Jun 24 | Two Masters: Summer 2018 Preaching Series, Part 2
This week’s citations:
Last week we began our summer preaching series, and I introduced the big theme, which is to reclaim the idea of God as a monarch – a king or a queen. A lot of people feel uncomfortable with this idea nowadays, because kings and queens have been pretty iffy over the course of our history, using their power to keep others down and taking a lot more riches than they need. But God is unlike any king or queen that has ever been on earth, because God turns the whole idea of absolute power on its head.
Last week we talked about divided allegiances. Some of us answer to our parents and teachers, some of us answer to bosses at work, some of us answer to Bishops – Archbishops. We also answer in a different way to our friends and partners. And this is all fine, but ultimately we are to answer to God above all others.
That doesn’t mean we neglect our other relationships. It means that we allow God to teach us how to manage those relationships. So we care for our friends and partners, and love them, and we listen to and respect those who have authority over us like our parents and bosses and teachers and Archbishops.
But if there comes a moment where those who have authority over us demand more respect than God in our lives, or if they push us to do something that we think God would not want us to do, we should put God first. Not because God is bossy but because God is love, and love should always come first. And since sometimes love looks gentle, and sometimes love is fierce and says, “No, that’s not okay,†sometimes we find ourselves at odds with the world around us. Think of someone like Martin Luther King, Jr., or Malala Yousafzai, or our friends on Burnaby Mountain fighting for the environment.
The good news – the gospel, even – is that God doesn’t expect us to have faith and take big risks for something abstract, or “out there.†God has shows us something concrete, something “right here,†and something totally unexpected.
So what kind of monarch is God?
First let’s look at what God isn’t.
Last week we heard that Saul became king, and there was a big gap in the reading from Samuel. This week there’s another big gap. Saul is made king, and Samuel and God are hopeful that things will turn out okay. The people ask for a king, and God, against her better judgement, decides to give it a shot, because God loves the people. In the text that’s missing, the people even admit to God that maybe asking for a king wasn’t a good idea. Samuel says, “Just let God be the real king here.â€
But then the story shows them messing up again and again. Saul offers a sacrifice, which he’s not supposed to because that was Samuel’s job, he makes an oath without thinking it through which puts his son in danger, and he does not follow God’s instructions.
All of his slip-ups have to do with trying to gain more power than God wants him to have. What’s really interesting is that Saul’s intent doesn’t matter. Sometimes he disobeys instructions but says that he did it to give greater glory to God.
God’s no fool. God can see that kind of doublethink a mile away. And if you were paying attention to the news this week you probably did too. The Bible is a tool as well as a book, and you can use a tool to build a house or a gallows.
Finally God gets so frustrated that she tells Samuel, and Samuel goes to Saul and says, “You haven’t been listening!†Saul says, “Yes I have!â€
Samuel says, “God has rejected you as king,†and Saul says, “Okay, I messed up, but it was only because I was scared. The people kept nagging me to give them what they want.â€
What kind of excuse is that? You’re the king!
Despite everything, Saul wheedles and whines until Samuel agrees to help clean up his messes.
But it’s too late. As we learn this morning, God has already chosen someone else.
And who has God chosen?
A shepherd boy – the youngest of the seven sons of Jesse.
Again, this person is chosen entirely according to God’s will, and is not what anyone expects. Again, like with Saul last week, there is a secret coronation long before a public one. And once it has occurred, the Spirit of God comes “mightily†upon David, and leaves Saul tormented by an evil spirit in its place.
Here’s where the Samuel reading and the Gospel come together beautifully. Remember Saul became king with the help of a servant boy, who brought him to the appointed place to meet Samuel. And again, it is a servant who suggests that David be brought to Saul because David’s music will calm the evil spirit.
God is with the servants. God is with the Hebrew midwives who save the children in the Book of Exodus. God is with Jochebed and Rahab and Jael and Ruth and Tamar, women who are disgraced and oppressed and yet find themselves doing God’s work in secret, without glory in their own lifetimes but remembered in our Hebrew Scriptures.
Massive royal dynasties are set up through the secret work of servants. And God, who was so annoyed with Saul, still brings comfort by returning the Holy Spirit to his house through David – secretly.
Jesus’ parables today are all about secret work, aren’t they? In fact most of the Gospel of Mark is about hidden work. We can plant our seeds, and we can water them and put them in the sun, but that’s all we can do. All of us know that thrilling moment when we go from feeling a little foolish checking a pile of dirt every day to feeling amazed and excited when the first shoots pop out. Somehow, in the dark, in secret, seeds burst forth into shoots, and shoots grow into stalks, and stalks bear fruit. Just imagine the awe and gratitude of farming people who depended on those tiny seeds to live!
Here, Jesus teaches and models the faith that we need to allow God to be our monarch. The parable of the Sower, Jesus says, is the parable by which all of his other parables are understood. That means the Kingdom of God comes from us taking risks. Scatter the seed, trust that it will grow and flourish where it should, and if it doesn’t fall on good soil, that’s up to God. God knows where it will flourish, and there’s little we can do to determine that.
Saul was afraid to take risks. He didn’t trust that God’s authority would steer him right. He performs the illegal sacrifice because Samuel is running late. He makes the rash oath that puts his son at risk because he is afraid he cannot win the battle without it. He doesn’t trust that God will show up. He demands more control.
Jesus surrenders control completely. He sows seeds everywhere, and gets in trouble for it, not because he was saying things that people didn’t know, but because he was sowing seeds where polite society said he shouldn’t – among lepers and tax collectors and sinners! No wonder people got so angry about what he was doing! If seeds could bear fruit among the lowest of the low, what hope did the powerful have in holding on to their power? What could earthly authority mean when the gates of the powerful could be broken down in an instant?
This is the kind of monarch we are called to serve: the kind that doesn’t want our money or land or labour but our hearts, and not to keep them in a golden box, but to scatter seed upon them. She wants to give us something in return.
That’s the only kind of king worth kneeling to.
Let’s pray together, because that’s how we prepare the earth of the heart. We’ll be receiving our seeds here at the table in a few minutes.
Remember that while you can protect and nurture your seeds with the water of faith and the sunlight of love, only the king, only God, can make them grow.