What Do We Miss?

These two texts are tied together… even though they were written hundreds of years apart… by very different people… in very different situations.  Samuel goes to anoint a king for Israel.  He thinks he knows what he is looking for… but God clearly tells him that he does not.  God rejects Eliab, the eldest son whom Samuel thought was a worthy candidate.  And God rejects Abinadab… Shammah… and four other sons of Jesse.  Even Jesse thought that one of his older boys would be the chosen one.  He dismissed his youngest, David, as the one who keeps the sheep.  Even now, we recognize the metaphor when we hear it: …the kings of Israel are known as shepherds of the people… and later chastised by God for not being “Good Shepherds” of the people.   But that metaphor was not developed when Samuel anointed David.  Remember, David was only the second king chosen for the children of Israel and Saul, the first king, was not a shepherd.

What did Jesse miss when he looked at his youngest son?   Could he not see that his youngest son was fearless?   Could he not see that David was a natural leader?   Or did he see his harp-playing boy as too gentle… too effeminate… to be the leader of a great nation?   The Israelites were battling the Philistines… the great warriors and traders of the world at that time… the ones who stood between the Israelistes and a presence on the Mediterranean Sea.  Jesse knew that the next king would have to be a warrior… and perhaps, his youngest son did not impress him with his abilities to fight… or to lead an army of fighting men.   Or, perhaps, Jesse knew that his youngest did not always toe-the-line… and he knew that the king was expected to be obedient to God… and righteous before God.  His more mature older sons might be able to understand and comply… but David… he was still very young.   What else did Jesse miss?   Did he miss the gifts that God had given to David?  Did he overlook the potential of this, his youngest son?  These gifts and potential would only come to maturity with the power of the Holy Spirit after David was anointed.... gifts and potential that even David might not know that he had?   Do you know what your children are capable of doing with God’s help… if they are filled with the power… the wisdom… and the guidance of Spirit of God?   So, Samuel anoints David… the very unlikely youngest son from the very unlikely smallest tribe… a poor shepherd boy… and, from that day forward, the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him.

The other reading… that Wanda Solley brought to us this morning… compared the Kingdom of God to seeds… seeds sown by a person who has no idea how those seeds will grow… and seeds that are so small, they seem insignificant to us.  In each example, God knows things that we don’t know and has the power to do things that we cannot imagine.  The growth of God’s Kingdom will happen when God chooses and in the method that God chooses.  We are to be faithful in our work of “sowing the seed”… of sharing the story of God’s love with others… and God will do the rest.  And God has the power to use the smallest and most insignificant event… or person… to expand his Kingdom or cause it to grow to an unimaginable size.  The story of the mustard seed is one of the most beloved of the stories in the Bible, for it is a story of faith.  This tiny, insignificant seed is a weed… a weed that no farmer in the Middle East would want in his garden.  Yet this weed can thrive in a harsh climate.  It has the tenacity to put down roots and grow into a bush of significant size… large enough that birds seek shelter in its branches.   Thus, once again, we are told that it is impossible for us, as humans, to judge the value of what we see.

In our Adult Sunday School class, we are studying the call of Moses and the covenant that God made with him.  Why would God choose a stuttering shepherd… a murderer on the run… to free his people from bondage in Egypt… and be their leader?  Yet, the faithfulness of this one person bought the freedom of thousands of Israelites and laid the foundation of laws that still serve as an example to legal systems around the world.  The important thing is not the person… or what he has done… or what he will do… it is the God he serves… and what that God can do is beyond our comprehension.

I’m sure that Jesus’ efforts to compare the Kingdom of God to a mustard seed generated a great deal of conversation among his disciples and the crowd.  It would be like saying the Kingdom of God is like grass burrs in Texas.  Wouldn’t you rather compare it to the magnificent Redwoods of California?   The giant Redwood tree, which grows in northern California, would be a fitting symbol for the might and power and grandeur of God's rule coming to earth. They are trees that seem to live forever. Their tops seem to reach right up to heaven. Their trunks can grow so large that a tunnel can be cut out large enough to drive a car through without killing the tree. They are a magnificent… mysterious… part of God's creation.   By contrast, grass burrs are irritating plants that pop out of nowhere and take over your lawn!  Just when you think you have them under control, they pop up somewhere else.  There is nothing grand or glorious about them, but they are tenacious and they seem to need no sustenance to grow… and to multiply.  This interpretation of the parable… that God's Kingdom is like a weed… is one that certainly would challenge and threaten a hearer's world of assumptions of the coming, powerful kingdom of God. Yet, how many times have we seen weeds grow in the tiniest cracks in concrete… and defy our efforts to eradicate them from our yards.

Samuel saw the tall, handsome eldest son of Jesse and thought, “This is the guy!”  But God had other ideas.  Why?   We don’t know.  But God knew and pointed Samuel toward a young, unassuming shepherd boy… a boy whose only gift seemed to be that he played the harp really well… and that he knew how to take care of sheep.  Not much of a recommendation for the job of king at a time when the nation was threatened by enemy warriors!    Think about the people who knew that Saul was not doing the job any longer… the ones who pinned their hopes on Samuel, as he went out looking for the next king.  What do you think they thought when Samuel anointed David?   He wasn’t even from the right tribe!  Shouldn’t the king be the eldest son of the most powerful family from the largest tribe in Israel?  Look what happened to the last person picked from the “humblest family of the smallest tribe” in Israel!  Isn’t time we did something different?   I wonder how many of these people wanted to replace Samuel after that move.  And yet, the monarchy under King David is still talked about as the glory of Israel’s past… with no other king even coming close to matching his accomplishments.  Who would have thought that all that would come from a shepherd boy?   What did they miss?

What do we miss as we look around us?  Some of us have looked at those who have left our congregation to move to other places and thought “We’ll never find another person as good as so-and-so.”  We’ve remembered those who have died and thought, “We’ll never have someone who was as faithful as so-and-so.” The big, beautiful Redwoods of our congregation are gone… and all that is left are the weeds.    And the people that God has chosen to lead us don’t have what it takes to do the job right.

First of all, God has a plan that we cannot comprehend and uses people to accomplish it that we would not choose.  It is through the prophet Isaiah that God says, “my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are my ways your ways… as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”   How many times in the history of the children of Israel did God start over again with just a remnant?   How many times did God choose the most unlikely of people to lead them?   Who could have predicted that an obscure priest in Germany with an anger management problem would start a Reformation in the church that would affect all of society?   Who would have thought that a peasant girl from eastern France would lead the French army to several critical victories in the Hundred Years War, be indirectly responsible for the coronation of King Charles the VII, be burned at the stake as a heretic at the age of nineteen, and later become one of the three patron saints of France when she was canonized by the Roman Catholic Church?   Who would have thought that one middle-aged woman who went to India to work among the poorest of the poor in the streets of Calcutta would found an order of nuns who, at the time of her death in 1997, numbered more than 4,000 sisters who operated 610 missions in 123 different countries?   Who can predict what God has planned for the Presbyterian Church in Stephenville, Texas… and who can identify the people that God will use to bring that plan to fruition?   What seeds have been scattered here that will grow and bear fruit?  What can God see in each of our hearts that is hidden from the world?   God often chooses the most unlikely people to do the most incredible things.

Secondly, I like weeds.  I know that I have told you that daisies are my favorite flower… plain, white daisies.  Daisies are weeds… tenacious perennials that grow wherever they feel growing… in places where nothing else can grow… with very little sustenance.  In that way, they are like Texas Bluebonnets that thrive in sandy, rocky soil and die in dark, fertile ground.  Daisies multiply every year… so where you saw one the year before, this year, there are ten… ten beautiful white flowers with sunny yellow centers.  More than once, I have laughed out loud when I see their smiling faces popping out in the most impossible places.   They are weeds.    If we who remain are the weeds, then let me share with you that only two weeds showed up yesterday for the Presbyterian Men’s Work Day.  One of those weeds, Raymond Kenny, mowed the entire lot next to the church on his little tractor pulling a small shredder.  It took him three hours in the hot sun to get it done, but he did it.  Tenacious guy!  The other weed, Russell Bowden, armed with just a Weedeater, took out all the weeds and vines along the back fence and pulled Virginia Creepers from some of our big beautiful oak trees.  He, too, worked for three hours in the hot sun… and, in the end, the fruit of his labor filled the entire bed of Raymond’s truck… so high that we had to tie it down with Bungee cords.  If those two guys are weeds, then we need weeds… a lot of weeds… in this congregation.

Finally, when I look at those of you who sit here today, I don’t see weeds at all.  I see the beautiful people that God has called to this place… at this time… to do his work.  I see the simple faith of Jim Skipworth.  I hear the uplifting prayers of Sylma Smith.  I witness the quiet dedication of Peggy Kenny… Charlene Moser… and Jane Sweeny as they work on church records… preserve our history… and fold Sunday bulletins.  I see the tangible results of the invisible labor of Diana and Alton Council in the kitchen… and Linda Bowden preparing communion elements.  I hear the laughter of our younger youth as they learn Bible concepts through the activities and crafts that Laura Levisay spends hours preparing.  I hear the gratitude of shut-ins who have been visited by our older youth.  I witness the tireless efforts of Ralph Taeuber in our Capital Campaign.   We may have… we may even be… a lot of weeds… and not tall, beautiful Redwood trees… but God sees something in us that he wants to use… right here… right now… in this place.  What do we miss when we are the ones doing the looking?

This week… and every week… I would challenge you to look again.  See if you can see what God sees in the person sitting next to you.  See if you can see what God sees in the person across the aisle from you.  See if you can see what God sees in the people God has called to lead you.    What do we miss?   We miss a lot… if we are not looking with God’s eyes… and seeing what God sees.  Amen.

1 Samuel 16:1-13