Today we continue reading from I Samuel about the first kings of ancient Israel. Last week, we read that Israel was governed by judges who tended to be weak which led to Israel being invaded a lot by its enemies.

The people demanded a king like the nations around them. God did not want them to have an earthly king but accepted the people’s rejection of God. God allowed Samuel, the last judge, to anoint Saul as the first king of Israel.

Saul did not work out very well for Israel. The text that says that God regretted the decision to allow Israel to have a king. So God worked through Samuel to anoint a new king.

Today’s reading is about the choosing of this new king. We will read that there will be an assumption of what leadership should look like. We will encounter the assumption that the first born male in the family is the most prepared for leadership. We will also have confirmed the belief that good looks are necessary for leadership.

But we will learn that leadership assumptions do not always turn out to be accurate. For God does not look on the outward appearance, we will learn, for God looks upon the heart.

Read I Samuel 15:34-16:13

God does not look on the outward appearance for God looks upon the heart.

As many of you know, our family traveled recently to New England for two weeks. In addition to fun destinations like Niagara Falls, the Ben & Jerry’s Creamery, and coastal Maine, we also threw in some educational destinations. We visited an Underground Railroad Museum in Vermont and the grave sites of Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony in Rochester, NY.

Both Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony were not placed in leadership positions by their appearance or birth order. In fact, as you can imagine, both of these individuals were overlooked for leadership because of the color of his skin in the case of Frederick Douglass and her gender in the case of Susan B. Anthony.

Frederick Douglass was born enslaved but escaped to become a leader in the abolitionist movement to grant freedom to all people regardless of the color of their skin. Douglass wrote about his experiences as a slave which gave a glimpse for others to see why this human sin needed to be overcome. Frederick Douglass helped to shape the nation to become what it should become.

I want to focus this morning on the story behind the other grave site we visited. That being the person of Susan B. Anthony and the passage of the 19th Amendment, the amendment which gave women the right to vote. It’s a fascinating story of how Susan B. Anthony and other women found ways to lead in a world which did not grant them leadership status.

In the text this morning, we read that God does not look upon appearance but that God looks upon the heart. As a young girl, Susan B. Anthony wanted her ideas to be heard.

And Anthony began to be heard. She began to address audiences throughout the Northeast where women had never been allowed to speak before. Anthony’s advocacy on behalf of women all came to a head in 1872 when Anthony and a group of about 50 women registered to vote in the presidential election.

Anthony was arrested by US Marshalls for illegally voting. She went to trial where she was found guilty and ordered to pay a fine of $100. She announced that she would never pay the fine and she never did.

Susan B. Anthony never lived to see women achieve the right to vote. However, the movement continued after her death. In 1919, the Susan B. Anthony Amendment was voted on and approved by the House of Representatives and the US Senate. But it required the affirmative votes of 36 states to meet the 3/4s threshold.

35 states voted in favor with Southern states, including South Carolina, voting against it. The passage of the 19th Amendment granting women the right to vote all came down to one Southern state, Tennessee. If Tennessee failed to adopt, then the Susan B. Anthony amendment would fail.

The vote in Tennessee was a tie with one Tennessee representative refusing to take a stand. His name was Harry T. Burn who at 23 years old was the youngest representative ever elected to the Tennessee legislature.

Knowing that he was the tie breaking vote, Burns’ mother wrote him a letter. In the letter, his mother told him to be a good boy and vote to ratify the amendment so that women would achieve the right to vote.

Burns, because of his mother’s letter, voted to approve what would become the 19th Amendment granting women the right to vote. After voting in favor, Burns made the statement that, “I knew that a mother’s advice is always safest for a boy to follow and my mother wanted me to vote to ratify.”

In the story we read, David is the overlooked child. The 8th of 8 children. When his father is asked to present his children to see which one is to be chosen by God to be king, it never occurs to Jesse that God might choose the youngest child.

Therefore, David is not presented at first. In the society, the oldest son is the most gifted child. But, as God says in the text, the world looks upon physical features but God looks upon the heart.

How many times do we overlook the people that God is calling to do great things? We certainly do that in the church. Historically it’s been men who were the only ones seen as leaders and, unfortunately, in many churches today that is still the case.

But who are the ones that are not being seen or being presented who are the ones that God is calling forth to be leaders today? Are we overlooking the skills of teenagers and young adults? Are we favoring men over women? Caucasian over Black or Asian or Hispanic? Abled over Specially abled? Straight over gay? Middle aged adults over older adults?

David was in the shadows in our story just like many people today are not seen who have the gifts that God wants to use to carry out God’s will. Or maybe you are that person that is sitting in the shadows because you do not feel called by God to serve because of some type of external feature that you have.

Maybe you have heard that you can’t because of your gender, or ethnicity, or orientation, or age, or whatever label we like to throw onto people.

The world looks upon external features but God looks upon the heart. If we are going to be a church and a world which is reflective of God’s will for the church and world, then we need to be looking at the people that may be being overlooked. Or maybe you are that person being overlooked?

In the stories that I shared, the women in these stories were told by the dominant culture that their stories were not valid stories. But somehow by the grace of God they knew something different and they did not allow themselves to be silenced.

God does not look upon appearances but God looks upon the heart.

Allow God to use your heart to make the difference that God is calling upon you to make.

Allow God to use you to affirm the voices that may be long silenced but who God has given a voice to speak. AMEN.

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-www.wikipedia.com
-Given: June 13, 2021 in Allison Creek Presbyterian (York, SC)