2 Samuel 11:-15
Saint John 6:1-13
This may not surprise you at all but, according to the Pew Research Center, “in general, people in richer nations are less likely than those in poorer nations to say that religion plays a very important role in their lives.”1
Tyler Castle, fleshed this out for us in a blog on the website “Values and Capitalism” writing:
Tyler Castle, fleshed this out for us in a blog on the website “Values and Capitalism” writing:
As people become more prosperous, they become more comfortable with their lives. They find more satisfaction in the material realities of this world, which means they are less inclined to depend on God...
I have found this to be true in my own life, especially during certain seasons. [When] my life is filled with many wonderful things: material blessings, relationships, opportunities for personal fulfillment ... it is easy to get caught up in the goodness of the here and now. When my life seems to be going well, I am less likely to look to God for my provision. Instead, it is during the painful, lonely times that I cling desperately to God.2
Is that true for you? It certainly is true for me. And it certainly was true for King David
You have been following his story and, last week, you heard about his home building project. You heard that by every measure he had built the finest house in all the land. His house was the envy of all his neighbors. It was a house fit for a king which is what he was. But by our standards it was a dive.
Remember these were very smelly times. Horses, cows, chickens roaming the streets. No sewer systems or even any indoor plumbing. Fires for cooking and heating; no glass in the windows; no fans unless you had a slave to stand over you all day. Any student of history knows that life, even in the early part of the twentieth century, was not easy.
Even so, King David was quite pleased with himself. If he had a mirror, he would probably stand before it every morning and say: “Dang! You’re hot!” Not only that but he was a slayer of giants, a military leader unlike any ever known, a builder of outstanding buildings, and an all around stable genius.
And it is here we find him wallowing in his greatness.
Remember these were very smelly times. Horses, cows, chickens roaming the streets. No sewer systems or even any indoor plumbing. Fires for cooking and heating; no glass in the windows; no fans unless you had a slave to stand over you all day. Any student of history knows that life, even in the early part of the twentieth century, was not easy.
Even so, King David was quite pleased with himself. If he had a mirror, he would probably stand before it every morning and say: “Dang! You’re hot!” Not only that but he was a slayer of giants, a military leader unlike any ever known, a builder of outstanding buildings, and an all around stable genius.
And it is here we find him wallowing in his greatness.
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 mother, I hope, taught him when he was little: “Keep your hands to yourself.”
“In the spring,” Scripture tells us, “at the time when kings go off to war”3 David mind is way ahead of John Lennon who famously said in the 1960s “Make love, not war.”
I have absolutely no intention of going into the specifics of what happened between David and Bathsheba on that hot night. (In more ways than one!) You can find the dreadful details of such encounters on almost any news program, newspaper, or in this weeks edition of The New Yorker.4
Let’s just say that the same behavior by powerful men in our day gave birth to the “#metoo” movement in David’s day resulted in a baby boy. The King would then participate in a cover-up of major proportions.
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.”5 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 husband of his mistress 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 the he is killed.
(Is it getting warm in here or is it just me?)
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. And when power combines with passion there is trouble of major proportions.
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. 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. It is all about his wants, needs, and desires. Jesus uses his power to show compassion.
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!
“In the spring,” Scripture tells us, “at the time when kings go off to war”3 David mind is way ahead of John Lennon who famously said in the 1960s “Make love, not war.”
I have absolutely no intention of going into the specifics of what happened between David and Bathsheba on that hot night. (In more ways than one!) You can find the dreadful details of such encounters on almost any news program, newspaper, or in this weeks edition of The New Yorker.4
Let’s just say that the same behavior by powerful men in our day gave birth to the “#metoo” movement in David’s day resulted in a baby boy. The King would then participate in a cover-up of major proportions.
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.”5 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 husband of his mistress 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 the he is killed.
(Is it getting warm in here or is it just me?)
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. And when power combines with passion there is trouble of major proportions.
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. 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. It is all about his wants, needs, and desires. Jesus uses his power to show compassion.
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!
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...Actually I saw it last week when you brought baskets of food up for the Irving Park Food Pantry. I see it in the churches in downtown Chicago who have banded together to give the homeless a hot meal every night of the week. I see it in the Chicago Night Ministry who goes out on the streets with their “Night Bus” to deliver health care to people who have fallen through society’s cracks.
when Jesus was asked to feed people, he showed an unimaginable love ... an unthinkable leap of acceptance... He said, “Feed ’em! Feed ’em all! Every one of them.” Friends, where in this world do we ever (compassion) quite like that?6
Yes, I can even see it among the wealthy and powerful - the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; Warren Buffet who, according to Forbes gave away $3.4 billion dollars just in April.7
These are powerful men and women who form foundations to help others and not pay for paintings of themselves to hang in their offices.
What caused King David to fall from grace is that he believed his own press releases. He believed that he could draw the biggest crowds. He believed that he was smarter than all of his generals combined. He believed he could outsmart everybody else and do whatever he wanted. He believed in power and passion over compassion. He shifted his gaze from God and turned it toward himself. And so he showed his potential one hot night to be a very bad person indeed.
Jesus shows us another way.
Jesus shows us another way.
The diabolical one had shown him all the vestiges of money, power, and prestige when Jesus’ was tempted in the wilderness. Jesus rejected all those earthy treasures in favor of a life and ministry that showed a richness of compassion toward others that was so strong that it even included the giving of his life.
My guess is the none of us sitting here are playing in the same financial league as the Buffets and Gates of the world. My guess is that all of us here belong to the great middle class of where we have enough to live on happily but not so much that we can become full of ourselves. My guess is that all of us have discovered that while King David had a nice house for his time it is nothing compared to ours.
So what are we to do? How are we to live?
Perhaps these words for John Wesley can help.
So what are we to do? How are we to live?
Perhaps these words for John Wesley can help.
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.8
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.8
Thanks for listening.
Sermon preached at Irving Park Lutheran Church
Chicago, Illinois
Sunday, July 29, 2018
____________________
1. Gai, George. "How Do Americans Stand Out From the Rest of the World." Fact Tank: News in the Numbers. March 12, 2015. Accessed July 27, 2018. http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/03/12/how-do-americans-stand-out-from-the-rest-of-the-world/
2. Castle, Tyler. "Does Wealth Make Us Less Religious." Values and Capitalism. Accessed July 27, 2018. http://www.valuesandcapitalism.com/does-wealth-make-us-less-religious/.
3. 2 Samuel 11:1a. (NIV) [NIV=The New International Version]
4. Sermon preached the same week this article was published:
Farrow, Ronan. "Les Moonves and CBS Face Alligations of Sexual Misconduct." The New Yorker, August 13, 2018.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/08/06/les-moonves-and-cbs-face-allegations-of-sexual-misconduct
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/08/06/les-moonves-and-cbs-face-allegations-of-sexual-misconduct
5. Martin, Gary. "'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
6. Eldred, Mark. "God in My Pocket." Sermon, 4 O'clock Worship, The Fourth Presbyterian Church, Chicago, July 26, 2015.
http://www.fourthchurch.org/sermons/2015/072615_4pm.html
http://www.fourthchurch.org/sermons/2015/072615_4pm.html
7. Friedman, Zack. "Why Warren Buffett Just Donated $3.4 Billion." Forbes.com, July 19, 2018. Accessed July 28, 2018. https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackfriedman/2018/07/19/warren-buffett-bill-gates-charity/#59a45d3e3e36
8. "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
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