The Neighborhood Podcast
This is a podcast of Guilford Park Presbyterian Church in Greensboro, North Carolina featuring guests from both inside the church and the surrounding community. Hosted by Rev. Dr. Stephen M. Fearing, Head of Staff.
The Neighborhood Podcast
"The Medium of Endor" (August 3, 2025 Sermon)
Preaching: Rev. Dr. Stephen M. Fearing
Text: 1 Samuel 28:3-25
What happens when the outcast shows more grace than the king? The story of the Medium of Endor from 1 Samuel 28 challenges our assumptions about who carries God's grace in our world.
Most of us know the feeling of trying our best only to have everything go wrong. King Saul certainly did. At his lowest point, facing imminent battle and abandoned by God, he turns to someone his own administration had criminalized—a woman with the ability to communicate with the dead. The encounter reveals something remarkable: when this unnamed woman discovers she's been deceived by the very king who outlawed her existence, she responds not with vengeance but with radical hospitality. She prepares Saul's last meal, showing compassion to her oppressor.
This biblical narrative echoes through the centuries to our modern context. When Pastor Tanya Lopez confronts unidentified agents apprehending an immigrant on church property, she stands firm despite having a weapon pointed at her. Both women—the ancient medium and the modern pastor—demonstrate what it means to honor the divine image in those society marginalizes. They join a long biblical tradition of "holy outsiders" like the Good Samaritan, the woman at the well, and Zacchaeus who exemplify God's grace from the periphery.
The message is both challenging and hopeful: when we push people to the margins—whether witch, immigrant, tax collector, or social outcast—we diminish the image of God. But when we recognize the imago Dei in everyone, regardless of their cultural status or stigma, we participate in sacred work. Listen now to discover how this ancient story might transform how you see the outsiders in your own community. Who might be showing you what God's grace really looks like?
Follow us on Instagram @guilfordparkpresbyterianchurch
Follow us on Facebook @guilfordparkpc
Follow us on TikTok @guilfordparkpreschurch
Website: www.guilfordpark.org
Listen for the prayer of elimination. God, we trust that you have our best interest at heart as we hear the reading of your word. Remind us that we have been raised with Christ and inspire us to seek the things that are above, through the power of your Holy Spirit. Amen. This first long lesson is from 1 Samuel 28, verses 3 through 25. Hear the word of God Now. Samuel had died and all Israel had mourned for him and buried him in Ramah, his own city.
Speaker 1:Saul had expelled the mediums and the wizards from the land. The Philistines assembled and came and encamped at Shunem. Saul gathered all Israel and they encamped at Gilboa. When Saul saw the army of the Philistines, he was afraid and his heart trembled greatly. When Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord did not answer him, not by dreams or by Urim or by prophets. Then Saul said to his servants seek out for me a woman who is a medium, so that I may go to her and inquire of her. His servants said to him there is a medium at Endor. So Saul disguised himself and put on other clothes and went there, he and two men with him. They came to the woman by night and he said Consult a spirit for me and bring up for me the one whom I named to you. The woman said to him Surely you know what Saul has done, how he has cut off the mediums and the wizards from the land. Why then are you laying a snare for my life to bring about my death? But Saul swore to her by the Lord, as the Lord lives, no punishment shall come upon you for this thing. Then the woman said Whom shall I bring up for you? He answered Bring up Samuel for me.
Speaker 1:When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out with a loud voice. And the woman said to Saul why have you deceived me? You are Saul. The king said to her have no fear. What do you see? The woman said to Saul I see a divine being coming up out of the ground. He said to her what is his appearance? She said an old man is coming up. He is wrapped in a robe. So Saul knew that it was Samuel and he bowed with his face to the ground and did obeisance.
Speaker 1:Then Samuel said to Saul why have you disturbed me by bringing me up? Saul answered I am in great distress, for the Philistines are warring against me and God has turned away from me and answers me no more, either by prophets or by dreams, me no more, either by prophets or by dreams. So I have summoned you to tell me what I should do. Samuel said why then, do you ask me, since the Lord has turned from you and become your enemy? The Lord has done to you just as he spoke by me, for the Lord has torn the kingdom out of your hand and given it to your neighbor, david, because you did not obey the voice of the Lord and did not carry out his fierce wrath against Amalek. Therefore, the Lord has done this thing to you. Today, moreover, the Lord will give Israel, along with you, into the hands of the Philistines, and tomorrow, you and your sons shall be with me. The Lord will also give the army of Israel into the hands of the Philistines.
Speaker 1:Immediately, saul fell full length on the ground, filled with fear because of the words of Samuel, and there was no strength in him, for he had eaten nothing all day and all night. The woman came to Saul and when she saw that he was terrified, she said to him your servant has listened to you. I have taken my life in my hand and have listened to what you have said to me. Now, therefore, you also listen to your servant. Let me set a morsel of bread before you. Eat that you may have strength when you go on your way. He refused and said I will not eat. But his servants, together with the woman, urged him and he listened to their words. So he got up from the ground and sat on the bed. Now the woman had a fatted calf in the house. Woman had a fatted calf in the house. She quickly slaughtered it and she took flour, kneaded it and baked unleavened cakes. She put them before Saul and his servants and they ate. Then they rose and went away that night. Holy wisdom, holy word, holy wisdom.
Speaker 2:Holy word. Thanks be to God. All right friends, let us pray the Lord. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable and pleasing in your sight, o Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen, amen. Have you ever experienced a time in your life when you felt like nothing you ever, ever do is right? I guess you know that feeling you put in the effort.
Speaker 2:You try to make wise decisions. You do your best to do the right thing, but with no success. No matter how hard you try, everything seems to go wrong. You feel helpless, despondent, despair. You might even feel like God has forsaken you and that the whole world has turned against you. Mr Rogers expressed this feeling in his famous song what do you do with the mad that you feel when you feel so mad? You could bite with the mad that you feel when you feel so mad. You could bite when the whole wide world seems oh so wrong and nothing you do seems very right. King Saul knew what that felt like.
Speaker 2:At today's passage, he is at his lowest point in his reign. Everything that he attempts fails. While everybody's praising David for his victory over Goliath. So as David's star is rising, saul's is falling. As Saul slips further into madness and paranoia, he loses what little self-confidence he still has. As he's preparing for an upcoming battle against the philistines, that great, perennial enemy of the israelites, he is anxiously seeking wisdom and guidance to to break his losing streak.
Speaker 2:Saul struggled with the feeling, familiar to many of us, missing somebody who has died, who once offered valuable advice when we needed it the most. That person for him was the prophet Samuel. Yeah, their relationship is rocky at times, but Saul views Samuel as a divine messenger, a source of guidance for his reign and for the Israelites he's leading. But now that Samuel has died, as today's passage opens up with, saul needs his counsel now more than ever. And so Saul decides to seek the advice of a woman we don't know her name who was known for her ability to lift the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead. Some people would call these women witches, a term used throughout history too often to unfairly marginalized women who we do not understand or choose not to understand. For many of us, arthur Miller's play the Crucible was required reading in high school literature class. It serves as a reminder of the damage caused when communities fall into mass hysteria, paranoia, the abuse of power and find scapegoats to project all of their problems.
Speaker 2:King Saul, however, chooses to seek out this woman, this ghost master, as the original Hebrew suggests she is in order to summon Samuel from the grave and to ask for his advice for the upcoming battle. There's only one problem King Saul himself had banished this woman and others like her from the land because he feared that their practice would lead the Israelites to idolatry. Might have been a fair concern, might not, but Saul doesn't care. He knows he's a hypocrite because he wears a disguise to hide his identity. He reaches out for the wisdom and the power of a woman whose wisdom has been forbidden by his administration. For Saul is willing to break the very law he himself enacted if it gives him a solution to his political problems. And so he finds the woman again whose name is omitted in the text. And, to be clear, women like her were not possessed by demons, rather they had dominion, excuse me, possessed by ghosts, rather they had dominion over them.
Speaker 2:The text, to be clear, doesn't mention demons or Satan anywhere in the text. There is nothing, at least on the surface, that is evil or demonic about her work. The text simply states that she has the ability to lift the veil between the realm of the living and the dead. Well, this woman is rightly suspicious when a hooded stranger enters her home in the middle of the night and asks for her service. She knows that her kind has been outlawed and this could very well be a trap. But Saul, still hidden in his disguise, convinces her to proceed anyways. And she does what she can do. She raises Saul from his heavenly slumber, and Saul is grumpy, as you know what You'd be grumpy too if you were suddenly snatched from whatever bliss in the afterlife you were enjoying in that moment. Interestingly, samuel doesn't rebuke this woman for her craft. Instead, he rebukes Saul and chastises him for setting up this whole affair. But he does tell Saul God's verdict, and it isn't good. Saul and his sons will die in battle. The very next day, samuel tells Saul that God has turned God's face from him in his house and there's no going back. It is time for David to ascend the throne, and Saul isn't going to be given the benefit of a restful retirement.
Speaker 2:Now, at this point in the story, two things happen simultaneously. First, the woman clearly realizes that she has been deceived. The very politician who banned her means of earning a living is now in her living room, and she has done something that could easily get her stoned in the streets. And second, at that moment, saul collapses on the floor in despair and agony, just as any of us would likely do if we learned that God had forsaken us and that the next day's sunrise would be our last. Now I'm compelled by what the woman did not do in this moment. She doesn't express anger or fear, both of which would have been understandable in her situation Anger that she had been tricked into doing something that was verboten, and fear that this deception might cost her her life. She also doesn't decide to take advantage of Saul and his moment of vulnerability. She could have run off to the tabloids and sold that story for a handsome sum of money. She could have otherwise tried to manipulate the situation to her advantage, with the knowledge now that Saul was a condemned man who would not be a threat to her in 24 very short hours. But she does none of this.
Speaker 2:Instead, the text is perfectly clear. She shows Saul hospitality. Before her was a grieving man coming to terms with the fact that he and his sons would die the next day, and she took pity on him and prepared his last supper. She offered her bed for him to rest. She killed the fatted calf, like the father in the story of the prodigal son. She baked bread for him and she provides this gracious meal to him and his men on what would be their last day in the land of the living. And the next day, later on in the text, samuel's prophecy comes true Saul's sons die in battle against the Philistines, and he himself is wounded by an arrow and chooses to die by his own sword rather than being taken captive by the Philistines. Now, as for the woman that baked him his last meal, we never hear from her again, but she is forever labeled the witch of Endor in many of our Bibles. So I wonder if we might look at this woman as someone more than just a witch, as she has been portrayed over the millennia. Now, for the record, just as my sermon on Rahab a few weeks ago wasn't an endorsement of prostitution, neither is this sermon an endorsement of necromancy or witchcraft or wizardry. Those things don't tend to keep me up at night. If they keep you up at night, then we can talk about that, but not endorsing that. But I wonder what we might learn from this woman who showed hospitality to the very person who outlawed her existence.
Speaker 2:I had a Zoom meeting a few days ago with a new colleague of mine who is a Disciples of Christ minister at a church in a suburb of Los Angeles. Her name is Pastor Tanya Lopez and about half of her congregation are immigrants. She was working in her church office when her husband, who also works at the church alerted her that there was a man being taken into custody in their church parking lot. She rushed outside the building to find a group of unmarked vehicles and unidentified men in street clothing with generic vests that said police. Later on that day she called the LAPD and they confirmed that these men were not in fact Los Angeles policemen. They did not show a warrant when they were asked. They did not respect that this was private church property that they could not be on without a warrant, such as the very property that you and I are at right now.
Speaker 2:The man who was being abducted looked visibly upset and Pastor Lopez said to him in Spanish frantically what is your name? Tell me your birth date? Who can I call? Who can I call on your behalf? At this point, one of the masked men pointed his weapon at Pastor Lopez and she defiantly said I have a right to be here. I do not have to listen to you. This is the property of the church, downey Memorial Christian Church and we are not okay with you being on our property. One of the men who pointed his weapon at her simply said cavalierly the whole country is our property. Pastor Lopez then said to the man who she assumed was an immigrant. She said to him, as the masked men were putting them in the vehicle don't sign anything, don't tell them anything. I will call and try to find you. And then they disappeared, with the terrified man.
Speaker 2:After Pastor Lopez recalled her harrowing experience with me, I thanked her for advocating for this man. She and I mourns that we will never, probably never, know the fate of the man who has disappeared. That day, but I do know this when that man was in such a vulnerable position with no one else around to advocate for him and his rights, the church showed up, for Jesus says as we have done to the least of these, so too we have done unto him. Pastor Lopez advocated for this man who, like so many others in our neighborhoods, have been treated so cruelly and callously because they are immigrants.
Speaker 2:Now, I could not get this story out of my head as I wrote the words of this sermon, because in the unnamed woman in today's scripture who, though criminalized and considered persona non grata, showed kindness to the very man who marginalized her, I see the man whose name we will never know, who was abducted at a place like this that is supposed to be a sanctuary for everyone. You see the medium at indoor, we might call her by showing hospitality to king Saul, joins a long list of people in the Bible who exemplify God's grace from the margins the Good Samaritan, who showed mercy unlike the priest and the Levite. The woman at the well in John's gospel, who was the first person Jesus chose to reveal himself fully to, who then went and told all of his wonders. Rahab, the woman who gave refuge to the Israelite spies in the city of Jericho and saved her family. Or maybe Zacchaeus, the despised tax collector, who repented of his extortion practices and gave back the money that he took multiple times over.
Speaker 2:You see, when we marginalize any other human being, whether that person is a witch, a tax collector, a woman at the well, a Samaritan or an immigrant, we diminish the image of God, and that's not the work that you and I are called to do.
Speaker 2:You and I are stewards of the image of God and that's not the work that you and I are called to do. You and I are stewards of the image of God in our neighbor. You and I are midwives of the image of God in our neighbor. You and I must honor and protect the imago Dei, the image of God in everyone we meet, regardless of their cultural status or stigma. So in today's story, I think that woman honored the image of God in her enemy and that makes her a heroine in my book. So may we, like, her, honor the image of God in all who cross our path In the name of God, the creator, redeemer and sustainer. May all of us made in the image of God in all who cross our path In the name of God, the creator, redeemer and sustainer. May all of us made in the image of God say amen.