Anointed

One of the many things I love about the reading the lectionary (a group of Bible readings consisting of a passage from the Old Testament, a psalm, an epistle excerpt, and a Gospel reading) is the way it juxtaposes familiar texts and makes me think about them in new ways.

The readings for this Sunday (June 14) begin with Samuel's anointing of David as Israel's next king--David the shepherd boy who, though he was handsome and had beautiful eyes, was still the unimportant youngest son of an insignificant family. But God does not look at the outward appearance; God looks at the heart--and God saw in David's heart a man after His own.

We hear this truth echoed in the epistle, when Paul reminds the Corinthians that as Christians, we no longer regard anyone "according to the flesh." Instead, we see the new life they (and we) have received thanks to the gift of Christ in the cross and Resurrection and the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit. Indeed, the invocation of the Spirit also hearkens back to the David story: after Samuel anointed him, the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David--and remained with him from that day forward.

So, too, the Spirit is with us--even now, in the midst of Ordinary Time, the season between the high holy seasons of Advent and Christmas, Lent and Easter. Even now in the midst of our daily, mostly insignificant lives, the Spirit is with us.

And who are we that the Spirit of God should rush upon us as it rushed upon David? We are the mustard seeds, those tiny, insignificant grains that, singly, are nearly invisible to the human eye. But each of us, bought with the blood of Christ and graced with the indwelling Holy Spirit, have the potential to grow up and become larger than our limited visions allow, large enough to put out branches where others may find shelter in our shade.

David did not know when he went out to shepherd his father's flock that fateful morning that come evening, he would be the anointed king of Israel, the man who would unite the kingdom and bring peace to the land--and who would be known ever after (despite his flaws and failings) as the man after God's own heart.

Nor do we know, day to day, what God has in store for us. But my desire in the midst of this not-knowing is to be so transformed into the likeness of Christ that my smallness--the smallness of insignificance, of limitedness--ceases to matter. All that matters is that I receive the gift of life I have been given, and grow into that newness of life, so that God can work through me to provide shade for the birds of the air-whoever they may be.

The lectionary readings for June 14, 2009 (Proper 6):
1 Samuel 15:34-16:13
Psalm 20
2 Corinthians 5:6-10, 14-17
Mark 4:26-34