Pastor Sherry’s message for June 16, 2024

Scriptures: 1 Sam 15:34-16:13; Ps 72; 2Cor 5:6-13;Mk 4:26-34

Happy Father’s Day to all of our fathers with us today. In honor of Father’s Day, I want to share a story of a heroic father.  The man’s name was the Rev. John Harper.  He, along with his 6YO daughter, sailed aboard the maiden voyage of the RMS Titanic. We know that on the night of April 14, 1912, the Titanic hit an iceberg.  Six watertight compartments were flooded, compromising the remainder of the ship.  As the supposedly unsinkable ocean liner began to submerge into the sea, pastor John Harper, was observed to place his daughter in a life boat, hug and kiss her, and tell her he would see her again someday.  He next walked up the deck of the tilting ship yelling, “Women, children, and all unsaved, into the lifeboats!”  He encouraged the ship’s orchestra, located on the fantail, to play, “Nearer my God to Thee.”  Along with many other stranded passengers, he then jumped into the icy waters and proceeded to swim from person to person trying to lead them to Christ.  He approached one young man holding onto a piece of floating debris.  When Harper asked him if he were saved, he said “No,” and that he wasn’t interested in hearing about Jesus.  Harper then gave him his own life-vest and said, “Then here, you need this more than I do.”  Harper swam over to others, urging them to believe in Jesus.  Passing the young man again, he did succeed in leading him to accept Christ. 

Of the 1,528 people who had jumped into the frigid waters that night, only 6 were rescued by lifeboats.  (Seventy percent of the women and children aboard the Titanic were saved, while only 20% of the men survived.)  One of the men rescued was Agrilla Webb, the young fellow who Harper had at last convinced to confess Jesus.  At a Titanic survivors’ meeting held 6 years later, Webb, in tears, recounted how John Harper had led him to faith. He also said he had witnessed Harper finally succumb to hypothermia and slip down into the frigid sea. Agrilla Webb reported Harper’s final words were, “Believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.”

(Graham Twelftree, Your Point Being?, Monarch Books, 2003, pp.64-65.)

This is an extraordinary story of both bravery and faith, isn’t it?  John Harper’s daughter, Annie Jessie, survived to become the longest living Scottish survivor of the Titanic.  Hopefully she heard the testimonies of her father’s efforts to lead others into eternal life and his own dying words. 

Several of our Scriptures today have things to say about  Fathers.

A.  In our Old Testament reading, 1 Sam 15:34-16:13, we learn that God has fired Saul as king of Israel and has anointed David in Saul’s place. Apparently Saul, like so many monarchs after him, became too full of himself to seek the Lord.  He was disobedient to God.  He did not really worship God, love Him, or trust Him.  He took credit for what others did and denied responsibility for his wrong actions.  He did not humble himself and ask God’s forgiveness when he sinned.  In sum, Saul seemed to have forgotten that all Israelites kings served at God’s pleasure.

So the Lord sent the prophet Samuel to Bethlehem to seek out the sons of Jesse, to crown from among them Saul’s replacement.  Notice, the prophet does not know ahead of time which of Jesse’s eight sons God has chosen.  Note also that the prophet fears Saul’s retaliation (should he discover why Samuel is there), so he journeys to Bethlehem under a “worship ruse.”  He asks to see Jesse’s sons, and is introduced to Eliab, Abinadab, Shammah, Nethanel, Raddai, Ozem, and Zeruiah, by birth-order.  They are each tall and handsome—much like King Saul.  But God has read their hearts (v.7) and passes on each of them.  Jesse, David’s father, seems to have overlooked his youngest son.   This is not behavior we would expect or admire in a good father.  A good father recognizes his childrens’ gifting and potential, and tries not to “play favorites.”  But Samuel has to request that David be brought forth.  Surprising everyone, including the prophet, David is God’s choice.  Verse 7 explains God’s reasoning for His choice—The Lord does not look at the things man looks at.  Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.  Then, according to v.13—…and from that day on the Spirit of the Lord came upon David in power.   God then granted David gifts of leadership and a deepening of his faith.  Now God is a good Father!

B.  Psalm 72 was written by King David much later in his life, and constitutes his prayer for his son and successor, King Solomon.  David’s record as a father, unfortunately, is spotty at best.  As a consequence of his sins of adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband Uriah, the Lord ordained that (2 Samuel 12:10)—Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your [King David’s] house.  David appeared to have ignored and never fully addressed the jealousy and bad feelings between his sons and daughters by different mothers.  He seemed to have favored some over others, and did not discipline his children or intervene to redirect them  as he should have.  But in this psalm, we see he did love Solomon and wish the best for him as King. 

Some portions of the psalm point to the King of Kings, when Jesus will return to earth a second time.  But others are direct prayers that the Lord will help Solomon to love justice and righteousness; to judge his people rightly; to treat the marginalized fairly and mercifully; and to defend the defenseless.  

King David’s example shows us that a good father prays for his children.

C. Our Gospel lesson, Mark 4:26-32, presents us with two parables involving seeds:

The first involves scattering seed on the ground.  No matter what the man does, waking or sleeping, the seed “does its thing.  The man may apply some fertilizer or water, but God superintends the growth!  In a sense, how the seed grows is a mystery.  We know the seed takes root, sends a shoot erupting through the earth, which then becomes a stalk, finally bearing fruit as it ripens.  But we don’t really know how it happens.  The planter/farmer harvests what God has caused to grow.  Notice, the role of the person:  The man broadcasts the seed, but he cannot really control the growth.  In God’s Kingdom, that part is left up to God.

Pastor John Harper called those who faced death on the Titanic to new life in Christ Jesus.  He spread the word.  Jesus brought in the harvest!

Think about what Christ did with this one man.  He used him to rescue the lost into lifeboats, then to bring the drowning to a saving faith in Christ.

Consider who sowed into your life?  On this Father’s Day, was it your dad–or another Father-figure (a spiritual father)?  Perhaps it was a spiritual Mother?  My Grandmothers both told me about Jesus.  Did the peace and joy of a Christian friend convince you?  You may want to thank whoever it was.

The second parable is the famous one of the mustard seed.  My father’s mother gave me a necklace containing a mustard seed when I was a child.  I understood it meant that my faith might start small, but like the tiny seed, it could grow into a large tree if I nurtured my relationship with Jesus.  Looking back on this as an adult, I also think she meant to remind me that God likes to use little things–little people, like Jesse’s youngest child, David–to do great works. 

Both of these interpretations of the mustard seed are correct, but they also seem just a little too safe!  Jesus taught in parables in order to challenge people’s thinking.  He hoped to overturn their usual assumptions, to frustrate and then transform them–and us.  It was a hated Samaritan who nursed the Jewish man back to health; the shepherd left the 99 to go rescue the one lost sheep; the father forgives the prodigal son and reinstates him—even though he had wasted his father’s resources–while the righteous elder son sulks; the last laborer gets the same pay as those who toiled longest.  Pick your favorite.  In most all of them, Jesus turns human logic on its ears.

So we want to look for what might be radical about a mustard seed, or the ways in which Jesus might just be challenging our common conceptions.  As a result, I think Jesus is directing us not toward cultivated mustard, which grows in rows, and is used in medicines and as a spice.  I think He is referring to wild mustard, the Biblical equivalent of Kudzo!  Wild mustard is a weed that you would hate to take root in your yard or garden.  Like bamboo, ivy, potato vines, or dandelions, it just takes over!  Normally, cultivated mustard grows in shrubs that reach 3-4 feet high.  Wild mustard, can however, become tree-sized, if allowed to run amok. 

Could our Lord be telling us, tongue in cheek, I’m not saying God’s Kingdom grows like a tame and cultivated variety of plant, carefully shaped by humankind into something resembling an English garden (or clipped and snipped to look like Mickey Mouse).  Oh no!  I’m talking about God’s Kingdom reaching out and overtaking people, one sinner, or one swimmer, at a time.

The Kingdom of God—or God’s reign—is not something you or I can limit or manage.  Our job is to tell people about Jesus.  We put the word out there.  Then God superintends the growth.  He is not looking for results from us but obedience.  Then, like the seed described in the 2nd parable, and like Pastor Harper, God’s Kingdom moves at the direction of the Holy Spirit.

On this Father’s Day, and always, may our love of Jesus spread like Kudzo.  AMEN!  May it be so!

©️2024 Rev. Dr. Sherry Adams