The Lord Looks on the Heart

Robert E. Hall
Tarrytown United Methodist Church

March 2, 2008

Text: First Samuel 16: 1-13

Every time I read the story of God choosing David, I remember the time our car broke down in Leakey, Texas. We had stopped for gas and noticed that green water was dripping down under the hood. I knew just enough to know that this was radiator fluid. I mentioned this to the fellow running the service station and asked if he would take a look. He turned to one of his workers, a young man who looked about 15 years old, and told him to go check on it. I thought to myself, “What does this kid know about engines? Isn’t there someone else with more experience here?” The kid came out, popped the hood, took a look, diagnosed the problem, and gave me an estimate of the cost and the time it would take. While we had coffee and pie at a local café, he repaired the car and we were on our way.

The owner of the station knew something about the teenager that was not obvious to me. When I saw him, I saw a kid; the owner saw a talented mechanic, far smarter than his years.

Jesse had his sons line up for inspection. Samuel was there on business. He had been scolded by God for worrying about the past, about King Saul’s failures. But God had work to do. The people of God were called to be a blessing to the nations of the earth, to teach and show the rest of the world what true God-ordained community was all about. In order to do this, they thought they needed a King. So, God has chosen a new one for them. Samuel was sent to be God’s agent in the choice. Whom had God chosen?

Notice: Samuel is not sent to make the choice himself. He is sent because he is wise enough to listen to God. God had told him, “I have provided [already picked] for myself a king among [Jesse’s] sons.” God will insure the future of his people. “Just pay attention, Samuel, to what I will tell you to do.”

We know what it is like to be leaderless. Whether it is in business, education, government, church, service clubs, families or churches, the right leader can make a very big difference. The body of people can get very nervous without a strong, loving and wise leader.

Throughout the biblical story, from the very beginning, God raises up leaders. Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Deborah, Esther, Saul, Gideon----and the list goes on, throughout our history. Many were not much appreciated until after they are gone. And, many times, the leaders are not obvious choices.

Moses, who was on the run after killing a man in Egypt; Abraham and Sarah, long in the tooth; Esther, a Jewish woman in a foreign land?

And now God would be making another choice.

Picture the line up. Samuel was impressed with Eliab. This son must have looked the part. Maybe he had a regal bearing. Since kings were often warriors, too, perhaps Samuel was impressed with his athletic build.

But remember, Samuel was not making this choice. God had already done. So God whispers to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart”

Seven sons are introduced to Samuel. But the Lord had not chosen any of these.

“Are all the sons here?” Well, no, Jesse says, there is another, the youngest; he’s out taking care of the sheep. “Well, bring him here.”

The suspense builds. We do not know his name. If the others are not the one, this must be the one. But who is he? The youngest is ushered into the line-up. He is rosy cheeked or had reddish hair, or both. He has beautiful eyes; he is handsome.

Then God speaks, but only to Samuel, with a command. “Get up and anoint him; for this is the one.” Samuel takes the horn of oil and anoints him. We do not know if he said anything, but the gesture was enough. For with the oil poured on David’s head, the Spirit of the Lord “came mightily upon David from that time forward.”

Now we know enough about David to know that he did not always live his life in obedience to God. He was a talented sinner like we all are, each of us in our own ways. But he is God’s chosen one, as we learn later, the “apple of God’s eye.”

So what did God see when he looked at David’s “heart?”

“Heart” in the bible is a word for “the innermost spring of individual life, the source of emotional, intellectual and volitional energies.” The heart can ache, melt, tremble, throb, flutter, grow hot, be sick, break, and be hungry; it can plan, seek, listen, remember, be lifted up, get hard, be stubborn, be deceived, be tender, be glad, be clean or dirty, be pure, be circumcised, renewed, be corrupt, have secrets. (See Interpreters Dictionary of the Bible)

It is close to what we mean when we refer to someone’s character, or when we say of someone, “they found what they were made of.”

Our innermost self, the seat of our passions, our “heart” can be hidden to all but the discerning. And God is the most discerning of all. “God looks upon the heart,” while we tend to look at the externals.

He has the “right stuff,” for the job of leading a chosen but incurably stiff-necked people. He won’t get it all right all the time, that’s for sure. (Remember the story of David, Uriah and Bathsheba!?) But he is God’s choice for King.

GOD’S X-RAY VISION

We mortals are always concerned to make the right impression, and there is a place for this worldly wisdom. We groom ourselves and dress to “say” something about ourselves, something we want others to see in us. We tend to see ourselves externally, the way we believe the most significant others in our early years saw us---which can be a good or a bad thing!

But God sees our hearts, too. It is the nature of God to see us through and through.

Jesus, in David’s lineage, had this kind of vision, too.

He looks upon the woman at the well, a Samaritan woman, and he knows her. She tries to side-step his knowledge of her, but he gently persists. In his knowledge of her, her life is changed and she goes to tell others.

Jesus looks at the Rich ruler and his heart goes out to him. He sees the man as he really is, not a bad man by any means, but his heart is wrapped around his possessions.

He sees Zacchaeus up in the tree and, to everyone’s astonishment, tells him to come down and host him for dinner. What does Jesus see in Zacchaeus that others could not see?

He sees certain Pharisees, too. He sees their hearts, like white-washed tombs, he says, full of dead mean’s bones! Never mind their religious posturing, he sees where their hearts really are.

And the disciples? He looks at fishermen, a tax collector, several freedom fighters and sees his task force!

The liberating word is this: we can be real, genuine in God’s presence, because God knows us through and through anyway. No use trying to fool God with a different voice or grand gestures when we talk to him!

So we can come to God without pretense. We can “Simply be who [we] are: struggling sinners, desperately in need of God’s loving mercy. [We] don’t need any-thing to help us be. [We] don’t need any tricks, any gimmicks…..only poverty of spirit. [We] don’t need to be perfect either…..Simply be the poor ones that we are, and come” to God.
(Fr Kelly Nemeck and Marie Theresa Coombs, Contemplation, 1982)

HEART WORK

We can also work on our hearts. We can grow in our love of God, self and neighbor. Or, better said, we can open our hearts and cooperate with God’s working.

The heart within, our core self, is a place of sacred encounter between ourselves and God. Sin lives there, of course, and woundedness. But God is able to mend and forgive.

Remember Psalm 51: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” Our hearts can be changed from “hearts of stone to hearts of flesh.” Can we dare to be teachable, receptive? Can we begin to see our own hearts as God does, and to forgive ourselves? 

God also sees our capacities, our abilities, our potential for blessing others.

God calls forth the person we are in his eyes.

SEEING MORE LIKE GOD SEES

And we can deepen our vision of others.

We do not have the advantage of Samuel, who seemed to have God whispering in his ear. But we can work at it. Maybe God will open our eyes and un-plug our ears, if we can dampen the noise a bit. Our challenge, our growing edge, is to strive to see others deeper than superficialities. We can never be God, of course. (There is great danger in thinking that we know someone else through and through. Good friends have respect for the mystery of the beloved’s heart, and keep not try to invade another’s self.)

But we can grow to see deeper than a person’s external appearance--- or at the very least, reserve judgment. How often we rush to judgment, pigeon-holing people we hardly know. In examining our hearts, we can be more aware of our own prejudices.

The apostle Paul wrote that “since the love of Christ controls us,…” we “do not regard others from a human point of view.” (II Corinthians 5: 14-21) He is speaking of other believers in Christ. But I think it goes beyond the fellowship of Christians. We are called and empowered to see outsiders too, those on the margins as gifted persons. This will take some doing, because our prejudices are deeply ingrained. But God can do miracles for those who are ready to rely on grace alone. Jesus has given us an example in his hospitality to outsiders of all kinds.

The Lord’s Table is a place to come without pretense. We “lift up our hearts” to the Lord. This is more than talk. Recall that you are known, just as you are. God sees your heart. Here you and I may receive the forgiveness and healing which God alone can provide.  Here, no matter how we may appear, we are known and cherished.

Here the Spirit of God is poured out, anointing each of us for sacred duties suited to our heart’s deepest loves.

“Almighty God, to you all hearts are open,
  all desires known, and from you no secrets are hidden.
  cleanse the thoughts of our hearts
  by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit,
  that we may perfectly love you,
  and worthily magnify your holy name,
  through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”

(Hymnal of the UMC, page 6)