The Heart of the Matter
Scriptures: 1 Samuel 15:34 - 16:13, Mark 4:26-34
My next-door neighbor has a very large, very old maple tree in her back yard. It is all tangled up with the different phone and electrical wires on the corner, so every so often some repairman or other will come through and trim it back. But every trimming seems to cause more shoots to grow up. And every shoot seems to produce more little helicopter seeds, so when the time comes for the seeds to drop in the spring, our back yard, just a few yards from the old maple, gets hundreds and hundreds of seeds. Sometimes I think it’s more seeds in the spring than leaves in the fall.
The seeds mostly fall on concrete or into the grass, and we gather them up and put them with the rest of the yard waste. But some seeds sneak through, and get into my lettuce beds, or the tomato pot, or the other, unused pots that sometimes sit around with nice soft potting soil in them. The ones we collect from the parking pad always seem to be dried out and beaten up in the process, but somehow those ones that sneak through into the good spots turn green and grow like crazy. It makes me wish there were space in the yard for a maple tree. The shade in the summer would be great. But that’s how it goes, I guess.
In 2005, archeologists found some ancient date palm seeds, estimated to be about 2,000 years old, based on carbon dating. They decided to try to grow the seeds, and after carefully soaking and fertilizing them, a botanist was able to coax a new date palm to sprout. At first its leaves were a little unhealthy, but over the next few months, the palm grew and thrived, all from a seed that had lain dormant for centuries.
What is odd to me about seeds is that if you split them open – for example, if you split open a peanut – there are two smooth halves, and a little square nut binding them together. But where is the life? Where is the part of the seed that shows that this little thing could be planted in the ground and then grow? The scientists had to plant the seed to see if it would grow. It must be, then, something only God can see.
In our reading from the Hebrew Scriptures, the prophet Samuel is dealing with possibilities that only God can see. The first king of Israel, Saul, looked like a good prospect to start with – strong and tall, with plenty of courage – but as his reign wears on, the people discover the limits of his abilities. He’s impulsive, paranoid, and jealous of his power for its own sake. Eventually, God decides to intervene, and he sends Samuel to anoint a new king.
Now on the surface, Samuel taking a trip to Bethlehem to find a new king looks like treachery. Saul is the king – the established authority – and he has been put in place there by the will of the Israelite tribes, and a careful selection process. And yet, at the heart of it, Samuel’s motivation is a risky act of faithfulness. He has to go against the established human authority in faithfulness to God’s call.
So Samuel sets out, with an animal offering on hand as cover for the mission, and when he arrives, he calls all the village people together. They’re a little nervous – the country folk aren’t used to a prophet from the city. And a holy man doesn’t always bring good news. But they do as Samuel asks – they prepare for a ritual sacrifice – and as they gather, Samuel feels drawn to the local farmer Jesse. His sons are tall, strong, handsome. They look like natural leaders. He sees the oldest. “Surely it’s this one,” he thinks. But God has other ideas. He sees the next oldest – “Okay, it’s got to be him.” The answer: no. And so on, all the way to the youngest one there. On the outside, on the surface, each son could be a future king, but at the heart of the matter, God is the one who knows. Finally, out of options, Samuel asks Jesse, “Got any more sons?”
Jesse answers, “Well, there is one more, but he’s off tending sheep.”
“We’ll wait until he gets here, then,” says Samuel.
When David arrives, Samuel knows he has found the next king. “This is the one,” God confirms, “I’ve looked at his heart, and he’s the one I’ve chosen.” Samuel rises up and anoints David as the new king.
And yet, what happens next might not be what you’d expect. Instead of charging up to Jerusalem to take his rightful place as king by force, David stays where he is, and goes on with the thankless task of shepherding his father’s sheep. Samuel makes the promised sacrifice and returns to his work as prophet in the big city. And yet, something has changed. A seed has been planted.
When Jesus talks about the kingdom of God in our gospel lesson from this morning, in some ways he is describing the mystery of how God works in our lives. God’s realm doesn’t come about as a storm front so must as a tiny, pungent seed furrowing its roots into the ground and stretching its leaves into the sky. How does a seed 2,000 years old sprout and become a date plant? What is it in a young boy’s heart that makes him a king? When does a hard heart turn from stubborn anger to forgiving grace?
The heart of the matter is that God is the one who knows, and is the one who works these miracles. As followers of Jesus, it may seem sometimes like life is something that can be controlled, that we are the ones who will decide what is good and what is bad. But what Samuel shows us is that the first task of a faithful person is to look beyond the surface and listen carefully for God’s voice. As a community, we can choose to walk by sight, as Paul puts it. We can hold fast to logic, to tradition, to what appears right and authoritative on the surface. Or, we can choose to walk by faith – to step out in risky faithfulness, as Samuel did, always with our ears open, listening for God’s voice.
The good news for us today is that the seeds of God’s kingdom are springing up all around us, and learning to walk by faith is as much learning to see the sprouting seeds as it is learning to hear God’s sometimes subtle voice. Where do you see glimpses of God’s dream for the world coming true? Where is strong love helping people let go of addictions? Where is the stranger given a welcome? Where are hungry people given something to eat? Where are prisoners visited, attended to, and treated with dignity? Where do the poor have good news preached to them? At the heart of the matter, it is God’s will we seek to do on earth. May the seeds of the kingdom abound! Thanks be to God, Amen.
My next-door neighbor has a very large, very old maple tree in her back yard. It is all tangled up with the different phone and electrical wires on the corner, so every so often some repairman or other will come through and trim it back. But every trimming seems to cause more shoots to grow up. And every shoot seems to produce more little helicopter seeds, so when the time comes for the seeds to drop in the spring, our back yard, just a few yards from the old maple, gets hundreds and hundreds of seeds. Sometimes I think it’s more seeds in the spring than leaves in the fall.
The seeds mostly fall on concrete or into the grass, and we gather them up and put them with the rest of the yard waste. But some seeds sneak through, and get into my lettuce beds, or the tomato pot, or the other, unused pots that sometimes sit around with nice soft potting soil in them. The ones we collect from the parking pad always seem to be dried out and beaten up in the process, but somehow those ones that sneak through into the good spots turn green and grow like crazy. It makes me wish there were space in the yard for a maple tree. The shade in the summer would be great. But that’s how it goes, I guess.
In 2005, archeologists found some ancient date palm seeds, estimated to be about 2,000 years old, based on carbon dating. They decided to try to grow the seeds, and after carefully soaking and fertilizing them, a botanist was able to coax a new date palm to sprout. At first its leaves were a little unhealthy, but over the next few months, the palm grew and thrived, all from a seed that had lain dormant for centuries.
What is odd to me about seeds is that if you split them open – for example, if you split open a peanut – there are two smooth halves, and a little square nut binding them together. But where is the life? Where is the part of the seed that shows that this little thing could be planted in the ground and then grow? The scientists had to plant the seed to see if it would grow. It must be, then, something only God can see.
In our reading from the Hebrew Scriptures, the prophet Samuel is dealing with possibilities that only God can see. The first king of Israel, Saul, looked like a good prospect to start with – strong and tall, with plenty of courage – but as his reign wears on, the people discover the limits of his abilities. He’s impulsive, paranoid, and jealous of his power for its own sake. Eventually, God decides to intervene, and he sends Samuel to anoint a new king.
Now on the surface, Samuel taking a trip to Bethlehem to find a new king looks like treachery. Saul is the king – the established authority – and he has been put in place there by the will of the Israelite tribes, and a careful selection process. And yet, at the heart of it, Samuel’s motivation is a risky act of faithfulness. He has to go against the established human authority in faithfulness to God’s call.
So Samuel sets out, with an animal offering on hand as cover for the mission, and when he arrives, he calls all the village people together. They’re a little nervous – the country folk aren’t used to a prophet from the city. And a holy man doesn’t always bring good news. But they do as Samuel asks – they prepare for a ritual sacrifice – and as they gather, Samuel feels drawn to the local farmer Jesse. His sons are tall, strong, handsome. They look like natural leaders. He sees the oldest. “Surely it’s this one,” he thinks. But God has other ideas. He sees the next oldest – “Okay, it’s got to be him.” The answer: no. And so on, all the way to the youngest one there. On the outside, on the surface, each son could be a future king, but at the heart of the matter, God is the one who knows. Finally, out of options, Samuel asks Jesse, “Got any more sons?”
Jesse answers, “Well, there is one more, but he’s off tending sheep.”
“We’ll wait until he gets here, then,” says Samuel.
When David arrives, Samuel knows he has found the next king. “This is the one,” God confirms, “I’ve looked at his heart, and he’s the one I’ve chosen.” Samuel rises up and anoints David as the new king.
And yet, what happens next might not be what you’d expect. Instead of charging up to Jerusalem to take his rightful place as king by force, David stays where he is, and goes on with the thankless task of shepherding his father’s sheep. Samuel makes the promised sacrifice and returns to his work as prophet in the big city. And yet, something has changed. A seed has been planted.
When Jesus talks about the kingdom of God in our gospel lesson from this morning, in some ways he is describing the mystery of how God works in our lives. God’s realm doesn’t come about as a storm front so must as a tiny, pungent seed furrowing its roots into the ground and stretching its leaves into the sky. How does a seed 2,000 years old sprout and become a date plant? What is it in a young boy’s heart that makes him a king? When does a hard heart turn from stubborn anger to forgiving grace?
The heart of the matter is that God is the one who knows, and is the one who works these miracles. As followers of Jesus, it may seem sometimes like life is something that can be controlled, that we are the ones who will decide what is good and what is bad. But what Samuel shows us is that the first task of a faithful person is to look beyond the surface and listen carefully for God’s voice. As a community, we can choose to walk by sight, as Paul puts it. We can hold fast to logic, to tradition, to what appears right and authoritative on the surface. Or, we can choose to walk by faith – to step out in risky faithfulness, as Samuel did, always with our ears open, listening for God’s voice.
The good news for us today is that the seeds of God’s kingdom are springing up all around us, and learning to walk by faith is as much learning to see the sprouting seeds as it is learning to hear God’s sometimes subtle voice. Where do you see glimpses of God’s dream for the world coming true? Where is strong love helping people let go of addictions? Where is the stranger given a welcome? Where are hungry people given something to eat? Where are prisoners visited, attended to, and treated with dignity? Where do the poor have good news preached to them? At the heart of the matter, it is God’s will we seek to do on earth. May the seeds of the kingdom abound! Thanks be to God, Amen.
posted by Amy Sens at 3:13 PM
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