人們常假設聖經是一本道德教導書。但將聖經視為一本故事書可能對我們更有幫助，它可以訓練我們的想像力，透過別人的故事，並最終上帝的故事去明白自己的故事。今天我想查考《撒母耳記上》中關於大衛受膏的記載。我會先將它看為一個人類的故事，然後繼續將它看為一個關於上帝的故事，最後將它看為一個為那些覺得自己失敗的人講述的故事。
 
人類的故事。它分為三個場景。在第一幕中，上帝和撒母耳都對以色列第一位國王掃羅的失敗充滿悲傷。我們都可以理解這一點。我們都在一個出了問題的人身上投入了大量的情緒能量、時間，有時甚至是金錢，最重要的是，愛。但上帝對撒母耳說：「不要再垂頭喪氣了，有重要的事情要做。不要讓你的悲傷加深傷害。」
 
在第二幕，撒母耳開始查看耶西的眾兒子。他選擇掃羅是因為掃羅個子高，他一看耶西的大兒子以利押，看見他很高，又犯了同樣的錯誤。假設以利押就是那個人，這顯示撒母耳沒有從掃羅的錯誤中學到任何東西。撒母耳對七個兒子逐一審視，卻毫無結果。撒母耳搔著頭，覺得一籌莫展。
 
但在第三幕，一切都變得清晰起來。因為耶西有第八個兒子。這就是這個故事風趣幽默的地方。聖經講述耶和華不看外貌，而大衛並不是因為外貌而被選中的。但敘述者忍不住告訴我們大衛容貌俊美。
 
這就是人類的故事。這故事開始於深深的失望和傷害。它進而超越挫折，看到新的機會。它透過一連串的失敗和拒絕來學習耐心。最後，只要我們放棄對我們的生活應該如何發展的狹隘想像，這故事將發展到一個與最初想像的非常不同的地埗，並具有美好的特質的結果。
 
讓我們來看看關於上帝的故事。如果我們繼續將故事分成三幕，那麼在第一幕中我們會發現一個非常人性化的上帝。上帝犯錯、上帝悲傷。上帝制定了一個計劃，使很多人陷入危險。上帝似乎很樂意讓撒母耳撒謊。
 
然後在第二幕中我們聽到了整個故事的核心句子：「耶和華不像人看人，人是看外貌，耶和華是看內心。」 我們剛才發現神與我們出奇地相似，在這裡我們發現神與我們有何不同。
 
然後在第三幕中，從撒母耳膏抹大衛的那一刻起，神的靈就帶著大能力臨到大衛身上。神的靈離開掃羅，掃羅就不能作什麼。神的靈滿有大能力臨到大衛身上，因此大衛可以做任何事。
 
這裡有一貫徹舊約新約的主題，就是上帝接納那些被忽視的人、身陷困境的人、局外人或失敗者；發現那個人身上有一種他們自己和世界都不認識的特質；並在聖靈的能力下，將那個人轉變為任何人都沒有夢想或想像到的地埗。這讓我們想起聖經是在哪裡編寫、如何編寫及為何被編寫的。《舊約》是由一群流亡的人們寫成的，他們覺得自己的故事完全偏離了應有的方向，並試圖弄清楚他們是誰以及上帝是誰。《新約》是由一群接受了十字架苦難的人們寫成的，他們發現透過耶穌的復活和聖靈的降臨，他們處於一個非常不同但絕對比他們想像的更精彩的故事中。
 
對於那些覺得自己的人生失敗的人，這故事意味著什麼呢？這個故事說明，你的悲傷是真實的。在這個故事中，不僅是撒母耳，上帝也因掃羅的問題而感到困惑和悲傷。這個故事說明:即使不是立刻到來，而是在一段時間之後，當你超越悲傷時，總有一天，你會看到你沒有預計的可能性。這個故事告訴我們，不要只是尋找與失敗故事完全相同的複製品(好像撒母耳選新王時)。也許上帝為你預備了一個不同的故事。這個故事說，當你發現這個新故事時，可能會遇到很多失敗和拒絕。這故事的意思是，新故事中的關鍵元素可能是你以前從沒有認真對待或考慮過的人或事。最後，這個故事說，無論你感到多麼軟弱、迷惘、沮喪、失望或困惑，這不是一個關於你的能力、你的美麗、你的身高、你的運氣或你的才幹的故事：這是一個關於當神的靈帶著大能力臨到你身上，以致一切變得都有可能的故事。
 
簡而言之：這個故事告訴那些面對失敗的人，以及我們每個人，你可能有一顆破碎的心；但正是從神破碎的心中，新的、非常不同、非常精彩的故事出現了。重要的是神是看你的內心，神的靈帶著大能力降臨到你的心，儘管你現在可能很難相信，儘管你正感到失落、身陷困境和感到困惑，但上帝選擇了你。

People often assume the Bible is a book of moral instruction. But it may be more helpful to approach it as a book of stories that train our imaginations to understand our own story in relation to the stories of others and ultimately to God’s story. I want today to examine the account in First Samuel of the anointing of David. I’ll start by looking at it as a human story, then go on to see it as a story about God, and finally speak as a story for those who feel they’ve failed.

The human story. It comes in three scenes. In Scene One, both God and Samuel are full of grief over the failure of Israel’s first king, Saul. We can all relate to this. We’ve all invested huge amounts of emotional energy, time, sometimes money, and more than anything, love in a person where it all went wrong. But God says to Samuel, ‘Stop staring at the floor. There’s important things to be done. Don’t let your sadness add to the damage.’

In Scene Two, Samuel starts looking over Jesse’s sons. He chose Saul because Saul was tall, and he takes one look at Jesse’s eldest son Eliab, sees he’s tall, and makes the same mistake again. Assuming Eliab is the one demonstrates Samuel’s learnt nothing from the fallout from Saul. Samuel works his way through all seven sons, to no avail. Samuel scratches his head. This isn’t the way it’s supposed to go.

But in Scene Three all becomes clear. Because there’s an eighth son. Now this is where the story’s genuinely funny. We’ve been told the Lord doesn’t look on outward appearances. And David isn’t chosen on outward appearances. But the narrator can’t resist telling us how handsome David is.
That’s the human story. It starts in profound disappointment and hurt. It moves to seeing beyond setback to new opportunity. It learns patience through what feels like a series of failures and rejections. And finally it arrives at something very different from what was originally imagined, but turns out to have wonderful qualities if we only let go of our narrow imaginations about how our lives are supposed to turn out.

Let’s turn to the story about God. If we stick with dividing the story into three scenes, in Scene One we find a very personal God. God makes mistakes. God grieves. God cooks up a plan that puts a lot of people in danger. God seems quite comfortable with asking Samuel to lie.

Then in Scene Two we get the central words in the whole story. ‘The Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.’ We’ve just observed how God is alarmingly like us; here we discover how God differs from us.

Then in Scene Three, the Spirit of the Lord comes mightily upon David from the moment Samuel anoints him. God’s spirit departs from Saul – and Saul can do nothing. God’s spirit comes mightily on David – whereupon David can do anything.

The consistent theme is that God takes the person who’s been overlooked, the one who’s beleaguered, the figure who’s an outsider or a failure; finds in that person a quality neither they nor the world recognised; and in the power of the Spirit, transforms that person into something no one dreamed of or imagined. Which makes us recall where, how and why the Bible was put together. The Old Testament was written by a people in exile who felt their story had absolutely gone astray from where it was supposed to go, and were trying to make sense of who they were and who God was. The New Testament was written by a people coming to terms with the catastrophe of the crucifixion, who were finding that in Jesus’s resurrection and in the coming of the Holy Spirit they were in a very different but absolutely more wonderful story than they ever supposed.

Which brings us to what this story means for those who feel their life is a failure. This story’s saying, your grief is real. In this story, not just Samuel, but also God is bewildered and devastated by what’s gone wrong with Saul. The story’s saying, there comes a time, not straightaway, but after a period, when beyond your grief you can see possibilities that the expected story didn’t have room for. The story’s saying, don’t just look for an identical replica of the story that failed. Maybe God has a different story for you. The story’s saying, there may be many failures and rejections as you discover that new story. The story’s saying, the key element in the new story may be someone or something you’d never taken seriously or previously considered. And finally, the story’s saying, however weak, obscure, frustrated, dismayed or bewildered you may feel, this isn’t a story about your strength, your beauty, your height, your luck, or your talents: this is about what happens when God’s Spirit comes mightily upon you, whereupon everything is possible.
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In short: this story’s telling my two friends, and each one of us, you may have a broken heart; but it’s out of God’s broken heart that new, very different, and very wonderful stories come, and what matters is that God looks on your heart, and God’s Spirit comes mightily upon your heart, and, hard as it may be to believe right now, bereft, beleaguered and bewildered as you are, God has chosen you.