Recognizing the kingdom of God
Commentary
God does not judge by appearances, but by the heart. And God’s kingdom does not look like human ideas of beauty, strength, and success. Instead, God is nimble and profligate like a weed, turning up in unexpected places, enriching our lives, and sometimes turning them on end. Today’s lessons invite us to reflect on where we find the Kingdom of God in our lives and communities, and to look again with fresh eyes for God’s work in our world.
1 Samuel 15:34--16:13
In the lectionary we spend this summer skipping through the stories of Saul, David, Solomon and their reigns in 1 and 2 Samuel. We began last Sunday when we heard how the people of Israel demanded a king, despite the costs and loss of freedom kingship would entail for the people. Though we read these kingly stories until the very end of August, a great deal gets passed over. Combined with the likelihood of more sporadic attendance over the summer holiday season, some preachers may wish to encourage their congregations to read the more complete stories in their Bibles or in supplemental texts.
In the space of one week, since last Sunday’s reading, Saul has come to power as king, erred in his ways, and been rejected by God and the prophet Samuel who anointed Saul as the first king of Israel. God commands Samuel to go anoint another king, and today we hear the story of Samuel’s anointing of Jesse’s youngest son, David. This is a familiar story to many ?certainly one I heard many times in Sunday school as a child. What is not clear in this pericope, however, is that Saul, while rejected by God, remains in power as king and will do so for many years to come. David’s path to the throne (in the lectionary, he is publicly anointed as king of Israel in just two weeks’ time!) will be full of trials and sorrow. Today’s story is a private anointing that gives David the strength and call he needs to persevere through many difficult years to come. While next Sunday’s reading of the David and Goliath story is a familiar one that shows a triumphant young David, we then skip over the intense rivalry that develops between Saul and David, the multiple times that Saul tries to kill David, and how David spends years of his life in exile fleeing from Saul’s armies. Even after Saul and Saul’s son Jonathan are killed in battle with the Philistines, we are told “There was a long war between the house of Saul and the house of David” (2 Samuel 3:1a) before David was publicly anointed as king of Israel.
For parishioners who choose to read the fuller stories of Saul, David, and Solomon, the ongoing violence and warfare may prove troubling. (Perhaps it is better to say that the violence and warfare should prove troubling!) In reflecting on this bloody history of kings, rivalries, and battle upon battle, it is worth recalling the demand of the Israelites that initiated this path: “We are determined to have a king over us, so that we also may be like other nations, and that our king may govern us and go out before us and fight our battles” (1 Samuel 8:19b-20). The Israelites got what they wished for: they rejected the perfection of God’s kingship over them (1 Samuel 8:7) and instead got the imperfect human kings who led them into battle time after time.
2 Corinthians 5:6-10 (11-13) 14-17
When Samuel was studying Jesse’s son Eliab and thinking that he would be the one God would call as the next king of Israel, the Lord told Samuel: “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, 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” (1 Samuel 16:7). Paul echoes this sentiment in the passage from 2 Corinthians that we read today: “We are not commending ourselves to you again, but giving you an opportunity to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast in outward appearance and not in the heart” (2 Corinthians 5:12).
Paul, like David, had his authority and leadership challenged, though not in physical wars between human armies. Instead, Paul is caught up in spiritual battle with those who would denounce his message and his apostleship. In 2 Corinthians, Paul answers challenges to his teaching by unnamed opponents who, we may infer, attack his physical frailty and unprepossessing appearance, claiming they disqualify his message. Unlike handsome young David, Paul does not look the part of a hero. As he suffers from an unnamed affliction, Paul cannot boast that following Christ brings him physical health. God does not save his temporal body, which he compares in chapter 4 to a clay jar (easily broken and discarded) and earlier in chapter 5 to an earthly tent ? both temporary objects to be used and abandoned. In chapters 4 and 5, Paul dwells on his physical frailty and mortality while claiming spiritual strength that comes from God. Indeed, he looks forward to his eventual death, when he will finally be at home with God and freed from his mortal body. But in the meantime, as long as he inhabits this world, he walks in confidence and faith in the love of Christ and the promise of a greater life to come. So full is his faith, in many ways it is as if he is already living in the new world to come: “So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
Mark 4:26-34
Mark is nothing if not efficient. In chapter 4 he assembles the parables Jesus told, which are few and concise compared with the other gospels. The two parables we hear today end this short collection. While the parable of the mustard seed is a familiar one that appears in all three synoptic gospels, the preceding parable of the growing seed appears only in Mark. Both parables contain strains of the urgency that typifies Mark’s narrative.
Jesus begins his public ministry in Mark by taking over John the Baptist’s prophetic role after John’s arrest, and his message is clear: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news” (Mark 1:15). In the first of today’s parables, the harvest has been growing quietly and mysteriously during the routines of daily life, but when it is ready immediate action is demanded ? there is not a moment to waste. The time is fulfilled. The grain has matured and must be quickly gathered in. Just as harvest time in farming communities demands the full attention and labor of every person from dawn until dusk and often beyond, so too the imminent arrival of the kingdom of God that Jesus preached required leaving daily routines and giving one’s all to the work.
The urgency in the mustard seed parable is less obvious until one considers how the mustard plant grows. It is an annual plant (i.e., one that grows anew from seed each year) that can quickly grow from a tiny seed to a 9-foot shrub. In the final verse of the parable where he describes the birds nesting in its shade, Jesus alludes to Daniel 4:12, which is part of a dream described by King Nebuchadnezzar: “Upon my bed, this is what I saw; there was a tree at the center of the earth, and its height was great. The tree grew great and strong, its top reached to heaven, and it was visible to the ends of the whole earth. Its foliage was beautiful, its fruit abundant, and it provided food for all. The animals of the field found shade under it, the birds of the air nested in its branches, and from it all living things were fed” (Daniel 4:10-12). The tree, which represents Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom, is then destroyed in this apocalyptic vision, but consider the grandeur and slow growth of such a tree with the rapid and scraggly growth of the mustard seed. God’s kingdom does not look like human kingdoms, Jesus is saying. It is not about might and strength and grandeur, like a stately tree; it is about quick and profligate growth. For a modern North American audience, it might prove worthwhile to compare the kingdom of God to dandelions or other weeds that sprout up suddenly and without our invitation. Wikipedia notes: “Pliny the Elder, in his Natural History (published around AD 78), writes that ‘mustard... is extremely beneficial for the health. It grows entirely wild, though it is improved by being transplanted: but on the other hand when it has once been sown it is scarcely possible to get the place free of it, as the seed when it falls germinates at once.’ ” Would that we could say the same for the kingdom of God among us!
Application
God has different standards than human beings. In our readings today, these differing standards are twofold ? appearance and time. Young David and sickly, unprepossessing Paul do not look like leaders in the faith any more than a mustard plant looks like a stately cedar of Lebanon. David is anointed as king, but it then takes years and much struggle before he finally ascends the throne. Paul lives a space between this life and the next, awaiting death and full union with Christ while still figuring out what his earthly ministry will be. The mustard seeds shoot up quickly out of almost nothing, catching the unwary by surprise.
Where do we look for God in the world around us? Over the years, I have regularly had parishioners come to me despairing of the state of the world as they read or watch the news each day. Time and again I tell them, “It’s called the news for a reason! The news reports what’s odd, what’s new, what’s attention-getting or sensational. It doesn’t report that in most of the world people got up and fed their families, got their children off to school, went to work to do some kind of good in the world, and took care of their neighbors. We don’t call that news, but it’s more real and more common than anything you’ll see on the web, on TV, or in the papers.” Our lessons today offer a tremendous opportunity to name the kingdom of God we see at work in our own communities, and this is especially valuable in small or faltering churches that do not have all the contemporary markings of success as measured by things like budget or membership or physical plant. Jesus had only twelve disciples and died on a cross. What looks like failure to human eyes may very well be God at work, deeply transforming the world.
And then there’s God’s timing. Sometimes the kingdom of God just sprouts up like a weed. I have been amazed in my own community over the past year to witness the formation of a program to feed hungry schoolchildren during school vacations and on weekends when they are not receiving free meals at school. From a late January meeting in 2014, a group organized in just a couple of weeks to provide meals over the February vacation, and then April, and then all through the summer. As they head into their second summer, community volunteerism and donations have grown like the proverbial mustard plant, providing abundant food to hungry families in the space of a season.
And then there’s David, anointed king, but not becoming one for many years. Sometimes God’s promises are not fulfilled according to any timeline that we would choose. Growth can be slow and full of obstacles (as in the parable of the sower in Mark 4:1-9, which precedes today’s parables of seeds). When things do not happen in the time that we would wish, it is worth wondering both about God’s timing and about human sin. Sometimes God just works at a different pace (faster or slower) than we find comfortable, but other times, sin actively impedes growth. Recall that the Israelites’ desire for a king to lead them into battle represented a turning away from God. David’s journey to the throne was awash in sin ? others’ and his own. In a sinful world, growth and fruition sometimes follow circuitous routes, like the plant pushing its way around and through rocky soil to finally reach the light of day.
Alternate Applications
For those who wish to spend more time reflecting on the multiple meanings of the mustard seed, I offer two stories. My husband is from India, where mustard seeds are commonly used in cooking. Often the recipes I use tell me to use mustard seeds to gauge when the oil is hot enough to add other ingredients. When the oil becomes hot enough the seeds start to “pop,” which means they start to jump out of the oil like tiny kernels of popcorn, and the cook must act quickly to stir in vegetables and any remaining spices. There is not a moment to waste, or the spices mixed with the mustard seeds will burn and the dish will be ruined. This is a different parable of mustard seeds, but in keeping with Mark’s urgency for action when the time becomes ripe. Another mustard seed parable that predates Jesus also originates in India, when the Buddha tells a grieving mother who had lost her only son to go gather a handful of mustard seeds from a family who had never lost a child, parent, husband, or friend. When she comes back empty-handed after visiting every home in the village, she realizes the universality of human loss.
1 Samuel 15:34--16:13
In the lectionary we spend this summer skipping through the stories of Saul, David, Solomon and their reigns in 1 and 2 Samuel. We began last Sunday when we heard how the people of Israel demanded a king, despite the costs and loss of freedom kingship would entail for the people. Though we read these kingly stories until the very end of August, a great deal gets passed over. Combined with the likelihood of more sporadic attendance over the summer holiday season, some preachers may wish to encourage their congregations to read the more complete stories in their Bibles or in supplemental texts.
In the space of one week, since last Sunday’s reading, Saul has come to power as king, erred in his ways, and been rejected by God and the prophet Samuel who anointed Saul as the first king of Israel. God commands Samuel to go anoint another king, and today we hear the story of Samuel’s anointing of Jesse’s youngest son, David. This is a familiar story to many ?certainly one I heard many times in Sunday school as a child. What is not clear in this pericope, however, is that Saul, while rejected by God, remains in power as king and will do so for many years to come. David’s path to the throne (in the lectionary, he is publicly anointed as king of Israel in just two weeks’ time!) will be full of trials and sorrow. Today’s story is a private anointing that gives David the strength and call he needs to persevere through many difficult years to come. While next Sunday’s reading of the David and Goliath story is a familiar one that shows a triumphant young David, we then skip over the intense rivalry that develops between Saul and David, the multiple times that Saul tries to kill David, and how David spends years of his life in exile fleeing from Saul’s armies. Even after Saul and Saul’s son Jonathan are killed in battle with the Philistines, we are told “There was a long war between the house of Saul and the house of David” (2 Samuel 3:1a) before David was publicly anointed as king of Israel.
For parishioners who choose to read the fuller stories of Saul, David, and Solomon, the ongoing violence and warfare may prove troubling. (Perhaps it is better to say that the violence and warfare should prove troubling!) In reflecting on this bloody history of kings, rivalries, and battle upon battle, it is worth recalling the demand of the Israelites that initiated this path: “We are determined to have a king over us, so that we also may be like other nations, and that our king may govern us and go out before us and fight our battles” (1 Samuel 8:19b-20). The Israelites got what they wished for: they rejected the perfection of God’s kingship over them (1 Samuel 8:7) and instead got the imperfect human kings who led them into battle time after time.
2 Corinthians 5:6-10 (11-13) 14-17
When Samuel was studying Jesse’s son Eliab and thinking that he would be the one God would call as the next king of Israel, the Lord told Samuel: “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, 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” (1 Samuel 16:7). Paul echoes this sentiment in the passage from 2 Corinthians that we read today: “We are not commending ourselves to you again, but giving you an opportunity to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast in outward appearance and not in the heart” (2 Corinthians 5:12).
Paul, like David, had his authority and leadership challenged, though not in physical wars between human armies. Instead, Paul is caught up in spiritual battle with those who would denounce his message and his apostleship. In 2 Corinthians, Paul answers challenges to his teaching by unnamed opponents who, we may infer, attack his physical frailty and unprepossessing appearance, claiming they disqualify his message. Unlike handsome young David, Paul does not look the part of a hero. As he suffers from an unnamed affliction, Paul cannot boast that following Christ brings him physical health. God does not save his temporal body, which he compares in chapter 4 to a clay jar (easily broken and discarded) and earlier in chapter 5 to an earthly tent ? both temporary objects to be used and abandoned. In chapters 4 and 5, Paul dwells on his physical frailty and mortality while claiming spiritual strength that comes from God. Indeed, he looks forward to his eventual death, when he will finally be at home with God and freed from his mortal body. But in the meantime, as long as he inhabits this world, he walks in confidence and faith in the love of Christ and the promise of a greater life to come. So full is his faith, in many ways it is as if he is already living in the new world to come: “So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
Mark 4:26-34
Mark is nothing if not efficient. In chapter 4 he assembles the parables Jesus told, which are few and concise compared with the other gospels. The two parables we hear today end this short collection. While the parable of the mustard seed is a familiar one that appears in all three synoptic gospels, the preceding parable of the growing seed appears only in Mark. Both parables contain strains of the urgency that typifies Mark’s narrative.
Jesus begins his public ministry in Mark by taking over John the Baptist’s prophetic role after John’s arrest, and his message is clear: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news” (Mark 1:15). In the first of today’s parables, the harvest has been growing quietly and mysteriously during the routines of daily life, but when it is ready immediate action is demanded ? there is not a moment to waste. The time is fulfilled. The grain has matured and must be quickly gathered in. Just as harvest time in farming communities demands the full attention and labor of every person from dawn until dusk and often beyond, so too the imminent arrival of the kingdom of God that Jesus preached required leaving daily routines and giving one’s all to the work.
The urgency in the mustard seed parable is less obvious until one considers how the mustard plant grows. It is an annual plant (i.e., one that grows anew from seed each year) that can quickly grow from a tiny seed to a 9-foot shrub. In the final verse of the parable where he describes the birds nesting in its shade, Jesus alludes to Daniel 4:12, which is part of a dream described by King Nebuchadnezzar: “Upon my bed, this is what I saw; there was a tree at the center of the earth, and its height was great. The tree grew great and strong, its top reached to heaven, and it was visible to the ends of the whole earth. Its foliage was beautiful, its fruit abundant, and it provided food for all. The animals of the field found shade under it, the birds of the air nested in its branches, and from it all living things were fed” (Daniel 4:10-12). The tree, which represents Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom, is then destroyed in this apocalyptic vision, but consider the grandeur and slow growth of such a tree with the rapid and scraggly growth of the mustard seed. God’s kingdom does not look like human kingdoms, Jesus is saying. It is not about might and strength and grandeur, like a stately tree; it is about quick and profligate growth. For a modern North American audience, it might prove worthwhile to compare the kingdom of God to dandelions or other weeds that sprout up suddenly and without our invitation. Wikipedia notes: “Pliny the Elder, in his Natural History (published around AD 78), writes that ‘mustard... is extremely beneficial for the health. It grows entirely wild, though it is improved by being transplanted: but on the other hand when it has once been sown it is scarcely possible to get the place free of it, as the seed when it falls germinates at once.’ ” Would that we could say the same for the kingdom of God among us!
Application
God has different standards than human beings. In our readings today, these differing standards are twofold ? appearance and time. Young David and sickly, unprepossessing Paul do not look like leaders in the faith any more than a mustard plant looks like a stately cedar of Lebanon. David is anointed as king, but it then takes years and much struggle before he finally ascends the throne. Paul lives a space between this life and the next, awaiting death and full union with Christ while still figuring out what his earthly ministry will be. The mustard seeds shoot up quickly out of almost nothing, catching the unwary by surprise.
Where do we look for God in the world around us? Over the years, I have regularly had parishioners come to me despairing of the state of the world as they read or watch the news each day. Time and again I tell them, “It’s called the news for a reason! The news reports what’s odd, what’s new, what’s attention-getting or sensational. It doesn’t report that in most of the world people got up and fed their families, got their children off to school, went to work to do some kind of good in the world, and took care of their neighbors. We don’t call that news, but it’s more real and more common than anything you’ll see on the web, on TV, or in the papers.” Our lessons today offer a tremendous opportunity to name the kingdom of God we see at work in our own communities, and this is especially valuable in small or faltering churches that do not have all the contemporary markings of success as measured by things like budget or membership or physical plant. Jesus had only twelve disciples and died on a cross. What looks like failure to human eyes may very well be God at work, deeply transforming the world.
And then there’s God’s timing. Sometimes the kingdom of God just sprouts up like a weed. I have been amazed in my own community over the past year to witness the formation of a program to feed hungry schoolchildren during school vacations and on weekends when they are not receiving free meals at school. From a late January meeting in 2014, a group organized in just a couple of weeks to provide meals over the February vacation, and then April, and then all through the summer. As they head into their second summer, community volunteerism and donations have grown like the proverbial mustard plant, providing abundant food to hungry families in the space of a season.
And then there’s David, anointed king, but not becoming one for many years. Sometimes God’s promises are not fulfilled according to any timeline that we would choose. Growth can be slow and full of obstacles (as in the parable of the sower in Mark 4:1-9, which precedes today’s parables of seeds). When things do not happen in the time that we would wish, it is worth wondering both about God’s timing and about human sin. Sometimes God just works at a different pace (faster or slower) than we find comfortable, but other times, sin actively impedes growth. Recall that the Israelites’ desire for a king to lead them into battle represented a turning away from God. David’s journey to the throne was awash in sin ? others’ and his own. In a sinful world, growth and fruition sometimes follow circuitous routes, like the plant pushing its way around and through rocky soil to finally reach the light of day.
Alternate Applications
For those who wish to spend more time reflecting on the multiple meanings of the mustard seed, I offer two stories. My husband is from India, where mustard seeds are commonly used in cooking. Often the recipes I use tell me to use mustard seeds to gauge when the oil is hot enough to add other ingredients. When the oil becomes hot enough the seeds start to “pop,” which means they start to jump out of the oil like tiny kernels of popcorn, and the cook must act quickly to stir in vegetables and any remaining spices. There is not a moment to waste, or the spices mixed with the mustard seeds will burn and the dish will be ruined. This is a different parable of mustard seeds, but in keeping with Mark’s urgency for action when the time becomes ripe. Another mustard seed parable that predates Jesus also originates in India, when the Buddha tells a grieving mother who had lost her only son to go gather a handful of mustard seeds from a family who had never lost a child, parent, husband, or friend. When she comes back empty-handed after visiting every home in the village, she realizes the universality of human loss.
