Scriptures: I Samuel 16:1-13, Psalm 23 , Ephesians 5:8-14, John 9:1-41
You don’t need me to tell you that getting a job these days
is difficult at best. The economy tanked
in 2008 with the bank crisis, and all these years later has never come all the
way back. According to the US Department
of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics[1],
Philadelphia County’s unemployment rate in December, 2013 was 8.4% -
significantly better than the unemployment rate of 10.5% in December 2012 and
10.4% in December 2011, but still quite high.
These statistics don’t count so-called “discouraged workers” who gave up
looking for work because the economy is so bad, so the “real” unemployment rate
in the Philadelphia area, including those who stopped looking for work, is
quite a bit higher than 8.4%, probably well above 10%, maybe even as high as
15%. Suffice to say, there are a lot of
our neighbors looking for work.
At the same time, there are employers who have jobs to fill,
but have trouble finding people with suitable qualifications. I emailed a link to an article https://mninews.marketnews.com/index.php/philadelphia-manufacturers-struggle-fill-entry-level-jobs?q=content%2Fphiladelphia-manufacturers-struggle-fill-entry-level-jobs – and brought
some paper copies today – about Northeast Building Products, a door and window
manufacturer on Aramingo Ave. They offer
a starting hourly rate of $8 per hour – not wonderful, barely above minimum
wage, but it’s a foot in the door.
According to the article – and of course, this is what the company is
saying – they have trouble hiring and retaining workers because many applicants
don’t pass the drug test, and of those who do, many have such poor skills in
basic math and reading that they have trouble following instructions. Others are rejected because of poor work
habits.
The problems Northeast Building Products has in filling
entry level positions points to the reality that some job applicants, despite
the best of intentions, trip themselves up when applying for work. Certainly, showing up at a job interview with
alcohol on one’s breath or slurring noticeably or otherwise unable to pass a
drug test is generally a bad idea, a waste of time for the applicant and the
company, but there are other jobhunting pitfalls. In general, job applicants should put their
best foot forward, dressing appropriately for the interview, having one’s past
employment history handy so one can fill out an application accurately, having
reference information handy. It’s helpful
to do some research about the company in advance so that when the interviewer
asks what you can do for the company, you can respond convincingly. You probably want to have a sense of the
going hourly rate for your job so you don’t price yourself out of a job or sell
yourself short. Resumes and applications
with blatant spelling errors generally end up in the trash – do not pass go, do
not collect $200. Applicants who speak
inappropriately or disrespectfully during the interview shouldn’t sit by the phone
expecting a callback from the company.
And then, of course, there are factors from the past that
are hard to change, but that follow into the present, make job hunting
difficult. Gaps in one’s employment
history can be offputting to potential employers, though if one can point to
volunteer work or temp work during those gap times, it helps. A criminal record, even for a long-ago minor
nonviolent drug offense, can make it very difficult to find employment. A couple years ago, Philadelphia instituted a
law banning employers from asking questions about criminal records on
employment applications and during first interviews, at least allowing people a
foot in the door, but searching for employment with a criminal record is still
an uphill climb.
Now, at this point you’re probably wondering what on earth
I’m blathering on about, because you didn’t come to church this morning for a
news flash from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics or my Captain Obvious crash
course in job hunting – though if any of that is helpful, of course, you’re
welcome. Mostly, I wanted to begin my sermon by
providing a sense of generally accepted wisdom about how people find jobs, and
how employers fill vacancies.
In our Old Testament reading from 1 Samuel, God had given the
prophet Samuel the overwhelming task of helping God to fill a very important
job vacancy in Israel’s leadership, namely that of king. It was a task that had been troublesome from
the start: God originally didn’t want
Israel to have a king at all, and the prophet Samuel himself had led the people
for 40 years. But faithful Samuel had
grown old, and Samuel’s sons did not take after their father, but instead were
corrupt and oppressive. The people
looked at the surrounding nations and saw that they all had kings, and so asked
the Lord to find them a king, so they could be just like all the other nations. Samuel, of course, felt rejected – “what am
I, chopped liver?” he might have asked.
God was even more displeased – after all, God’s repeated message to
Israel was precisely that they were God’s chosen people, precisely that they
were not like all the other nations – but though God was displeased with the
request, he told Samuel to give the people what they asked for, after first
warning them what it would be like to live under a king. Samuel, in the unenviable position of having
been fired abruptly by the people and told “don’t let the door hit you and your
sons on the way out” and then having to recruit and train his successor, had
anointed Saul king, and though in today’s reading Saul still held the title of
king, Saul had disobeyed God, Saul’s leadership had crashed and burned, and the
Lord had rejected Saul. And so God had
commissioned Samuel once more to recruit a successor to Saul, a king who would
obey God, who would succeed where Saul had failed.
Now, if you or I had been asked by God to find a king, we
would probably look among the Israel’s prominent families, and would ask about
prior leadership experience and past accomplishments. But that’s not how God instructed
Samuel. Instead, Samuel was sent to
Bethlehem, to the family of Jesse, a shepherd….he’d have been prominent among
the residents of the village of Bethlehem, but hardly a mover and shaker. God had told Samuel that one of Jesse’s sons
would be Israel’s next king. So Jesse
presented his sons in order of age, the oldest first – and surely each son in
turn tried to make a good impression, putting on their best robe and acting as
persons of leadership potential. Eliab,
the oldest son, apparently was tall and impressive looking, and initially
Samuel thought Eliab would make a dandy king, but God cautioned that Eliab was
not his choice – nor were the other sons – until they came to David, the
youngest, who had been out in the fields.
Far from being dressed for success in any way, David, probably in his
early teens, came before Samuel, dirty, sweaty, likely smelling from the sheep
he’d been tending. And God told Samuel,
“That’s the one! Anoint him!”. And
Samuel anointed David on the spot, while David was probably wondering “Who is
this strange old man and why is he pouring oil on my head? What have I gotten myself into?” And the rest
is history.
Today’s Old Testament reading reminds us that God’s thoughts
are not our thoughts, and God’s ways are not our ways. In the business world or in other fields of
employment, recruiters know what they are looking for in a candidate. They advertising the position through the
expected channels – industry publications and such – and they round up a pool
of the usual suspects to call for job interviews. Throughout the Biblical narratives, God
repeatedly chooses those nobody would expect, the most unusual suspects
imagineable, to carry on God’s work. If
you or I were going to select a family line to be called as God’s chosen
people, we likely wouldn’t choose a couple in their 70’s who’d been unable to
conceive children – and then wait another 30 years until they conceived – but
that’s the story of Abraham and Sarah.
If you or I wanted to choose somebody to lead the chosen people out of
slavery, we probably wouldn’t pick someone who had murdered one of Pharoah’s
overseers and who was now a fugitive from justice – and, oh by the way, who
stuttered – but that’s the story of Moses.
Earlier we spoke of Samuel, and he himself had come out of unlikely
circumstances, having been born to Hannah, who had long been barren. So God’s ways are not our ways. In the world, when trying to fill a position,
we call those who are qualified. But
when God needs a job done, he qualifies those whom he calls. Serving God is not about credentials; it’s
about being faithful, and trusting God to provide what is needed at the right
time along the way.
Which brings us to this morning: in a few minutes we’ll be ordaining and
installing two of our members as Deacons. While they each
bring different gifts, they both come with great love for God and neighbor, and
hearts to serve and strengthen Emanuel Church.
And make no mistake: in the
church, leadership is not lording over others, but serving others.
Our Old Testament and Gospel readings set
side-by-side good and bad examples of leadership that I hope we can all remember as
deacons. First, remember that before
there was King David, there was King Saul.
King Saul had also been chosen by God and anointed by Samuel. But Saul let his authority go to his head,
and stopped listening for God’s guidance.
Ultimately he became mentally unstable, lashing out at those he saw as
his enemies, even throwing a spear at his own son Jonathan on one occasion. David, by contrast, remembered where he’d
come from. He listened to God. He saw himself, not as a great man, but as an
ordinary man serving a great God. When
he messed up – and when David messed up, he messed up big-time, making
king-sized mistakes - he asked God for forgiveness, and God offered king-sized
forgiveness for David’s king-sized sins. We worship a God of second chances, and so
long as we’re willing to return to God with open hearts, we can make a fresh
start.
And before King Saul was the prophet Samuel. Samuel himself had served long and faithfully,
had gotten old and grey in the service of Israel. He certainly had cause to be bitter when the
people demanded a king, and when Saul was rejected, Samuel grieved. He could
have quit, could have taken his ball and gone home, as the saying goes. And yet Samuel continued to listen to God’s
voice, continued to do what God called him to do, despite his own hurt feelings
and grief. Samuel knew that the needs of
the people were more important than his own feelings. Leadership often isn’t a
lot of fun. In any kind of church
leadership, misunderstandings and hurt feelings are part of the journey. But it’s important to reconcile and move
forward, so that God and people are served.
Our Gospel reading – that long, long reading from John’s
Gospel – really deserves a sermon in its own right. It’s first and foremost about Jesus healing a
man born blind, and about God’s amazing grace – in this case, given to a man
who did not even ask for healing. Jesus just
walked up to the man, put mud on the man’s eyes, told the man to wash his eyes,
and healed him. But it also provides two
sharply contrasting views of leadership.
The Pharisees are presented as
arrogant and rigid, as being upset that the man was healed on the wrong day of
the week – on the Sabbath - rather than grateful to God for the healing. Jesus, by contrast, was perfectly willing to
stoop to the ground and make mud to rub on the man’s eyes. And, as I explained before the Gospel
reading, John’s Gospel was written at a time when the followers of Jesus were
parting company from mainstream Judaism.
As the old song goes, “breaking up is hard to do”, and the breakup between
Judaism and Christianity was ugly, with mutual condemnations on all sides – not
unlike the ugliness between Catholics and Protestants that accompanied the Protestant
reformation. So we shouldn’t take John’s
portrait of the Pharisees of Jesus’ day as an unbiased portrait of the Judaism
of Jesus’ day – it’s more like a caricature, an editorial page cartoon - or as
saying anything at all about the Judaism of our day. But as leaders, we can still take the lesson
that we should avoid being rigid and legalistic. Humans look at the outward appearance, but
God looks at the heart. At all times,
being faithful to God also means being willing to meet peoples’ needs – even if
it means stooping down on the ground to make mudpies, as Jesus did, if that’s
what God is calling us to do and what our fellow church members and neighbors
need us to do. Again, in the church, we
lead by serving. In the Roman Catholic
church, one of the titles of the Pope is “Servant of the Servants of God” –
certainly some Popes have lived that title out more convincingly than others -
but in our own small congregation, anyone who takes leadership here at Emanuel
is likewise a servant of the servants of God.
Deacons, when Samuel came to anoint a king for
Israel, David, the one to be anointed king, was found tending the sheep. May our new Deacons also be faithful in helping to tend
our little flock here at Emanuel Church.
And may we all be faithful in hearing and living God’s word, that we may
bring good news and be good news to our neighbors here in Bridesburg. Amen.
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