TRINITY 7 Sermon by Revd Canon Karen Schmidt (HTW)
On the back of the pew sheet you’ll find some questions – you may already have seen them last week - asking for your thoughts on the sort of person you would like to see as the new Vicar of Cirencester - and there’s been a box at the back of church for some weeks now too waiting for your suggestions.
We are going through a process of discernment at the present time as the parish profile is prepared ready for advertising the post. I remember a French Roman Catholic priest friend of mine being both astonished and amused by the adverts page in the Church Times – in the Roman Catholic Church you don’t get to choose either as a congregation or as a priest. Discernment happens but not by the people or the priests concerned.
But in the Church of England the people of vacant parishes and the priests looking for a new post are very much part of the process and a big responsibility it is too.
Solomon got it.Solomon was a young man when he had the dream we heard about in our reading from the first book of Kings. He had been anointed as his father, King David’s successor. He would not have expected to succeed to the throne as a younger son but arrived there due to scheming in palace circles and probably because he was the son of King David’s favourite wife, Bathsheba – not because of any marked gifts or military prowess on his part.
Solomon had a lot resting on his shoulders, not least to fulfil his father’s plans to build the Temple in Jerusalem. So when God asked Solomon in his dream what he should grant him, Solomon’s reply was not the one which might have been expected. So often our prayers can resemble a shopping list. But not in Solomon’s case. The mustard seed of a young man had shown the maturity of the developing tree in asking for God’s gift of discernment of what is right to enable him to govern his people, and God’s people.
God’s gift of discernment. That’s something for which we too need to pray as we work with God to find the person who will lead us in growing his kingdom in our parish.
Sometimes, however, we have to try and discern what is right on the spot as in the situation in which my colleague found himself whilst travelling back to the Isle of Wight on the ferry. Having settled himself to catch up with emails he was approached by a fellow passenger bearing a tray of chips and who without further ado asked my friend to bless those chips. Now those sorts of occasions demand an instant response – the moment could be lost in delaying to consider the theological implications of the request – and anyway, don’t we sometimes say Grace before a meal? So I reckon there was a bit of building the kingdom going on as my colleague replied
Consider them blessed
As our PCC goes about putting together our parish profile, that snapshot of the life of our parish and our hopes for the way forward with our new Incumbent, how we together manage our hopes and anxieties about change, it’s good to remember the mustard seed, the yeast, the treasure hidden in the field and the precious pearls.
Big things can come from small beginnings and small things can be very precious.
When this reading about the mustard seed came up in the lectionary a few years ago I gave each member of the congregation a mustard seed, just as you have each received one today, and asked them to reflect on the size, the shape, the feel, the look of that seed and what it would take to grow into anything, let alone anything resembling the kingdom of heaven. I didn’t really give any thought to what would happen to those seeds – that said something about my faith – so imagine my surprise when about a month later one parishioner showed me their mustard seed which was now 6” tall and another showed me 6 months later his 6 ft tall plant.
It doesn’t take much to make a huge difference. The kingdom of heaven is about making a huge difference here and now in our lives and in the lives of others in our community. Sometimes we don’t feel we are up to the task, we feel about as small as a mustard seed in terms of our faith, our skills, our self-image, but if a mustard seed can do it, we can do it.
Solomon’s conversation with God is a prayer and prayer is an essential element if we are to discern how God would have us go about growing his kingdom. St Paul in his letter to the church in Rome reminds them that God’s Holy Spirit is praying for us and we need to be part of that relationship of prayer confident that God will give us what we need to be his representatives in our communities; a confidence that derives from knowing that nothing can separate us from God’s love for us as revealed in Christ.
And it’s that love that we are commissioned to grow in our world. The news bulletins of recent times have emphasised yet again the gulf between human ways of dealing with relationships between nations and communities and God’s kingdom values of reconciliation, justice and peace. We can hear a physical groaning for that kingdom.
As a result of his prayer Solomon’s kingdom flourished and grew; the Temple was built in Jerusalem and he was granted wisdom – remember the decision he had to make as to which of two women was the mother of the child they both claimed was theirs?
With God’s help, we too can flourish – in our faith, in our confidence, in our commitment to growing God’s kingdom in our community and working together with the person God discerns to be our new leader priest.
May I suggest that you go home and plant your mustard seed as a daily reminder of what God and we can do to grow his kingdom as we together discern his will for this parish.
1