6.23.24 "Five Smooth Stones" Westminster Presbyterian Church, Pasadena, CA

1 Samuel 17.1-11; 17.38-50

The Baptism of a child is always, a day of celebration …

Prayers and promises … songs and sermons … food and festivities.

Markus Christian Thomas von Thun-Hohenstein

Young Man, we pray for your wellbeing … body and soul … we make promises to you, that we’ll do our best:

We promise, a roof over your head, a comfy bed, loving arms, kindly words, good schools and safe neighborhoods … 

We promise: books to read, bikes to ride, games to play.

We promise you a childhood … a pathway to the years that stand before you … to make the most of yourself, to dream all the dreams of a child … good dreams, dreams of discovery and courage, dreams of bravery and adventure, the dreams of the heart, and the dreams of the mind.

We promise: to provide for you all that we can … and you, dear boy, provide us a future, beyond our years and time … 

when we have retired from the journey, 

when we have laid down our burdens, 

you will continue the good fight, 

you will run the race of life.

Markus Christian Thomas, you will build upon what we’ve built … tear down a few things no longer needed, and build anew what we could’t even imagine.

You will write your books, and sing your songs … and discover more of God’s good world … 

You’ll find solutions to the problems that vexed us … you’ll find your way to the stars … 

Like us, you’ll discover your own foolishness and failure.

Young Man, just like us, you will know yourself to be flesh and bone … you will learn the deep lessons of humility, honesty, kindness, and love.

As I write this sermon, I think of the young boy David … and his five smooth stones …

He’s the youngest of the family … his elder brothers are engaged in battle with the Philistine armies …  

Goliath, a giant of a man, bellows his challenge - find someone to fight me to the death … and if you win, my soldiers will surrender to you … and if I win, you will surrender to me.

Who will fight me?

No one volunteers … except one boy … full of youth’s energy and confidence … I’ll do it, says he … I’ll fight the giant.

The boy is brought to King Saul … the king is amazed, and says to the boy, Here’s my armor for you!

But the armor is too big … which is to say, We can’t wear anyone else’s armor … a good lesson for all of us …  

A child born unto us - we have our dreams for them … we want them to do well, be well, win the day … 

We feed and cloth them, we school them and take care of their needs … but they will never wear our armor … what fits us will never fit them … 

A new generation finds its own resources and abilities … the child in our arms discovers who they are, and what they possess, the skills of their heart and mind … 

David isn’t a solider, he’s a shepherd … 

He’s used to the elements - cold at night, hot during the day … seasons of chilling rain and wind-blown snow … prowling lions of the night … cliffs and crevices in the mountains … danger at every turn of the way …

David is already prepared … in his own way … he has his sling … at his feet, five smooth stones … it’s all he needs … 

David confronts the giant, sends a stone hurtling to its mark, the giant falls … the day is won, victory gained, peace at last.

A young boy, a sling, and five smooth stones.

We know the rest of the story, David goes on to more victories and greater things … he’s not perfect, by any means, but his faith remains clear and focused … when King Saul fails and dies, David is called to be the next King of Israel … the mantle of leadership falls upon his shoulders, he leads the nation for forty years …

As for Markus Christian Thomas … what will he do?

Discoveries to be made.

Adventures to be had.

Goodness to embrace.

Mistakes to be made.

Love given, and love received.

The future will unfold for him … 

In the meantime, we do what we can to insure a good future.

What every generation has done before us … we take up our tools, hitch up our jeans, take a deep breath, face the world square on … and go to work.

There are giants to defeat.

Battles to win.

Life to be lived.

Look for the good, and we’ll find it.

Search for opportunities, and they’ll appear.

And if, as we work, we can transmit life into our work,
life, still more life, rushes into us to compensate, to be ready
and we ripple with life through the days.

Even if it is a woman making an apple dumpling, or a man a stool,
if life goes into the pudding, good is the pudding
good is the stool, content is the woman, with fresh life rippling in to her,
content is the man.

Give, and it shall be given unto you
is still the truth about life. … D.H. Lawrence, 1929

Paul the Apostle wrote: be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the LORD, because you know that in the LORD, you labor is not in vain.

We live, we work, we go to church … we rise in the morning to take up the tasks of life … we grab a quick lunch, or cook a pot of stew … we retire at night, and lay me down to sleep, and pray the LORD my soul to keep.

We have what it takes … 

our shepherd’s sling

five smooth stones … 

the courage of Christ and the love of God … 

For Markus Christian Thomas … and for all the children of the world. 

Hallelujah and Amen!

1.14.24 "Samuel" - Westminster Presbyterian Church, Pasadena, CA

 First reading: 1 Samuel 3.1-10;Second reading: 1 Samuel 3.11-20

You’ve heard me say it before,

and I say it again …

The Bible holds infinite value for at least two reasons …

1. it’s grounded in sorrow and loss … 
2. it holds fast to the ideals …

As for the sorrow and loss, the Bible is the real McCoy … 

the real deal … 

nothing artificial about it … 

no one is pretending anything …

the stories, prayers, and hymns of the Bible are forged in the fires of loss and death …

the reality of the human condition.

As for holding fast to the ideals - you bet … 

a God of mercy and love, a creator who calls this world into being … life abundant … a world brimming over with energy and hope … and a creature to care for it all … a strange creature, part dirt, part divinity, feet on the ground; head in the heavens … aka - you and me.

The Bible takes seriously the human condition … but nowhere does the Bible give up hope.

When all seems lost, 

God creates a way through the sea … 

In the wilderness, God is present … 

a pillar of cloud by day to shield us from the sun and lead the way … 

a column of fire at night to warm our hearts and ward off the demons … 

when we’re hungry, manna in the morning … 

when we’re thirsty, water from a rock … 

and always ahead of us, somewhere out there, the Promised Land … we’ll get there, we’ll make it … when war is no more, and the tears are gone, and all of creation made new.

The story of Samuel is just such a story …

It begins so simply, with a family, and a woman’s heartache:

There was a man, Elkanah … from the hill country of Ephraim … he had two wives; the name of the one was Hannah, and the name of the other Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children.

Every year, this family journeyed to the shrine at Shiloh to offer sacrifices to the LORD of hosts … after the reasonable portions were offered to the priests, and consumed in the fires of the altar, the rest was divided up between Peninnah and her children, each with a share, and a double share for Hannah, because, as the story goes, Elkanah loves Hannah.

Hannah grieves for the children she doesn’t have … and to make matters worse: Peninnah provoked her, to irritate her … to add insult to injury.

The Bible says: Hannah was deeply distressed and prayed to the Lord, and wept bitterly. She made this vow: “O Lord of hosts, if only you will look on the misery of your servant, and remember me, and not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a male child, then I will set him before you as a nazirite until the day of his death. He shall drink neither wine nor intoxicants, and no razor shall touch his head.”

Hannah bargains with God … which opens up a can of worms for us …

If you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.

If you invite me to your home, I’ll invite you to mine.

If you’re nice to me, I’ll be nice to you.

More to the point … can we bargain with God?

If you heal me, I’ll become a missionary or a minister.

If you give me riches and power, I’ll use them only to make this a better world.

How many soldiers in how many foxholes have promised God the moon if only God would save them from the jaws of death.

Yes, we all bargain with God, we bargain with life, we bargain with the world.

I can’t tell you that it’s wrong to make a bargain with God … nor can I tell you bargaining is how it works …

This much I can say: God hears our prayers, our laments … God feels our losses and our sorrows … God knows our heartache!

The Psalmist writes: You have kept count of my tossing; put my tears in your bottle.

Every prayer is answered … 

God says Yes - more often than not …

God says No - from time-to-time …

God says Maybe - we’ll see how it plays out …

None of us know fully the mind of God … but this we know for sure: God is trustworthy … 

I am with you always … to deliver and defend … 

I am with you in your joys and pleasures; 

I am with you in your despair and loss … 

I am with you when your faith is strong; 

I am with you when your faith falters and fails … 

I am with you when you love me; 

I am with you when you deny me … 

I am with you when you make your vows; 

I am with you when you break them … 

I am with you in your conception and birth … 

I am with you in the days of your life, as the world turns … 

I am with you at the end … when the last mortal breath is taken, there I am.

In due course, Hannah conceives and bears a son … Samuel … which means: “God heard” … or … “I have asked/borrowed him from the LORD” … 

Hannah stands by her vow … 

She brings Samuel to the Shrine of Shiloh … there to learn, work and grow, in the things of God, under the tutelage of Eli, a good and decent man, with two lousy sons who are priests in the shrine … they’re guilty of crimes against God and the people - they skim the coffers, fleece the flock, fatten themselves …  

But Samuel is there as well …

He grows in wisdom and stature … his mother stands by him!

As the story goes, so poignantly,

His mother used to make for him a little robe 

and take it to him each year, 

when she went up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice.

Then, one evening, three times the call, a voice  … at first Samuel thinks Eli has called him … after the third time, Eli says: Go, lie down; and if he calls you, you shall say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’

So Samuel went and lay down in his place, and the voice called him again … with a commission, a purpose, a plan:

No longer to serve the LORD in Shiloh, but to be a prophet to the people … to the nation, to the world.

Who would have known, at the time, what was afoot in the heart of God? 

Throughout history, those rare and gifted persons who actually turn the wheels of government and church, who make a lasting difference …

Who would have known?

February 12, 1809, a log cabin, rural Kentucky … a boy is born to Thomas and Nancy Lincoln, and they name him Abe.

April 10, 1880, Boston, Massachusetts, Francis Perkins, who would play a pivotal role in the Roosevelt administration, shaping post-Depression policy, including Social Security and minimum wage laws.

January 15, 1929, Atlanta Georgia … the son of a preacher man, Martin Luther King, Jr. whose birthday we celebrate tomorrow.

Who would have known?

And who knows where and how the future is already being shaped by God … a child is born … here in Altadena, Lisbon, Mexico City, Tokyo, London … who can see the future?

Samuel grows up to become a major player in Israel’s story … and one day, born of Mary, in Bethlehem, another little boy, who grows up to become the Savior of the world.

To God be the glory. Amen and Amen!