3rd Sunday After Pentecost, June 14, 2015

Collect for the Day (Proper 6):

Keep, O Lord, your household the Church in your steadfast faith and love, that through your grace we may proclaim your truth with boldness, and minister your justice with compassion; for the sake of our Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. 

First Lesson: 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. 

Reflections: Samuel was paralyzed by grief over Saul. Samuel was stuck, but God pushed him to get on with his life and mission, with what his life was really about.

And wouldn’t you know it? The task God gave him seemed impossible. Not only would it require risking his life, but he would constantly feel suspicious eyes watching wherever he went. And then, once he did get to his destination, God was so picky that he despaired of ever fulfilling the task.

Samuel was looking for the next king, but none of the sons Jesse paraded before him were God's choice. The choice for Israel, God’s choice, the young David--sidelined to the low-status job of keeping the sheep--seemed too insignificant to count, even to his own father. Fortunately, things looked different to God.
Things still look different to God than they do to us. We are easily swayed by a handsome face, a flashy figure, a smooth talker, a catchy tune. What does God see that we don’t, and how can we become more trusting of, and sensitive to, that vision? 

Psalm 20 Exaudiat te Dominus

May the LORD answer you in the day of trouble, * the Name of the God of Jacob defend you;

Send you help from his holy place * and strengthen you out of Zion;

Remember all your offerings * and accept your burnt sacrifice;

Grant you your heart's desire * and prosper all your plans.

We will shout for joy at your victory and triumph in the Name of our God; * may the LORD grant all your requests.
Now I know that the LORD gives victory to his anointed; *
     he will answer him out of his holy heaven, with the victorious strength of his right hand.
Some put their trust in chariots and some in horses, * but we will call upon the Name of the LORD our God.
They collapse and fall down, * but we will arise and stand upright.
O LORD, give victory to the king * and answer us when we call. 

Epistle: 2 Corinthians 5:6-17

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! 

Reflections: Paul talks about feeling distant from God. The mere fact that human beings have a material body (whereas God does not) can leaves us feeling like exiles. There is a sense that as long as we are “material,” we are away from God, and can be fully “with the Lord” only after death.

But is it really true that being creatures distances us from God? If so, what does that say about the Incarnation? Is Jesus as Emmanuel, God with us, a miracle restricted to 2,000 years ago in Palestine? And what about his of his gift of the Spirit? Could the presence of the divine, dwelling within us, be true, despite the fact that we are separated by our individual bodies and experiences?

The “new creation” isn’t simply a formula of faith; it’s the reality of God with and within us here and now. So the next time you feel alienated and hopelessly alone, remember: it’s not just the Resurrection that changes everything, but the Incarnation. The Christian hope isn’t only about a “resurrection like his” on the other side of death, but about a life like his.

          And as for the feeling of being alone, Christ himself experienced it on the cross. If Jesus could feel it (and he was one with the Father), so can we (who are one with him). Surely it’s here that we most need each other’s encouragement; we need each other’s help to see with the eyes of faith—simply because it’s difficult to see through the dirty, distorting glasses of our default “human point of view.”

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. 

Reflections: Spring, Early Summer. ‘Tis the season to speak of seeds. Pam has given me a packet of milkweed seeds, and Kelly has been sending me pictures of the opening pods of her mature antelope milkweed plant. The seeds, like those of dandelion, take off and float under an umbrella of feathery silk.

Why care about milkweed? The plant has uninteresting leaves; the flower is nothing to boast of (from the human point of view). Greens fade into surrounding greens. If you don’t already know the plant, you probably wouldn’t even notice it, and you certainly wouldn’t put it in your garden.

Certainly, nobody’s going to achieve commercial success marketing milkweed.  But there’s more to it that meets the eye, as it were. While it’s hardly a showy garden plant—the butterflies who love it truly are showy. So cultivating milkweed (and other plants needed by butterflies in different stages of their lifecycle) can actually do wonders for your garden. Cultivating milkweed also looks after the ecology of our home: this beautiful natural world.

So Jesus was right, of course. The seed is just the beginning of a story that far surpasses it in spread and complexity—it grows into a whole web of life. Who would have guessed? The seed is where it all starts.

Or is it? Which came first, the seed or the flower? Who reaped the seeds we sow? And who sowed them?