Sermon Preached on June
17, 2018
Proper 6B RCL
The Rev. Vicki K. Hesse
Academy for Vocational
Leadership
Colombiere Retreat and
Conference Center
In the name of God, Creator, Redeemer,
Sustainer
Amen
Wow. The
final HE for our year together.
Five
hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes[1]
Five hundred twenty-five thousand moments so dear
Five hundred twenty-five thousand moments so dear
Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes
How do you measure, measure a year?
How do you measure, measure a year?
In
daylights, in sunsets
In midnights, in cups of coffee
In inches, in miles
In laughter, in strife
In midnights, in cups of coffee
In inches, in miles
In laughter, in strife
In
five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes
How do you measure a year in the life
How do you measure a year in the life
How
about love?
…Measure in love
----
…Measure in love
----
And we
have loved a lot this year. So thank you.
And today
is the last day.
Does that
mean you are done? you stop learning?
you have arrived?
Of course
not.
Does that
mean you might be sad for this experience ending?
Sure.
So you
can relate to Samuel’s grief. For,
Today was
the last day for Saul, the very King that Samuel had anointed.
Samuel
must have felt like it was the last day ever.
“Samuel
grieved over Saul.
And the Lord was sorry
that he
had made Saul king over Israel.”
You
know the story: The Israelites rejected
God as their king.
They
wanted a king in flesh and blood that sat on a real throne.
They
demanded a king and God listened,
appointing
priest Samuel to anoint Saul as the king.
In
that anointing, Samuel poured a vial of oil over his head.
And
their life in ministry together began;
they
were bound together into God’s story.
But
you know what happened.
Along
the way, Saul rebelled.
By
sparing the Amalekite’s cattle
and
offering it as a sacrifice,
Saul’s
version of sacrifice
became
more important to him
than
obedience to God.
So,
God
rejected him as king over Israel.
And
Samuel mourned. The
Lord was sorry. (pause)
Only
twice throughout the bible
does
God seem to regret anything. This was very unusual.
You
know the first time, in Genesis,
the
matter of the, ahem, little rainstorm and subsequent flood.
Then,
here, we read The Lord was sorry.
God
regrets having anointed Saul –
The one who had promised to keep covenant but
did not.
What
strikes me today is the nature of missed expectations.
Saul
did not live up to The Lord’s expectations.
Samuel
grieved the loss, the seeming end of his (Samuel’s) purpose.
I wonder
if we, too, grieve over “Saul.”
·
We
expected answers that AVFL didn’t have:
o
like
the meaning of life or why the pit of an avocado is so large.
·
We
expected our parish discernment committees
o
to
recognize our untapped gifts.
·
We
expected sooner ordinations,
o
or
quicker responses of COM interviews,
·
We
grieve the friendship expectations we will have to re-make
o
as
we become ordained pastoral leaders and that changes relationships.
·
Broader,
we ache for a Benedictine hospitality
o
to
be extended to families at the border who seek refuge.
·
We
grieve the way that
o
people
who are perceived as “other” are invisible,
§ or worse, targeted with
phobia.
·
We
mourn the loss of civility in public conversation
o
and
now recognize a lack of Benedictine humility
o
in
much of our governmental leadership.
What
expectations do you have for others, now at the end of this year?
We grieve
over “Saul.”
pause
Five
hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes
How do you measure, measure a year?
How do you measure, measure a year?
What
about love? Oh, right, LOVE! And grace!
The
good news in today’s text?
This
text demonstrates so well,
God knew the story was not over.
There
was a lot of Love to be spread around!
The Lord was not done looking for a new king
yet.
The Lord said to Samuel, ‘How long will your
mourn for Saul,
since I have rejected him as king over Israel?
Fill your horn with oil and be on your way’. 1
Samuel 16:1
Fill your horn with oil!
This time, it’s not a little
vial, but an entire HORN of oil.
“I want the guy to be
drenched in oil – make it stick!”
you can imagine The Lord
remarking.
“Don’t spend any more
precious time mourning the past when I have moved on.”
God
had a new king for Samuel to anoint.
God
could not do God’s work
as
long as Samuel was stuck in disappointments and missed expectations.
Because
you know, there was a shepherd boy
waiting
in the fields
for
Samuel to relinquish “what had been”
so
he could be part of “what was to be.”
King
David was part of Samuel’s future
but
he couldn’t have gotten there while still mourning Saul.
On that day
the Lord told Samuel, go to
Jesse and – don’t worry,
I’ll tell you what you shall
do
and you shall anoint for me
the one that I name.
I’ll
tell you what you shall do….pause
Today’s
good news? The Lord is asking you to become new.
Fill your horn with oil!
This time, it’s not a little
vial, but an entire HORN of oil.
“I want the YOU to be
drenched in oil,”
you can almost imagine The
Lord remarking.
Yes,
it’s the end of the year,
the
end of these relationships,
the
end of the AVFL community as we know it.
AND
God anoints you in this ending, so that you can anoint others.
Your
mission through these texts
to
co-create the world in a fresh way.
You
go and fill your horn with oil.
God
will tell you what you shall do with God’s love and light and blessing.
God chose
you, at this time, to go
and anoint
God’s people in
Grayling,
Otter Lake, Lapeer,
Gladwin,
Mt. Clemens, Lansing,
Belleville,
Novi, Chelsea,
Lake
Orion, Saugatuck, Grand Rapids,
Grand
Haven, Kalamazoo, Sturgis and Marshall.. go and anoint!
Guide
them in community work.
Guide
them to provide radical hospitality.
Guide
them to honor their precious style of worship.
Guide
them to break the mold and do something new.
God
chose you, your unique gifts, your special perspective,
for
a new church,for
a new society, to
make God’s dream come true.
God
values your unique set of ears
that
will hear when God says,
“rise
and anoint that one, chose that one to continue my dream.”
One
of the best lessons a mentor taught me was this:
Church
will nearly always fall short of expectations.
People
will disappoint you.
No
rector will meet your expectations.
You
will work for some goofballs.
You
will have to do menial work.
You
will be surprised by grace.
You
will be embarrassed.
And
you will SHINE!!
Today’s
good news?
God
has not stopped looking – there is no last place.
Not
until the day of Resurrection where all things are made new –
For
today God pours out God’s love and oil on you.
Out
of the ending of our program year,
new
beginnings can come forth.
“Because
you are in Christ and there is a new creation –
see,
everything has passed away – see, everything has become new!”
Of
a woman or a man?
In
truths that she learned
Or in times that he cried
In bridges he burned
Or the way that she died
Or in times that he cried
In bridges he burned
Or the way that she died
It's
time now to sing out
Tho' the story never ends
Let's celebrate
Remember a year in the life of friends
Tho' the story never ends
Let's celebrate
Remember a year in the life of friends
Fill your horn with oil and be on your way’
[1] Seasons of Love,
Song by Donny Osmond, Lyrics cited at https://www.musixmatch.com/lyrics/Rent-3/Seasons-of-Love
on June 14, 2018
[2] Seasons of Love,
Song by Donny Osmond, Lyrics cited at https://www.musixmatch.com/lyrics/Rent-3/Seasons-of-Love
on June 14, 2018
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