Of the Holy Gospel according to Saint Mark. It happened that the lord are was walking one day through standing grain and it was the Sabbath day. His disciples began to pull off heads of grain as they went along. At this, the pharisees protested. Look.
Why do they do a thing not permitted on the Sabbath? They're interpreting that, of course, as work. We're supposed to go out and reap wheat on the Sabbath. So when you pull off a couple heads of the wheat, that was interpreted to see as work. So the Pharisees who knew their law meticulously knew the law.
They said, why do they do a thing not permitted on the Sabbath? Jesus said to them, have you never read what David did when he was in need and he and his men were hungry, how he entered god's own house in the days of Abiathar, the high priest, and ate the holy bread which only the priests were permitted to eat. He even gave it to his men. Then Jesus said to the Pharisees, the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. That is why the son of man is lord even of the Sabbath.
And this is the gospel of the lord. In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit, amen. There is a a connection, at least I see one, between this morning's reading and really the continuation that we're having of this first book of Samuel, which I suggest you go back and read in one piece rather than have it all chopped up and butchered by doing it piecemeal because this is a very continuous story of Samuel, and a very fascinating story. But I doubt if anybody can follow it by just reading a bit of it every morning. But the thing that's most impressive about this book of Samuel is that God's running the show.
Take this sentence, not as man sees does god see. Notice how when they bring in all these sons of Jesse, they brought in all those who were, as far as they could see, were the good candidates to be anointed as king of Israel. So they brought them all in. They were all fine fellows. Not a thing wrong with them, the best of the crowd.
But Samuel said, nope. Not these are not the ones. He said, don't you have any more sons? Then the father says, oh, yeah. I I forgot about that little guy.
He's out there watching some sheep. See, they it wasn't wasn't even counted. It wasn't even thought as a possibility. They didn't even bring him in to watch his brothers being chosen. They forgot about the poor little kid out there.
Samuel says, well, bring him in. Let's take a look at him. And lo and behold you, it is David. And he is then chosen. The ways of the Lord are not man's.
But the thing about this first book of Samuel from the very beginning of it, it emphasizes god's governance of his people and of the world and his judgments are so different from man. Then we come to this reading this morning about our blessed lord being lord of the Sabbath. It it's very you know, it's difficult for us to realize the the impact of what our lord said here because the Sabbath, we hardly know that one day is different from another day. We have seven days of the week now. But in our Lord's time, the thought imagine just going through a field of wheat and picking off a head or two, that's work.
That's violating the Sabbath. Even touching a tool, touching a hole, touching a rape, touching a broom was continued work because they said if you touch it, you may be inclined to use it, and that's work. Ergo, you mustn't even touch it. See, that's how these things got multiplied and multiplied, odd infinitum, odd nausea. But the point is, we we we today don't have that appreciation of the Sabbath at all that the people had to whom Jesus was speaking and who were shocked when they saw the disciples pulling off the heads of grain.
When I was at Saint Charles in this prep seminary as we called it, some of the boys coming down from Connecticut and New York, they made spending money by lighting gas stoves on Sunday I mean on Saturday for Jewish people because lighting the stove was work. See? Think how we think what how we think of the Sabbath. But anyway, the point our Lord is making is here is he's running the show. Now you know where I'm drifting.
I'm drifting back to what I was said yesterday and what I said Sunday. And to me, I don't think there's anything more important on God's earth than this. Alcoholics anonymous has it this way. Let go, let God. Let go, let God.
It's one of their famous mottos, but you see how true that is. We try we think we're running our lives. We think we're we're we're we're in control. We're in the driver's seat. We are at the wheel.
And come hell or high water, we're gonna drive as we see it. And you know all the times as Christ says, my kingdom is not of this world. The first will be last, the last will be first. If you if you strive to save your soul, you're going to lose the thing. Have you ever heard just paradoxes?
This is absolutely basic Christianity. You can't get any more basic than this. And it's not only basic Christianity, it's basic law of the Old Testament. Testament. Who's running the show?
God. He took the most unlikely people. Just think how he went out there. Where did he find the people, the leader to take his people out of Egypt back to Israel. Where did he find him?
Went out there and got some absolutely anonymous fellow who was out there trying to take care of a bunch of sheep. Who takes care of our sheep out in Colorado and Omaha and some of those sheep raising states? They are not the highest level of culture or of education or of social prestige. Most of them aren't even citizens of The United States. Most of our people won't do that kind of work.
So keeping sheep is no picnic now and it wasn't any picnic in those days. You didn't send your best out to watch a bunch of wild, crazy, stinking sheep. So where does god go to pick out the leader of his people? Against the might of Egypt, mind you. To tell the to tell these to lead these people who are the absolutely downtrodden and who's who are being turned into slaves.
Where did he go to find a leader? Did he go out and call in mister Gallup and say, now we'll have a poll. We'll see who's the who wins the popularity contest. Goes out and picks up an an an an unknown person. They did a person who was found drifting around in the Nile.
He chooses him. Here again, the father brings in, Samuel was against it. Everything's against it. God says, I'm running it. Now you just do what I'm telling you.
And and so they try to do it and they use their brains and what happens? After they've done their best, God says you haven't done it right. You're all wrong. So the little old kid, the young boy, the youngster of the flock, he's out there and they bring him in, and he is anointed king. God's ways are not ours.
Now the point is this, when when these do you see? When you look back on these things, when you look back on Exodus, when you look back on the history of the kings of of Israel, you can see the hand of God, how how how objectives are being achieved, But you couldn't see them when you when they were actually happening. The most unlikely people are chosen for the most important jobs. Because after all, who's doing the work? Is it man or is it God?
You see, this is not an easy thing for us to get a hold of that God is running the show, that I have to submit my life to him. Here am I, Lord. I come to do your will. How often do we think about it when we have problems with with our job, with our families, with with our economy, with our bank accounts, with all kinds sickness, with death, with illness, with malignancies, with everything under the sun. Do we think of this?
Am I running the show? Or do I think let go, Let god. In the name of the father, the son, holy spirit. Amen. The lord be with