Yours, Mine and Ours

Today in Cornerstone, we did the story of Saul. We pretty much followed the entire biblical text from 1 Samuel 10 to 15. I've read this many times, but this time something struck me. Twice, in the interchange between Saul and Samuel over the Amalekite fiasco in Chapter 15, Saul resists acknowledging the Lord as his God.

YOURS:

Saul to Samuel, 1 Samuel 15:21
"The soldiers took sheep and cattle from the plunder, the best of what was devoted to God, in order to sacrifice them to the Lord your God at Gilgal."

Saul to Samuel, 1 Samuel 15:30.
"I have sinned. But please honor me before the elders of my people and before Israel; come back with me, so that I may worship the Lord your God."

Now, it is no unusual thing to see that locution, "Lord your God" in the OT. Moses, Joshua, David use it regularly when addressing the children of Israel. These usages reinforce the idea that the community has entered into a covenant with Yahweh. But IMO Saul's usage seems to parallel Pharaoh's:

Exodus 10: 16
Then Pharaoh quickly summoned Moses and Aaron and said, I have sinned against the Lord your God, and against you.  Now forgive my sin once more, and pray to the Lord your God, to take this deadly plague away from me.

Both Pharaoh and Saul are speaking not to the community of Israel, but to individual prophets (Moses and Samuel). In doing so they recognize Yahweh's existence, but not their relationship to Him. In today's passage, the point is that the Lord is Saul's God, not just Samuel's. That is what got Saul into trouble in the first place, and led him to disobey.

MINE

While Saul's confession is often contrasted with David's, in 2 Samuel 12:13, I want to compare it to Thomas'.

John 20:28

"Thomas said to [Jesus], 'My Lord and my God!'"

This is one of the apexes of faith presented to us in scripture. Thomas acknowledges not only that Jesus is God, but that He is Thomas' Lord. Imagine how the story would have been different if Saul had said, "I have sinned...came back with me so that I might worship the Lord my God." But he was worried about loss of face and position. In focusing on himself, he makes it impossible to focus on God, muchless his relationship to God as Lord.

OURS

Which brings my roving thoughts to their conclusion: the culmination of what is "yours" and what is "mine" is that together we be able to say, what is "ours."

Here is how the Hebrews did it in the OT:
The Shema: "Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One"
"YHVH eloheinu YHVH ehad" (Deuteronomy 6:4).

And here is how we as Christians do it:

The Lord's prayer: "Our Father, who art in heaven..."

But note the shift: from God to Lord to Father. Not even Samuel could call Yahweh "daddy."

Consider this: you can't pray the Lord's prayer in the second person, or even the first person singular. In order to even see its value as a prayer at all, you have to move from a spiritual state of "second person" to "first person singular." That is, (with apologies to Martin Buber!) from a "you-Him" to "me-You" relationship. But in order to pray it, you must move from the "me-You" to the "we-You."

Finally, though for textual reasons the doxology at the end of the Lord's prayer is no longer included in many translations of Matthew 6:13, my understanding is that the Eastern churches still include it. If we follow their lead, the movement then climaxes in YOU:

"For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen."

Y0u-Him. Me-You. We-You. You. You. and You!