The Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. 1 Samuel 16:7 (ESV)

Super. Lately everything has to be “super.”Super Bowl Sunday. Super Tuesday. Even the stats themselves are “super”, for example, the amount of money people are willing to pay for a super bowl ticket: thousands of dollars!!! (I told someone I would sell a “season pass” for a year in one of our front pews, for what people pay to sit at one game. Somehow I have a feeling that sales wouldn’t be like this afternoon’s Super Bowl game.)

Then there are the millions of pizzas that will be prepared and sold. People will eat all kinds of snack foods by the tons. And we know that while the game won’t kick off until later this evening, the inactivity in many living rooms will already begin in front of T.V.’s sometime this afternoon. Today some people will spend more time in front of the television then they spend in a whole year in the house of the Lord!

Maybe it’s the time of the year: the winter and from being cooped-up. Maybe it takes our minds of things like the economy, the price of necessities like food and gas. Maybe super Sunday is a break from all the campaigning so far this that will climax in two days on Super Tuesday. Or, maybe we Americans like our things super. And if we do, then we’re not alone.

In 2006, when they hosted the World Cup Soccer Championship, Germany reported an increase of heart attacks among German fans at the times when Germany’s team played. People can get so emotionally and physically involved and attached to someone or something thing that it’s hard for them not to be affected by it.

The prophet Samuel was that way in our Old Testament Lesson this morning. God had rejected Saul whom Samuel considered a worthy king for Israel, and was moping because of it. And so God asked him, “How long will you go on grieving about Saul?”

Now you’ll recall that when Saul was selected as king that the people of Israel came to Samuel and said, “we want a king like our neighbors!” And the Bible says that Samuel didn’t like the idea and went to God. And God told Samuel not to take it personally, “They’re not rejecting you in this, but me. Give them what they want.”

So Samuel warned the people that a king was not in their best interest and that a king would tax them and their sons would have to fight wars for the kings and that they wouldn’t be any happier. But the people insisted and so Samuel gave in and, according to God’s direction, Saul was made king. Now the Bible also tells us that Saul was very tall—he stood a head’s height higher than all the others. And he was handsome. A perfect candidate in the eyes of the people, so much so that even Samuel was impressed.

But, as we already heard, “the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart,” and after a while it became clear that Saul was not a good choice. Not that he was a bad king or an unusual king. He proved himself against his detractors. He won wars.He judged mercifully.

But then he began to doubt the Word of God and rely on himself and others. He worked the people hard in battle.He disobeyed God concerning the destruction of the animals of the Amalekites and their king. And so God rejected Saul. There would be another.

And Samuel grieved. He grieved because all that he had warned Israel about having a king came true. But he also grieved because he liked Saul and was impressed with Saul. Samuel didn’t like having his choices—his preferences—rejected either. He didn’t like what he perceived as God changing his mind. Samuel didn’t like being taught a lesson. He was too old for that. He was a good, holy prophet who had served God well. Discipline and disappointment was for others. Samuel, like all of us, liked to be on the winning side. On the flashy side. On the victorious side. Perhaps Samuel had been hesitant about Saul, but as long as God seemed to open up doors along Saul’s way he accepted the direction. And so it was hard when God slammed the door shut in regards to Saul.

What in your life right now is “super” has all of your attention? And could it be that it has replaced the Word of God in your heart with other preferences? God told Samuel, “The Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” It matters to the Lord who is your god. The First Commandment is “You shall have no other gods before me.” He is the only one you are to serve, even when you can’t comprehend his ways.

In Isaiah chapter 55 we read,

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:8-9 (ESV)

Like Saul, we’re told that David and handsome, but ruddy too. These features no doubt got him into trouble as well, especially when we consider the Bathesheba affair. And as a king David sinned too, disobeying God. But through David God brought the line of the future Savior upon the throne of Israel. God could have easily rejected David at times too, but attached to David were promise and the Word of God. Once God set the Word in the heart and it remained there, then faith believed God, and God credited it as righteousness.

We need to repent of our sins of unbelief and doubting God—wanting to replace His Word as He has revealed it wiith something more glitzy and super. God has chosen humble means to come to us. Water and Bread and Wine.Altar and Rail and Pulpit. Reading and Hymn and Prayer. Liturgy and Song and Offering. (How many churches will look more like a stadium on this Super Sunday then a House of Prayer, with the sounds and lights and screens of the big Game?)

We need to repent. David did so, and in the 51 Psalm he said,

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing Spirit.

We can be cheered that in Jesus Christ, God’s Son we have victory over our sin, as well as over death and the devil’s power. In our Gospel reading this morning the blind man called out confessining, “Son of David, have mercy!” The Son of David is the blessed one who comes to us in the name of the Lord.

The fast approaching season of Lent is a time when we can hear and pray about these things and consider the enormity of our sins. Already this is a Super Sunday—in that we have the blessing that our sins are indeed forgiven,that the greatest things to have in this world and in the world to come are the gifts of God of forgiveness of sins, life and salvation.

We are more than a winning team: we are made God’s people. St. Paul sums it up this way,

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:37-39 (ESV)

Amen.