THE UNSPOKEN WORD, March 22, 2020, Fourth Sunday of Lent - I Samuel 16:1-13.

 CHILDREN’S HOMILY

             Please read - or have your mom or dad read to you - from the part of the First Book of Samuel shown above.
 
            Did you ever get chosen? Did you ever not get chosen or get left out or picked last? That doesn’t happen as much anymore. Most of the time, when we get picked it’s for sides in gym class.
 
            But when your pastor and your grandparents were growing up, many of us lived in the city or in big neighborhoods where lots of kids would play together on the streets or in the fields. Sometimes, the game would be Tag or Hide-and-Seek. Then the leaders chose their friends for each side or team. As long as one of your friends was the leader, you’d be sure to be picked. But when choosing sides for softball or “stickball” (ask your parents what stickball was if you don’t know), only the best players got picked first.  Sometimes, you were left behind because nobody picked you. Then you just watched from the sidelines . . . or went home sad and embarrassed -- and maybe just a little angry - because you weren’t picked.
 
            There’s a very famous children’s book called, “The Once and Future King.” It’s by a man named E.B. White. If you are at least a seventh grader, you probably can read the book. It is also was the subject of a famous Walt Disney Movie, “The Sword in the Stone.” It even became a Broadway play, called “Camelot.” The first reading at Mass for Sunday, March 22, is also about a “Once and Future King, named David.  
 
            He also did NOT get picked - at least, not at first. He had a whole bunch of older brothers. Many of them were strong and smart and athletic. They all were the sons of an important man named Jesse, who lived in Bethlehem - the same village where, many, many years later - Jesus was born.
 
            Samuel was God’s messenger. Like we do for Confirmation, Samuel used oil to bless someone God would pick out for him. We call that blessing “anointing.” One of the reasons Samuel would use the anointing was to mark out the next king. So, while King Saul was still in charge, God sent Samuel to Jesse’s house, to choose a new king from one of Jesse’s sons.
 
            Imagine Jesse’s surprise when none of his strong, smart boys was picked. Imagine how disappointed, and maybe even angry, each of those boys was at not being picked! Imagine how David must have felt - nobody picked him ... not even his dad! Until the Prophet Samuel made Jesse pick him. He must have been embarrassed; and sad; and maybe a little angry.
 
            Imagine everybody’s surprise when the one God picked was the youngest brother. David was sent to take care of the sheep on his father’s farm. It was hard work, boring work and lonely work. He never got to hang out with his brothers. But the Bible story tells us that David was growing up to be strong, handsome and smart, just like his brothers.
 
            The story ends on such a happy note. David gets “anointed” by the Prophet Samuel. He’s going to be king!!!
 
            But that’s not the end of the story. For pages and pages afterward in the Bible, David has to do a lot of other stuff before he really gets to be king. He’s like an apprentice king, an almost king, a not-yet king -- a “once and future king.” David has to become a soldier, then a leader, in King Saul’s army. He has to fight a giant all by himself with only a slingshot for a weapon. He makes Saul jealous and Saul becomes his enemy, even trying to kill him. David has to run away and hide; then he has to start his own army, to protect himself from King Saul. It takes a longtime before the people declare him king in place of the evil King Saul. It must have seemed to David, sometimes, like he’d never get where he was supposed to be going; like things were just too hard; like maybe even that God had picked the wrong person or that God no longer cared about David.
 
            Sometimes those kinds of things happen to us. Sometimes we feel like life is too hard; that we’ll never get where we are going. That God doesn’t care about us. 
 
            We each were “anointed” at least three times in our lives.  We know that’s the main part of the Sacrament of Confirmation our teenagers receive around the middle of ninth grade. But you may not know that we also are anointed - TWICE!! - during our Baptism: once to mark us as chosen by God, just like Samuel marked David; and once to show that, by our Baptism, we belong to the Family of God’s Chosen People,  which we call the Church. Priests get anointed a third time when the bishop chooses us as his priests.
 
            When things don’t seem to be going well; when no one seems to like us or care about us; that’s a good time to remember the story of King David. He started off on a sheep farm; he had a dangerous, thankless job as a soldier; he had a powerful man who wanted him dead; but, in the end, the “once and future king” became the actual king. 

            The story of David can give us courage when we’re afraid; hope when we are sad; and the assurance that God really does know what He’s doing and really does love us very much. The gift of Jesus means that God always picks you!!