7-27-08

I began the summer preaching the Old Testament lectionary readings, following Kama's lead, which I am learning to do, beginning with stories of Abraham. Kama last left off with Jacob, third of the four Patriarch's, wrestling the angel at the River Jabbock, a sight we passed by on our Holy Lands tour last year (did Kama mention that?) and will do so again this next year. In modern day Jordan. Space is still available, see me.

But then a couple weeks ago Kama converted to the New Testament lectionary readings, which currently are in the Gospel of Matthew. Our guest preacher last week, Rev. Carl Krusi, whom I thank, longtime pastor of our Fairfield and Power UCC churches, continued on the Matthew track. My thanks as well to those of you who were here. So this morning I will continue to follow. We are in Matthew.

Which I hope will please some of you. Specifically the 40-50 of you who joined me in a rigorous study of Matthew's gospel this past year in Bible Study. Get ready, I think we will do Mark this next year, who, yes, comes up as the lectionary gospel in 2009.

This morning's lectionary assignment has us in the last half of the 13^th chapter of

Matthew. The first half covers the Parable of the Sower (Kama, two weeks ago) and the Parable of the Wheat and Weeds (Karl, last Sunday). Next up in chapter 13 is a series of parables about growth.

Curiously enough these parables about growth are all very short parables, just one or two verses, which you will like. They begin with this morning's well known parable about the mustard seed, the tiniest of seeds which grow into the greatest of shrubs in the Holy Lands, as you heard me tell the children. See me after the service and I will show you the seeds as well.

But first, let's fade back and pick up a growth story from the Old Testament, for I feel a little guilty about dumping the Old Testament here in the middle of summer. I thought our June Genesis beginning had such promise.

We are further along now, past the Torah and into the Books of History, where we encounter the departure of Saul, first king of the Hebrew people, who does not work out too well. Or maybe better to say, who does not end up too well.

To be fair, for twenty years Saul rules the kingdom, including impressive military victories over the Ammonites, the Amalekites and the Philistines. You don't beat up these boys without being buff.

So the Hebrew kingdom advances in riches and real estate. Indeed, a good start for the consolidated twelve tribes of Israel under their first monarchy.

Unfortunately, Saul grows increasingly ineffective as he grows increasingly mighty and powerful. Actually, what Saul grows is increasingly mentally disturbed. By today's diagnosis, Saul would be among the many labeled bipolar, with acute paranoid tendencies. Needless to say, it is time for a regime change.

Samuel is the man for the job. Not the kingship job, itself, but the job of finding and crowning the new king. Samuel is the last of the great prophets. How great? Open up your Old Testament and look at the table of contents. He's got two books named after him, and both of them are quite long. One of the duties of this great prophet is to carry around a cup of olive oil and anoint kings. He anointed Saul twenty years ago. Now it is time to find and anoint a new king.

God sends Samuel to Bethlehem, one of the tiniest towns in the Hebrew kingdom. It is kind of like going to Two Dot to find a king for Montana. There in Two Dot Samuel invites all the ranchers in the community to a BBQ, instructing them to come "purified," which is to say, wash up and wear your Sunday best for something big is going down.

So they gather, scrubbed up and all, including Jesse and his clan of seven sons. Actually Jesse has eight sons, but the wee one is left at home to tend the sheep.

Samuel sees Jesse's oldest son, who has a striking resemblance to the Incredible Hulk, and Samuel says, "Whoa, Dude! This kong has got to be the new king."

To which God responds, "Pay no attention to his appearance or to how tall he is, Samuel. For I have rejected him, because I do not judge as humans judge, and neither should you. Humans look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." Don't you just love it. This is one smart God!

And so it goes through Jesse's seven sons, all tall, dark, and handsome. No, they are not the one, the Hulk, Batman, Superman, for God, are you still listening, pays no attention to how tall and handsome they are. God does not judge as humans judge.

Exhausting the roster of Jesse's assembled sons, Samuel asks Jesse, "Have you no more sons?" Jesse answers, "Well, yah, there is the wee one, Davie, but he is at home tending the sheep."

Samuel says, "Fetch him, that he might join in the festival also." So David is fetched, a "ruddy, handsome young lad" with "beautiful eyes," as described in the Bible, which I take to mean he is not as manly in appearance and macho in mannerisms as his older brothers, and, I suspect,

though I may be reading this in, that he is on the short and slight side of physical stature as well. I mean, if you have to highlight his eyes, you can guess his biceps are not big guns. Clearly he is the least of his siblings.

But upon arrival God says to his prophet Samuel, "This is the one - anoint him!" So it is done. Samuel anoints David to be King of the Hebrews, "and the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward."

Isn't this neat? I just love this story. I interpret this to be a story for short people. Or for red heads, with that "ruddy" comment. I mean, how many stories are there for red heads? Or this is a story for rural folk. Or for "babies of the family." Or for, how shall I put it relative to the beautiful eyes comment, for delicate looking males. You can apply your own interpretation and see where you fit in.

David, the mightiest king the Hebrews will ever know, comes from the tiniest place, and is the least in stature among his own family members.

How God delights in confounding the standards of the world. "I do not judge as humans judge. Humans look at outward appearances, but I look at the heart." Oh, who and what God can use. It's everywhere in the Bible, Old Testament and New. David, runt of the family. Mary, peasant girl. Jesus, betrayed and abandoned on a cross.

Jesus taught this confounding stuff: the last shall be first, the servant shall be the master, the meek shall inherit the earth. Or from this morning's lesson: "The Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed which when planted in the ground is the smallest of seeds, but it grows to the largest of shrubs with large branches in which the birds of the air make their nests."

Look, life often has overwhelming odds and obstacles. Our task: start somewhere. Scatter a few seeds. Great things have small and unimpressive beginnings.

Somewhere in the past, Michael Phelps took his first swim lesson. Who knows? So as Mother Teresa used to say, "Do your own small part." Plant something.

This lesson comes hard to most of us. We who are always measuring results. We who conduct our lives according to the polls. We who turn to statistics to determine how we are doing.

We quantify, measure, monitor, and evaluate. This is the way the world works. And it works great - for assembly lines and hamburger stands. It does not work so well for the Kingdom of God.

Which is to say it does not work so well for human beings and other matters of the spirit in this world.

How do you change the things that really matter? You plant a mustard seed. You start somewhere, do something, do what you can. For heaven's sake, don't measure it. This will only discourage you. What we are doing will always be small compared to the obstacles and problems of the world. But you have to start somewhere. Plant a seed, even if it is the tiniest of seeds, and trust God to grow the rest.

Rosa Parks, bone tired after another day's hard labor, boarded the bus in Montgomery, Alabama, and sat down in a front seat. She was told to get in the back where she belonged. But she planted her weary seed in that seat and refused to move.

Who could ever guess that seed would result in anything but another beating of a black? And all those from South Africa to Poland to East Germany, who a few years ago were in prison, and are now presidents and prime ministers of those nations, they must have asked themselves a thousand times over, "What good is this witness I am making against this tyrannical power? I must be crazy. Why don't I just give up and go back to the factory?"

But they started somewhere, planted a seed, and left the rest to God. For, you see, God does not work the way we do. We are impressed with power, wealth, numbers, and nations. But this is the way of the world stuff. God does not pay attention to this. God chooses the weak, the small, the unknown, the insignificant to confound the mighty. Read the Bible.

"For God has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts, God has put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted those of low degree." From Mary's Magnificat (Luke 1:51-52).

This really isn't that hard to get. It's not even a mystery. It is simple economics. Look, you can play the lottery and lose. Or you can follow the five simple rules of investment: 1) invest early, 2) invest regularly, 3) invest often, 4) invest as much as you can, and 5) reinvest your earnings.

For example, which would you rather have? $10,000 a day for 35 consecutive days. Eh, sweet, which quick calculation will tell you sums to $350,000?

Or a penny on day one, doubled to two cents on day two, four more cents day three, 8 cents on day four, 16 cents more day five, and so forth, continuing to double each day for the same 35 days. You do the math - and be prepared to be astonished.

This is what Jesus is teaching with all these parables about seeds and growth, farmers and harvest, wheat and weeds. Seeds, little itsy bitsy teeny weenie seeds, contain all the potential and power of life.

Seeds can grow and crack rocks, endure incredibly harsh environments, travel the oceans, traverse the continents, last for eons. Why, a seed is one of the strongest things in all of creation. So what kind of seeds are you sowing? No telling who might be anointed the next king or queen, or be crowned with Olympic gold. So plant good seed and leave the rest to God.

John Gardner, former Cabinet member and the founder of Common Cause, gave a speech a few years ago at the Executive Conference in Hawaii. The Executive Conference is an annual power event where the most prominent CEOs in America convene. Gardner was preaching to these prominent CEOs.

He made the point the metaphor we use for life will determine the way we live our lives. He said most people use the "mountain climbing" metaphor. This is the metaphor in which we set goals for our life. Having a goal is a way of measuring success. We will know we have won when we stand on top of the mountain.

The mountain climbing metaphor is the product of a quantifying, competitive, production-oriented society. Set a goal and see if you can be the first to reach it.

The problem with this metaphor, Gardner says, is we scratch and scramble, climb and claw, put down and punch out our competitors, to reach what we think is the goal of life, and when we get to the top, we look around and feel quite a bit empty and a whole lot lonely.

We are left to wonder, have I spent my whole life climbing the wrong mountain?

Gardner suggests another metaphor for what life is really about. He calls it the "unfolding" metaphor, and suggests we give ourselves to opportunities for nurturing lives and for helping others whenever we can, and see what unfolds.

It is like the ruler who asked the three gurus in his court to tell him what his number one focus should be. The first advises, build your treasury. The second recommends, fortify your castle. The third suggests the ruler survey the needs of his people and seek to serve them.

The "unfolding" metaphor.

Actually Gardner was suggesting to the CEOs an investment model. Hopefully something they could relate to. Look about, he said. See all the opportunities for investing in life. Remember the principles: invest early, invest regularly, invest as often as you can, as much as you can, and keep re-investing your investment earnings. And just watch the returns you get.

Which reminds me of the study I read on economic development conducted by two Federal Reserve Bank economists, Grunewald and Rolnick, on what a community can best do achieve the highest level of economic development. Their conclusion: invest in the education of your most at-risk children. This will get you your biggest economic return for your invested dollar. I guess it is saying, you either invest a little now, early on, or it will cost you a whole lot more later on. The "investment" metaphor.

Jesus preached this, the "unfolding" or the "investment" model. Only in the Bible this is known as the "seed" model. We are to keep scattering the seed, as much as we can, as often as we can, as early as we can, investing in life with deeds of love and acts of grace, and lo, and lo, the miraculous, the marvelous, the magnificent mustard shrubs...

"For the Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed when planted in the ground is the smallest of all seeds, but it grows to the largest of shrubs with large branches in which the birds of the air make their nest."

It grows. By the grace of God it grows. Look at King David, born least of the litter in tiny Two Dot, of whom God said: "Pay no attention to his appearance or to how tall he is...I do not judge as humans judge. Humans look at the outward appearance, but I look at the heart."

I don't know about you. But this sure helps me out.

AMEN.