1 Samuel 15:34-16:13 Psalm 20 or Psalm 92 (UMH 811) 2 Corinthians 5:6-10 (11-13), 14-17 Mark 4:26-34

Let us Pray - O God, light of the minds that know you, life of the souls that love you, and strength of the thoughts that seek you - bless the words of my lips and the meditations of our hearts. Breath your life into us that we may live in the manner you have appointed unto us and better love and serve you and one another. Amen Today I want to speak to them and to all of us, about what I feel is important to hold on to as they begin another leg of their faith journey. FIRST MOST OF THE IMPORTANT THINGS OF LIFE ARE INVISIBLE; BUT THEY ARE MORE POWERFUL THAN THE THINGS WE CAN SEE - this starts with the Spirit of God, - the spirit that gives life - HEBREW - RUAH - MEANS WIND OR BREATH - without air - you cannot live - and extends to every facet of life. - love cannot be touched - mercy cannot be touched - self respect cannot be touched - but while they cannot be touched they have an impact - the breath of life is seen in the rising and falling of the chest - the love of God is seen in the kindness of strangers, the acceptance of family members, the food on our tables - mercy is seen in every act of compassion - and self respect is seen when you treat yourself as an important person - too important to destroy with fast cars, overeating, or feelings that "I am no good" ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT - AND MOST INVISIBLE THING IN LIFE IS TRUST - without trust a person cannot function, a person cannot become close to another, a person cannot escape fear - the most important thing we can do is TRUST GOD, - trust god that he will be our refuge and strength in times of trouble - trust god that he will be present with us and help us accomplish all that he asks of us - trust god that he will give us the power we need, the people we need, the joy we need. Trust in the promises Trust is spoken of in today's gospel reading. You plant a seed, and it grows - whether we are awake or asleep, it puts forth first a shoot, then a head, then the full kernel in the head. By some means or other - life comes out of the seed that is planted. SO TOO OUT OF TRUST PLANTED IN OUR HEARTS COMES LIFE. SECOND - THE MOST SUCCESSFUL LIVES AND THE GREATEST OF ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND THE KINGDOM OF GOD ITSELF, IS AND ARE BASED ON AND ARISE OUT OF THE SMALLEST AND LEAST SIGNIFICANT THINGS. This too is spoken of in the gospel today - by asking you to consider the mustard seed great bush, birds can shelter in it, but it is small at first. Jesus said the kingdom of God is like the mustard seed; and his life shows that this is true. - the kingdom of God works, God works, with the little things. We are wired on big, on grand, on flashy - big cars, big houses, big buildings, huge stages and tremendous sound systems, we are impressed by big money, big fame, big status. God choses what is little to work with - from Jesus - a carpenter born to a peasant girl, to the 12 disciples - simple fisherman - to you and I. The bible says over and over again that God loves the little ones, the humble ones, the people that others despise and reject. The BIBLE SAYS THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS ARE THE LITTLE THINGS AND THAT IN THE END THEY WILL OVERTURN THE BIG THINGS, THAT THEY WILL BRING DOWN KINGS AND SHOW THE EMPTINESS OF WEALTH AND POWER. The signs of God's kingdom are not big churches, big congregations, or gold and silver and fantastic wealth - but bread and wine - stuff that can be found at the supermarkets and in most people's refrigerators - ORDINARY THINGS for ordinary people. God's work is done by some flashy people - Billy Graham and Florence Nightingales, and Bishop Tutus - but most often it is done - and done well by you and I, - whenever we give a begger a dollar - or we help a person whose car is stuck in the ditch, - or help a person across the street, - or give a few bucks and a can of beans to the food bank - or volunteer for a reading program for the deaf - or pick up old candy wrappers and pop cans lying in the woods - all these little things - all these acts of care - are God's work. OUT OF THEM GROWS THE KINGDOM OF GOD. WITHOUT THEM - THERE IS NOTHING. God's kingdom is found in the bread and the wine we share here together, in the meals we share at home, in the fellowship we have with others that sees in them another human being in need of love and who is loved by God. THIRD- LIVING FAITH MEANS FOCUSSING ON GOOD - NOT EVIL IT MEANS BELIEVING GOOD, NOT EVIL I am sure you all remember the story of Chicken Little - he thought the sky was going to fall in, and ran around warning everybody, he fretted and fumed and worried. Many people are like Chicken Little, they look all the time at the darkness and evil in our world. Unemployment, drug addiction, crime, pollution and war haunt their waking hours. Fear is fostered in their hearts - fear of failure, fear of losing what they value, fear of being alone, fear of death. They rob themselves by focussing on what is bad, and the more they look at it the bigger it gets. Other people are like the centipede in the old german tale about a centipede and a fly. The fly says to the centipede, I have six legs and I know how to walk. You have 100 legs; how can you walk? The centipede starts to think about it, and he thinks and he thinks, and he becomes paralyzed. OUR FOCUS IS ON GOD - AND ON HIS GOODNESS. THEN WE WILL RADIATE, WE WILL BRING LIGHT TO OTHERS AS WELL AS DISCOVER LIGHT IN OURSELVES LOOK AT THE SIMPLE AND ORDINARY MIRACLES - In the last few days I have been looking at trees around the area where I live. I think it is absolutely remarkable how trees grow. Someone showed me some trees that they had planted only 15 years ago. When they were put in they were only 4 feet high. They now are close to 40 feet tall. How they do it? Corn too is remarkable stuff. You put a little seed in the ground in May - and with the right conditions - by September you have a plant that is over six feet high and which contains literally thousands of kernels of corn. How do they do it? Growth is a remarkable thing - and growth is what our scripture lesson today is about, growth from a tiny seed to the largest plants, growth - which seems to occur as if by magic...you plant a seed, you provide some water and nutrition, perhaps you even cultivate the ground, but in the end what happens is beyond human control, it is virtually beyond our imagining - it is a miracle - the miracle of God, the miracle of life. LOOK AT THE DAILY GOODNESS OF LIFE - loving families, happy marriages, people working together, playing together - think of all the good things - not the bad - and it will be for you GOD'S SEED GROWING IN YOUR HEARTS. WE BELIEVE IN THE GOOD - IN GOD - AND THAT IS ALL WE NEED TO PAY ATTENTION TO AND TO DO. FOURTH AND FINAL - God is the author of all good stuff - it is God who sows the seed and provides for its growth into the kingdom of God ALLOW YOURSELF TO BE GOD'S FIELD - OPEN YOURSELF TO HIM AND HIS WORD - BY READING IT - THINKING ABOUT IT - ACTING ON IT. THIS IS BEST DONE WITH OTHERS WHO ALSO WANT TO BE GOD'S FIELD, THE PLACE WHERE HIS KINGDOM GROWS. REMEMBER THE BEST STUFF IS INVISIBLE - THE MOST IMPORTANT STUFF SEEMS INSIGNIFICANT AT THE BEGINNING - LIVE FAITH BY LOOKING AT THE GOOD AND OPENING YOURSELF TO GOD AND GOD WILL DO THE REST - GOD WILL BE YOUR PROTECTOR AND YOUR SHIELD. HE WILL BRING YOU INTO THE FULLNESS OF HIS KINGDOM, AND PEACE, JOY, WILL BE YOURS BOTH HERE IN THE MIDST OF WOES AND AT THE END IN THE ETERNAL REALMS OF GOD So we preach, and so you believed - says the Apostle Paul say it be so, both now and forevermore. Amen