Second Sunday after Pentecost (sermon text)
Scriptures: 1 Samuel 8, Psalm 138, 2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1, Mark 3:23-35
Clear Instructions
I don’t know about you, but I’m not always great at following instructions, and I seem to be getting worse. Moving into a new house, I finally have a home office, and so to furnish it, I’ve been assembling a lot of prefabricated furniture over the past few weeks. My office is a fairly small room, so I measured my limited space carefully and chose a nice, L-shaped desk that would fit almost to the inch, with a workspace to the left and several rows of shelves to the right.
The desk arrived in dozens of pieces, and included an instruction book with about 40 pages.
I opened the instruction booklet to page 1, and got to work. Piece-by-piece, the boards and beams and bolts became a desk and shelves. I moved it into its corner, and sure enough, it was exactly backwards, with the shelves on the left and the workspace partly blocking my door.
Confused, I returned to the manual, and finally noticed the small-print at the top of page 1, which said: the following instructions are for a right-aligned desk. For a left-aligned desk, begin on page 20.
While I’m not great with instructions, I know it’s not just me. God knows that we’re going to fail, at least sometimes, and today’s readings – and really, the entire Bible – are about God’s response to our failure to obey.
Growing up, I was very close with my parents and family, so this passage from the Gospel of Mark was very distressing to me. This isn’t the popular image of Jesus – we like to picture him as a gentle person, the sort of guy who would have been a good son and brother within his own family. Instead, today, his family tries to come to his rescue when he’s being swarmed by a curious crowd and publicly attacked by the religious leaders – and what does Jesus do? He denounces his family, in favor of his followers.
Today’s readings, taken together, give a strong message: God provides, though humanity will fail to trust in God’s provision. Thanks be to God, that’s not where the message ends. These stories together also show what happens when humanity fails to trust God.
I won’t beat around the bush: God provides, and when we fail, God provides. If God’s response to our lack of trust is that straightforward, then the question for us becomes: “What is my response to God’s endless generosity?”
The books that we call First and Second Samuel tell an amazing story. Its characters are larger-than-life; the drama unfolds at a human level but with world-changing consequences; and God is never far from the action.
We’ve all heard of Samuel, the judge and prophet, and of course the first kings of the Israelites, Saul and David. Today, we heard about Samuel’s sons failing to walk in his footsteps. They serve briefly as judges, and are so corrupt that Israel’s rulers remove them from office. Sadly, this is exactly what happened earlier in the book, with Samuel’s mentor, Eli, and his sons.
The Israelites had tired of the cycle we see here: good judges followed by bad. They knew that some of the other nations around them had kings, and they wanted to try one of their own. The people of Israel ask God, through Samuel, to give them a king. So Samuel, judge and prophet, prays to God.
Did God’s response stand out to you? God replies to Samuel: “[The people] have rejected me from being king over them. Just as they have done to me, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so also they are doing to you. [… Y]ou shall solemnly warn them, and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them.”
God isn’t pleased that the people want a human authority figure ruling over them. God sees it as a failure of faith, and the desire to let an idol rule in their hearts. Here’s some of what Samuel tells the people a king will do. Says Samuel:
If you have a king, he will take some of your sons to serve his armies, and others to tend his fields, and others to craft instruments of war. He will take your daughters to serve his household. He will take the best of your fields for himself, and give a tenth of what’s left of your harvest to his officers and his courtiers. He will take your slaves and your strongest work animals and put them to his work for himself. He will take one-tenth of your sheep, and you shall be his slaves. And when that happens, you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves; but the Lord will not answer you.
The people of Israel have been told to trust God, to have faith in God and in nothing else. Unfortunately, they’re bad at following instructions. Instead, they’d like to be more like the nations around them. God grants their prayers, and Samuel appoints Saul as the first king of Israel.
And everything that Samuel warned would happen happens. Well, except one thing: God doesn’t abandon them.
In our Gospel reading… well, a lot is happening. Focusing on the family elements of it, we see Jesus in his hometown, as I mentioned earlier. The folks there know Jesus: he’s Mary’s son, a carpenter. They don’t see him as a teacher or a healer, and they certainly don’t see him as the son of God. In a very real sense, they’re blinded from seeing the real Jesus because they have an image of him already in mind. As a result, they’re also deaf to his message. They are unable to envision or join in the work God is doing in their very presence.
When they try to put Jesus back in his place, Jesus rejects his role as being anything other than following the will of God. His true family, says Jesus, is everyone who does the will of God.
The ancient Israelites failed to place their trust in God, and instead chose to follow a king. In Jesus’ time, the people who were closest to him rejected him and his message, instead falling back on what they already knew and trusted. This all represents humanity’s failure to fulfill the very first Commandment: “I am the Lord, your God; you shall have no other gods before me.” Anything we place in our hearts before God, and any instructions we follow that are contrary to God’s instructions, break this commandment.
Earlier, I said that these stories show what happens when humanity fails to trust God, and that when we fail, God provides. What do we do with everything God provides, which is everything we have and everything we are?
A friend of our church at the Synod, Pastor Nancy Nyland, also preached about these readings today, and I appreciated her take on Jesus’ words. She works with churches all over Indiana and Kentucky, and observes that church members often talk about church as “family.” Pastor Nancy writes:
“Doing God’s will, this is the work of the family of God. I wonder how often this is the first priority of a faith community. How often do we come together as family, as a congregation, as a church to seek and discern the will of God? How often do we set aside time to listen to one another, to reflect on what we have done and what we have learned, and to discern God’s will. Where is God leading us in the future? Who is God calling us to be and what is God calling us to do?
“What is the will of God? We maybe could agree on a few things. We might think of God’s will communicated by Jesus in the two great commandments — Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength and love your neighbors as yourselves. We might think of God’s will demonstrated in Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. How God gives to all humanity, […] to each one of [us], God’s love, grace, mercy, forgiveness and eternal life. How God’s presence, protective, peace, providence, and power touch and shape our lives.”
Dear siblings-in-Christ, we’ve received God’s instructions. How will they shape our lives, as individuals and as a people of God – a church family? Let us be faithful with God’s gifts by placing our trust in God alone, by following the example of Christ in giving of ourselves, and by seeking the Holy Spirit’s guidance.
Amen.
-Pastor Will Bevins