used the following quote from Frederich Beauchner several times before.  I will probably use it again some more times because I love it.  He says that our calling, our vocations, the place where God has secretly anointed you,  is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet. 

The way we can best go about discovering out calling is through a simple equation:  Passion + Values + Talents = Calling.   I hope to do more of this throughout the year with the congregation.  I would like the ministry of our church be the living out of our callings.  How cool would that be?  That our church is not driven by slots on committees that need to be filled.  Rather out ministry be driven by the working of the Spirit in and through the tasks God has anointed us to fulfill.  Plus, it is very fun and fulfilling because we will feel we are doing exactly what we are meant to be doing.  We will have the feeling that we are beginning truly live the life we always wanted.  It will spill over not into just our church work, but into everything we do because we will be aware of who we are.  We will be fired up. If we can tap into this place of our anointing, of our calling, think of the energy it will release.  Instead of an “I-have-to” attitude we will gain an “I want to serve God!”  attitude.  Instead of doing the minimum necessary to get by, we will be going over and beyond what is expected.  Instead of “What’s in it for me?”  we will be asking “Lord, what would You have me do at this time?  God how could my life best honor You?  Lord what way can I make a difference today?”

Back to the equation:  Passion + Values + Talents = Calling.  For fun here is a question that will begin to point to our passions:  If you could snap your fingers and know that you couldn’t fail, what would you do?  List three things fast…fast…fast….It’s important to let you gut answer for you.  Let it be as ridiculous even.  O.K.  who would like to share a something they wrote….(I would like to ski a double black diamond.  Write a book on mystics for everyday people.  Have a huge meal for lots of friends at my house.) 

There are many other questions that we could ask to help us to understand our passions more deeply.  This was just a taste. 

Next,  our values.  There is list in you bulletin.  Turn to that now.  Check off some of the boxes answering this question:  At the end of my life, I’d love to be able to look abck and know that I’d done something about….

Share some of these. 

I want to interrupt this sermon for us to read a litany about spiritual gifts from the Bible.

Left:                For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit; to another faith by the same spirit, and to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, and to another the effecting of miracles, and to another prophecy and to another the distinguishing of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, and to another the interpretation of tongues.  (1 Corinthians 12:8-10)

 

Right:              And God has appointed in the church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, the gifts of healing, helps, administrations, various kinds of tongues.  (1 Corinthians 12:28)

 

Men:               And since we have the gifts that differ according to the grace givent o us, let each exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith; if service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching; or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.  (Romans 12:6-8)

 

Women:          And he gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers.  (Ephesians 4:11)

 

All:                  Be hospitable to one another without complaint.  As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.  (1 Peter 4:9-10)

 

I have written in the bulletin some of the gifts that are mentioned in the Bible.  These are the talents that we find we have.  Quick, check off some of the things you think you are good at.  ….Lets call out a few. 

Of course this can be done in greater depth.  But,  we begin to fill out the equation:  Passion + Values + Talents = Calling.  So for instance, if a person’s passion is cooking, sometime they would like to help children, and their talent is administration their calling might be organizing events to serve children such as dinners.  Or coordinating classes teaching teens skills.  Another example, if a person’s passion is reading, they would sometime like to help the environment, and their talent it teaching, God’s calling might be something like teaching groups on the environment, or writing a book on it.  You see where I am going.  Certainly the little we have done here can go in more depth.  But, you might even have gotten some insights this morning.  If you want to deepen this even more, I have listed in the bulletin some other questions you can ask yourself or a friend of yours about yourself.  It’s a start anyway.  It is where we find our deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.  Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we incorporate these discoveries into the church.  If so we will become like King David, Dalai Lama, and Harry Potter “The right people, in the right places, for the right reasons.”  (Network, from Willowcreek Church ).