Third Sunday after Pentecost Yr B Proper 6 June 13 2021

Third Sunday after Pentecost Yr B Proper 6 June 13 2021

1 Samuel 15:34-16:13, Psalm 20, 2 Corinthians 5:6-10,[11-13],14-17, Mark 4:26-34

 

Why do we love the stories of the underdog so much? Well at least I do. Rick and I watched the movie Rudy so many times we could recite the lines, and I cry every time Rudy gets put into the game. Mighty Ducks, the first one, is another favorite, I sit on the edge of my seat until the end of the game, even though I’ve seen them win a bazillion times. The Rookie, Star Wars, Chariots of Fire, Remember the Titans, Field of Dreams, and the list goes on. Which comes first, our passion for rooting for the little guy, the underdog, or this story of David and Goliath?

 

I remember my very first New Testament professor telling us that all history is written from the perspective of the winners. History published in history books is written from the perspective of the winners. The losers don’t write history, and their story is rarely told in history books. Western civilization loves its winners and winners often claim God is on their side.

 

During the time in which the story in 1 Samuel first was told, Israel is constantly at war with the Philistines. Ancient warfare was highly ritualized. Each side would send out its great champion who would fight on behalf of his people. Often the battle would end there, because whichever champion won the other side would be so demoralized it would retreat. At this time, the Philistines have a champion who is described as well, huge, Goliath. And the problem is that the Jewish forces have no champion at all. Goliath is marching out in front of the Philistine lines, shouting curses at the Jews and challenging someone to come and fight him. Choose yourself a man and let him come down to me, shouts Goliath. If he can fight me and kill me, we will be slaves to you; if I defeat him and kill him, you will be slaves to us. The mortified Israelite army has to listen to this, because no one is willing to take on Goliath. One day, David, who is a shepherd and not a soldier, shows up on the battlefield bringing food for his brothers and he’s shocked by what he sees. Outraged at Goliath’s blasphemous insulting of the God of Israel, David volunteers to fight Goliath, convincing King Saul with his steadfast faith in God.

 

And so we have before us this story of David in which the underdog becomes the champion. And we have this story of Jesus, in which those who are low are raised up, those who are on the margins are brought to the center, those who have no power are empowered, and lowly fisher folk become disciples.

 

I wonder if it’s just human nature to be on the side of the winner. Is it part of our DNA? The biological story may support that. We know the story of the survival of the strongest. We know that the human drive is to procreate, to survive and to thrive. In the animal kingdom the weakest and the smallest don’t last long. But Jesus shows us that in God’s kingdom in dying we are alive, as sorrowful yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich, as having nothing and yet possessing everything. 

 

We add to that scenario the parables in Mark’s gospel, parables that show us what the kingdom of God looks like. With his parables, Jesus invites us to see the kingdom of God in the images and dramas of everyday life. In a woman baking bread, a group of bridesmaids preparing for a wedding, a roadside mugging, a lost sheep, a lost coin, a lost son. While they are rooted in the commonplace, parables are not simple nor straight forward. And there is never just one answer to the question, what is the kingdom of God like? 

 

They are rich and compelling stories, let’s remember a few more. There’s the one about a moneylender who forgave two wildly unequal debts, another about a persistent widow who nagged a judge into granting her justice, and another about a banquet in which all were invited but only the poor and sick and forgotten remembered to come. Parables are surprising and shocking. Parables show there are no boundaries to God’s love. Parable push the walls over, pull the margins apart.

 

We have two little parables before us, that show us a kingdom that is expansive and inclusive. First, this wonderful story about a man who throws seed out onto his field, goes to bed, and forgets about it. Who does that? The farmers I know work long hours preparing soil for seeding, watering and treating the young plants so they grow as big as possible, and hopefully, if all of the conditions are right, the sun, the rain, the wind, no hail to destroy the tender shoots, there could be a harvest. But this man has no idea about how the seeds sprouted and grew, it was as if the earth did it all by itself. 

 

The second parable shows us a mustard seed, every time we’ve heard this story, we remember how tiny that mustard seed really is. After it is sown, it grows into the greatest of all shrubs, and in it the birds of the air make their nests. 

 

These parables give us a vision of an expanse in which all may dwell and find refuge, a place where no one is an outsider, and no secret survives the light of exposure. The vision is huge, abundant, like the growth in the first parable, and in the second, the expanse is a mustard shrub that grows from the tiniest seed and becomes large enough to host all who seek its shelter. 

 

The Good News is that in God’s kingdom barriers are broken, margins are erased, everyone has a place, and even the underdog can win. 

 

So I return to the all time best underdog movie, Rudy. For those of you who don’t know the story, Rudy grew up in a steel mill town where most people ended up working, but Rudy wanted to play football at Notre Dame. There were only a few problems. His grades were too low, his athletic skills were poor, and he was only half the size of the other players. But he had the drive and the spirit of five people and has set his sights upon joining the team. He spent two years at St. Mary’s working on his grades and working his way through school. When he finally got into Notre Dame as a junior, he walked on to the team and served on the ‘scout’ team as pretty much a tackling dummy. By the time he was a senior, he had endeared himself to the really good football players, and they really wanted him to be officially recognized as a member of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, and that would happen only if he participated in at least one play. Rudy’s teammates had already experienced his heart, and his steadfast faith, and insisted to the coach that Rudy suit up. So in the waning moments of the last game of Rudy’s senior year, the team and then the fans chanted Rudy, Rudy, coach put him in and Rudy ran a couple of plays. 

 

What is the kingdom of God like? I leave you to wonder about that.