A postcard from the 2nd Sunday after Pentecost 6/13/21
What God sees
Our reading this week fast forwards us through Saul’s kingship to the anointing of David. [1 Samuel 15:34-16:13] And while it didn’t make into the sermon, all week I have wrestled with the opening lines of the text:
Samuel did not see Saul again until the day of his death, but Samuel grieved over Saul. And the Lord was sorry that he had made Saul king over Israel.
The word that we have translated as “sorry” — in the Hebrew ni·ḥām — in the book of Amos is translated as to change one’s mind. While Samuel grieves and holds onto what was supposed to have been, God is ready to move on to try something new.
And when I thought about those opening lines that way, I heard good news. God shows us how to try something and how to let it go if it doesn’t work. God shows us that we do not have grieve or hold onto something that isn’t working. And that we can trust in God to lead us to the way forward, which may very well be in a place we have overlooked or through a surprising person.
A sermon from St. Peter’s in Talladega:
Coming next
- June 20 – Messiah, Heflin / “God Leads”
- June 27 – St. Peter’s, Talladega / “God Saves”
- July 4 – St. Barnabas, Roanoke / “God Unites”
Notoriously Episcopalian 