Reading: I Samuel 16:1-13
“So
Shemu’el (Samuel) took the horn of oil and anointed David amid his brothers.
And the spirit of YHWH surged upon David from that day onward." 1 Samuel 16:13 (Everett Fox, tr.)
The books of First
and Second Samuel are books about power, about the corruption of power and
about personal responsibility, and in this story beginning the longest
continuous narrative in the Bible, we meet the shepherd-boy who will become
king, David. Here, the prophet Samuel anoints David, the youngest son of Jesse,
for kingship, after rejecting David’s seven older brothers. David was anointed
for kingship. Prophets were anointed, high priests were anointed. Anointing was
for healing, for hospitality, for burial. We anoint the ears and eyes of catechumens. The Revised Standard
Version (RSV) of the Bible says, then, in John 9:6 that Jesus “anointed” the
blind man’s eyes with mud. (The New Revised – NRSV – says “spread.” What a
loss.) Christ means the Anointed One. How did David use his power as the
anointed king? How did Jesus use his power as the Anointed One?
God of
glory, fill us with your spirit and anoint us for your work in the world. Amen
- Take bit of pure olive oil.
Anoint your hands, your eyes, your lips, your ears, your heart.
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