It’s Mother’s Day, otherwise known in the liturgical church as the “Festival of the Christian Home.” Today parents remember our baptismal covenant and recommit to bringing up our baptized progeny in the Christian tradition in our homes, churches, and extended family. This is also when we honor mothers in particular and their influence on our lives. In honor of that celebration today, let me remind you of just how awesome it is to be a parent. Here’s a scenario I think we’ll all be familiar with.
A little girl asks her mother for a piece of cake. “It’s too early,” her mother says. The little girl whines and cajoles, but to no avail. The mother stands firm. So, being the sharp little cookie we raised her to be, the young girl promptly turns on her heel, runs into the den, and asks her father for a piece of cake.
Whether the child wins this little subterfuge depends on how sharp you both are to the machinations of your little angel.
We’ve all experienced this. Either your kids did it to you, or you did it to your parents.
You have to be sly to be a parent, right? It doesn’t matter if it’s today or 50 years ago… No matter how well you raise your child, at one time or another, he or she will remind you more of a double agent in a spy story than the sweet, angelic innocent you thought you were bringing up in your home.
We as humans are often funny, yet adorable creatures. But in all honesty, we tend to shoot ourselves in the foot to spite our face as often as we shoot straight. And we tend to look for the answers to our most important questions in the people and places that will tell us exactly what we most want to hear.
Am I right?
[pause…]
Think about it. You have an argument with your friend, or your co-worker, or your spouse. The first thing you do is run to someone else and tell them it was all YOUR fault, and the other person was just an innocent victim, right? [pause]
No! Of course not!
On the contrary….You run right to your best friend, and you tell him or her only YOUR side of the story, so that you get the needed and desired reaction –and the proper feedback of course that says, ….of course…YOU are right!
Let’s confess. We’ve all done it!
Even when we pray, we tend to have our list of requests that we want from God. It’s very hard to say, “your will be done, Lord.” Very hard to pray “YOUR will be done.” After all, the whole reason we’re praying is so we get what we want and our will be done.
[wait]
And then we’re angry and fed up when God either doesn’t do as we ask, or we don’t like the answer we get. Or God is just plain silent. Sometimes when that happens, we do exactly what our son or daughter does to us. We try again elsewhere! We take matters into our own hands and go to where we think we’ll get what we want.
We pretty much like to be in charge, to make God’s decisions for us, and then rant and rail when God doesn’t do what we asked for.
Saul has a hard time with that too. Like a rebellious child, he is exasperated by what he perceives as God’s silence, when actually, he pretty much didn’t like God’s proclamation!
Saul, King of a united Israel, is in a pickle. Things aren’t going well, and it’s pretty much his fault. He knows it. God told him. Samuel warned him. But now, as he’s losing his battle, and he sees his reign declining, he’s getting pretty desperate. And as Saul puts it, God isn’t speaking!
The scripture this week has a humorous bent. Saul has outlawed spiritualists and mediums throughout the kingdom for religious reasons. Honor God only, say the Scriptures. So, Saul has made it illegal to do anything else. Out of faithfulness to God, no one was to consult a spiritualist, a medium, a soothsayer, or tarot reader, or anything of the sort. The people of Israel were to trust in God alone.
But when the going gets tough, and things didn’t seem to be going Saul’s way, who is quick to turn away and seek another path? Well, Saul of course! Saul himself!
He dresses up in disguise no less (which must have been hard, since everyone in his kingdom knew what he looked like). Then he travels into what later will be Jesus’ Galilee, into the Valley of Jezreel between the hill of Moreh and Mt. Tabor to a place called Endor (a village with a spring called the fountain of Dor), in order to consult with a medium, a spiritualist (supposedly not practicing her craft or con depending on how you see it, due to Saul’s law).
Humorously, he chooses to consult Samuel, God’s prophet, now dead, because he thinks maybe God just isn’t answering him. Surely what God told him before couldn’t be correct. Surely, there must be a better answer, a more comfortable answer, than the one Samuel gave him before his death. And Saul (I am KING after all!) demands a “different” answer!
Of course, Saul already had an answer. It just wasn’t the one he was hoping for. But he thinks that if he keeps on pestering, God will relent and give him a different one. Praying isn’t working. So he decides to go at it in a different way.
Anyone see the movie “Ghost”? It’s an old one, and I risk showing my age here. It starred Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze, and a young and feisty Whoopie Goldberg as a “fake” medium who makes a living on conning others out of money by telling them what they most want to hear.
In the movie, Swayze, killed by a treacherous friend, turns up in the medium’s parlor, and begins speaking to her, relentlessly in fact, scaring her half to death! Cause, as she admits, she never really called up anybody. It was fake. She didn’t really have the ability to call up ghosts. So when a ghost actually comes to call, she’s scared witless!
It’s got to be one of the funniest scenes in the movies.
[Let’s watch it for a moment…..if you can….play the clip.]
Well, this is pretty much what happens to the “witch” at Endor’s Cave. She’s a con artist. This is how she made her living, by telling folks what they want to hear. But her trade has been outlawed. And she doesn’t want to get into trouble. When Saul comes by begging her to call up Samuel, she’s more frightened than he is when Saul begins talking to the deceased prophet! And even MORE scared, when she realizes, she’s just broken the law right in front of the king. Even more confusing …..on BEHALF of the king!
Well, if you aren’t laughing yet at this story, you’re missing some of the great humor of the Bible. Cause this is a truly funny moment.
But it’s also one of those moments that takes a serious issue that Saul is having, the realization of Samuel’s proclamation of the division of the Kingdom of Israel, and plays it out so that we see the pathetic depths to where Saul has fallen. But the storyteller keeps it light enough for us to dare look in the mirror at our own similar failings. Saul’s refusal to accept God’s answer, by consulting the very woman he outlawed, helps us to understand how blind Saul has been, and how desperate he’s feeling, and how fragile and broken he really is. By making us laugh, the story invites us to look at how we do that ourselves in our own lives too.
Sometimes there’s nothing left to do but laugh. We can’t help but laugh at the “devious” little schemes of our nearest and dearests. We can’t help but laugh when our day goes so badly to the point of absurdity. We can’t help but laugh when we catch ourselves doing exactly what we know won’t work because we want things to go the way we want. There’s a time when we look at ourselves, and just laugh.
You can’t be a saint and not laugh. The ability to laugh at our humanness, at our foibles, at our absurdities keeps us from taking our mistakes too seriously. Otherwise, our “ghosts” will haunt us in a much more terrifying way.
In Shakespeare’s famous Hamlet, Hamlet says to Horatio, “My father –methinks I see my father…in my mind’s eye.”
Haunted by the elder Hamlet’s death, those who see him are terrified by the memory of what they had done. When the father’s specter appears on the walls of Hamlet’s castle before three guards and Hamlet, they are reminded too of the state of the world, out of which they speculate about past and future. Those that “see” the ghost are those who are remembering. Memory is the soul’s confrontation by reality, a soul which wants to hide or avoid its own sin,… or which is haunted by grief or sorrow.
The use of a “ghost” as a metaphorical device in literature, in drama, and in storytelling, helps us to understand something about what’s going on in the mind of the protagonist, who is “haunted” and struggling with something that has planted itself deep within the psyche.
And you and I both know, those kinds of “ghosts” can sure haunt us! Ghosts of things we’ve done in the past for which we are ashamed; ghosts of circumstances that have hurt us or embarrassed us; ghosts of experiences or traumas that have marred us or left their scars upon our souls.
These “ghosts” can be relentless, can’t they? Maybe we did something we shouldn’t have, and our conscience works overtime. Maybe it wasn’t even on purpose, but maybe we did something that hurt or harmed in some way someone else, and our mind just won’t let it go. And that ghost pops up again and again and again in the most inopportune time to remind us how awful we are.
These kinds of “ghosts” keep us from living in joy, in peace, in hope. These “ghosts” can become a living hell.
The most ghastly ghost is not a “ghost” grasping hold of us; it’s a “ghost” we won’t let go of. This is the story of Saul. It’s not Samuel and it’s not God who is pursuing Saul. It is Saul who won’t let go of Samuel. It is Saul who insists on mulling in the “valley” of his darkness, in the fog of his discontent, in the denial of Israel’s future.
“Don’t hold onto me….” Jesus told Mary.
Instead of moving forward and changing his ways, Saul sinks and sulks in the past in an effort to recapture what has been and to change God’s mind. This keeps him not just from moving forward, but causes him to act in ways seem downright absurd.
The good news for us is that Jesus knows this about us already.
It is the story of the Road to Emmaus, in which Jesus’ disciples cannot recognize him in the darkness of their grief until he reminds them of His Life and Light.
It is the story of Peter, who when Jesus comes in his post-resurrection appearance, must remind him with the metaphor of the “net” of his mission going forward. Peter had forgotten in his grief, and it’s kept him from moving forward.
It is the story of the empty tomb, when an “angel” reminds the women of Jesus’ resurrection promise, and instills fear in the minds of the guards, who are reminded of the Centurion’s words, “Surely, this was the Son of God!”
It is the story of the joy that is promised all of us when we dare to trust God with these words, “YOUR will be done.
Jesus’ resurrection is not about “ghosts.” It’s about the fulfillment of God’s promise of true Life and Love. Jesus doesn’t arise as a ghost, as his post-resurrection appearances make sure we understand. His is a bodily resurrection, something far greater and real and tangible than anything that happens in our “mind’s eye.”
God’s promise is real. Jesus’ resurrection …is real.
And because of it, our joy…..as Christians…..is real!
Today, I invite you to come forward in the love of Jesus….to receive the anointing of His victory over sin and death. Holy communion is our greatest reminder, the most enduring memory of Jesus’ suffering love and resurrection life, which is a gift to all of us.
For in Jesus’ resurrection, all our “ghosts” are vanquished, all our sins are forgiven, all our shame is put to rest, and the future is ours in God’s beautiful garden world.
May your spirit today not be restless, but be filled with the power and the joy of the Holy Spirit, who vanquishes sin and death, who vanquishes ghosts and demons, who vanquishes sorrow and mourning, who turns our mourning into dancing.
Amen.
Based on the Story Lectionary
Major Text
The Ghost of Samuel (1 Samuel 28)
Minor Text
The Song of Moses (Exodus 15)
Psalm 77: You Are the God Who Performs Miracles
Psalm 91: The Lord Will Guard You
Psalm 111: Fear (Respect) of the Lord is the Beginning of Wisdom
Elihu’s Sermon to Job (33)
The Raising of Lazarus (John 11)
Hebrews (4)
The Story Circulated by the Guards After the Resurrection (Matthew 28:11-15)
The Lament Over Babylon (Revelation 18)
The Ghost of Samuel
In those days, the Philistines gathered their forces to fight against Israel.
Achish said to David, “You must understand that you and your men will accompany me in the army.”
David said, “Then you will see for yourself what your servant can do.”
Achish replied, “Very well, I will make you my bodyguard for life.”
Now Samuel was dead, and all Israel had mourned for him and buried him in his own town of Ramah. Saul had expelled the mediums and spiritists from the land.
The Philistines assembled and came and set up camp at Shunem, while Saul gathered all Israel and set up camp at Gilboa.
When Saul saw the Philistine army, he was afraid; terror filled his heart. He inquired of the Lord, but the Lord did not answer him by dreams or Urim or prophets.
Saul then said to his attendants, “Find me a woman who is a medium, so I may go and inquire of her.”
“There is one in Endor,” they said.
So, Saul disguised himself, putting on other clothes, and at night he and two men went to the woman.
“Consult a spirit for me,” he said, “and bring up for me the one I name.”
But the woman said to him, “Surely you know what Saul has done. He has cut off the mediums and spiritists from the land. Why have you set a trap for my life to bring about my death?”
Saul swore to her by the Lord, “As surely as the Lord lives, you will not be punished for this.”
Then the woman asked, “Whom shall I bring up for you?”
“Bring up Samuel,” he said.
When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out at the top of her voice and said to Saul, “Why have you deceived me? You are Saul!”
The king 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.”
“What does he look like?” he asked.
“An old man wearing a robe is coming up,” she said.
Then Saul knew it was Samuel, and he bowed down and prostrated himself with his face to the ground.
Samuel said to Saul, “Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?”
“I am in great distress,” Saul said. “The Philistines are fighting against me, and God has departed from me. He no longer answers me, either by prophets or by dreams. So, I have called on you to tell me what to do.”
Samuel said, “Why do you consult me, now that the Lord has departed from you and become your enemy? The Lord has done what he predicted through me. The Lord has torn the kingdom out of your hands and given it to one of your neighbors—to David. Because you did not obey the Lord or carry out his fierce wrath against the Amalekites, the Lord has done this to you today. The Lord will deliver both Israel and you into the hands of the Philistines, and tomorrow you and your sons will be with me. The Lord will also give the army of Israel into the hands of the Philistines.”
Immediately Saul fell full length on the ground, filled with fear because of Samuel’s words. His strength was gone, for he had eaten nothing all that day and all that night.
When the woman came to Saul and saw that he was greatly shaken, she said, “Look, your servant has obeyed you. I took my life in my hands and did what you told me to do. Now please listen to your servant and let me give you some food so you may eat and have the strength to go on your way.”
He refused and said, “I will not eat.”
But his men joined the woman in urging him, and he listened to them. He got up from the ground and sat on the couch. The woman had a fattened calf at the house, which she butchered at once. She took some flour, kneaded it and baked bread without yeast. Then she set it before Saul and his men, and they ate. That same night they got up and left.
Image Exegesis: Ghostly Encounters
Sometimes we don’t like the answers God gives us. So, we look elsewhere, thinking we’ll get a better deal.
Even the most faithful person, when in desperation, may act rashly and become impatient with God when we feel our prayers are not answered in the ways we would like. It’s hard for us to have patience, to trust, to allow Jesus to lead.
Look at Peter, who denied Jesus three times.
Look at the guards, who knew the truth, and yet didn’t want to face it. God was trying to tell them something, but they didn’t want to deal with the repercussions.
Look at Saul. It is this scripture that we will look more closely at today.
The metaphor of “ghost” and the landscape of the valley in the story of Saul and the Witch of En Dor both are powerful meaning-makers in the scripture story.
We must never forget that these scripture stories were originally told orally. As oral story, they resemble theatre and drama more than (and movies if you will) than written accounts. And in that sort of story, metaphor is everything. Metaphors are used in oral and moving art in order to reveal the inner workings of the minds and hearts of the characters.
The metaphor of the “ghost” is a brilliant metaphor for the troubled spirit, in which one is literally “haunted” by one’s past, one’s deeds, or one’s future. A “ghost” indicates something about memory, remembering, and calling up something from the past that influences the present and the future, emotionally or spiritually.
Other artists have taken this metaphor of “ghost” and run with it, most notably, Shakespeare in Hamlet. In Hamlet, Hamlet’s father (also named Hamlet) is murdered by Claudius, his brother. Hamlet is “haunted” by his father’s memory. The dramatic action of the “ghost” appearances reveal inner thoughts of the characters. The ghost, the representation of memory, tells us that “all is not well.” And memory becomes their truth. Those who can’t see the ghost are not remembering. Those who see him, are those for whom memory must form their future.
The “ghost” becomes like an omen that signals where memory and action meet. A “ghost” can also indicate an inner struggle, an emotional turmoil, something that “haunts.” When the past inserts itself into our present, it alters our state of mind, state of soul.
We must remember our past in order to go into our future. Hamlet is called upon by his father to remember him and to promise to “tell [his] story.”
In the theatre re-enactment (remember that Shakespeare was King James’ court dramatist), the metaphor of “ghost” helps observers to see the inner workings of the characters’ minds and hearts, shows the intensity of emotion, portrays the “haunted spirit.”
A similar technique or device is used in the American 1990 movie, Flatliners. In the film, “spirits” or “ghosts” from each character’s past literally (and physically) come back to haunt them, until they resolve their prior sins –or shame and guilt in the case of Julia Robert’s character. The “ghosts” again represent the inner turmoil, conflicts, and guilt of the characters, brought to the fore by provoked memory.
In this way, a “ghost” is a device of confrontation. When we are confronted by truth, it shivers and jolts us. It can also be the stuff of conversion. Or can spontaneously heal.**
Landscapes, like the ghost, can also tell stories of the state of mind of characters. Saul’s story takes place not at the place of Samuel’s death (Ramah), but at En Dor, in the Valley of Jezreel, between two mountains. It takes place in the dark and in the fog/mist of the valley. The land would be originally of Issachar, the interpreters of signs. The visual landscape metaphor, a place that is dim, murky, and ethereal depicts a soul in Saul which is lost, haunted by the unknown, and also lost to God. Reality is distorted. And in the midst, Saul is disguised. Unmasked, he finds himself cared for by the woman of En Dor, who bids him eat.
Saul’s “disguise” or his “mask” so to speak is the powerful metaphor in this scripture. He pretends to be someone he’s not in order to relieve himself of the responsibility in remaining loyal not only to his own decree, but to the God of Israel.
Just as the Jonah’s fish represents the inner sanctum of God’s womb, from which Jonah is rebirthed into God’s mission, En Dor for Saul is a place of illusion, a place away from God, in which his conflict plays out.
Saul’s restless spirit is calmed oddly by the witch after he realizes what he has done. So is the irony of the story.
Saul tries a “trick” to get the answer he wants from God. But God cannot be tricked into giving us what we want, but instead forces us to confront the truth.
In 1 Samuel 15:26-28, Samuel, in his prophesy to Saul, rents (rips) his mantle in half, depicting how Israel will be split. In Saul’s encounter at En Dor, he realizes, there is nothing he can do. Like Job, he must accept God’s sovereignty over his life. The realization literally floors him.
One’s “ghosts” can either destroy or heal. When we are haunted by guilt and shame and unfounded grief, they can destroy and eat away at our lives. When we however are confronted by the reality and truth of the Living Lord, that is the good news that heals and gives life.
While the guards are challenged by the resurrected Jesus, the women are encouraged and filled with joy. One’s encounters with one’s “ghosts” reveal our inner beliefs and faith.
In Jesus’ post resurrection appearances, Jesus proves to his disciples several times that he is not a ghost, but is resurrected. These are not the same.
A ghost may reveal the inner landscape of the soul, but Jesus is the truly and bodily resurrected Lord. He is the good news, and God’s incarnational proof, that Life exists.
The importance of the body therefore is paramount.
While the “ghost” metaphor is used in the Hebrew scriptures as a “dramatic” effect, it’s important to note that Jesus’ resurrection is NOT metaphorical, but true. The same metaphorical device is used in the “fear” of the guards (and the turmoil they may have felt and continue to feel as they know the truth of the resurrection and Jesus’ identity and still protect the realm and their own skins in order to escape death). The differences in the story are paramount. While fear is struck into the guards, the women are told not to be afraid. Their minds are relieved by Jesus. The resurrection therefore, while true, functions as a joy-giving, calming balm for the women, who were troubled by Jesus’ death. The resurrection turns the tides on who is troubled and who is relieved in the story. But Jesus is NOT a ghost, not merely a psychological metaphor. This is the importance of the bodily resurrection. Jesus’ BODY has resurrected, and is missing from the tomb.
While Saul’s sin comes back to haunt him, in Jesus’ resurrection, only love, joy, and hope abounds by those who are his disciples. For the guards, they tremble when confronted with the truth. And to “know” God is to re-member God in Jesus. This is the essence of holy communion –the incarnation affirmed and the memory relived even as Life is offered.
Where in the story of Saul, representation tells the story of his conflict, in the resurrection, with the “garment” of the Temple rent in two, again God’s will is fully done.
*Note: two years ago, in Lectionary Year One, the sermon accompanying these scriptures focused on the Story Circulated by the Guards who experienced Jesus’ resurrection at the tomb. If you are focusing on Mother’s Day, you may want to look at the story of the women coming to Jesus’ tomb. As it is, the sermon for this year’s lectionary focuses on Samuel, but could just as well focus on the experience of the guards.
** For more on the “ghost” in Samuel, see Fred Blumenthal, “The Ghost of Samuel: Real of Imaginary” in Jewish Bible Quarterly, p. 104-106.