Deceptive Appearances
6-14-15 (Proper 6/Ordinary 11B Semi-Continous)
1 Samuel 15:34-16:13; Mark 4:26-34
There’s a trend that’s been running in our media for many years and it drives me absolutely crazy. I’m sure you’ve had the same experience one or two times; it happens on news stations all the time - they put up a flashy graphic behind the anchor, who says “And tonight in a special exclusive report, we’ll tell you the number one way that you’re hurting your family without even knowing it. Tune in tonight at 6 to find out what you need to know to keep your family safer.”
It’s been cropping up online lately, too - and maybe it’s just the prevalence of such things cluttering up social media and news sites anymore, but it’s even more annoying when they do it online than when it’s on a news channel. These “click-bait” articles are all formatted the same way - instead of a headline that gives you an idea of what the article is about, it’s a phrase that attempts to make sure you click on the link without even knowing what you’re looking at: “This man ordered a hamburger at Dairy Queen and you won’t believe what he found in it!” or “7 secrets credit card companies don’t want you to know!” You get excited about the news report, the article, or the set of tips you want to know… but when the report finally comes on, or when you finally load up the webpage, you’re disappointed that you were so intent on knowing what they were talking about. The number one way you’re hurting your family? It’s something like not getting enough sleep, or being too stressed, or not eating healthy enough. What did the man find in his hamburger? It was a hair, so he sent it back and requested a new burger. The big secrets credit card companies don’t want you to know? People who do their research on credit cards usually make better choices when they apply. And so we end up wasting our time waiting for these reports or clicking through so many webpages full of things like this that we don’t even know what’s really news anymore.
I guess it’s a good thing there weren’t clickbait sites and things like this during Samuel’s or Jesus’ day, huh? “Watch this prophet go out to anoint a new king - you won’t BELIEVE what happens next!” or “This farmer plants his crops, but there’s no way he could know what would happen later!” might have been the links the people were clicking on. They’re intriguing headlines, to be sure… but the stories they tell are so much more interesting than a poorly written blog article.
Samuel had already been witness to one unbelievable king - we’ve skipped a little as the lectionary moves forward, so we don’t get to hear the whole story for King Saul - Saul was the kind of king that everyone might have imagined having for themselves. He was the most handsome man in all of Israel, taller than anyone else, and he turned out to be a pretty good warrior on top of all that. But then Saul ended up being a bit of a letdown - he started to think too highly of himself and offered sacrifices that he shouldn’t have made because he was not a priest in the temple. He stopped obeying God’s commands, keeping things that were supposed to be given over to God after victorious battles. And so as we come into the story for today, we see that Saul has been such a disappointment that God actually regretted making Saul the king. God sends Samuel out once again to anoint someone new, another king that God has chosen.
As Samuel goes to the home of Jesse, the man to whose family God sent him, he goes with the same expectations as we have gone into many a clickbait website, ourselves. God tells him, “Go to Jesse’s home - you won’t BELIEVE what happens next!” and Samuel does just that. He starts evaluating Jesse’s sons, his oil-horn in hand ready to anoint at a moment’s notice. So when Jesse’s eldest son, Eliab, comes before Samuel, the prophet is ready to anoint him right away - he must have been a strapping individual who really looked like Samuel thought a king should. He fit the part, so Samuel was ready to go.
Before Samuel can pour out even the smallest drop of oil, though, God stops him in his tracks. “Do not look on his appearance or the height of his stature,” says God, “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.” “Keep looking,” God says. “You won’t BELIEVE the one I want you to anoint as King!” So Samuel clicks onward, moving through the rest of Jesse’s boys, probably even thinking the same thing each time - “Surely it’s this one, right God? Nope? Next. Come on, Lord - this one, right?! No? Next. Alright, Jesse, we’ve gone through seven of your sons - you don’t have any others?”
That’s when Jesse finally reveals David. The youngest of Jesse’s boys. The one that they had sent off to watch the sheep while they all vied for Samuel’s attention. A true “cinderella story,” if ever there was one. And of all the choices, it’s David who God lights up in front of Samuel with big neon signs around him saying “Anoint Me!” Samuel anoints David, then goes on his merry way - nothing else happens. Saul doesn’t immediately cease being the current king; he doesn’t keel over in his throne; David doesn’t suddenly have any special powers or even anything to show that he is going to be the next king. Nothing even changes in the slightest for David after he is anointed, particularly - he’s still a shepherd boy, still probably picked on by his older brothers. But he has the promise and the knowledge that God has chosen him, of all people, the heart to be a king as God has seen in him already, and the faith that God will keep God’s promises.
It’s amazing what God does with the things we least expect - and that’s what Jesus gets at in his parables here, as well. As Jesus talks about the Kingdom of God, the new reality in which he is inviting all humanity to participate, he shares the way in which that Kingdom isn’t going to be quite like something we’d expect a Kingdom to look like. “Listen to what the Kingdom is like - you’d be surprised at the real truth!” And the people in the crowds listen with rapt ears - they want to know what this Kingdom that Jesus promises will look like. They’ve been waiting for the Kingdom that Isaiah and the other prophets have talked about for so many years - for the Messiah who comes in, guns blazing, to overthrow the Romans and put the Israelites back in their rightful place of power and favor.
But Jesus talks about things happening without you even seeing them - crops growing while the farmer sleeps without his tending them, without his understanding how they work. A mustard seed goes from being a minuscule speck to a grand bush that gives shelter to birds with its massive branches. And in these parables, Jesus tells the people who listen just how different the Kingdom of God will be from what they expect. He tells them that the Kingdom will happen around them without their even knowing that it is coming. That it will come from the most unexpected places and in the least expected ways. He reminds them that God sees things differently than we see them, and that the only way we can come to see things the way God sees them is to actively learn to view the world through God’s own eyes. That’s why Jesus spoke in parables in the first place - to help us all see differently.
It’s enough to drive you crazy - knowing that God sometimes works in such mundane ways. Wouldn’t it be better if the Kingdom came dramatically, with flare and trumpets instead of as stalks of grain or mustard bushes? Wouldn't it have been better for David to have been placed on the throne in a sudden and decisive act of God after his anointing? Wouldn’t it be better if God worked through the church in a dramatic, powerful, and immediate way to show the world that God is still a force to be reckoned with?
Or is it better that, just like David, the church is more mustard seed than Miracle Grow? When we know that it is God who is at work, even when we don’t understand why or how, when we let ourselves be open to seeing the ways in which God is at work and when we seek to be aware of the way in which God is using those mundane things to let us grow, to bring about a greater harvest… when we realize that it is as we are at worship, as we are at work in our communities, as we are showing our love to our families, our friends, and to our neighbors that we ourselves are planting seeds of that Kingdom growing in our midst… that reality changes everything. So keep your eyes open - look at how God is working in our midst to change lives, to bring that growth, and to help us see the Kingdom. You won’t BELIEVE the kinds of things you’ll see God doing in your midst. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
1 Samuel 15:34-16:13; Mark 4:26-34
Deceptive Appearances
There’s a trend that’s been running in our media for many years and it drives me absolutely crazy. I’m sure you’ve had the same experience one or two times; it happens on news stations all the time - they put up a flashy graphic behind the anchor, who says “And tonight in a special exclusive report, we’ll tell you the number one way that you’re hurting your family without even knowing it. Tune in tonight at 6 to find out what you need to know to keep your family safer.”
It’s been cropping up online lately, too - and maybe it’s just the prevalence of such things cluttering up social media and news sites anymore, but it’s even more annoying when they do it online than when it’s on a news channel. These “click-bait” articles are all formatted the same way - instead of a headline that gives you an idea of what the article is about, it’s a phrase that attempts to make sure you click on the link without even knowing what you’re looking at: “This man ordered a hamburger at Dairy Queen and you won’t believe what he found in it!” or “7 secrets credit card companies don’t want you to know!” You get excited about the news report, the article, or the set of tips you want to know… but when the report finally comes on, or when you finally load up the webpage, you’re disappointed that you were so intent on knowing what they were talking about. The number one way you’re hurting your family? It’s something like not getting enough sleep, or being too stressed, or not eating healthy enough. What did the man find in his hamburger? It was a hair, so he sent it back and requested a new burger. The big secrets credit card companies don’t want you to know? People who do their research on credit cards usually make better choices when they apply. And so we end up wasting our time waiting for these reports or clicking through so many webpages full of things like this that we don’t even know what’s really news anymore.
I guess it’s a good thing there weren’t clickbait sites and things like this during Samuel’s or Jesus’ day, huh? “Watch this prophet go out to anoint a new king - you won’t BELIEVE what happens next!” or “This farmer plants his crops, but there’s no way he could know what would happen later!” might have been the links the people were clicking on. They’re intriguing headlines, to be sure… but the stories they tell are so much more interesting than a poorly written blog article.
Samuel had already been witness to one unbelievable king - we’ve skipped a little as the lectionary moves forward, so we don’t get to hear the whole story for King Saul - Saul was the kind of king that everyone might have imagined having for themselves. He was the most handsome man in all of Israel, taller than anyone else, and he turned out to be a pretty good warrior on top of all that. But then Saul ended up being a bit of a letdown - he started to think too highly of himself and offered sacrifices that he shouldn’t have made because he was not a priest in the temple. He stopped obeying God’s commands, keeping things that were supposed to be given over to God after victorious battles. And so as we come into the story for today, we see that Saul has been such a disappointment that God actually regretted making Saul the king. God sends Samuel out once again to anoint someone new, another king that God has chosen.
As Samuel goes to the home of Jesse, the man to whose family God sent him, he goes with the same expectations as we have gone into many a clickbait website, ourselves. God tells him, “Go to Jesse’s home - you won’t BELIEVE what happens next!” and Samuel does just that. He starts evaluating Jesse’s sons, his oil-horn in hand ready to anoint at a moment’s notice. So when Jesse’s eldest son, Eliab, comes before Samuel, the prophet is ready to anoint him right away - he must have been a strapping individual who really looked like Samuel thought a king should. He fit the part, so Samuel was ready to go.
Before Samuel can pour out even the smallest drop of oil, though, God stops him in his tracks. “Do not look on his appearance or the height of his stature,” says God, “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.” “Keep looking,” God says. “You won’t BELIEVE the one I want you to anoint as King!” So Samuel clicks onward, moving through the rest of Jesse’s boys, probably even thinking the same thing each time - “Surely it’s this one, right God? Nope? Next. Come on, Lord - this one, right?! No? Next. Alright, Jesse, we’ve gone through seven of your sons - you don’t have any others?”
That’s when Jesse finally reveals David. The youngest of Jesse’s boys. The one that they had sent off to watch the sheep while they all vied for Samuel’s attention. A true “cinderella story,” if ever there was one. And of all the choices, it’s David who God lights up in front of Samuel with big neon signs around him saying “Anoint Me!” Samuel anoints David, then goes on his merry way - nothing else happens. Saul doesn’t immediately cease being the current king; he doesn’t keel over in his throne; David doesn’t suddenly have any special powers or even anything to show that he is going to be the next king. Nothing even changes in the slightest for David after he is anointed, particularly - he’s still a shepherd boy, still probably picked on by his older brothers. But he has the promise and the knowledge that God has chosen him, of all people, the heart to be a king as God has seen in him already, and the faith that God will keep God’s promises.
It’s amazing what God does with the things we least expect - and that’s what Jesus gets at in his parables here, as well. As Jesus talks about the Kingdom of God, the new reality in which he is inviting all humanity to participate, he shares the way in which that Kingdom isn’t going to be quite like something we’d expect a Kingdom to look like. “Listen to what the Kingdom is like - you’d be surprised at the real truth!” And the people in the crowds listen with rapt ears - they want to know what this Kingdom that Jesus promises will look like. They’ve been waiting for the Kingdom that Isaiah and the other prophets have talked about for so many years - for the Messiah who comes in, guns blazing, to overthrow the Romans and put the Israelites back in their rightful place of power and favor.
But Jesus talks about things happening without you even seeing them - crops growing while the farmer sleeps without his tending them, without his understanding how they work. A mustard seed goes from being a minuscule speck to a grand bush that gives shelter to birds with its massive branches. And in these parables, Jesus tells the people who listen just how different the Kingdom of God will be from what they expect. He tells them that the Kingdom will happen around them without their even knowing that it is coming. That it will come from the most unexpected places and in the least expected ways. He reminds them that God sees things differently than we see them, and that the only way we can come to see things the way God sees them is to actively learn to view the world through God’s own eyes. That’s why Jesus spoke in parables in the first place - to help us all see differently.
It’s enough to drive you crazy - knowing that God sometimes works in such mundane ways. Wouldn’t it be better if the Kingdom came dramatically, with flare and trumpets instead of as stalks of grain or mustard bushes? Wouldn't it have been better for David to have been placed on the throne in a sudden and decisive act of God after his anointing? Wouldn’t it be better if God worked through the church in a dramatic, powerful, and immediate way to show the world that God is still a force to be reckoned with?
Or is it better that, just like David, the church is more mustard seed than Miracle Grow? When we know that it is God who is at work, even when we don’t understand why or how, when we let ourselves be open to seeing the ways in which God is at work and when we seek to be aware of the way in which God is using those mundane things to let us grow, to bring about a greater harvest… when we realize that it is as we are at worship, as we are at work in our communities, as we are showing our love to our families, our friends, and to our neighbors that we ourselves are planting seeds of that Kingdom growing in our midst… that reality changes everything. So keep your eyes open - look at how God is working in our midst to change lives, to bring that growth, and to help us see the Kingdom. You won’t BELIEVE the kinds of things you’ll see God doing in your midst. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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