There is a Japanese proverb that states “the nail that sticks out most gets hammered down” to make the point that it is difficult to be different. If you are different, you stand out and, as a result, can make yourself more of a target for abuse or contempt. If you think back to your days in High School, there was nothing worse than not keeping up with the latest trends. Nothing much has changed these days as people constantly check fashion sites to make sure they fit in with everyone else. We now have a new group of people, “Influencers”, who tell us what is “in”, so we won’t appear different from everyone else. Whatever social group you belong to, there’s always some dress code or requirement to fit in and an abiding fear that you, somehow, are seen as different and thus stand out.

Our reading today comes from a turning point in Israel’s history. Up until then, Israel was happy to have God as their king. This made them unique and created a special relationship between God and themselves. They however noticed that all the nations around them had human kings and so they come to God’s priest, Samuel, with the demand for a king so “they can be like the other nations”. Samuel is resistant to this move. To seek a human king rather than to have God as your king means you don’t trust God to lead you; you put your faith in human leaders as opposed to God’s leading. It also meant they lost their unique status as a people and harmed their special relationship with God. Their desire to be like everyone else meant they lost what made them special.

It is a warning for the church in our times. Jesus called us to be the light of the world and the salt of the earth. We are called to live as citizens of the kingdom of God as opposed to how the world lives. We are called to live lives marked by love towards others, whoever they are. We care called to feed the hungry, welcome the stranger, bring in the marginalised and care for the sick as opposed to the world that only seeks to look after number one. Living as Christ called us to live marks us out as different and makes us a target. The easiest thing would be to just go along with everyone else and be selfish. Rather than be accused of “left woke nonsense” we could just “fit in”. But to do so would mean we lose our distinctiveness; we would hide our light and lose our saltiness. Being the church today means witnessing to a different way of living from everyone else and that can only be done if we live a kingdom life. We should be the nails that stick out furthest so others snag their consciences on us.