Sermon by Rev Sydney Maitland for Sunday 16 June 2024.
• First Reading: 1 Samuel 15: 34 – 16: 13 (The most appealing of Jesse’s sons rejected. The youngest, David, chosen)
• Epistle: 2 Corinthians 5: 6 – 6: 17 (We live by faith, not by sight)
• Gospel: Mark 4: 26-34 (Parable of the mustard seed)
For an unreligious society it is astonishing just how much we believe in things or processes.
It might be sport in general or our favoured team in particular. It might be the arts, or politics or science.
It might be a process like science or the exercise of power, whether by politicians or engineers.
It could be the human spirit, even when openly shown to be deficient in the wars and massacres of our times.
In short, it could be anything we see and whose workings we understand and may take part in. Maybe in things we believe that we can control.
But then is this really faith in the spiritual sense? Perhaps it is more a confidence in something that is reported to us and which we can follow in our media?
But then by definition, God is not seen. He may be believed in, worshipped, honoured and even feared. His effects may be seen – even if they are not really understood. But this is a different kind of faith.
Having presided over the selection and anointing of Saul as king of Israel, Samuel had seen both the political processes in Israel in action and in their failures.
He had also known, directly and personally, the Living God of his fathers, and who had called him by name when a boy, serving in His sanctuary.
And Samuel had been directed by God to anoint another king to succeed Saul when he finally died. But even then, he was tempted to act on what his eyes saw, and not on what his spirit revealed.
The sons of Jesse were indeed fine looking young men, but no the Lord had not chosen them. In desperation Samuel asked: ‘Are there none others?’ and they said, sure, there is Davie minding the sheep. Singing his songs and away with the fairies.
Fine. Get him. Nothing happens until he comes.
And so there was a long and embarrassed wait: find David, bring him in, clean him up and make him presentable. Some of us are getting hungry.
And so the tension built as they admired the scenery and then the quality of the craftsmanship in the ceiling of the house.
And so he comes in. Glowing with health, looking good. Well the others might have qualified on that basis, but this time there was an inner voice validating this one.
A quiet but insistent voice. Inaudible but pressing. Different from his own inclinations but definitely authentic and authoritative. This is the One.
Living by faith when the others around were impatient, demanding and even argumentative. But Samuel held out and anointed David.
In the gospel Jesus was also speaking about faith.
Like the farmer expecting the soil to yield its crops, he sows the land and then leaves it. He is trusting in the quality of the soil and the sufficiency of the rains to bring forth the crop, but he can control neither. All he can do is wait for the harvest, hoping for a good one, meanwhile get on with other tasks on the farm.
And then in the parable of the mustard seed, Jesus takes this parable a little further.
It is not the size or the appearance of the seed than matters. It is God that yields the increase, having created the earth and its fertility. He has given humanity the skill and patience needed for farming.
But even the smallest of seeds can yield a great crop and in that crop the greatest of trees. Again they grow of their own accord, but they do so within the scope and created order of the land.
And farming technology can only work on what is already there. It cannot create the ability of the land to yield its increase. It can only improve what is there by fencing it, draining or irrigating it, providing fertilizer and removing weeds or pests.
But we also are in the business of faith.
It is there in believing and trusting in what God has already done, and it starts with believing and trusting in God Himself.
It means receiving the teaching and the prohibitions that He has given us, and especially in the deliverance He has achieved for us from the results of our own misdirected and misaligned appetites and confidence in self or things.
Above all it means receiving and accepting the way He has given in order to restore us to the confidence and trust in Him that He always wanted.
One to be seen and touched and known – One to teach and heal and inspire.
Above all, One to place Himself in that place of judgment that should be ours but from which there would be no escape or acquittal.
Yes, this is Jesus Christ: the Word who expressed the will of God in creation and who came among us to rescue from ourselves and restore us to that place where God is from everlasting to everlasting – our shepherd, teacher and saviour.