Grace Episcopal Church, Madison NJ
June 17, 2012
Year B: The Third Sunday after Pentecost
1 Samuel 15:34-16:13
Psalm 20
(2 Corinthians 5:6-17)
Mark 4:26-34
God Starts Small
If you were here last week you’ll remember that we heard the
story of how Israel became a monarchy.
All the other Near Eastern countries had tyrannical kings,
but not the people of Israel. Instead, according to the biblical account, they had
put their trust and loyalty in God, the divine King who had led them out of
slavery in Egypt.
But now, in the 11th Century BC, there is a big change.
Maybe because they feel that the prophet and judge Samuel’s sons are not
appropriate for the job, or maybe because they just want to be like everyone
else, now the people of Israel demand an earthly king of their own.
You’ll remember that God tells Samuel not to take this
demand personally. Instead it’s God who’s being rejected.
God tells Samuel to warn the people that a king will take
their land, their wealth, and their children. But, if that’s what they want,
give them their king.
So, we’re told that Saul is made the first Israelite king.
And, no surprise, Saul turns out to be all too human.
As king he enjoys some military success against Israel’s
archenemy, the Philistines.
But, of course, like all kings – and like all of us - Saul is flawed. And, I suppose like
all kings – and like all of us – Saul disobeys God in ways large and small and
has to pay the consequences for his disobedience.
Saul, though, has a particular flaw that caught my eye.
In a passage between what we heard last Sunday and what we
heard today, the prophet Samuel rebukes Saul for his disobedience. Listen to
what Samuel says to the disobedient king:
“Though you are little in your own eyes, are you not the
head of the tribes of Israel? The Lord anointed you king over Israel.”
Three thousand years before modern psychology, the prophet
Samuel recognizes that Saul the king has an inferiority complex.
And, ultimately, Saul’s inferiority complex will lead to his
own self-destruction.
It’s an old story and unfortunately it’s a story that we’ve
all experienced –experienced maybe in ourselves and certainly in other people.
A sense of inferiority can lead us to ruthless competition.
A sense of inferiority can lead us to unseemly bragging and
exaggeration of our skills and achievements.
A sense of inferiority can prevent us – can paralyze us -
from making an effort, from taking a calculated risk, from trusting that God
might have something important and wonderful for us to do.
I think that last one is the way our sense of inferiority
trips up most of us.
For us Christians, though, our inferiority complex comes
from a total misunderstanding of our situation.
We feel inferior because to varying degrees we’re all
broken, frightened, anxious, insecure, and weak. We’re all far from perfect.
But, the good news is that’s OK. It’s OK because God sees past
all of our flaws and failings.
The good news is that if we put our trust in God, if we’re
open to God, if we’re willing to work with God, God can take the little seeds
of goodness and talent that are within us and grow something amazing.
In today’s gospel lesson, Jesus gives what are for most of
us two familiar parables involving seeds.
There are a couple of key points here.
First, the growth of seeds into full grain is mysterious and
not really under our control. We can help create the conditions that promote
health and growth, but for the most part it’s not really up to us.
The mustard seed illustrates the second key point – God
starts small. God starts with seeds so small they’re nearly invisible to us.
God starts small but, with our cooperation, is able to grow something amazing.
The story of God starting small and growing something
amazing is one that runs throughout Scripture and throughout Jewish and
Christian history.
We hear it, of course, in the tail end of today’s Old
Testament lesson. God tells Samuel to move on – to get over Saul and go to
Bethlehem to meet Jesse and his sons, one of whom God has selected as the next
king of Israel.
Samuel is impressed by the oldest son and thinks he must be
the one, but God tells Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on his height
of 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.”
God starts small.
And so, of course, God selects the youngest and least likely
of the sons. David is so unlikely and unimportant that his father left him
tending the sheep, certain that Samuel – and maybe God, for that matter – would
have no interest in his youngest son.
David was an unlikely – and as we will see - a deeply flawed
character, yet God saw the seeds of talent and goodness that were within him
and was able to grow him into an imperfect but most powerful king.
God starts small.
A thousand years later Jesus of Nazareth was also an
unlikely Son and an unlikely King – in the eyes of the world he was a nobody, someone
who grew up in a rural backwater and yet was supremely open to God working in
and through him.
Jesus was so open to God that early on some people realized
that God was uniquely present in his life – so much so that when we look at
Jesus we see what God is really like.
Jesus of Nazareth was an unlikely Son and an unlikely King –
dying just about the most shameful death imaginable, leaving his tiny band of
followers lost and crushed by horror and disappointment.
Yet, over the past two thousand years, God has been able to
take these seeds – the beautiful seeds that were Jesus’ life and death and
especially the seed of Jesus’ Resurrection – and grow them into something
amazing – something that you and I get to experience, get to receive, right
here and now.
God starts small.
And, actually, we don’t need the Bible or me to tell us this
because we see it in creation. We see it in our own lives. We know God starts
small because we can see it all around us.
Maybe those of you who are parents – and especially today
those of you who are fathers - can see it most clearly.
I’ve been at Grace long enough now that kids who seemed like
little kids when I arrived are now graduating from high school and are on the
cusp of adulthood.
All along God has seen the beautiful seeds in them and God is
hard at work growing something amazing in and through their lives.
A couple of weeks ago three of them gave beautiful senior
sermons and today at 10:00 there will be two more. I’ve read them and can tell
you that they’re beautiful too. Make sure you take the time to read them all in
the next Messenger.
Seeing and listening to them in the pulpit, we could see God
at work growing something – someone – amazing when Tommy talked about the power
of commitment, when Sharlys described Grace Church as her spiritual family, and
when Siobhan described herself as being on a journey of spiritual rebirth.
God starts small.
No matter our age, many of us, like Saul long ago, often
feel inferior because to varying degrees we’re all broken, frightened, anxious,
insecure, and weak. We’re all far from perfect.
But, the good news is that’s OK. It’s OK because God sees
past all of our flaws and failings.
The good news is that, if we put our trust in God, if we’re
open to God, if we’re willing to work with God, no matter our age God can take
the little seeds of goodness and talent that are within us and grow something
amazing.
The good news is that God starts small.
Amen.
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