Align ourselves with God
Sunday, June 16, 2024
Proper 6, Year B
Old Testament
1 Samuel 15:34-16:13
Samuel went to Ramah; and Saul went up to his house in Gibeah of Saul. Samuel did not see Saul again until the day of his death, but Samuel grieved over Saul. And the Lord was sorry that he had made Saul king over Israel.
The Lord said to Samuel, “How long will you grieve over Saul? I have rejected him from being king over Israel. Fill your horn with oil and set out; I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons.” Samuel said, “How can I go? If Saul hears of it, he will kill me.” And the Lord said, “Take a heifer with you, and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.’ Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do; and you shall anoint for me the one whom I name to you.” Samuel did what the Lord commanded, and came to Bethlehem. The elders of the city came to meet him trembling, and said, “Do you come peaceably?” He said, “Peaceably; I have come to sacrifice to the Lord; sanctify yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice.” And he sanctified Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.
When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, “Surely the Lord’s anointed is now before the Lord.” But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” Then Jesse called Abinadab, and made him pass before Samuel. He said, “Neither has the Lord chosen this one.” Then Jesse made Shammah pass by. And he said, “Neither has the Lord chosen this one.” Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel, and Samuel said to Jesse, “The Lord has not chosen any of these.” Samuel said to Jesse, “Are all your sons here?” And he said, “There remains yet the youngest, but he is keeping the sheep.” And Samuel said to Jesse, “Send and bring him; for we will not sit down until he comes here.” He sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, and had beautiful eyes, and was handsome. The Lord said, “Rise and anoint him; for this is the one.” Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the presence of his brothers; and the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward. Samuel then set out and went to Ramah.
The Epistle
2 Corinthians 5:6-10,[11-13],14-17
We are always confident; even though we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord-- for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we do have confidence, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. For all of us must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may receive recompense for what has been done in the body, whether good or evil.
[Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we try to persuade others; but we ourselves are well known to God, and I hope that we are also well known to your consciences. We are not commending ourselves to you again, but giving you an opportunity to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast in outward appearance and not in the heart. For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you.] For the love of Christ urges us on, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died. And he died for all, so that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them. From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way. So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!
The Gospel
Mark 4:26-34
Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.”
He also said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.”
With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it; he did not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything in private to his disciples.
Homily by Rev. Deborah Lockhart
Let us pray: Let the word of our hearts and the meditations of our minds, be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength and our Redeemer. Amen.
Ahhh we are still in Mark—-the Gospel of deliberate confusion and consternation…and still my favorite Gospel!
In the very beginning of Mark, Jesus’ first spoken words were to proclaim the good news that God’s kingdom has now drawn near. He calls his hearers (us) to “turn our lives around and live trusting in this good news! In this first chapter of Mark, we learn that by living into this good news of the Kingdom of God, we are to believe and repent. Paul, in our second reading describes this repentance as dying to old ways, giving up ourselves and being made new.
But what exactly is this Kingdom? We have been told the Kingdom is here but not yet here in its entirety—-that it is like heaven, only we haven’t been there either. And because we can’t see it, our comparison ends up being that of a shrub! Suffice it to say, it’s complicated!
This Kingdom confounded me this week…. so I sat with it. I wrestled with this first parable coming away with the question, “Does this passage really mean that the kingdom will come without our doing anything? The answer is yes and no.
The gardener has very little to do with its growing. As we have just read, he doesn’t even understand how it grows. The seed holds the secret of its own life and the growth of it within itself. We humans do not know how to start life from scratch. Only God does.
So this Kingdom that Mark’s Jesus is explaining, belongs entirely to God. Though the Kingdom cannot be made by us and God’s plan isn’t dependent upon us, we can affect its trajectory by our actions, beliefs and by being human.
Our youngest son, Garrett, was a terrific tennis player. He could hit the cover off the ball, with unbelievable angles, spin and speed. Despite all coaching (from his parents and real coaches) Garrett created his own trajectory ,the result was losing matches he easily could have won. This was made all the more difficult by his determinedness to prove his method right and the rest of us, including his baffled mom and dad, wrong. His stubbornness hampered his progress in his tennis world just as our human ways can create very real obstacles in bringing forth the coming of the kingdom.
We can mess it up with our head-strong and selfish ways AND/OR we can make opportunities in our world for the Kingdom to come along more fully and perhaps faster through our obedience to God.
After the seed, God’s Word, is sown, we have no control about what happens next. We just sow it. Only that. The sower here does not even weed or water, he just sows and waits in trust. Waiting— is not a human strong suit. Why else would there be Amazon Prime—-get it in 2 days, now that’s waiting, but get it in 3-5, that’s almost unheard in this time of immediate gratification! This waiting isn’t passive like watching paint dry or water boil, but rather is allowing the questions of the unknown to remain unanswered, bringing us into the mystery of God’s work which is hidden from us. Inevitably, in God’s time, his mysterious work in this world and in us will be revealed and fruitful.
Entire Theological careers have been made on interpreting the parables of Jesus. What we do know is that in the end we are being given glimpses of the kingdom of God, and consequently, we are able to actually catch sightings of God along the way. The parables make it very clear that we need to find new ways of perceiving, imagining, seeing and receiving in order to understand the message Jesus is trying so hard to portray in words that his listeners can understand, in a language we can hear.
According to Jesus, The Kingdom of God, is drawing near, it’s coming—it may be bold to say that it is coming whether we desire it or not. It will take root, in highly educated societies , in places around the world without religion as we know it, or perhaps it will take root in someone’s heart.
These sown seeds grow within us or outside us, by God’s grace alone. By God’s Grace alone! What a relief that is to know no matter how reasonable or unreasonable we are, how badly or thoughtlessly we behave or how stressed we are to always do the right thing, God loves us so much that His grace is freely given regardless of our human frailties. This good news can be consoling for all of us who live with so many boxes to check— did we do the right thing, say the right thing, use the right actions? Check check check. God isn’t concerned with our “rightness” in our earthly ways. God wants us to be right with Him.
Our role is to sow the seeds and tend them with faith. We do not know, and we do not need to know, how the plants will grow and flourish. We need only to know that God’s got this.
Paul instructs the Corinthians to be confident enough to live differently—to live by faith and not by sight. We cannot see what we cannot see, so in order to believe we must align ourselves with God, trusting in His Word. The kind of kingdom Jesus describes is where the members have choice, the free will to make decisions about their lives, their involvement, their direction, and their future. We can choose to put our own selfish wishes over the real needs of the community that surrounds us. We can choose to inflict violence on someone else physically, emotionally, or psychologically. We can choose to make a choice that belittles other people and to treat them as less than. But in God’s Kingdom, we would put aside our own egotistical need to have power over anyone else, and instead cultivate compassion, understanding, and cooperation. We would not look at people as humanity does, but as Christ looks at them. God’s Kingdom, contains the diversity of all that God has created. We humans over time have deleted and eliminated those things we’ve determined shouldn’t be included. Our human-centered ways have made it ok to weed out whole cultures and contexts. Instead, we are to look around ourselves and ask, “What truly belongs here?” The answer is, we do, we all do. The Kingdom is a place where the least expected are invited, nourished and helped to grow. And why? To be a blessing to others, and by doing so, helping to grow the Kingdom.
Who are those least expected? They include you and me and also the marginalized, or those people we can’t quite get ourselves to reckon with—those with different gender orientation, skin color or political views. To include all to the Table isn’t a small change but a transformative one. Believing in God’s Kingdom is to make this place we call home, a better place, for everyone and everything.
This whole idea of The Kingdom of God is so different from anything else we have experienced. It isn’t a destination or some static place; it is God’s presence in all of creation—every creature, every human, every thing. It is here and it is there, both earth and in heaven. When God’s will is done as perfectly here on earth as in heaven, God’s goal for the whole of the universe will have come into fruition. The Kingdom is a way of being, of seeing, and living in this world. Jesus used parables to try to tell us these things—-the immenseness of God, the vastness of what the Kingdom is and the mystery that surrounds it all. And 2000 years later we still struggle to understand.
How has a seed been planted in any of us? Perhaps it was being taken to church, hearing a prayer that moved us, being in the presence of someone or something that lifted us in a way that we wanted more, needed more, craved more, and sent us in search of it. Have you ever met someone that has this spirit about them that leaves you saying, I want what that person has? Sometimes, that is how it happens, the seed, the beginnings of God’s Kingdom growing in and around us.
As Christians we are instructed to be sowers of the seed, to help spread the Word and to grow the Kingdom. In doing so, we scatter the seed remembering things happen that are beyond our abilities to understand. We can do all the right things and sometimes there will be things, like ministries, that don’t grow. This is a great parable for this transition we are in for we all have a tendency that if we do a little more, it will lead to successfully growing our church. By doing it all ourselves we have left no room for God or for our faith. We can say that it is God working through us but it quickly becomes just about us. The fruit that is born doesn’t happen without God. For our part, God invites us in to take care of what we are here to do —taking the time to focus on our faith with prayer, scripture, sharing our faith with others, and serving in His kingdom. Are we putting God front and center and inviting that discerning spirit into our midst?
We do have agency in the bringing about of the Kingdom of God. It is through our trust and our waiting in God that allows us to live with this mystery of all that we don’t understand. It’s ok not to have all the answers. The Kingdom is coming without those answers. And as we wait we are to continue to sow God’s Word, living our lives by faith and not by sight.