Words from Pastor John Chae Mercer Island United Methodist Church

1

 Samuel 31:1-7

 From this old story, we can understand that there is an important

message. That message is that we can be destroyed by our own sword. This is

King Saul’s story, the first king of Israel. In the beginning of his story,

Saul had enormous amount of potential and promise. Physically, he was tall

and powerful. He stood head and shoulders above other people. He was liked by

all people of Israel. When he was crowned King he was declared a War hero for

fighting the people of Palestine. He had great charisma and led his men to

many victories. The prophet Samuel challenged King Saul by saying that he had

fallen out of the grace of God, because King Saul stopped following the word

of God. Young David then arrives into the story and began to gain popularity

with the people of Israel. King Saul was eaten up by feelings of insecurity,

depression, self-doubt, and jealousy in the situation. Saul was preoccupied

with feelings of resentment, hate, fear, envy, and pride, which worked their

way into his heart, like a spiritual poison. This once strong and power man

became weak and faint hearted. His death was symbolic of what had happened in

his life. He fell on a sword, not from someone else, but his own. This means

that the enemy is not always other people, it can also be you. What are some

of the swords that we carry with us? They may come to harm us one day. Let us

focus on the things in Saul’s life that caused his downfall.

 The first thing that destroyed Saul is arrogance.

Before he became King, he was very humble, but after he became King, he began

to develop feelings of pride in himself. He thought that he was a superstar,

invincible, and above everything else. During the days when Mohammed Ali was

a great boxer, he would go around in his arrogance and say that, “He was the

greatest.” Humility was never his strong suit. One day, back in his prime,

he was on an airplane and the plane was ready to take off and the flight

attendant had repeatedly told him to put on his seat belt. He finally told

her, “I'm superman and superman don't need a seatbelt.” The flight attendant

did hesitate a minute but shot back with, “Superman don't need an airplane

either, now buckle up.”After Saul became a King, an arrogant attitude became

his lifestyle during his rule. So he claimed that the kingdom belonged to him,

not to God. Throughout the bible there are cases of Kings that give the glory

to God and their kingdom prospers but when a king claims “that this is my

kingdom”, the kingdom falls. This kind of spiritual arrogance that he had his

heart eventually destroyed him. This is an important message that we have to

learn from this passage. Arrogance became the sword that caused his demise.

There are many superstars today, in sports, politics, and even in religious

traditions. Can you think of any? As we learn this important lesson from this

passage, we hear the words of Jesus “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” The

kingdom will not be inherited by the arrogant, proud, and invincible people,

but by the humble. Arrogance brought King Saul down. That is why Jesus often

taught us to be humble. We are easily overcome with arrogance when we are

placed in places of power. We easily become power hungry. It is important that

we check up on our pride to make sure that we are at a level that God wants us

to be at.

 The second lesson from this passage is that unreasonable hate can

lead to our destruction. King Saul began to hate Samuel because Samuel always

was reminded Saul to build the kingdom to please God. Saul also began to hate

young David for being so popular. Saul felt as if David was stealing the

attention of the people away from him. Inside the bottom of Saul’s heart,

he was hungry for attention and popularity. We as God’s people need to be

carefully to avoid being stuck in the situation where we crave attention. Of

course it is an awful feeling to be disliked by people, we all want to be

loved, accepted, and respected. This is a common desire for all humans. But in

Saul’s case, the desire to be popular was pathologically needed. His hungry

for affirmation became the sword of hate which destroys King Saul.

When we hate our enemies we give them power over us - power over our sleep,

our appetites, and our happiness. They would dance with joy if they knew

how much they were worrying us. Our hate is not hurting them at all, but it

is turning our days and our nights into hellish turmoil. God urges us to

be loving, gracious, and merciful. We cannot come into the presence of God

with unreasonable hatred in our hearts. Being the one who unnecessary hates

someone else can slowly lead to destruction. We see some much violence in

films and on TV, so our children have a mixed message on hate. Media provides

areas for unnecessary hatred in their hearts and mind. It is important to

teach the younger generations that love and acceptance is crucial to avoid

unreasonable hatred and create an environment where everyone is welcomed. I

really appreciate our church member’s effort to create this church a warm

and welcoming place. Thanks to the Sunday school teachers, youth leaders

and mentors as they help the kids and youth create the next generation of

welcoming environments. Church is a place where we practice and nurture the

growth of love, forgiveness, and cooperation of all people. King Saul was

destroyed by his unreasonable hatred. He didn’t care about this dangerous

poison that may come from inside him; he just did whatever he wanted to do

without control.

 Selfishness and self centered life is dangerous and a destructive

enemy that can pierce and devastate our soul. Without thinking of others and

having a self-centered life, Saul’s life was destroyed. The First and Hardest

Lesson - “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten,” Robert

Fulgham says in his popular book. In truth, one of life’s most important and

hardest lessons comes to us long before kindergarten. This lesson is painful

and upsetting to learn, and it goes against what we want to think is true.

But it is vital that we learn it. Many people never do. The lesson is this:

you are not the center of your universe. You might as well face it. Once, a

long time ago, Nicolaus Copernicus studied the sky and declared, “If man is

to know the truth, he must change his thinking! Despite what we have said

for years, our earth is not the center of the cosmos—but just one celestial

body among many. The sun does not move around us; we move around the sun.”

This was a radical adjustment-a revolutionary thought. The illusion of being

the center of the universe is easier to handle. It justifies selfishness.

The selfish and self centered way of life is not true. It does not bring

satisfaction in life. It is a hard lesson, but an important one. Life goes

much better once you understand it. Unfortunately Saul didn’t learn the

truth. He didn’t think about anyone else and lost sight of why God chose him

as the first king of Israel to build up God’s Kingdom.

 In the movie “Shawshank Redemption,” an old prisoner, Brook, acts

unreasonable and threatens to take another prisoner’s life. They find out

that the reason Brooks has reacted this way is that he’s scared. Scared

because his parole has been approved. You see those outside of Shawshank see

it as a prison, but Brooks sees as home. Later, in the prison yard Ellis

Boyd, “Red” explains why Brooks acts the way he does. “Brooks is just

institutionalized. The man’s been in here 50 years - 50 years! This is all he

knows. These walls are funny. First, you hate them, then you get used to them.

Enough time passes, you get to depend on them.” That’s institutionalized.”

I think that is the problem for some of us. We’ve become institutionalized

to this world. We don’t look to see the other side! We focus our attention

on these earthly walls, only what we can touch, feel, observe. God is over

and over again trying to teach us not to be so narrow in our vision. True

success is not measured in where you are in institutionalized world. It’s

about pursuing the world how we break the wall of arrogance, hatred, self-
centered castle and build up the God’s kingdom where love, mercy, grace and

pure relationship are prevailed. We saw many ways that Saul was destroyed. We

need to continue to build up a spirit of humility, grace, trust, and love, so

we can live in peace and joy as we build up the Kingdom of God.