The Measure of Our Worth
1 Samuel 16:1, 4-13
Pewee Valley Presbyterian Church
March 30, 2014
Prayer for Illumination
Gracious God,
illumine our hearts and minds
as the Scriptures are read and proclaimed,
so that by the power of your Spirit
we may see what is good and right and true.
And seeing, help us to do what is pleasing to you,
so that your glory becomes visible
in our words and deeds.
In Christ's name, we pray. Amen.
- Taken from Feasting on the Word: Worship Companion
"But the Lord said to Samuel, 'Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.' ”
1 Samuel 16:7
Introduction
What are you worth? What is the value of your life? [...pregnant pause...]
Adam Davidson - a storyteller on the radio show, This American Life - wanted to find out the answer to this. And as he discovered, it turns out that we as a society have people whose job it is to think about this very question - insurance adjusters.
You see, when somebody dies and someone else is to blame, insurance adjusters are the ones who review the facts of the case, and then recommend how much the insurance company should settle for. Incredibly, it is their job to somehow come up with a dollar amount to compensate for the loss of that life. In essence, insurance adjusters decide what that person was worth...
Going to the insurance adjuster, Adam had estimated that his life was probably worth somewhere around $1,000,000. After all, as he believed, that is the start of the "really big numbers," and the value of a human life must surely be a really big number. However, as he sat in the insurance office, the adjuster looked Adam over, and asked him about his stats -- his age, job, marital status.
Single. No dependents. Reporter for NPR. The insurance adjuster assumed that no one would really be all that affected by Adam's death. So he said,
"Right now, today, I'm willing to pay you $35,000."
$35,000. Nowhere near the 1,000,000 that he had assumed. "For my death?" Adam asked, outraged.
"For your death. Total. What do you think it is worth?"
Adam's life - worth a mere $35,000. Stunned, he reflected, "My life is worth less than half a second of a commercial on Seinfeld."[1]
How the World Measures Our Worth
This is how our world measures our worth...
Wrongly, the world equates our worthiness with our net worth. Unjustly, the world measures our value by our wealth, our prestige, and our power.
And unfairly, the world tells us that not all lives are worth the same value.
The families of the victims aboard the missing Malaysian flight are now learning this hard lesson.
The families of seven Chinese passengers have already received pay-outs from the airline to compensate them for their loss, and it is reported that they have been given an average of less than $50,000 per person for the lives of their loved ones. Yet, that small sum is far less than what has been given to victims' families in Western countries. These unequal payouts have led at least one news article to question: "Why are Western lives worth more than Chinese lives?"[2]
Example after tragic example reveals that in the brokenness of this world a rich person's life is worth more than a poor person's; the life of a famous celebrity is worth more than a seemingly dispensable sweatshop worker; a white life is worth more than a black life; an American life is worth more than a Chinese life.
Our world looks upon our outward appearance and instantly judges our value. It casts a judgmental and prejudicial eye upon the clothes we wear, the language we speak, the color of our skin, the size of our wallet. And then, it draws an arbitrary line, and it declares if we measure up. The world tells us if we are worthy.
What are we worth? What is the value of every human life? [...pregnant pause...]
The Measure of David's Worth
This question seems to be at the heart of our passage today. In fact, you could say that this question of who is worthy in the eyes of God is at the center of the entire Bible.
In his day and in his world, David was not worth much. The eighth son, David was the baby in his family. The youngest and the smallest, sent away to take care of the sheep, David would have been an unlikely choice for kingship.
No, according to his culture and the values of his world, Eliab, his oldest brother, was surely the Anointed One! Of course it was Eliab! It had to be Eliab! He was the firstborn son! In the world of David's time, the firstborn son was the one that was granted the wealth, the prestige, and the power. A Hebrew father would name his firstborn son as his heir, and no matter how many other children he had, he would give his firstborn son at least a double portion of the inheritance. The firstborn son was the favored one, the worthy one. But David was just the baby...
And yet, in our story today, God defies all of these cultural conventions. God reveals that the Anointed One is actually not the one that the world has deemed worthy. It is not Eliab, the firstborn son. And it is not the next oldest, or even the next oldest. One after the other, the older sons of Jesse are paraded before Samuel. And one after the other, it is revealed that they are not the Anointed One. Finally, David, the baby in the family, is brought forward — almost as an afterthought. And remarkably, God whispers in Samuel's ear, “This is the one...”
Again and again Scripture reveals that God measures our worth radically differently than the world.Throughout the Bible, from Cain and Abel all the way to the Gospel story of the Prodigal Son, it is almost always the last born child who finds favor with his father - not the firstborn son. Quite literally,“The last shall be first and the first shall be last.” The Bible makes it clear that God delights in surprising the world by doing great things through small people.
As God says to Samuel, "The Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”
The True Measure of Our Worth
So, what does this message mean for us this Lenten season? Lent is a time for self-examination. It is the time in our church calendar that we set aside to examine ourselves before God. But when you truly look at your life, when you dare to lay it all bare, what do you see?
Do you still see yourself as the world sees you?
Are you someone who the world has somehow deemed unworthy? Maybe you were that girl who was told that you could never do math, or be a doctor, or preach. After all, you were just a girl... Or maybe your skin stood out in a white world, and you were forced to face the walls of racism and prejudice that at just first glance declared you to be unequal and unworthy... Or maybe you were never strong enough. Pretty enough. Skinny enough. Smart enough. Popular enough. Powerful enough. Good enough. Worthy enough...
Last week Joel challenged us with this message: When we really encounter Jesus, we're forced to redefine our pre-existing definition of God…And as we continue on our journey toward the cross this Lenten season, I would like to challenge today that when we really encounter God, as David did, we are also forced to redefine our pre-existing definitions of who we are.
The surprising truth about the spirit of God is that we do not have to do something to get it. We do not have to be something in order to earn God's love. We do not have to become more attractive or more powerful or more wealthy or even more worthy. Our openness is enough. Our willingness is enough. In God's eyes, which look past your outer appearance and straight into your heart, you are worthy of love, and your life is of tremendous value...
And when we recognize the true measure of our own worth in God's eyes, God moves us to recognize that same value in others. In all those whom we may have deemed unworthy, God moves us to look past their outer appearance and into their hearts. And God motivates us to go out into the brokenness of this world and to declare that there is no such thing as the "deserving poor"; for a poor person's life is just valuable as a rich person's life! And God moves us to proclaim that every human life is of worth and dignity and value no matter their color or their country!
Conclusion
During his "I Have a Dream Speech," Martin Luther King Jr. famously declared, "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."
Amazingly, many millennia earlier, our God said much the same thing when God said to Samuel, "The Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”
For the rest of this Lenten season, as we examine our own hearts, may we recognize our sinfulness, yes. I hope that as we come before God, we begin to recognize our own complicity in these systems that devalue and oppress others, and I pray that you and I will become ever more aware when we too are judging people based on their appearance alone. But as we come closer to the cross, may we also recognize our worth and the value of every human life.
Amen.
[1]"This American Life"
[2]