June 17, 2012
Pentecost 3
1st Samuel 15:34 – 16:13
Mark 4:26-34
(prayer)
Two weekends ago, I was with a few hundred United Church people at SAIT in Calgary for a meeting of the Alberta and Northwest Conference.
The structure of the United Church has four levels: the Pastoral Charge (with one or more congregations); the Presbytery (a grouping of churches in a region –Yellowhead Presbytery is the UCs from Jasper to Ft McMurray, excluding Edmonton (Leduc is basically the bottom right corner of this large ecclesial triangle); Nine different presbyteries form Alberta and Northwest Conference, which is the part of the UCC that includes Alberta, Northern BC, the Yukon and Northwest Territories (and the odd border town in Saskatchewan). The Conference meets at least once every three years – always in a year that the General Council of the UCC will be meeting: the GC is the fourth and national level of the church.
// Okay…enough about structure. One of the things I love most about Conference meetings is the opportunities to connect with people from different churches (ministers and lay people – our nametags never say who is who, so we meet each other simply as UC people and the distinctions of who does what in their churches back home is largely un-necessary. Sometimes, you can be unexpectedly surprised by some wrong assumptions of who you thought might be ministers or not.
I love that aspect of the United Church – leadership from within is so much a part of who we are, that titles sometimes just get in the way of the relationships we forge.
//
My one major practical disappointment for this Conference is that we were still largely paper driven. There is a need for people to have an agenda book with all of the reports and motions that are going to be part of the meeting. Granted, we use a lot less paper than we used to - because of the ability to project new things on screens…but I guess I was naïve to think that this might be the year when we would have the option of an electronic agenda book giving people the chance to make use of tablets and laptops rather than printers. Ah well, maybe at the next meeting in three years.
At the very least, I used a long recycled binder to hold all my paper. I have used the same binder for the last half dozen Conference meetings. On the inside covers, I have doodled a few thoughts over the years from things people have said.
Several years back someone was talking about the life-lesson-story or ‘Parable’ of the Mustard Seed: Mark’s version of which was read earlier. I wish I could remember who spoke about the parable (I’d love to give her or him credit for the insight I gained), but at least I remember the message.
In Jesus’ day, in his part of the world, mustard plants grew easily. They were adaptable and resilient. When they took hold in a field, they could dominate over other species. In other words, although a practical plant in limited ways, mustard bushes were kind of a weed.
I know that the most obvious level of understanding in Jesus’ parable is that wonderful things can develop from the smallest places: an idea, a person’s abilities and influence, even faith itself, may start small and seemingly insignificant, but can become so much more when growth is given the opportunity to happen.
For Jesus, the mustard seed and plant is a metaphor for what the realm of God is like – God may be a small part of our lives sometimes, even insignificant at times, but allow it to grow and you’ll be surprised how much support and influence can come by connecting the human experience with the divine.
But I absolutely love being taken to a deeper level in the parable.
Maybe the Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed, a weed – maybe the kingdom of God is like a dandelion - once is takes root, once it takes hold it can be tough to remove.
Maybe the kingdom of God has multiplying effects – with the right combination of rain, sun and wind (of nourishment, nurture and spirit), it can spread far and wide.
Maybe the Kingdom of God is like a dandelion, whose beauty is easier to see when we look at life with the innocence of a child. Jesus did once say that people needed to “be like children” to know the realm of God.
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And like weeds, maybe the Kingdom of God can change the landscape in ways that not everyone appreciates: especially those who obsess on appearances and must have everything ‘looking good’: neat ordered, predictable. Weeds can really bother us when we are deeply fearful of change and the things we don’t control.
The Kingdom of God is like a dandelion. Hmm. I like that unexpected interpretation of Jesus’ parable.
//
Many centuries before Jesus, as ancient Israel was developing as a nation, the people looked at how other nations were structured and longed for a central government. Being governed by the Law (the Torah) interpreted by wise local judges was fine for a tribal confederacy, but they were now a settled nation – they demanded a king. And so the prophet Samuel, whom his mother Hannah had dedicated to God’s service from a young age, anointed Saul to be Israel’s first king.
Over time, Samuel realized that Saul was not the king he expected him to be. He was not a wise leader. He seemed more bent on picking fights with neighbouring nations than tending to the well-being of his own people.
Samuel openly regretted making Saul, king. As we read at the start of our Hebrew Bible passage today, Samuel and Saul eventually had nothing to do with each other.
Samuel grieved over Saul, even as he continued as king. Then Samuel felt called by God to seek out Israel’s next king. There was a family in Bethlehem – a father, Jesse, who had eight sons.
Samuel went to meet Jesse and trusted that God would somehow let him know which son was to succeed Saul.
Son #1, Eliab – he looked the part – tall and strong. Surely he’d be the one. No. This wasn’t going to be about physical stature but the character of the heart.
Abinadab? No.
Shammah? No.
And the four other sons of Jesse who had come to meet Samuel. No.
Had Samuel misunderstood God’s intentions? He was just so sure that he’d find a king among Jesse’s sons.
“Is this everyone?” he asked, almost out of desperation, “Is this all of your sons?”
“Well” Jesse reluctantly admitted, “there is one more, the youngest. But he’s not what your looking for. He’s out in the pasture. He’s just a shepherd boy.”
Young, small David couldn’t be the next king.
He was good looking enough, he had nice eyes – he had a healthy complexion.
[If we step back and look at the way David is described here, we could say it’s almost feminine: nice eyes, rosy cheeks. I read this as say that he had a boyish look to him – he was not yet mature. He was a child, not ready for a man’s job.]
But obviously, what God saw in David’s heart was what God was looking for >>> David, the youngest son of Jesse, would be king of Israel!
Samuel got out his container of oil and anointed David as the next King of Israel.
The turnover of power would not happen for many years, but the seed had been planted and Samuel knew that God intended it to grow.
[next week, we will read one of the most famous stories in the Bible involving King Saul and David – I won’t spoil it, other than to say it involves a giant].
//
Seeds grow. When nourished and nurtured, they grow. Jesus lived an amazingly open love in the world. People complained many times that he was too welcoming – hanging around with people who didn’t deserve the attention and respect he showed them.
But how could Jesus talk about God’s unconditional love and not show it? How could he not challenge the barriers of restrictive expectation that people put up?
When the St. David’s Church Council had our retreat a few weeks ago, I was impressed how much care and thought people put into our church mission statement:
The mission of St. David’s United Church is to welcome all to participate in its nurturing Christian community and to inspire its people to serve others as Christ taught
This is summed up in our church motto: that we seek to be a church that welcomes in and reaches out. Sometimes, I know that this challenges us – do we really want to be welcoming to everyone; do we really see it as our ‘place’ to get involved outside our comfortable building.
I felt inspired to tweet a little insight as we retreated:
Gospel = living in the reality that there is always a new edge to inclusiveness.
//
It’s true. We make bold strides in welcoming in and reaching out and it seems that as soon as we are done patting ourselves on the back for that, we see a new wall that is in need to a-tumblin’-down.
//
The human spirit can surprise us sometimes: strength in difficult times; compassion overflowing; a capacity to learn and grow beyond what we once thought to be edges. The divine spirit moves in ways beyond our understanding – knowing more than we can imagine, loving deeper than we can open our hearts.
In Jesus’ Way of looking at our existence, the divine and the human meet.
As we allow the unexpectedly inclusive love of God take root in our lives, we can witness our lives discovering even deeper meaning and even more profound purpose.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
#106MV “I Am the Dream”
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