March 15, 2026 - Fourth Sunday in Lent: The Dance with the Divine

March 15, 2026  Fourth Sunday in Lent
Ladue Chapel Presbyterian Church
First Samuel 16:1-13
“The Dance with the Divine”
Douglas T. King

What is a dance, a debate, a tug of war, a collaboration, a conversation, a case of creative differences, a teaching opportunity, and a complicated relationship all rolled into one?  Our text from the book of First Samuel this morning.  It is easy to get distracted in this text and miss what is really going on.  It is easy for our eyes to focus on the young, handsome shepherd anointed to be king and experience this text as a simple feelgood story.  But what it is, is a dance, a debate, a tug of war, a collaboration, a conversation, a case of creative differences, a teaching opportunity and a complicated relationship all rolled into one.

When we join the text this morning there is so much back story.  Following the deaths of Moses and Joshua the nation of Israel was governed by Judges.  But the people of Israel eventually grew frustrated with their leadership and demanded a King.  They believed the answer to all of their problems was to be like all of the other nations who had kings.  God was opposed to this idea and saw Godself as the king of Israel. Knowing human nature, the divine was concerned with concentrating too much power in the hands of one person.   And God saw Israel as distinct and different from all of the other nations.  But the Israelites kept nagging God and eventually God relented and gave them a king, Saul.  It could have all the feel of a parent who is exhausted by a wayward and stubborn child and gives in to their demands for just a moment of peace and quiet.

So, Samuel, one of the last of the judges, is tasked with locating Saul, a giant of a man, to be their king.  By every human metric he was an excellent choice.  But Saul was a man of weak faith and continually demonstrated his lack of trust in God’s commands.  Eventually his greed was the final straw as he kept for himself what was to be sacrificed to God.  Saul, as king, forgets that his whims and wishes were not the final word.  Saul is stripped of his kingship and we hear one of the rare moments when God expresses regret.  At the end of the fifteenth chapter it states “And the Lord was sorry that he had made Saul king over Israel.”

As we just heard, Samuel, still grieving over all that happened with Saul, is sent by God to Jesse’s household in search of a new king.  Saul, immediately believes one of the tall, strapping, kinglike-looking sons (much like Saul) will be the new king.  However, we learn that Saul’s expectations are not God’s expectations.  God chooses the youngest and smallest of the brothers, though handsome, he is the runt of the litter.  And as we know, going forward, David will do the most remarkable feats of faithfulness as king and, just like Saul, he will also engage in selfish acts that are far from whom he is called to be.
   
My, oh, my.  What a dance, a debate, a tug of war, a collaboration, a conversation, a case of creative differences, a teaching opportunity and a complicated relationship all rolled into one is this interaction between God and humanity.  Lest there be any confusion, the Biblical narrative makes it abundantly clear that there was no pristine and golden age of harmony in the relationship between God and mortals.  It has always been a fascinating and muddled mélange of intentions and outcomes.

The one critique I might offer is that the plotline does become rather predictable and repetitive.  We consistently fall short and God always tries again.  As a work of literature, one could argue that is a little disappointing.  As a revelatory text teaching us about the nature of ourselves and our God, it is absolutely brilliant.

In those moments of clarity when I am brought face-to-face with just how deeply flawed I am and the long list of ways that I have failed to be faithful, the Biblical narrative is of deep comfort.  Saul and David, and the king-hungry Israelites are not the only folks seeking to be faithful and falling short.  The Bible presents an endless cast of characters who are flawed.  If the Biblical narrative were nothing but stories of pristine saints, ever true in their faithfulness I do not know what it would have to offer us.  
 
When we do see some of these flawed Biblical folk succeed in their faithfulness it is because God has coaxed, cajoled, and guided them with an unmatched and unmitigated patience and perseverance. God never wanted the Israelites to have a king.  But God relented because their obsession was standing in the way of all else.  God met those people where they were and sought to achieve the divine purposes in the context that was present.  And when King Saul failed, God did not bury the Israelites.  God tried again, this time with a king that more matched divine expectations rather than human expectations.  And King David was a remarkably faithful ruler who led exceedingly well.  But the concentration of power eventually revealed David’s feet of clay. However, God did not cast him aside but tried again, offering David a way forward.

In our human-to-human relationships we often seek for them to be fifty-fifty.  Let’s meet halfway.  Let’s compromise.  I give a little and you give a little.  This is in no way how our relationship with the divine works.  God runs one hundred percent of the way to us, meeting us exactly where we are.  We see this in this tale of kings in the Old Testament and then we see it writ large in Jesus Christ in fully human form.  But God does not come one hundred percent of the way to us, to have us remain where we are.  God, invites, coaxes, cajoles, by any means necessary, offering us grace, to get us to travel one hundred percent of the way to where God resides.  If God needs to use kings, God will use kings. If God needs to use prophets God will use prophets.  If God needs to use God’s very own Son, then God’s very own Son will come.  I believe there is no distance God’s grace will not travel and there is no method God’s grace will not try to invite us forward from our brokenness into wholeness.

When our spiritual journeys feel choppy and disconnected, we are walking in the footsteps of our biblical forebears.  We continue to be imperfect people, striving and failing in a myriad of ways.  And our God continues to be perfect in the divine’s steadfast, enduring love for us, finding us right where we live.  Just as those Israelites did, we will make choices which will displease God.  The divine is a little like the GPS in our cars.  Regardless of the number of wrong turns we may make in our lives, God is continually recalculating our route home.  

There may be times when our relationship with God feels like, a dance, a debate, a tug of war, a collaboration, a conversation, a case of creative differences, a teaching opportunity and a complicated relationship all rolled into one.  And what that means is we are part of countless generations of the faithful, who are not always so faithful, with which God has chosen to stand beside and try and try again.    

Our journey continues, with all its twists and turns, but our destination is sure.

 Thanks be to God.  Amen.