St. Paul’s United
Church Sunday, June 18, 2006
King Cinderfella – Rev. David Mundy
I Samuel 16:4-13 Mark
4:26-34
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You know
the story. Everyone knows the story. It was written by a seventeenth century
lawyer named Charles Perrault who also gave us Sleeping Beauty, and Little
Red Riding Hood and Puss and Boots.
In this one
there is a lovely daughter of a nobleman whose mother dies. When the father
remarries it is to a haughty, mean-spirited woman who is the quintessential
“evil stepmother.” There are also stepsisters who get all of their mother’s
attention while the young daughter of the nobleman is forced to wear shabby
clothes and do all of the most menial work in the house. Her cruel sisters
nickname her Cinderella because she sits amidst the cinders by the fireplace.
Even with this treatment Cinderella doesn’t complain and looks much more
beautiful than her finely dressed sisters.
Fortunately
these stories have happy endings and this one does as well. Remember what
happens? The king throws a ball and anyone who is anyone is invited, although
poor Cinderella is left out – until her fairy godmother shows up. With a sweep
of her wand she is beautifully clothed and a pumpkin is turned into a coach and
horses. Cinderella is the mysterious “belle of the ball,” the prince is smitten
by her beauty, she almost misses curfew and loses her
glass slipper as she flees. In the end though she is reunited
with her true love when she is the only one in the household who fits into the
recovered slipper. The nasty stepsisters beg Cinderella’s forgiveness and the couple lives happily ever-after.
Of course
they do! There is something so classic and elemental in this story of someone
whose worth is overlooked until in the right time and moment the transformation
takes place and it is revealed for all the world to
see. There is a deep magic at work in the change and in the opening of the eyes
of others.
Perhaps
that’s why Cinderella is still popular 350 years after it was written and there
have been many retellings in different forms, including the Disney animated
film in 1950 and a very bad comedy from the early sixties starring Jerry Lewis
as Cinderfella.
I wonder if
Charles Perrault, the author of Cinderella, knew his bible? There are many stories
in scripture where the unlikely or the reluctant person is called by God to
something new, only to be transformed into a leader and hero of faith. There
are women such as Rahab and Ruth and Esther. The men
include the prophets Samuel and Jeremiah, as well as the disciple Peter.
One of the
most charming stories is the one we heard today, the beginning of the story of
David, the lowly shepherd boy who became the great and revered king of God’s
people Israel. We’re told that during
the reign of King Saul, the prophet Samuel makes a trip to the town of
Bethlehem in search of Saul’s successor. Samuel knows that this is a dangerous thing
to do when Saul is still on the throne, but he has been instructed by God, so he does what he
is told.
When Samuel
arrives, the elders of the town quake in their boots, uncertain as to why he is
there, but they are assured that he has come in peace. Then Samuel searches out
a man named Jesse who has many sons. The way it’s told, Jesse brings out seven
of his sons for the inspection of the prophet. I don’t know if I can get away
with calling Samuel the Fairy Godfather, but there he is inspecting each of
these strapping young men, waiting for
the nudge of God’s Spirit to say “this is the one, anoint him.”
With
timeless storytelling tension, the boys all come and go and Samuel asks “is
this it?” Jesse sends for the
youngest of his sons who has been given the lowly work of tending the sheep,
and lo and behold, this one, David, is God’s choice. This is what we read a few
moments ago:
Samuel said to Jesse, "Are all your sons here?" And he said, "There remains yet the youngest, but he is keeping the sheep." And Samuel said to Jesse, "Send and bring him; for we will not sit down until he comes here." He sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, and had beautiful eyes, and was handsome. The LORD said, "Rise and anoint him; for this is the one." Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the presence of his brothers; and the spirit of the LORD came mightily upon David from that day forward. Samuel then set out and went to Ramah. 1 Samuel 16:11-13
In that transforming moment the shepherd boy becomes not just Cinderfella, but the once-and- future King Cinderfella.
You might
feel a bit uncomfortable with someone making a connection between what we call
fairy tales and the tales of the bible, but the enduring stories all have their
deep magic. The great popularity of The Lord of the Rings Trilogy,
written by a Christian, JRR Tolkien, and The Chronicles of Narnia, penned by CS Lewis, also a Christian, remind us that people are still hungry and open for the
message of a transforming power that lifts us out of the ordinary into courage
and new life.
The best of
these tales tell us that greatness and beauty are already there, even though
the central figures in these stories don’t always know it as they begin.
In the
bible we are told that it is God who opens us to what is within us, even though
we may be sitting in the corner with the cinders or out in the fields tending
sheep. We don’t call this magic in the church, but we do say that when the
spirit of the living God comes upon us we are not the same anymore.
I have seen
this over and over again in my work as a pastor through the years. It’s
surprising how many of us aren’t sure that we have much to offer and even those
who appear to be talented and confident people to others are often plagued by
self-doubt and insecurity. It seems that the older we get, the more we call
into question whether we have gifts to share. Sometimes we feel overlooked or
undervalued when we know we have something worthwhile to offer.
The apostle
Paul says that every one of us is a spiritually gifted person. Several times in
his letters he makes the point that when we are in Christ and when the Holy
Spirit is at work in our lives we will discover those gifts and begin to use
them for our benefit and for the well-being of the Christian community. In a
way we are anointed, not with oil but by the Spirit. It’s easy to forget that
the earliest clusters of Christians were a mixed bag of the wealthy and the
poor, the insiders and the misfits of their society. Yet Paul says that every
gift, no matter how inconsequential it may appear to be, is important and
worthwhile.
A couple of
weekends ago I attended the meeting of Bay of Quinte
Conference, the annual gathering of United Churches which has up to four
hundred delegates. A number of our teens were there as well and all of them
took part in the proceedings. Two of them bravely stood before the court, as
it’s called, and spoke about their faith. Afterward I commended them on how
brave they had been. Their response was that they had been able to do it
because of their experience within the life of this congregation and the
affirmation that they are people of worth. We can hope that they continue to
believe in their giftedness.
How does
the story of Jesus fit in with all of this? Just think about how unlikely that
The
peasants Joseph and Mary head to the same town of Bethlehem for a census
because they are of the house and lineage of David. There is no decent place
for the pregnant young woman to give birth, so they settle for a stable which
was probably a cave. Even though this is a humble birth there are angels who
announce that a new prince has come into the world, a prince of peace. It is shepherds who hear the message and respond with fear first
of all, then excitement and adoration.
And when we
read the gospels we wait in suspense as Jesus is wrongly accused and suffers
unto death, only to come awake from the dead to offer new life and hope to everyone
who will see with new eyes and hear with new ears. There is a wonderful,
challenging book by Frederick Beuchner with the
provocative title Telling the Truth: The
Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy and Fairy Tale.
It was written nearly thirty years ago but I search it out from time to
time and this is what I found a few days ago:
The whole point of the fairy tale of the Gospel is, of course that
[Jesus] is the king in spite of everything. The frog turns out to be the
prince, the ugly duckling the swan . . . That is the gospel, this meeting of
darkness and light and the final victory of light. That is the fairy tale of
the Gospel with, of course, the one crucial difference from all other fairy
tales, which is the claim made for it that it is true, that it not only
happened once upon a time but has kept on happening ever since and is happening
still.
The Deep
Magic of our faith will happen today when we lay hands on those who choose to
affirm what they believe about Jesus the Christ. It will happen when the ordinary
and everyday bread and juice are lifted up and we say that they are transformed
and we are transformed in
Christ and through Christ.
I’m not so
sure that our confirmands would appreciate me saying
that they are frogs who will become princesses and princes today. But we could
say we are all Cinderellas and Cinderfellas
because Christ loves us and forgives us when we do wrong and sets us free to be
the people God intends us to be.
We will
share in our holy meal and because of Christ we will become a new creation.
Thanks be to God!