Pentecost 10B "Givers and Takers

 

2 Samuel 11:1-15

Saint John 6:1-21

In the movie The Dark Knight, fictional District Attorney Harvey Dent says: “You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.”1

King David has been in power for a number of years. He has moved Israel from being a ragtag group of nomads to a powerful nation with an effective military. David has had a number of political, military, and economic successes. Perhaps that accounts for why he believes that he can do anything he wants. A lot of powerful, successful people come to believe that the rules are made for everybody but them. They can do anything they want without fear of reprisal.2

We know what that is like because we know leaders who believe the same thing and behave in the same ways.

As one said, “when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Whatever you want. You can do anything.”3

Looking out from his palace window which, high above all the other houses, David the King, has a view of everything going on down below.  He is literally and figuratively above it all, not limited by societies norms because he’s got it all and he knows it. He was a slayer of giants, a military leader unlike any ever known, a builder of outstanding buildings, an all around stable genius, and most important all he was King.  And it is here we find him wallowing in his greatness. If he had a mirror, he would probably stand before it every morning and say: “Dang!  You’re hot!” 

We know his story all too well.  It even seems that we are living in this story.  Everyday we hear about another fallen emperor. Everyday there is another tawdry episode about a politician, or entertainer, or journalist, or tycoon who didn’t remember what his teachers and his mother, I hope, taught him when he was little: “Keep your eyes on your paper and your hands to yourself.”

David’s eyes are wandering. The house of one of his most decorated generals, Uriah, is below him and he spots Uriah’s wife, Bathsheba, bathing.  The great king has reduced himself to being a peeping Tom, a voyeur, a creep.

But he doesn’t stop there.  He sends for the woman he has been spying on and takes her.  At this point he is all “take.”  He sees what he wants and takes it.  

Sarah Ruden, in her book The Face of Water has wisely pointed out that this is a pivotal moment. “In this story, this shift is where the most trouble starts, when David could have held back the wrecking ball.”4

Before he knows it he has hit bottom. His actions can only be described as deplorable.

I have absolutely no intention of going into the specifics of what happened between David and Bathsheba on that hot night but it is only the beginning. 

“‘The oldest lie,’” says Lex Luthor, ‘in Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, ‘is that power can be innocent.”5

As we have heard over and over again it is not the crime but the coverup.  But when you are a king, you have absolute power and as the old saying goes: “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”6

Powerful people have the potential to be bad people.  At this point in his life David was a very bad man.

The king invites the Bathsheba’s husband over for drinks, gets him tipsy, and the next morning while Uriah is still hung-over, sends him to the front lines of battle where he is killed.

This is a sorry tale of human brokenness that can occur with anybody who is only a taker.  David not only takes innocence from Bathsheba he conspires to take the life of her husband Uriah to cover up his crimes.

Now if anybody tells you that the Bible isn’t relevant to our day point them to this passage.  It has the misuse of power written all over it.  Some who pretend to have read it and still want other books banned may wish to start with this chapter and these verses.   It’s always amazing to me that some scribe, down through the ages, didn’t look at this story, blanched, and then took out an Exacto Knife and carefully cut it out.

Yet, it is there, as a reminder that for those who only think of themselves and have spent their lives only as “taker” wickedness can be very appealing.

It is warm enough in here without leaving you all “hot and bothered.” I can’t leave you in despair. 

We’ll leave beloved King David to think about what he has done and stew in his own juices until next Sunday because if the only thing you come away from church is the feeling that “as it was so shall it ever be” you might not come back.  I can’t leave you in despair.  Power does not always have to lead to unbridled passion sometimes it can lead to compassion.

We know the kind of power Jesus had.  He could still storms, heal the sick, even raise the dead.  This is the kind of power no king or political leader will ever have.  And this is the kind of power we are to be inspired to emulate.

Saint Mark remembers in his Gospel that when Jesus lifted up his eyes and saw the crowd his heart and mind were full of compassion.

Now I know you have heard this story countless times in your life. Actually, you hear it every year at about this time because it is recorded in all of the Gospels. You were probably sitting there as I read this saying, “Oh yes, this old saw.  I remember it: thousands of people, two fish, two loaves, big meal. Speaking of which, I wonder what we should have for dinner.”

But hearing this story in light of David’s untidy little tale gives it new meaning.  To put it directly: King David is all about power used for passion. He is about taking! It is all about his wants, needs, and desires.  

Jesus uses his power to show compassion. He is about giving.

David knew the name of the person he was taking advantage of.  Jesus had no idea who he was feeding, and he didn’t care!  When “Jesus was asked to feed people, he showed an unimaginable love. When he gave his disciples this charge, he said, “Feed ’em! Feed ’em all! Every one of them.” 

Nowhere does either Jesus or his disciples’ question who the five thousand people were or might be. Nowhere does either Jesus or his disciples eliminate, segregate, or exclude. Jesus doesn’t ask the disciples to sort the five thousand by socioeconomic status or by test scores or by academic degree achieved or by strength of their individual faith—or by any faith, for that matter—or by culture or by ethnicity or by gender or by age. This table was open to all, not because of who they were...

 He said, “Feed ’em! Feed ’em all! Every one of them.”7

 He gave and they took.  But they didn’t take more than they needed.  

Did you ever think about this?  Saint John tells us: 

Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish.

When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, “Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.” So, they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.8

 Did you hear that?  There were leftovers!  The people didn’t take more than they needed.  They ate their fill and there was bread and fish enough to fill twelve baskets.

As Debbi Thomas points out:

When Jesus fed the multitudes, people sat down together, taking only what they needed so that everyone got enough.  The point was not to scheme, conserve, or quantify.  The point was not to clamour for more.  The point, very simply, was to enjoy the gift of a single day's portion in the company of others.  Abundance didn't have to lead to gluttony.9

The people took what they needed, no more, no less.

 What Jesus taught the crowd that day is something that some of the powerful in any place, and any time, forget and when they forget all they can do is take.

What the crowd discovered, and we can discover too is that he life of faith is a matter of give and take.  The life of faith is about giving and receiving.  It’s about following Jesus who gave and gave freely.  It’s about following Christ who took bread, broke it, and shared it.  It’s about being a part of that crowd on the mountainside who took bread graciously and received it gratefully.

King David thought only of himself.  Jesus thought of others and so should we, living out the charge of John Wesley:

Do all the good you can, By all the means you can,  In all the ways you can,  In all the places you can, At all the times you can,  To all the people you can, As long as ever you can.10

Follow that and while we may never be a king or queen, we will be a faithful follower of Jesus and that will always be a gift that is more than enough.

________________

1. Curtis Farr, “Commentary 2: Connecting the Reading with the World,” Connections: A Lectionary Commentary for Preaching and Worship, Year B, 3, no. 3 (2021): 181–83.

2. William H Willimon, “"Abuse of Power,” A Sermon for Every Sunday, July 22, 2024, https://asermonforeverysunday.com/.

3. Rachel Ravesz, “Donald Trump’s ‘grab Them by the P****’ Quotes in Full,” The Independent, November 17, 2017, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/read-donald-trumps-lewd-remarks-about-women-on-days-of-our-lives-set-2005-groping-star-a7351381.html.

4. Sarah Ruden, The Face of Water: A Translator on Beauty and Meaning in the Bible (New York, NY: Vintage Books, 2018).

5.    Farr, loc.cit.

6. Gary Martin,  "'Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely' - the Meaning and Origin of This Phrase." Phrasefinder. Accessed July 28, 2018. https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/absolute-power-corrupts-absolutely.html

7. Mark Eldred, Mark, "God in My Pocket." Sermon preached at The Fourth Presbyterian Church, Chicago, July 26, 2015.

8. St. John 6:11-13.  (NIV) [NIV=The New International Version]

9. Debie Thomas, “Enough and More,” Journey with Jesus, July 22, 2018, https://www.journeywithjesus.net/essays/1848-enough-and-more.

10. "A Quote by John Wesley." Goodreads. Accessed July 28, 2018. https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/12757-do-all-the-good-you-can-by-all-the-means

Pentecost 9B "It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time"

 

2 Samuel 7:1–14a

Saint Mark 6:30–34 & 53–56

It seems that every bad idea can be summarized with the words: “Well. It seemed like a good idea at the time.”

A company decides to update some software, and otherwise benign event, and before you know it computer screens at airports and other places all over the world are suddenly suffering from what is the called “the blue screen of death.”  Updating computer software? “Well.  It seemed like a good idea at the time.”

A cowboy decides to change horses in the middle of a raging river and winds up almost drowning. “Well. It seemed like a good idea at the time.”

You say to yourself, I’ll just check out what’s happening in the world on my computer for a few minutes and after three hours surfing the web and several games of Candy Crush. “Well. It seemed like a good idea at the time.”

You sit down and listen to a speech that is only supposed to last an hour and ninety grueling minutes – 5,520 seconds – fly by as if they were decades and when it is finally over you say to yourself. “Well. It seemed like a good idea at the time.”

Or, sometime during the All-Star break someone suggests that you invest in the half-season ticket package for both the Cubs and the Sox. Two days of baseball comes and goes and it looks like the same old same old.  And you tell yourself about the money wasted and dreams put on hold for another year. “Well.  It seemed like a good idea at the time.” 

Or, a king, resting in his beautiful house with its walls and floors covered in the most expensive wood available, looks out of window at a tent where the Ark of the Covenant, the very presence of God rests, and says to himself: “You know God should have a house as nice as mine.  After all God is God and I’m just a king. Just a king. Just a humble king. Wink. Wink. 

He shares his idea with his trusted advisor Nathan and Nathan, because he is only an advisor, says: “That’s a great idea, your majesty!  Build away!”

Nathan goes home, goes to bed, and hears from the Lord that what seemed like a good idea at the time, actually wasn’t.

Bishop Robert Barron wrote in his commentary 2nd Samuel.  

A person’s plan might be bold, beautiful, magnanimous, and popular, but still not be God’s plan. A person’s ambition might be admirable and selfless, but still not be congruent with God’s ambition… Our lives are not about us. God’s plans for us are always greater, more expansive, and more life-giving than our plans for ourselves.” 

Or as Anne Lamott famously said, “If you want to make God laugh, tell her your plans.”1

At this point God may have been laughing but Nathan wasn’t.

I imagine Nathan hearing this word of the Lord with his heart pounding and his head spinning as he realizes that the Lord is not in agreement with the desires of the king.  This is a tough spot. 

“Nathan’s quick affirmation of David’s ... plan puts Nathan in awkward situations with both God and David.  First, he has to listen to God explain why David building a temple is such a bad idea”2 which God does at length.

“Go and tell my servant David:  You’re going to build a ‘house’ for me to live in? Why, I haven’t lived in a ‘house’ from the time I brought the children of Israel up from Egypt till now. All that time I’ve moved about with nothing but a tent. And in all my travels with Israel, did I ever say to any of the leaders I commanded to shepherd Israel, ‘Why haven’t you built me a house of cedar?’”3

To put it mildly David is trying to give God something God doesn’t want.  Now Nathan “has to go to David and tell him that actually, God doesn’t want a house. Or at least, God doesn’t want you to build God’s house. Ouch.”4

It’s a dangerous mike drop, “seemed like a good idea at the time” moment because “David could easily come back at Nathan with: I’m a hero, I’m a general, and I am the King. Who else would be more qualified.”

Martha Spong, in an article in The Christian Century observed:

I find it fascinating that God puts both Nathan and David in this position from the beginning of their relationship. David receives deeply humbling news. Not only does God not want him to build a temple, not only does God revel in the freedom of living in a tent, not only does God make it clear that God is the one in charge of establishing David’s house, but someday, there will be a temple, and David will not be the one to build it.5

Nathan has to tell his king: “There is work to be done, David, but it is not yours to do.”

That’s my struggle and perhaps it's yours too.  Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night with grand plans for God and, probably more dangerous, grand plans for others.  It’s heady stuff because “you know what you should do” moments in life allow me to think that I know better and, if they are not bridled, they can result in “I only, only I, know what’s best” beliefs that can be damaging to everything from nations, to churches, and certainly to relationships.  These usually only turn out to be “good ideas at the time.”

David was trying to do something great for God.  He knew what God needed. God needed a house.  A localized place where God could be found.  “You know where you can find God?” He and his people could say.  “God is over there in the temple that we built, just for God.”

At this point I am reminded of a joke that is so old it is about an Irish cab driver.

You might remember it as soon as I start but, even if you do, I’m going to tell it to you anyway.

It’s about this Irish cab driver who picks up a passenger at LaGuardia Airport in New York who says to him, “I want you to take me somewhere I can meet God.”  Without blinking an eye or thinking the request strange that cabbie takes off, wends his was through New York traffic, finally pulling up to a stop at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral.  The guy says, “Wait!  I thought you were going to take me to see God!” The Irish Cab driver replies: “If he’s in town, that’s where he’ll be.”

We need to have places where we can find God like a temple or a church but Jesus, following his Heavenly Father’s example, invites us to broaden our vision.  It’s okay to build buildings but God’s presence isn’t assured in the building but in the promise. 

The disciples come back all excited.  They are just starting out and it looks like that they are already doing some majestic things for the ministry. 

At this Nadia Bolz-Weber wonders: “I wonder if the apostles have started to think that Jesus' ministry is about them. They've just come off their first healing and casting-out-demons campaign. Surely it's tempting to let the whole thing go to their heads. It would go to mine.”6  she says.  Mine too, I would add.

But, as Marlyn MacIntire reminds us: “Jesus doesn’t praise them for their diligence—at least not in such a way as to make the editorial cut when the encounter was recorded. He tells them to come away to a deserted place where they can be all by themselves. No admiring crowd. No record keepers. No trainees.”7

And, as Jennifer Moland-Kovaish said of the moment: “Jesus listens patiently to all of them.  Then he tucks them in for a nap, saying, ‘Come away and rest a while.’”8

It seemed like a good idea at the time until the crowds showed up and it was then that the disciples and all of us find out, once again what Jesus was all about for, even when their rest was interrupted by the great crowd that followed them, when he saw that crowd “he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd.”9  Other translations make this even stronger: “his heart broke.”

King David’s heart probably wasn’t breaking when he got the idea that he should build a temple for God.  He just had this desire to not only give God something that God didn’t want but sure prove to all his loyal subjects he was a great leader.  Then Nathan showed up and reminded him that what seemed like a good idea at the time, wasn’t such a good idea after all because it wasn’t God’s idea.  

Nathan reminded him of what a modern-day prophet Tim Alberta said in his book, The Kingdom, the Power and the Glory, “People love building houses, they don’t like pay for the housing inspector.”9

Sometimes, what we want to do for God, what seems like a good idea at the time, isn’t.

We need a housing inspector like Nathan to come along and remind us of what Jesus was trying to tell us has the be at the centre of any project we undertake for God – compassion.  

“When our hearts are broken by the things that break the heart of God,” it will always seem to be a good idea, at the time, all the time.

________________

1. James  C Howell, “What Are We to Say? July 21 9th after Pentecost,” James Howell’s Weekly Preaching Notions, January 1, 2024, http://jameshowellsweeklypreachingnotions.blogspot.com/.

2. Joanna Harader, “Doing Things For God.”  The Christian Century Newsletter. 15 July 2024.

3   2 Samuel 7:4–7. (MESSAGE)   [MESSAGE=Eugene H. Peterson, The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language, with Topical Concordance (NavPress, 2005).]

4.    Harader, loc.cit.

5. Martha Spong, “December 24, Advent 4B (2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16; Luke 1:26-38),” The Christian Century, November 17, 2017, https://www.christiancentury.org/article/living-word/december-24-advent-4b-2-samuel-71-11-16-luke-126-38?

6. Nadia Bolz-Weber, “With or without US,” The Christian Century, July 13, 2009, https://www.christiancentury.org/blogs/archive/2009-07/or-without-us

7.      Marlyn McTyre, “July 19, Ordinary 16B: Mark 6:30-34, 53-56,” The Christian Century, July 8, 2015, https://www.christiancentury.org/article/2015-06/july-19-16th-sunday-ordinary-time?code=hSHfTbDDjiLRbiqgcnzI&utm_source=Christian%2BCentury%2BNewsletter&

8. Marlyn  Moland Kovash, “Sunday, July 22, 2012: Mark 6:30-34, 53-56,” The Christian Century, July 11, 2012, https://www.christiancentury.org/article/2012-06/sunday-july-22-2012

9. St. Mark 6:34. (NRSVUE) [NRSV=The New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition]

10. Tim Alberta, The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism (New York, NY: HarperCollins, 2023), 393.

Pentecost 8B - "The Happiest Place on Earth"

2 Samuel 6 {Selected Verses}

 One of my goals in life, mostly unrealized, but needed now more than ever, is to make the church rival Disneyland and Disney World as one of the happiest places on earth.

I honestly don’t know what comes over people when they enter a church, or sit down for a bible study, or do anything else church related, that causes them to loose their sense of joy. 

Maybe it is because, from childhood on, we have been told that this is God’s house and there is to be no running, or chasing, and we are to always use our inside voices. {If you think this is, or should be, true come visit our summer camp where the unchanged and sometimes unhinged voices of children can be heard the moment you step out of your car even if they are inside.

But for adults, especially adults who have been raised in any kind of formal church tradition, it is not so.  We like our worship to be carefully crafted, filled with decorum and, most of all, restraint.  And so some of the joy just slowly drifts away.

I remember my preaching professor, Dr. Donald Chatfield, who earned his doctorate from the University of Edinburgh, talking about the time he was asked to preach in a Presbyterian church in Scotland as a student.  Dr. Chatfield was a lot of fun and this came though, not only in his life but in his preaching.  So, he was having a great time one Sunday morning and coming out of church one woman said while shaking his hand. “Oh, Dr. Chatfield, that sermon was so funny I could barely keep myself from smiling.”

Anybody who has ever preached before an African American congregation knows what a different and high energy experience it can be.  It startled me the first time.  I would say something and the congregation would say, “Amen.”  I’d say something else and they would respond, “preach it.”  And, if the sermon went on too long, someone could be heard to say, “Bring it home now, Reverend, bring it home.”  In Anglo congregations the biggest response I ever get to the most profound, or even funniest lines, is....

Dignity and good order is the way we like things.  We stand up. We sit down. It is a slow waltz, a minuet, minus the powdered wigs and lace.

Contrast this to the story we have before us from the Good Book this morning of David dancing before the Lord.  It is my favourite story in almost all of scripture for its unbridled enthusiasm and overflowing joy.  Truth be told, this story is the reason we have been following an alternate lectionary this summer. I just wanted to talk about it. And after the events of yesterday, and as on the eve of who knows what the next week the weeks ahead will bring us, I thought we needed a little joy.  But it is joy tempered with a warning.

This is a moment King David has been waiting a very  long time for.  Bringing the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem would not only consolidate his power but make Jerusalem its centre.  The Ark is revered in the history of Israel so it not only has religious but political significance.  It was believed to contain, the tablets on which God’s law was written – the Ten Commandments, a chalice containing a piece of manna, and the staff of Aaron from which a sprig was said to sprout.  David had wrested the Ark from the control of the Philistines and he was not going to let this moment of glory, his glory pass.

He builds a new cart to carry it on.  He gathers a massive crowd and then, we are told, “David and all the house of Israel were dancing before the Lord with all their might, with songs and lyres and harps and tambourines and castanets and cymbals.”1

It was a parade to surpass all parades.  It was a cacophony of song and sound.  It was Professor Harold Hill’s vision of a big brass band led by seventy-six trombones on steroids.  And there, at the very head of the parade, putting on a show, dancing with all his might, whirling like a dervish, was non-other than the King himself, David having the time of his life.  Until he is confronted by one of his wives, Michal.

Yvette Schock, writing in The Christian Century, reminds us:

After a cursory read, you might think Michal is just a wet blanket—a buzzkill foil to David’s golden-boy warrior/king/musician/party animal. It’s a day of extravagant ritual and celebration, and everyone else is singing, dancing, shouting, and rejoicing, with David dancing more wildly and singing more loudly than anyone. But here is Michal, sitting above it all with a scowl on her face. And she’s not just mildly displeased or in a temporry funk—the text tells us she sees David’s dancing and she despises him in her heart.2

  She despises him for a very good reason.  To say he has mistreated her would be an understatement.   She has been called the first member of the “Me-too” movement because she calls beloved King David, still perspiring from his dance, a lout.  This is exactly what he has been toward her.

She was the daughter of Saul and was even willing to break with her father to save David’s skin when Saul, in a “seal team six” moment, used his unbridled kingly powers to try to assassinate a political rival.  She loved David even if he was ice cold toward her leaving her behind as he goes chasing after other women, other wives, other conquests. 

If anyone wants to talk to you about “Biblical Family Values” you might want to point them to this story. 

Michal is the conscious in this story.  She doesn’t allow us to whitewash our image of David.  She reminds us that while David may be a biblical hero he is also a control freak with a cruel streak.  She reminds us that he is not always what we want from our biblical characters or personal heros.   She is even making us wonder whether all David’s dancing is not pointing to anything but himself.  She is not allowing us to fantasize about him.  She is the one who makes David real.

At this point in his life he is the leader we must watch out for.  He is a leader who is pretending to be spiritual.  

At this point I had a wonderful riff in this sermon about leaders who are pretending to be spiritual but about 5 o’clock yesterday afternoon this sermon and my thinking took a radical turn because we saw what anger at someone we may not like can do.  It is dangerous.  It can lead to the injury and death of innocents.3

What we know for certain is violence begets violence.  Sometimes those who incite the the mob become its targets.  What happened yesterday was unacceptable.  It is not who we are as a people and, most of all, it is not who we want to be.

To his credit, when King David had a rally it was a celebration filled with joy and the only mayhem that may have occurred involved dancing in the streets.  Maybe someday our lives can be about that when cooler heads prevail, and rabble rousers can begin to think again about the good of the republic rather than how many re-tweets their angry posts on a website can get.  

Liz Cheney, (revered by some vilified by others) said once at the Ronald Regan Presidential Library: 

One of my democratic colleagues said to me recently that he looked forward to the day when he and I could disagree again.  And believe me, I share that sentiment, because when we can disagree again about substance and policy, that will mean that our politics have righted themselves. That will mean that we have made the decision that we are going to reject anti-democratic forces, that we are going to reject toxicity, that we are going to reject some of the worst kinds of racism and bigotry and antisemitism, that characterize far too much of our politics today.4

 When we reject the hate that rolls our stomach, boils our brains, and keeps us up at night maybe we’ll be able to dance together again.   

King  David is redeemable and so are we.  He is both “sinner and saint” and so are we. He is not perfect and neither are we.

Notice please that any mention of God is conspicuously absent from not only the story of David or today’s gospel reading.  They are both about dances but dances that lead to recrimination, and in the case of John the Baptist, death.

But there is another dance.  It is the dance the Jesus offers.  It is the dance of grace.  It can be a waltz, or a minuet, or a tarantella.  It can be any dance at all because it is the dance of grace that comes to us in Jesus Christ.  

It is a dance we can do at our best moments and in our worse moments.  It can be a dance of sadness or a dance of joy.  It can be a dance of lament but never of despair. 

It is a dance that holds the hope that no matter what is going on around us, “Christ is still Lord of Heaven and earth!” So, we just have to keep on singing, and maybe even dancing.

_______________

1. 2 Samuel 6:5. (NRSV) [NRSV=The New Revised Standard Version]

2. Yvette Schock, “Wondering about Michal (15b) (2 Samuel 6:1-5, 12B-19),” The Christian Century, July 9, 2021, https://www.christiancentury.org/blog-post/sundays-coming/wondering-about-michal-15b-2-samuel-61-5-12b-19

3.    Michael Levenson, “What We Know about the Assassination Attempt against Trump,” The New York Times, July 14, 2024, https://www.nytimes.com/article/shooting-trump-rally.html.

4. Hugh Allen, “Liz Cheney Delivers Address at Reagan Institute 6/29/22 Transcript,” Rev (Rev, June 30, 2022), https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/liz-cheney-delivers-address-at-reagan-i nstitute-6-29-22-transcript

Pentecost 7B - "The Man Who Wouldn't Be King"

2 Samuel 5:1–5 & 9–10

Saint Mark 6:1–13

What the people wanted was a king.  They wanted someone to unify their kingdom from being a loose confederacy ruled by judges into a military power that could defend their land from the ever growing army of the Philistines.  What they got was Saul who, in the beginning of his career, “displayed a strength in battle and an ability to inspire his followers that place him high in the ranks of the military great.”

To make him king would be place him not only “above the law” but he would “be the law” because kings, as almost everybody knows, have absolute power.  This all well and good if the king is fair, moral, and trustworthy but when this unchecked power goes awry it is a recipe for disaster. 

There is a phenomenally popular musical in town called “Six.”  It is the story of the six wives of Henry VIII who was a king with unbridled power who believed that he could treat women however he wanted because, in the end they were disposable. And, dispose of them he did.  The king “entered affairs unmistakably and spectacularly.”1

Since Catherine of Aragon was unable to produce a male heir (and, of course, if you’re the king the fault must be hers and hers alone) Henry became infatuated “with one of the ladies of the court, Anne Boleyn, the sister of one of his earlier mistresses. It took six years for the couple to consummate their relationship while at the same time causing such a rift in the church over Henry’s annulment that a break from Rome was needed and the Church of England founded with none other than Henry himself as its “titled head.” This “new title consolidated his own concept of kingship, his conviction that (as he once said) he had no superior on earth. It rounded off the majestic image of divinely instituted royal rule that it was Henry’s constant ambition to present to an awed and obedient world.”2

To have a leader with unbridled power is a very dangerous thing.  

Anne’s arrogant behaviour soon made her unpopular at court. Although Henry lost interest in her and began liaisons with other women, the birth of a son might have saved the marriage.” None was produced so “Henry had her committed to the Tower of London on a charge of adultery. She was tried by a court of peers, unanimously convicted, and beheaded on May 19. 

On May 30 Henry married Jane Seymour.”3 He was a quick worker.

Take away the guardrails of government and, like Henry, one can have a king that behaves however he pleases inside, or outside, the law. Jane would die from complications due to childbirth.

Henry would go on to marry Anne of Cleves who functioned as a pure pawn to gather the support of the Protestants in Germany.  Unfortunately for Anne, since she was German her command of English was less than expected and so were her looks. She was gone in a matter of months with head intact but with a large dowry.

Not so lucky was Catherine Howard, who had a wandering eye and Henry’s toadies in “Parliament passed a bill of attainder declaring it treason for an unchaste woman to marry the king. Two days later Catherine was beheaded in the Tower of London.”4

A king could hire a hit squad to “off” someone who he believed betrayed him because he was above the law, don’t you know.

Only Catherine Parr survived he marriage to King Henry but only because she managed to outlive him.  

How this betrayal, beheading, and intrigued, managed to turn itself into an upbeat, high-energy musical, I’m still working on but the lesson is clear. Anytime a person is granted the power king there is danger.

And this became increasingly so in today’s first reading from “The Good Book” about the monarchy of king Saul.  

“As now written, the historical books describe many episodes of Saul’s inexorable decline,” as “the first king is portrayed as growing ever more deranged an incompetent — even seeking to kill David, whom he (rightly) perceives to be a theat to his prestige and rule.”5

So, after the madness, after turmoil, after the divisiveness, after all the chaos in the reign of King Saul the people looked to “a leader with could unify them – a leader who had to be strong in battle, who had divine favor, and whose success was believed to be guaranteed.” The problem is success is never guaranteed. Jesus, wasn’t even a success in his hometown.

This is not the stuff of kingship; this is the stuff of pure embarrassment.  He is having a very bad day.  If David’s is a story of “the man who would be King” Jesus’ is a story of “a man who wouldn’t be king.” 

In this week’s Gospel reading, Jesus returns to his hometown of Nazareth after a wildly successful ministry debut.  In the weeks preceding his return, he has developed a widespread reputation for his wisdom and authority.  He has proclaimed God’s kingdom with provocative parables.  He has earned the trust of twelve loyal disciples.  He has exorcised demons, healed the sick, calmed a storm, and raised a little daughter from the dead.  He has become, in other words, the dream returnee.  The hometown boy made good.

But then, almost without warning, something happens. Someone in the crowd — perhaps a jealous old neighbor of Mary’s, or a childhood rival of Jesus, or the notorious village gossip who loves stirring up dissension — starts asking prickly questions: “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon?  Are not his sisters here among us?"

At this point, the text tells us, the mood in the synagogue shifts.  Appreciation morphs into accusation, curiosity becomes contempt, and the people “take offense.”  They decide that Jesus is presuming too much.  Exceeding his bounds.6

 Dr. Matt Skinner, of Luther Seminary in St. Paul writes of this scene.

I imagine their thoughts along the lines of, “Who does this guy think he is? What kind of son leaves behind his mother and siblings to lead a movement that’s probably going to get him and a bunch of people in trouble? He was better off staying home and continuing to work as a carpenter.” The “offense” they take entails rejection or disengagement. We’re witnessing more than confusion or hurt feelings.7

What we are witnessing is rejection, complete and total rejection.  But, Jesus interprets the rejection as part of a prophet’s job description.  Jesus knew “when you get knocked down, you get back up!”8  

Lest readers mistakenly presume that the hometown rejection might inhibit Jesus’ power going forward, immediately he takes steps to expand his ministry’s reach. His twelve disciples ... receive marching orders."9

With absolutely no sense of irony Jesus turns right around and sends his disciples out into the world. “Now Jesus turns to these twelve ordinary people and calls them and sends them out into the world to do the very same things he has been doing. He is sending them out ... to call people to transformed living.”10

That is our job.  Because Christ is sending us out with his life-giving message our life counts for more than that of a queen or a king.  Because of Christ sending us out it means that we have something more interesting to do than simply looking out after our own interests.  In our efforts we may risk rejection or be rewarded for our efforts but we know that no matter who we are, no matter what we become, our lives will be lived in service of a real king.

Real leaders know this!  As did one who was showing the editors of Time Magazine around his current residence and after offering them some cookies that he assured them were homemade he began to wrap up his conversation. But, before turning to leave, he offered a final salutation: “Keep the faith.” But then he paused and turned back, as the phrase triggers one last story. It’s about his aunt who, when he was young, had her own response to that admonition. And here he taped one of his visitors on the chest and says, “Don’t keep the faith! Spread the faith.”11

That was the disciple’s job.  That’s our job.  It won’t give us any high exalted titles. It may not even earn us the esteem of our neighbors or even our friends.  But it is ours to do.  As followers of Jesus follow the example of a real leader, “let’s not just keep the faith; lets spread the faith.”

________________ 

1.    “Saul,” Encyclopædia Britannica, May 31, 2024, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saul-king-of-Israel.

2. “Henry VIII,” Encyclopædia Britannica, June 29, 2024, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Henry-VIII-king-of-England.

3. “Anne Boleyn,” Encyclopædia Britannica, June 29, 2024, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Anne-Boleyn.

4, “Catherine Howard,” Encyclopædia Britannica, June 21, 2024, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Catherine-Howard.

5 Daniel Smith Christopher, “1 Samuel 15:34--16:13,” Connections: A Lectionary Commentary for Preaching and Worship, Year B, 3, no. 3 (Louisville, KY: Westminister|John Knox Press, 2021): 73– 75.

6. Debie Thomas, “Hometown Prophets,” Journey with Jesus, June 27, 2021, https://www.journeywithjesus.net/essays/3058-hometown-prophets.

7. Matt Skinner, “Commentary on Mark 6:1-13,” Working Preacher , June 21, 2024, https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-14-2/commentary-on-mark-61-13-6.

8.  Tyler Pager and Maeve Reston, “Biden Rallies Crowd, Attempting to Tamp Down Debate Concerns in Raleigh - The Washington Post,” wahingtonpost.com, June 28, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/06/28/biden-rally-debate-north-carolina/.

9.    Skinner, loc.cit

10. William H Willimon, “The Founding of the Church ,” A Sermon for Every Sunday, July 1, 2024, https://asermonforeverysunday.com/.

11. Massimo Calabres, “President Biden on World Leadership, War, and 2024 Election,” Time, June 5, 2024, https://time.com/6984970/joe-biden-2024-interview/.

Pentecost 5B - "Bullies, Fear & Faith"

 Samuel 17 (Selected Verses) and Mark 4:35–41

Considering the subject the book had a very strange title.  It was called Goliath, and it was about the life of Robert H. Schuller of Crystal Cathedral and “possibility thinking” fame whose “Hour of Power” broadcast was a staple on many television stations in the 1970s and ‘80s. 

In the interest of full disclosure, I hardly ever missed the first 20 or so minutes because the music was fantastic.  The choir, the organ, the instrumentalists were all first rate.  But I usually tuned out when Schuller started preaching his theology of unbridled self-esteem.  “If you can dream it, you can do it.” he would tell his listeners most of whom had forgotten their childhood dream of scoring the game winning goal in the seventh game of the Stanley Cup playoffs only to discover, like me, that they had virtually no hand eye coordination.

He turned Jesus’ beatitudes into a book called The Be-Happy Attitudes. Get it? Be happy attitudes.  I gave it once to a friend when he was asked to serve on the call committee of his church.  It didn’t work. He was on a call committee.  Why I expected it to work I’ll never know.  Even though the person called turned out to be just fine Lowell was miserable through the whole process.  

To put it mildly, Schuller was not a bible scholar because as any little kiddo with a first grade, felt board, knowledge of Scripture could have told him that to name his biography Goliath was to name it after a biblical character who took a rock in the middle of his forehead leading to his sudden, unexpected, demise.

Schuller’s downfall was slower and possibly more painful.  As soon as he began to show signs of failing health his children started fighting over who should be in charge of the ministry. Viewership declined and before long they were bankrupt.  Fortunately, the Diocese of Orange County stepped in, remodeled the building into a more liturgical space; restored the organ to its magnificent splendor and renamed the place Christ Cathedral. 

Either by a stone in the forehead or a mountain of debt Goliaths tend to fall.

That’s maybe why adults and children alike love this story.  We love the idea of the little person winning.  We root for the underdog.  We love rags to riches stories.  We love stories of bullies being cut down to size, and that is exactly what we have before us today.

If Goliath was nothing else, he was a bully and a big bully at that.  The overly fertile minds tell us that “Goliath is 6 cubits and a span {9'6"} – and this is clearly our most fascinating textual variant maybe in all of Scripture: the Dead Sea Scrolls manuscript of 1 Samuel has him at a mere 4 cubits, and a span of {6'6"} huge by ancient standards.”1

It is the temptation to make any foe, bigger, larger, more insurmountable. It is the exaggeration of my fisherman uncles and neighbors who were known to say: “I caught a fish the other day that was so big that when we took a picture of it, the picture weighed ten pounds.”

It might be better for us to think about it this way.  While “the average size of an NFL player is about 6’2” 245 lbs,”2  it is all muscle.  They are built like schools, fire plugs.  Think about any of us going one-on-one against them.  We would be killed.

This allowed Goliath to be a bully.  It allowed him, by his mere size and presence, to strike terror in any and all he met.  In that sense he was the consummate bully and for awhile he was able to do what is the deepest desire in the heart of every bully – to strike terror and fear in everyone he met.

For the Israelite army, Goliath and the fear he invoked in them had become the center of their universe, the most important thing in their lives; they can do nothing but watch and listen to every move makes and every word he utters. 

So, they wait, doing nothing, trying not to antagonize their enemy. They seem to think that if they hold very, very still, if they barely breathe, maybe, just maybe, Goliath and his army will give up and go away. King Saul and his army can only imagine two options: send someone to battle Goliath or do nothing and hope the Philistine army and their awful giant will get bored and leave them alone. Needless to say, morale is low. They are paralyzed by fear.3  

Bullies can do that to us but “David shows them —and us — a different way.

Since all the armour that Saul offers him is way too big and cumbersome David decides to go it alone.  He is only going to bring two things with him: His slingshot and his faith.

Goliath is stunned.  He can’t believe what he is seeing!  It’s not so much the size of his adversary but that somebody, anybody is challenging him. Nobody has ever done that before.  Because of his size and bluster he has pretty much had his own way in life.

He’s stunned. Frozen!  He doesn’t know what to do because bullies have no idea how to play defense.

He tries a little bluster.  “Am I a dog that you come after me with a stick?”  “Come on,” said the Philistine. “I’ll make roadkill of you for the buzzards. I’ll turn you into a tasty morsel for the field mice.”4

David’s only verbal reply is: “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty...”5

Join your imagination with mine as we watch the scene in slow motion and try to hear what the bully is saying in his head.  “Oh my!  This kid is not going to back down!  He’s coming at me!  He’s really going to challenge me!  Nobody has ever done that before!  I’ve never had to play defence before!  What am I going to do?”  And before he can even think about what his next move should be, frozen in time, he stands there like a lummox and takes one square in the in the noggin.

Now this sweet little children’s story (Which, if you go home and read the rest of it, isn’t so sweet) is not so much about the triumph of the underdog it is a story about the faith and fear that every disciple knows.

Fear can be a bully.  Don’t let anybody fool you.  Don’t let anybody tell you that all they do when they wake up in the middle of the night fighting with the storm of some seemingly insurmountable problem is say a few comforting words to themselves and then go back to sleep.  

Unless they are some superstar of the faith what they say is probably more like: “do you not care that we are perishing?”6

“Why are we afraid?” asks the always wonderful preacher Debbi Thomas. 

Why are we afraid in the midst of earthquakes, tsunamis, wars, droughts, terrorist attacks, mass shootings, mass graves, large-scale starvation and catastrophic disease?  Why are we afraid when we face broken marriages, depressed children, unfriendly neighbors, grinding jobs, and financial uncertainty? 

Um, because we're human?  Because fear is a reasonable response to a frightening world?7

Then she goes on to point out something I never really thought about.

{I}n Mark’s story of the storm, the obvious (but wholly overlooked) fact is that Jesus is just as present in the raging water as he is in the soothing calm that follows.  Despite the disciples’ inability to perceive it, there is no point in the night when God is absent or even distant.  In that vulnerable boat, surrounded by that swelling, terrifying water, the disciples are in the intimate company of Jesus.  He rests in their midst, tossed as they are tossed, soaked as they are soaked.

 This, she says, is grace, pure grace.

{T}he grace to experience God’s presence in the storm.  The grace to know that I am accompanied by the divine in the bleakest, most treacherous places. The grace to trust that Jesus cares even when I’m drowning.  The grace to believe in both the existence and the power of Love even when Jesus “sleeps.”  Even when the miraculous calm doesn’t come.8

This was the grace that was shown to David who, with stomach churning and not much else to go on, confronted a bully.  This was the grace that was shown to the disciples as they caught their breath and wondered about this Jesus guy who can still a storm with a word.  And this is the grace that comes to us in our baptism.

Jesus is with us.  He is with us in our storms.  He is with us when bullies come.  He is with us.

If you have been paying close attention to our baptisms of late you’ve noticed something and perhaps laughed with me.  For the most part the little ones were quite calm but, for the last two – for Zoey and Max, when I started to stir up the waters and read the words about how the spirit moved over the waters of creation.  Both of them loved the splashing, and the churning, and the waves so much that, it was clear by the expression on their faces that they wanted to dive right in.  

When the water was calm, they weren’t interested but add a little chaos and they were ready to go.  

We’re going back to the font again today with bulletins and hymnal in hand to welcome Azalia into the family of God trusting that in the power of water and the word Christ will give her the power to overcome any bully who might cross her pass and be with her in every storm she might face.

That is Christ’s gift to her.  That is Christ’s promise to us.  And it is more than enough for even the hottest of hot days.  

Don’t you think?

________________

1. James C. C Howell, “What Can We Say June 23? 5th after Pentecost,” James Howell’s Weekly Preaching Notions, January 1, 2024, https://jameshowellsweeklypreachingnotions.blogspot.com/2020/07/what-can-we-say-june-20-4th-after.html.

2. Cole R. Blender, “Average NFL Height by Weight and Position,” uidaho.edu, accessed June 22, 2024, https://webpages.uidaho.edu/~renaes/251/HON/Student PPTs/Avg NFL ht wt.pdf.

3. Amy Starr Redwine, “Sermon - Fourth Sunday after Pentecost - Year B,” A Sermon for Every Sunday, June 19, 2024, https://asermonforeverysunday.com/tag/amy-starr-redwine/.

4. 1 Samuel 17:43-44. (MESSAGE) [MESSAGE=Eugene H. Peterson, The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language, with Topical Concordance (NavPress, 2005).]

5. 1 Samual 17:45.  (NIV) [NIV=The New International Version]

6. St. Mark 4:38b. (NRSV) [NRSV=The New Revised Standard Version]

7. Debie Thomas, “‘Listening for the Questions,’” Journey with Jesus, June 14, 2015, https://www.journeywithjesus.net/essays/231-listening-for-the-questions.

8.    Debie Thomas, “Don’t You Care?,” Journey with Jesus, June 13, 2021, https://www.journeywithjesus.net/essays/3045-don-t-you-care.