May 14 Update from Scott Lumsden: On Ghosts (III)

“The king [Saul] said to her, “Don’t be afraid, what do you see?”
The woman said, “I see a ghostly figure coming up out of the earth.” 1 Samuel 28:13

On Ghosts (III)

Kingship in Israel is fraught with challenges as we see highlighted by the very first anointed leader of this new institution, Saul. Despite his good looks and size (9:2), Saul never seems to understand how to put his apparent advantages into practice to help the people he serves.  

It turns out that Saul is also his own worst enemy, and Samuel has to say the hard truth: “You have not kept the command the Lord your God gave you...now your kingdom will not endure; the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him [David] ruler his people...” (13:13-14) Easier said than done, as this transition of power from Saul to David spins another 18 chapters of some rather intriguing yarn.  

One of the more interesting of these stories is about Saul’s consultation with a medium at Endor. With the Philistine army ready to attack, Saul’s prayers for God’s direction go unanswered -- so he does the unthinkable, he tries to contact Samuel (who is now dead) through a medium (or psychic) -- which is a huge no-no in Israel. Amazingly, the medium does contact Samuel, but instead of getting assurances that things will be alright – Samuel reminds him that 1). God has abandoned him, 2). Given the kingdom to someone else, 3). Israel will lose the war, and 4). Saul and his sons will die in battle. Hardly the pick-me-up he was hoping for.  

To me, this desperation move is all the more tragic in that Saul has actually known for quite a while what God’s plans are, yet he’s so troubled by those realities that he thinks by conjuring up Samuel one last time, the answer will somehow be different.  

I sometimes wonder if we in the mainline church aren’t a bit like Saul – we know God is at work in the world in ways that aren’t limited or contained by our churches and her endless meetings, yet still we trudge and toil to keep God there – in that moment in time – in those familiar places. Instead of being open to God in new ways, we work even harder to search for God in the old ways.  

So perhaps a first step (for those of us who hold too tightly to the past) might be to muster up the courage to acknowledge the losses in some of the things and places that used to provide us meaning -- where we used to find God -- and as we’re led, begin to trust God in those new and unknown places where we find ourselves in the present.  

This is hard work no doubt, but we don’t do it alone. If this story tells us anything, it’s that God is a God of the present and future, not just of our past -- or as Jesus put it: God is not a God of the dead, but of the living. (Mk 12:27)  

So, let’s, as members of Christ’s living body, open ourselves up to the ways in which God is at work in the world -- a world filled with new opportunities and hope.  

Peace,

Rev. Scott Lumsden
Co-Executive Presbyter