June 14, 2009
The Second Sunday after Pentecost (Year B)
I Samuel 15:34-16:13; Psalm 20; 2 Corinthians 5:6-17;
Mark 4:26-34
In the lessons this morning we have two stories of the least becoming the most: the story of David, the least son, the youngest, the sheep herder who is named by Samuel as the next king after Saul even while Saul is still on the throne; and the tiny mustard seed, an insignificant nothing of a seed that becomes a bush big enough to provide shelter and nourishment.
For the next several weeks we will follow the story of David, from today’s calling from Samuel to be king through his many adventures as the greatest king of all
Yet he was the youngest and least of the brothers and only a sheep herder when he was dragged before Samuel for inspection as the potential king.
He blossomed, as they say; but he also was completely human. His “life style” was certainly questionable; he was a lustful man who took who and what he wanted without regard for anyone who stood in the way of his getting his current desire.
In short, he was a human being, and as a human being God used him, not for his perfection but for his faithfulness. For even the most faithful can still be human, make mistakes, be selfish and self-serving, and still do powerful and wonderful things in God’s name and for furthering the Kingdom of God. For me that is what grace and redemption and salvation, my salvation, your salvation, the world’s salvation, by Jesus Christ is all about. The fact that Jesus came and redeemed us doesn’t just make us automatically perfect; rather it makes us automatically forgiven.
And as forgiven people we can then go forward on our rocky human path to do wonderfully exciting things to further God’s work, to follow the example of Jesus, and to serve others. Truth is, David, and you and I are merely mustard seeds, those tiny, infinitesimal, seemingly irrelevant seeds that can grow, with God’s help, of course, into a whole bush.
We can, likewise, with God’s help, grow into a whole bush of flowering possibilities that spreads the gospel to others.
We can!
I want you to imagine that Samuel is here this morning, and he is looking, not for the next king because we don’t have kings in our culture, but rather he, Samuel, is here seeking the one that God will anoint to do the work God is calling the world to do just as he was sent to anoint the one God was calling to be a leader for Israel.
Samuel is walking up and down the aisles, circling around, looking at each of us. Some of us are handsome or lovely, like the ones Samuel was first attracted to. In fact I don’t see a bad looking one in the bunch, and I imagine Samuel wouldn’t either! But we know that is not what God was asking Samuel to find. This is not a beauty contest. This isn’t even a contest for the most competent and experienced! Or the most successful! Or the wealthiest!
It is a search for the one or ones who are faithful enough, not the most faithful, of course, but faithful enough, who will try to be faithful, the ones who live by faith even when they don’t seem to be able to believe any more. This search is not for the ones of unfailing faith – for as humans, like David, we all have doubts and lapses and downright denials!
Would Samuel, circling around us this morning, see faith exuding from you despite your humanity? Would he recognize you by your faith, your willingness to follow God’s direction? The mustard seed and David certainly didn’t have much to recommend them in the first moments when their calling was named, did they? But they, from within, were both willing!
Would you be saying, “Oh, Samuel, don’t choose me!” “I know that following God’s direction is costly to me and I am raising children; my job is stressful, and – have you heard about the economy?”
Are you one who thinks you are too old to be considered? Or too young and inexperienced? Are you putting your head down in the hope that you won’t be recognized or inspected or questioned or held accountable about your faith?
If you are, then we have a lot in common! For I know the cost of following a call only too well; but I also know even more profoundly the blessing of following where God leads, the blessing of being able to profess my faith publicly and in a myriad of ways (which frankly is a whole lot easier for those of us who wear a collar because people expect it of us – and don’t think I don’t know that!) I know the blessing of sharing faith journeys with people I serve, the blessing of serving at moments of joy and great moments of unbearable pain and sorrow.
But it isn’t for that kind of ordained call that Samuel is here this morning, stalking around our pews, seeking not that kind of contained servant ministry to one group or one people. Samuel, I believe, is metaphorically here this morning looking for mustard seeds that will grow the Kingdom of God, seeds of faith that are willing to grow and spread the faith to others, others outside this safe community, outside the confines of the life we have now, outside and beyond what we can even imagine.
For that is what David did, the seeds do, what the disciples did, what people, real people, human beings, incomplete, imperfect, people do. If we have faith the mere size of a mustard seed, and we spread it around, it grows.
If Samuel were here this morning, then he is pointing is a finger at each one of us. We are all called to live by faith. Not one of us can escape, not me, not you, not the choir, not the children downstairs. We are to tell our faith story, by living it, not with words that are incomprehensible to those who are not here and used to the language of faith, rather we are to tell it in words that the world will understand, words that tell our life story in the context of our faith, our own salvation story, our own faith story without ever using the words “faith,” “redeemed” or “salvation” or “born again” or even “Kingdom of God” or “Jesus” or any other words we take for granted to describe our faith. They are meaningless words to those who have not been exposed to them in their life journey. Our lives, our very beings, and the way we live must witness these truths with our actions. As the seed grows each day, not by its own strength but by the hand of creation that runs through it, so our telling the story with our lives is an organic and profound witness to the real presence of God running through us.
Frankly, I don’t really care if the church survives, not just this church. I am speaking of the universal Church, the Church with a capital “C!” The church is only meaningful as a container for people, real human beings, real people who live by their faith. And I am convinced that the church doesn’t provide that faith or witness to it; the people therein do. So growing the church is not nearly as important, not even necessary, as is spreading the truth of living by our faith.
So, I would suggest that survival of the church is not nearly as important to Samuel – or to me this morning in light of these lessons – as is the spreading of the faith, the nurturing of the faith, the bringing of the outsiders into the faith.
Now that being said, I am not in the least ready to give up on the church, the one with a capital “C,” or this one, or the Episcopal church, for like many of you, I love the church, this one especially, and the one with the capital “C,” and the Episcopal church. I find it can be the most profound place of spiritual nurture that I know of. And I believe it is viable, holy, and good.
But not if we cannot imagine Samuel here among us this morning and pointing a finger at each one of us! Not if we who inhabit the pews fail to live by faith, fail to model the faith, fail to trust God and hold up our heads and raise our hands and say, “Okay, God” “Okay, Samuel, okay. I may be this tiny, insignificant seed, but with your help I can be that bush of faith that spreads to the world.”
And why not us? If the disciples, that ragtag band of fisher folk, could, then why not us? If David, as flawed as he was, could build a nation of faith, then why not us?
Good people! Samuel is here and he is pointing a finger at us all! We are called to show our true faith and to bring others into that faith with us. It is as simple and as complex as that. So! Let’s go for it! Be witnesses to the power of God in your life, every day in every way. And if we do, I am sure that the power of that faith will be more than we can possibly imagine. Go for it!
Amen.
The Rev. Dr. Gale Davis Morris
Church of the Good Shepherd