Loving God, you know our frailties and failings, and yet you have continued to love us and forgive us through Jesus Christ.  Empower us by your Spirit to love and serve others as Jesus did, through the same Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

            In our reading from 1 Samuel today, we learn – once again – that human leadership will always fall short – especially when those leaders are not faithful to God’s ways.  In ancient Israel, the elders could see a crisis of leadership coming.  Samuel, who is variously referred to as a prophet or a judge, has grown old.  His sons, apparently, are corrupt, and are not faithful to God’s ways like Samuel.  Thus, the elders have decided that what Israel really needs is a king.  They want to have a king just like all of the other nations – in spite of the fact that God has been their king.

         Samuel, who is a truth-teller, gives them all of the reasons why having a king is a bad idea.  There will be abuse of power and corruption.  They will end up being slaves to the kings who will take their land and their sons and daughters and one tenth of their flocks and produce.  In fact, they will complain to God because of their kings – even though they have been fore-warned.  The people, however, are not interested in the truth.  They have made up their minds that they should have a king – and that’s that!

         Doesn’t it sound a little bit like children who want to have something or to do something because their friends either have it or do it?  And then I can hear mother’s voice saying, “And if all your friends jumped off a cliff, would you want to do that, too?”  However, in this case, they want to be just like all of the other nations – all of the nations who do not have God as their ruler.  The end result of all of this is that Saul is anointed as the first king of Israel.

         Initially, it seems as though Saul’s only qualifications for this position are that he is tall and handsome, and a member of the smallest tribe of Israel.  Admittedly, God does give him a new heart and even the spirit of God at one point (1 Sam. 10:9-10), but it always seems as though Saul’s heart remains divided somehow.  He has some early successes, and lots of potential, but ultimately, he alienates himself from his family, from God, and from the prophet Samuel.

         One of the questions with any of these biblical stories is how they are connected to the things that are happening here and now.  One of the things that has been on the minds of many people lately is the discovery of 215 children in an unmarked grave in Kamloops, BC.  As we hear the warnings today about what a king will do to the people, we can hear echoes of colonialism in Canada and around the world.  They are warned that the king will take their land and also their sons and their daughters – among other things.  However, there is one important difference.

         The people of Israel are warned ahead of time that this is what will happen, but insist that they need a king anyways.  However, Indigenous people had no such choice.  They signed treaties in good faith that were never kept, were forced to send their children away to school, and in many cases, they never saw their children again.

         While people are understandably horrified at the recent discovery in BC, the issue of missing children and burial sites was raised in 2015 by the Truth & Reconciliation Commission.  In fact, six of the 94 calls to action had to do with locating burial sites and actually letting families know what happened to their children.  However, these calls to action had been largely ignored until now.  It is, apparently, a lot harder to ignore the bodies of 215 children – which are undoubtedly only the tip of the iceberg.

         For those of us who did not lose our children in this way, it is hard to imagine what could ever make things right and lead to reconciliation.  Certainly, acknowledging the truth is part of the picture – even when that truth is really difficult to hear.  Apologies have been issued by some of the churches that were directly involved, including the Anglican, United, and Presbyterian churches in Canada.  Many churches in Canada have also repudiated some of the ideas that fueled colonialism – including terra nullis and the doctrine of discovery.  While these things are just a beginning, most church leaders today recognize that what happened has very little to do with faith in Jesus Christ.

         Jesus, I am convinced, would have those same children sitting on his knee as he blesses them.  He would hold them in his arms and say, “Whatever you have done to the least of these who are members of my family, you have done to me.”  He would point to these children and say that the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.

         Certainly, human leadership always falls short – even in the church.  Our God, however, continues to give healing and forgiveness and comfort in sorrow, and even empowers us to love and serve others through Jesus Christ our Saviour.  Amen.

Lectionary 10B                                 1 Samuel 8:4-20; 11:14-15

June 6, 2021

St. Luke’s Zion Lutheran Church

Pastor Lynne Hutchison

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