Wow. To say this feels odd right now is an understatement. And trust me for a church body that prides itself on its own brand of uniqueness, I never thought I would feel odd being in this radiantly special place. Yet the feeling persists, and it makes sense. We haven’t held a service inside this building in over a year. We are still on, hopefully, the tail end of this pandemic. We have had to virtually celebrate and mourn colossal moments for this church. Yet, finally after careful deliberation and everchanging landscapes, here we are. Through fear, caution, persistence, and faith we have finally made it back to this home together. For that I am thankful.
It has not been easy having had to reasonably reject gathering together to worship God in unison as we had been accustomed to for decades. But it is one of the many reasonable rejections that have defined this past year. And the scripture for today from the book of First Samuel is rife with lessons on the idea of rejection. Within these few verses you hear about how horribly Samuel’s sons rejected his lifestyle, his morals, the very path he had laid out for them and all of Israel. Because of Samuel’s sons’ wanton rejection of their father’s ways, the people of Israel felt they had no choice but to reject Samuel’s sons as the heirs apparent for leading God’s chosen people.
But the Israelites didn’t stop with just that rejection. They went even further by rejecting God based on how they wanted to fill in the leadership gap that would be left after Samuel.
Through these three rejections we can start to dig a little deeper and get a better understanding of when and when not to anticipate rejection, as well as how we can positively overcome anticipated and realized rejection.
Today we have already witnessed a perfect juxtaposition to that first rejection, the failings of Samuel’s sons, with our recognition and celebration of the accomplishments of these graduates. Candace, Darrin, Samantha, Jonah, Jasmine, Rae Rae, Hart, and Jordan; you are all amazing, bright young minds worth of recognition and due for celebration of the obstacles you have overcome. You all illustrate for us what the Israelites were expecting out of Samuel’s sons. Where those sons failed and fell wildly short of expectations, you have risen to your respective challenges and succeeded. So once again I want to say congratulations.
Because you rose to the challenge and admirably succeeded you are rewarded with a completely new chapter in your life. A new episode in your growth that is full of unprecedented discovery. That is why we celebrate and recognize you graduates, we simultaneously look at how you conquered the various obstacles and checkpoints on their epic educational journey of the past. BUT, we also take the time to warn and prepare you of what is to come. College can be great, some would even count those years as the best of their life. And for those of you moving on after having completing college, your first years after finishing your respective educations, and finding your footing in the quote unquote “real world” can be some of the most instructive and enlightening times in your life. However, all of us that have already gone through those times, we know all too well how they can be packed full of disappointment and rejection. But just because those times are filled with rejection, doesn’t mean we wish we had run away from it or avoided it all together. In fact nothing could be further from the truth. All of that rejection was a vital aspect of those new chapters in our lives. These are the years where you explore your gifts and skills to start to really unravel who you are, what your passions are, and how you can combine all these things into your respective calling. There is no way for you to understand this without some form of rejection along the way. Whether being the rejected, or being the rejector, rejection will be a part of your formation. And because of that you shouldn’t be afraid of it.
A Canadian named Jason Comley, recognized this very fact, and invented this thing called Rejection Therapy. Basically for 30 days straight you go out and intentionally look for little ways to get rejected each and every day. One person named Jian Jiang decided to go on a 100 day Rejection Therapy journey, and blog about the journey he was embarking on. So day 1, was a pretty obvious and standard intentional rejection. He walked up to a stranger and asked for $100. To no one’s surprise, he wasn’t successful. He didn’t pester, he just simply accepted the absurdity of the request and moved along. Day 2 while at a restaurant he asked for a burger refill. They gave free drink refills, why not get a burger refill as well. Alas, it didn’t happen. But the staff there got a good chuckle out of the experience. Through Rejection Therapy he was training himself to become better adjusted to rejection. The more you become accustomed to rejection, understand rejection, and honor rejection, the more skilled you become at risk taking and discovering new things about the world and about yourself. Overcoming the fear of rejection builds a level of confidence not born of pride, but a confidence born through humility.
Funny thing though, it only took Jian Jiang until Day 3 for rejection to be circumvented entirely. He went to a Krispy Kreme and asked for an Olympic Rings donut. He didn’t want 5 separate donuts laid next to each other looking like the Olympic rings. He told the donut maker he wanted 5 interlocking rings to form one single Olympic rings donut. Crazy thing happened, the krispy kreme worker was intrigued by this idea so they sat down and got out some pencil and paper and drew out how exactly they were going to make this happen. Sure enough, an Olympic rings donut actually came to fruition.
Something beautiful came out of that moment. And I am not calling a singular Olympic Rings Donut a beautiful thing. No what was beautiful was the epiphany that an assumed limitation was revealed to be a faulty assumption. God continually preaches and illustrates to the world that limitations can be broken through God’s self. Most of Jesus’ ministry was him being bombarded with these self-imposed, assumed limitations, due to a fear of rejection, and Jesus simply replied back “you know want they say about making an assumption?” But really, this Rejection Therapy didn’t just build strength and character with regards to the fear of being rejected, it shined a bright light on how we are our own worst enemy and reject possibilities without even asking or trying.
Of course, rejection isn’t quarantined within the confines of our college years and our first few years post-grad, it is continually a part of our lives. And refusing to rise to the challenge of the lessons learned from rejection prevents all of us from becoming the people God desires to become.
Samuel’s sons probably assumed they couldn’t be like their father and in doing so embarked on a unrighteous path of rejecting their father’s ways. And that led to the next rejection of the passage. The Israelites rejection of Samuel’s sons as their next leader. I can’t blame them, Samuel doesn’t blame them. It was the right thing to do. And that is a lesson that must be learned. Rejection is often needed.
Rejecting Samuel’s sons saved the Israelites because by rejecting Samuel’s sons the Israelites were essentially rejecting injustice. That was a needed rejection, because the Israelites were a unique nation of people who garnered that uniqueness from how they embodied justice. A people of God’s justice being led by unjust individuals, eventually would lose itself. But thankfully the Israelites were very eager to reject the unjust sons to lead them in the days post Samuel, because the injustice of those sons was so egregious you couldn’t miss it.
We as Royal Laners are taking the painstaking steps to become an anti-racist congregation. We do this because we recognize, just as the Israelites in this passage did, injustice is not the way. Injustice must not prosper. The reason we are taking the steps we are taking as a church is because the worse kinds of rejection have thrived nearly unchecked for too long. Too often people have rejected the mere reality that systemic racism has plagued our communities, this country, and all over God’s beloved world. Too often people have rejected their call to action which allows this pandemic of systemic racism to continually live on. And so many reject that call because they think there is too much to do that they can’t make a difference. They reject that call because they limit their imaginations on the difference they can make. But just because the work is daunting, doesn’t mean it’s is impossible.
We here at Royal Lane reject the notion that injustice can endure because there seems to be no light that can make its way through our self-imposed blindness. We reject that just because in some perceived ways it’s no longer as bad as it was, that we are still anywhere near being close to good enough. This is the kind of rejection that is needed. Because it is a rejection of injustice. And from our rejection of injustice, reconciliation can be visualized.
And it is all about proper visualization. You see, the problem was the Israelites did not stop with merely rejecting the injustice of Samuel’s sons. Unfortunately, the Israelites tacked onto that good rejection the worst rejection. They rejected God because they coveted their neighbor.
Israel was unlike its neighbors. That very distinctiveness was part of God’s plan for Israel. It says in Exodus 19:6 how God created them as “a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation.” But now these Israelite elders are asking to be “like all the nations.” However, in order to be like all the other nations they will thus reject God’s leadership for their nation, and God’s vision for God’s people. And God recognizes this right away. Remember initially Samuel when conferring with God, Samuel was worried about the mistake the elders made by rejecting the model of judge/priestly leadership they had had up to this point. Samuel felt they were rejecting him. But God knew they weren’t rejecting Samuel, they were rejecting God. Old Testament scholar Dr Klaus-Peter Adam notes how “From God’s perspective, Israel is selling short its own freedom gained in the exodus for a form of royal oppression. Freed to be God’s servant through the exodus from Egypt, the Israelites turn and subscribe to the very yoke of royal oppression they had escaped from.”
Through their coveting of their neighbor, the Israelites had turned their vision away from God. Away from the very liberator who rescued them from Egypt, guided them through the wilderness, and delivered them to the promised land. Turned their vision away from themselves, and solely placed that vision on the differences between themselves and the other nations. Instead of better understanding and being proud of that difference, they saw that difference as a blight upon themselves. If only they could have trained themselves to have the proper vision for that moment. Be more in tune with God’s vision for them. And tuning your vision isn’t some impossible task.
Our youth Sunday School class already knows about one of my favorite sociological experiments. And it is all about properly attuning one’s vision to combat the rejection which can be caused due to limited or improper scope of vision. So the way this experiment worked was a ton of Manchester United fans were brought in to fill out a survey about their love for Manchester United. The subjects were told that after finishing their survey they would walk over to a second location to join with some other Manchester United fans in a pub where they would watch a special video celebrating the history of ManU. What these superfans didn’t know was on the way between where they filled out the survey and where they were to watch the film they were unknowing participants in an experiment. You see a staged actor was to trip and sprain their ankle in front of the Manchester United fan while walking between the two locations. The experiment was to measure how often the Manchester United fan stopped to help the “injured” individual. The catch was the injured individual was wearing either a Manchester United Jersey, a neutral shirt, or a Liverpool jersey. Now for those who don’t know Manchester United fans and Liverpool fans are very bitter rivals. Think Cowboys and Eagles, Rangers and Astros, Mavs and Spurs, and crank up the level of animosity by about three times. Now you’ve got a good idea about what evil Manchester United fans feel about us humble Liverpool fans. As you can imagine the results of the experiment showed that the subjects helped out the injured individual at a rate of 95% when the injured actor was wearing a Man U jersey. They helped somewhat close to half the time when the actor was wearing the neutral jersey, and then the United fans all but practically walked right over the actor when they were wearing a Liverpool jersey, only helping out at an abysmal 21% of the time. They were rejecting assisting the Liverpool fans because their vision was honed in on the image of their bitter rival that deserved no help. They only saw an enemy, not a person in need.
Now earlier I said this experiment was all about attuning one’s vision, and that is because they did the whole scenario again. But instead this time they changed only one thing. Instead of the initial survey being about the subject’s appreciation for ManU, this time they were to complete a survey about their love for the sport of football, soccer, and why it is such a beautiful game. Changing the subject of the survey to a broader more inclusive topic, did wonders for the results. This go around actors in the Man U jerseys were helped out at the same rate, but this time the actors wearing the Liverpool jerseys went from barely ever getting helped out, to getting helped out almost 75% of the time.
All it took was for the subjects to attune their vision to be more inclusive. See and appreciate the connections that are there. Cherish the shared humanity. In today’s passage, the Israelites weren’t cherishing the shared humanity that was already present. They were dwelling on the differences they had with their neighboring nations. The were putting on their self-imposed blinders to only see what they didn’t have, and naturally they wanted it. In doing so they were missing all the glory they already had. But we don’t have to make the same mistake as the ancient Israelites did. We can constantly train ourselves to remove those self-imposed blinders and thus end up having vision more attuned to God, that’s when we go from rejecting others to accepting others.
And that’s what should have happened in today’s story, where we should have seen a reversal in 2 of the 3 rejections that took place. Samuel’s sons should have accepted the example their father laid out for them. The Israelites were absolutely in the right by rejecting the injustice of Samuel’s sons, and showed how we should always reject injustice. And finally, they should have accepted just how extraordinary of a nation they already were, accepting God as their leader instead of man. We can learn from rejection. We can recognize when rejection is needed. And we can train ourselves to reject self-imposed blinders. Through the power and understanding of rejection God’s accepting kindom will reign.