Yesterday’s sermon (June 13, 2021) at Community of the Savior, Rochester, NY, was phenomenal.

My colleague in Old Testament, Josef Sykora preached, combining God’s unusual choice of David (the youngest or smallest of the family) in 1 Samuel 16 with Jesus’s parables (riddles, he called them) of the seed sprouting overnight and the mustard seed in Mark 4; one happens without us, the other seems insignificant.

Josef aptly combined the motifs of the unexpected with the nature of riddles as making us think and drawing us in to be engaged. He wove these themes into a true story of how he tried to “trick” a congregation with a staged riddle and how God tricked him in return, with an outsider.

It was an amazing sermon and I was gripped from start to finish.

I hope you are intrigued, because that is all I’m going to tell you. You’ll have to listen for yourself.

Josef’s sermon can be found at this link between the 38:05 and 1:00:15 marks.

If you want to hear his short children’s meditation on riddles, it can be found at the 33:35 mark.

The two Scripture readings he drew on are at the 22:17 mark (1 Samuel 15:34-16:13) and the 31:54 mark (Mark 4:26-34).

And Josef’s very apt benediction to conclude the service can be found at the 1:26:45 mark.