Kingship

"Lord, will you at this time
restore the kingdom to Israel?"
Acts 1:6

Today's first lesson narrates the anointing of Saul as the first Israelite king. The background of this momentous event is Israel's struggle with the Philistines, who had inflicted a terrible defeat on God's people, in which the ark of the Lord was captured by the enemy (1 Samuel 5:11).

After this disaster Samuel emerges as the one religious force in the country. As we see in today's reading, he is both a priest and a seer. He presides at sacrifices (1 Samuel 9:13) and uses his powers of "seeing" to find lost objects, in this case, the asses of Kish, the father of Saul (vv. 3 and 20).

The danger from the Philistines was so great that the Israelite tribes, who until this time had been united only in a loose confederacy, realized that they would not have a chance unless they were united under a single military leader. They therefore beg Samuel to give them a king "as the other nations have" (1 Samuel 8:5).

Today's reading comes from a source which is positive to kingship. Saul becomes king with Samuel's blessing and a secret anointing (1 Samuel 10:1). But earlier Samuel had warned the Israelites of the dangers of giving so much power to one person (1 Samuel 8:11-17). When they nevertheless insist, God gives in, telling Samuel, "At this time tomorrow I will send you a man from the land of Benjamin whom you are to anoint as commander of my people Israel" (1 Samuel 9:16). The source which is opposed to kingship interprets Israel's insistence as a rejection of God (1 Samuel 8:7).

In today's world, dominated as it is by a single superpower, we can appreciate scripture's ambivalence about kingship. In Lord Acton's famous words, "All power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

There are times when we Anglicans may be tempted to wish that we had institution like the papacy which could resolve disputes which threaten to split the church. Here in Canada we have the dispute over the blessing of same-sex unions, a possibility which is obviously strengthened by the recent decision of the Ontario Supreme Court and by Ottawa's decision not to contest it.

In the Church of England the Bishop of Oxford is presently under fire because of his support for one of his suffragans, who is gay. I pity the Archbishop of Canterbury, if he is expected to resolve this dispute.

Even after the Easter experience, the apostles, in our second reading, still hanker after the lost kingship of Israel:
"Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?"
Acts 1:6

It is natural for us also to look for some external solution, some deus ex machina, which will set things right.

But, like the apostles, we are challenged by the sobering words,
"Why do you stand looking into heaven?"(Acts 1:11)

After the experience of Pentecost, we need to be brought back down to earth. No one is going to solve our problems for us, and no one can free our church from the dilemmas and ambiguities which the modern world thrusts upon us.

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June 22, 2003