1 Samuel 8
1 When Samuel
became old, he made his sons judges over Israel. 2 The name of his firstborn son
was Joel, and the name of his second, Abijah; they were judges in Beer-sheba.
3 Yet his sons did not follow in his ways, but turned aside after gain; they
took bribes and perverted justice.
4 Then all
the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah, 5 and said
to him, ‘You are old and your sons do not follow in your ways; appoint for us,
then, a king to govern us, like other nations.’ 6 But the thing displeased
Samuel when they said, ‘Give us a king to govern us.’ Samuel prayed to the
Lord, 7 and the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Listen to the voice of the people in all
that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me
from being king over them. 8 Just as they have done to me, from the day I
brought them up out of Egypt to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods,
so also they are doing to you. 9 Now then, listen to their voice; only—you shall
solemnly warn them, and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over
them.’
Reflection
Veritas Vos
Liberabit, which you should recognise as the College motto “The truth shall
set you free”.
As far as I
can see there are at least two confronting ideas in this motto.
The first is
to wonder about the same thing that Jack Nicholson wondered in the movie “A Few
Good Men”: can we actually handle the truth? Can you? Can I?
And the
second is to wonder at what kind of freedom we are talking about. Have you have ever asked yourself the
questions ‘freedom from what’ or even more importantly ‘freedom for what’?
My short hand
response to these confrontations in the Kings College motto would be “We are set
free to serve” but how do I come to this conclusion.
It may seem
odd that I chose to have a story which dates back over 3000 years to help
elucidate a response to the idea that as Kings men (and for the women who work
here as well) you have been “Set free to serve” but I hope you noticed just how
poignant the passage is for us this evening.
In the
passage we have an aging prophet called Samuel seeking to do some succession
planning in anticipation of his death he wishes to install his sons as Judges
over Israel.
Yet, as the
Israelites rightly point out, Samuel’s sons do not follow in his ways. They are off message! So it is that the
Israelites request that God appoint a king over them, like the other
nations. A plan which Samuel rejects and
God questions as idolatrous, outlining that such a choice will have disastrous
consequences.
Despite this
divine warning God graciously accedes to the wishes of the people and the rest
as they say is history. Saul is chosen to be King.
What does
this have to do with us here 3000 years later?
Well, I believe it has a few lessons for us to listen to because this
passage is not simply about challenging the idea of Kingship as a concept but
is about power and authority and where we place our allegiance.
You may be
thinking at this point that you do not have much authority or power in your
life, especially if you are a student.
But the reality is everyone here is a place of privilege. We are among the wealthiest people in the
world, and we have been given the opportunity for education, if we have not
already received it, and there can be little doubt that many of us will grow in
our power and influence through our lives.
In this sense
as Australians living her ate Kings we have a great deal of freedom which is
accompanied by the opportunity to exercise that freedom because of our
education and access to power.
If we turn
back to the reading for a moment I find that when we look at the issues
associated with the application of power and authority there is a two edge
sword.
On one side
we find that regardless of which way the Israelites choose it will be
inadequate. Neither a King nor Judges
will be a perfect option. Power and authority
are always and ever open to misuse and misunderstanding because the limitations
of our human capacity. We are it seems
never all that we should be or could be.
For me this
is a reminder, that any who grow to have power and authority must be wary of
the mistakes we will undoubtedly make and to approach our leadership with a
sense of humility.
The other
edge of the blade is that people still long to be lead and look to others to
exercise power and authority in decisions about how a community operates. In other words despite the problems and
conundrums that leaders give to us we still need leaders.
As I
indicated before because of the opportunities and privileges you and I have
most if not all of us will be leaders and will exercise significant power and
authority but how do we move beyond that conundrum that I have named, the
imperfection of our leadership.
It is my
view that in our own efforts we cannot but within the limitations of our own
capacity we can seek to respond to the ideal of Jesus and the kingdom that he
speaks of.
After his
arrest Jesus was brought before Pilate and in response to the question in
John’s gospel, ‘Are you a king?’ Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this
world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I
should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here.”
Jesus
kingdom is not a place and so his kingship does not occur within a physical
domain. Rather Jesus kingship is
connected to the idea of how God longs for and intends things to be within the
creation.
The basileia tou theo of which Jesus spoke or
the kingdom of God is not a place but is when and where God’s reign and rule is
expressed within our lives. Jesus
exercise of power and authority occurs in his willingness to give up his life
for others – not to fashion his existence around gaining power and prestige and
authority for himself but to look to heal, help and reconcile people with one
another and with God.
It is
precisely in Jesus action of doing this that he sets us free from the problem
of our imperfection. His perfect
response to having power and authority supersedes our inadequacies and
errors. Moreover, when we examine Jesus
life we are challenged with a picture of power and authority which sits in a
skewed relationship with what we know and experience in most of our lives. Life is not about what I am going to get out
of it for myself rather it is about what I give of my life for the sake of
others. In this we, are as I suggested,
‘Set free for service to others’.
This truth,
the truth of Jesus gift of freedom from our abuse of power, is a difficult
truth inasmuch as it suggests we are not in control of as much as we think we
are. Yet it is also a truth which sets
us free for the purpose of leading and serving others in new ways. This is the purpose of participating in the
coming reign of God by putting others before ourselves, living against the
mainstream and living for God.
So as we
begin the year at Kings the good news is this Veritas Vos Liberabit. Can
we handle this truth and can we live this freedom which we receive as gift as
we enter into this year at Kings? The
answer is probably only ever imperfectly but as we look to Jesus and have our
notions of power authority turned on their head we are lead to consider what it
means to be a community of God’s grace together.
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