Second Sunday after Trinity

Overview

This week's readings ask us to look again at the work of God in the world around us. They open for us new ways of seeing to reveal a vision of God’s kingdom that is not what we expected:

In 1 Samuel 15:34 -16:13 the people of Israel had rejected God in favour of a king, Saul. God now rejects Saul, who was tall, powerful and successful in battle. Instead his favour rests on David, who was too young to even stand with his brothers before the prophet Samuel. The passage repeats the words to see and look – making the point that God sees what humans are often blind to.

This theme is picked up in the parables of the kingdom in Mark 4:26-34. The kingdom of God is not only to be spoken of in parables, it is itself like a parable: something which we cannot recognise immediately; something not obvious to human eyes and ears but which, if we allow the space for it to grow in secret, like the seed in the ground, will have surprising results. If we think we understand a parable on first reading we have almost certainly got it wrong – give its inconsistencies and contradictions time to work away at you.