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We have all heard the statement that “God’s ways are not our ways” (Isaiah 55:8). But to be honest, we often think we know who God would pick to be God’s servant. And often, we are wrong. In our world people get picked because they are tall, or handsome, or beautiful, or rich, or powerful, or the “correct” color, or any number of reasons. God’s ways are not our ways.
That is abundantly clear from our lessons this week. Here is Samuel, who has been hearing the voice of God from the time he was very little, and who has spent a lifetime judging and leading God’s people. But when he goes to pick a new king from the sons of Jesse, his eyes get the better of him. He sees Eliab (a name which means “God is my father”), the first-born, a tall man, and thinks—“Ah, this is the one.” But he isn’t. And then a parade of sons, seven in all (we don’t even get to hear all their names), go before Samuel, and God says, “Nope, not any of these.”
Samuel knows God said that one of Jesse’s sons was to be the anointed, and yet none of the sons he has seen is THE ONE. So Samuel has to ask Jesse, “Are these all your sons?” And of course, there is one more, David, the baby, the one who wasn’t important enough to come to the sacrifice, the one who was out in the hills, tending the sheep. And when he appears, God says, “Yes, this is the one.” God’s ways are not our ways.
It is a lesson for us. Do not look at the ourward things; for God looks in the heart. And it is a reminder that God seems to have a preference for the small, the last in line, the poor, those looked down on by everyone else. We should hear Jesus saying once again, “Whatever you do for the least of these, you do to me.”
I hear all kinds of evidence that God’s ways are not our ways in our gospel reading as well. These are parables about the kingdom of God, the reign of God, the world when God’s ways become our ways. Jesus is tantalizing us with two agricultural images of what the kingdom of God is like. In the first, we have a sower of the seed. And in our mind, that farmer should have a lot to do with the crops coming up. I mean, you have to plant at the right time, and you have to plant the right crops, and you have to water, and fertilize…and if you do all those things right, then you will have a harvest. And you get to pat yourself on the back for being the creator and instigator of this crop.
Except that isn’t what Jesus says. The “someone” gets to scatter the seed, but then doesn’t do anything extraordinary: “sleep and rise, night and day.” The seed sprouts and grows, and this someone doesn’t know how. When the grain is full, that is when the someone is needed again, to make the harvest.
I hear a message that because God’s ways are not our ways, we need to get out of the way for God to work. We can scatter seed, but we can’t make it grow—that is God’s job. We scatter, and we are to be ready to make the harvest. Those are our jobs—as well as recognizing that everything else is by the grace of God—it didn’t happen because of us!
The parable of the mustard seed can be seen to press on this point as well. In years past I’ve often focused on the growth from the smallest seed to the greatest of scrubs. And I thought that meant it was tall, with those branches providing for the birds. Commentators have to make all kinds of excuses in interpreting this parable because although the mustard seed is small, the mustard plant isn’t the tallest of scrubs. What I heard this year was that mustard acts like an aggressive weed. You plant it one place and it grows everywhere. It can snuff out other crops. It is hard to get rid of. They say that seeds can remain viable in the ground for 60 years!
Jesus says the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed. It doesn’t grow because of anything we do. It doesn’t grow in neat, cultured rows the way we might like. It is unpredictable, wily, hard to stamp out. When Jesus chooses an image for the kingdom of God, he doesn’t choose a beautiful rose, or a lovely iris, or even a colorful marigold, he chooses a weed—mustard. God’s ways are not our ways.
Last week we talked about making God first priority in our lives—making God our “king/queen/ruler/parent.” This week, I think we hear that to allow that to happen, we have to let go of our need to control everything and everyone in our lives.
Yes, there are things we can do to be faithful (to scatter the seeds of love and charity and good deeds in our world).
Yes, there are things that we are expected to do (to bring in the harvest—to distribute our abundance to all, to celebrate the working of God in our lives and our world, to spread the good news of God’s justice and God’s peace).
But, God’s ways are not our ways. We can’t expect to know the time or the place or the person who will be used by God. If it follows the pattern, it will be the ones we would never pick.
We need to have eyes to see,
and ears to hear,
and hearts open for every possibility.
For God will always be anointing those for service.
And nothing can stop the coming, the growing, of the kingdom of God.
As Jesus said at the start of his ministry:
“The time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God has come near …” (Mark 1:15)
We only have to do our part in scattering and harvesting.
For we remember that God’s ways are not our ways.
And we can be celebrate that the kingdom of God
uses “the least of these,”
(and that might include us)
in its insistent,
pervasive,
weedlike growth in our world.
May it be so.
Alleluia. Amen.
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