Shepherds Wanted: 2 Samuel 5:1-5, 6:1-5 - 21st Sunday after Pentecost

Amid the horrific war between the terrorist group Hamas and Israel, there has been a small but significant glimmer of hope: Standing Together, a volunteer organization made up of Israelis and Palestinians, immediately mobilized to help victims of the violence. Not long after the war broke out, 600 volunteers from Bedouin tribes began searching for missing Israelis who’d been taken hostage. In Tel Aviv, volunteers cooked meals for refugees. Elsewhere, they’ve provided first aid. They’ve opened their homes, they’ve cleaned up bomb shelters, they’ve given toys to children. 

If there is going to be peace in the Middle East, it will take leaders like these to make it happen.

Unfortunately, these kinds of leaders rarely make the headlines, and they rarely win elections. Anymore, we don’t want our leaders to work with our political or Ideological rivals. We want leaders who fight and win, whatever it takes. 

You would think King David was such a leader. After all, he was one of the most effective military commanders of the ancient world. But God anointed David to “shepherd his people.”

Photo by HAN Mengqi on Unsplash

In other words, David was not going to rule with the sword of a warrior. He would rule with the rod and the staff of a shepherd. Israel needed a shepherd because their nation was in turmoil. They endured centuries of chaos, confusion, and war during the era of the judges. Then, they begged God for a king, and God gave them one.

Saul was everything they could want in a king: he was enormous in stature, he came from a good family, and he was successful on the battlefield. But he was also arrogant, compulsive, and paranoid. Saul’s undoing began when David the shepherd boy slayed the giant Goliath and became an overnight sensation. 

Soon, David proved to be a more effective military commander (and politician) than Saul. David’s popularity drives Saul insane with jealousy; so much so that he tries and fails to kill David. Saul eventually dies in battle, and though David had proven worthy of becoming king, there were plenty of powerful people who did not want to see him on the throne. Seven bloody years would pass before David’s kingship was firmly established.

But David, unlike most politicians, didn’t treat his power as a prize. For David, the kingship was a sacred trust. 

Even though the Scriptures speak of David as the ideal king, he was no saint. His pride and power would get to his head, and he committed theft, adultery, and murder. But he had the courage and humility to own up to his failures, and he never forgot that God was God, and he was not. 

We are living in a time when there is a desperate need for leaders who embody the courage and the character of people like David.  That’s not to say there aren’t good leaders out there. There are, and thankfully, many hold positions of power and influence. But nothing will change without courageous, virtuous leadership.

Consider the task of leadership from a shepherd’s perspective. 

People can be even more challenging to lead than sheep because we’re stubborn. We’re easily led astray. We get scared easily, but we’re also compulsive and careless. Leadership demands the kind of patience that only God can provide. 

Leadership demands courage because there are wolves out there threatening to devour the sheep. We’re living in a time when trust in persons of authority is low and divisions are intense, meaning that if you’re going to lead, you are going to be attacked. You need to be brave not only in defending the sheep but standing up for righteousness.

Leadership demands perseverance. There is so much chaos and death that you can easily become convinced that there is no hope. Make no mistake: despair is deadly. Evil wins when good people do nothing.

We cannot surrender our children’s future to the chaos, division, and fear of the present. We cannot allow a changing world to drive our congregation into irrelevancy. Even though it’s hard, we cannot give up on being church together, serving neighbors in need and proclaiming the love of Jesus. 

God anointed David to lead a nation that would be a light to all the nations by its obedience to the covenant. We are the Body of Christ for the same reason. We are church together so that God can love the world through us. You may not have the title of leader or even think of yourself as a leader, but you are. By serving, you lead people to Christ! You are a shepherd of the Good Shepherd! God’s sheep are hungry! If you don’t feed them, if you don’t seek them, if you don’t teach them, if you don’t love them, who will?

It all comes down to three important questions:

1. Do you believe that the Spirit of Christ lives in you?
2. Do you believe God’s love is the greatest power at work in the world?
3. Do you believe that you have the gifts, and our church has the gifts to radically transform lives and heal our broken world? 

Dare to believe it—and you will lead people out of pain to healing; out of despair to hope; out of Isolation to belonging. Come to the clothing closet on Saturday and see for yourself. Call up a neighbor or a church member you haven’t seen in a while and let them know you care. Pray with someone. Share your faith in Jesus. Look for the good God is doing in the world be a part of the hope. Be the leader God has anointed you to be.

Then all the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron and said, “Look, we are your bone and flesh. ² For some time, while Saul was king over us, it was you who led out Israel and brought it in. The Lord said to you, ‘It is you who shall be shepherd of my people Israel, you who shall be ruler over Israel.’ ” ³ So all the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron, and King David made a covenant with them at Hebron before the Lord, and they anointed David king over Israel. ⁴ David was thirty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years. ⁵ At Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months, and at Jerusalem he reigned over all Israel and Judah thirty-three years.

6 David again gathered all the chosen men of Israel, thirty thousand. ² David and all the people with him set out and went from Baale-judah to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the name of the Lord of hosts who is enthroned on the cherubim. ³ They carried the ark of God on a new cart and brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill. Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, were driving the new cart ⁴ with the ark of God, and Ahio went in front of the ark. ⁵ David and all the house of Israel were dancing before the Lord with all their might, with songs and lyres and harps and tambourines and castanets and cymbals. (NRSVue)