From the Heart

August 30^th, 2015        “From the Heart”     Rev. Heather Jepsen

Mark 7:1-23

          What makes us good people?  What makes us acceptable before our God?  How do we judge others and how in turn do we judge ourselves?  These contemporary questions are very much at the center of our scripture reading for today.

          Our reading this morning comes from the Gospel of Mark.  Jesus has been busy healing, teaching, and feeding the people.  The Pharisees are keeping a close eye on Jesus and his followers and they are quick to notice when the disciples don’t follow the traditional customs of cleanliness.

          Before eating anything, Pharisees, and other good folks of Jewish faith, were always sure to wash their hands and other ritual items.  Unlike our modern understanding of washing so we don’t get sick, this was a washing based on tradition and religion.  It was not an act of morals but an act of religious liturgy; it was about making oneself holy or acceptable to God.  Jesus’ followers don’t appear to be following the customs of good religious people, so it is no wonder that the religious leaders are disturbed by their practice, or lack thereof.

          As usual Jesus uses this is an opportunity to teach a lesson.  He points out that often people spend a lot of time talking about how much they love God, but that what happens in their hearts betrays them.  The church gets too busy being wrapped up in human things, like rules about washing, that the people forget the things of God.  Jesus calls everyone together to teach them this lesson; “There is nothing outside of a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.”

          Jesus’ teaching seems clear enough, but it isn’t a lesson people really want to hear.  In fact, as soon as he is alone with the disciples they ask him to explain the parable.  What parable?  Jesus didn’t tell them a parable!  He told them a plain and simple lesson; it’s what is inside your heart that matters.  Again he is forced to explain.  What we eat, what goes inside of us goes to our stomach, but what comes out of us comes from our hearts.  It is what lies within our hearts that matters, and those are the things that have the power to separate us from God and from each other.

          At first Jesus’ lesson to the Pharisees and to his disciples seems to be miles away from our lives today.  Who cares anymore about ritual washing?  And being clean and unclean are not really a part of our modern understanding of the world, unless of course we are talking about baths.  But, the reality is that the divisions Jesus is talking about are everywhere in our world and in our church.

          That brings us back to our first questions.  What makes someone a good Christian?  At one point in the life of this church, being a good Christian meant that you didn’t dance.  Folks who dared to celebrate the joy of living by moving their bodies to music (even in the privacy of their own homes) were folks who were asked not to be a part of this church.  Being a good Christian also meant that you didn’t play cards.  In the past life of this congregation, members who enjoyed card games at home were no longer suitable to be on the church’s Session. 

           Of course there are some churches where being a good Christian means you don’t drink alcohol.  In fact, I have gotten in trouble in churches for suggesting that members of the congregation might like to join me at a baseball game and enjoy a hotdog and a beer.  I’m not kidding.  Someone was so mad that I said that during the announcements that they left the congregation.  Good Christians don’t drink beer!

          So where are we on that spectrum today?  What is it that we are worried about when it comes to being good Christians or good people?  From silly things like dancing and card games, we can suddenly find ourselves treading other dividing lines.  Issues of sexism and racism are not far away in this discussion.  What is the role of a good Christian woman?  Does she work or does she stay at home to be a good mother for her kids?  What is the role of Fathers for that matter?  Or, how about gays, can they be Christian?  Where is the edge in this congregation?  Where do we draw the line between us and other people?  For the Pharisees it was handwashing, what is it for us? 

          I have a feeling Jesus would enjoy the discussion but really doesn’t care what the answer is.  God doesn’t seem to care too much about the dividing lines that we draw.  That was the whole point of what Jesus was saying.  God doesn’t care if we follow the church rules or not, God is interested instead on what is coming from inside of us.  What comes out of our hearts and enters the world?  Do we choose to be one people, a humanity united in love of neighbor and self?  Or do we choose to divide ourselves into groups, declaring that some of us are better than others?

          I think the things that Jesus warns against are present in all of our lives.  That desire to judge, that desire to place people into categories, and that desire to spend all our time worrying about other people so that we don’t have to worry about ourselves are a part of each of us.  Jesus reminds us that it is what is within our own hearts that is sinful. 

          The list that Jesus offers is a scary one: sexual immorality, taking what does not belong to us, causing and ignoring the deaths of others, faithlessness, greed, pride, stubbornness, talking bad about others, deceiving others, ignoring our God.  Not only do we do these things, we often allow ourselves to do more than one of these things more than once a day.  Who are we to judge others when we carry these things within our own hearts?  It reminds me of Jesus’ other teaching about the speck in our neighbors eye, it is a lot easier to see what is wrong with someone else than to face what is wrong within our own hearts.

          Henri Nouwen helps us understand this by opening our minds to discover that the heart is so much more than simply an organ pumping blood.  He writes, “The spiritual life has to do with the heart of existence.  I find the word ‘heart’ a good word.  I don’t mean by it the seat of our feelings as opposed to the seat of our thoughts.  By ‘heart’ I mean the center of our being, the ‘place; where we are most ourselves, where we are most human, where we are most real.  In that sense the heart is the focus of the spiritual life.”

          Nouwen is reminding us that the heart is the core of who we are.  And Jesus is telling us that from within our heart comes the evil that separates us from God.  I would remind us as well this morning that from within our heart comes goodness.  Along with Jesus’ list of evils, our hearts also contain the powers for love and joy, for care and concern, for humility and generosity, for grace.  While we may often feel that we make little difference in the world, we also know that one kind act can often make all the difference in the world.  The way we act in the world reveals the inner workings of our heart, and the inner workings of our hearts reveal our faith.

          And so we come up against the hard lesson that Jesus was teaching his followers that day.  There isn’t anything we can do to make ourselves more presentable to God.  Life would be much easier if it was all about a checklist that we could work our way through.  If all we had to do was come to church each Sunday, dress nicely, bow our heads in prayer, and put money in the offering plate life would be easy.  But that is not what God wants from us.  Going through the ritual motions of faith, is no different than dressing the part of a good person.  It will not get us anywhere in the long run, and it will not make us right with God.

          Jesus is challenging us to consider the deeper more difficult work of cleansing our hearts.  Are we motivated by a desire to be good, or are we motivated by genuine love of neighbor?  Are we doing what we think we are supposed to do, or are we doing what the love inside our hearts leads us to do in our world?  Are we simply following the rules, or are we following the guidance of a heart of faith? 

          I don’t know what is inside your heart this morning, but I know what is inside my own.  While there is faith and love of God, I am also well aware of my own ease at judging others or in acting selfishly.  We all have areas that could use work and we all have areas where we need to grow.  This morning’s scripture reading reminds us that nobody is perfect, even those people who seem to follow all the rules.

          I believe this morning that we are called to thank God for the grace that enables us to follow Jesus despite our sinful hearts, and to thank God for the love of God that helps us continually grow into better people.  May we live each and every day better than the one before.  Amen.

Singing with the Psalmist

August 23^rd, 2015                  “Singing with the Psalmist”               Rev. Heather Jepsen

          Things have been pretty serious here in worship all summer.  Our months spent discussing the rise and fall of David have been heavy fodder for sermons and such.  Today I wasn’t in the mood for another big monologue and so I decided to take a different direction and spend some time in the book of Psalms instead. 

          Unlike some of the more narrative Biblical texts such as the David cycle we have been reading, or the parables of Jesus, there is a lot of leeway in translating a psalm.  Psalms are songs, they are poetry, and a lot of their original meaning is lost in their translation.  Things like tune and meter do not survive the ages.  Obviously we don’t know how to sing the psalms in the way they were originally sung. 

          If we are going to spend time studying a psalm and comparing translations we are usually working with Psalm 23.  But today, we are going to study and think about Psalm 84.  So, let’s start out with the NRSV translation of the Psalm which you will find on your pew Bible on page 472. Let’s read it antiphonally as Conan has taught us to do.  We will read it call and response, breaking it down by verse.

          (Read Psalm 84 together)

          When I read the Psalm in this translation, I am really drawn to the second verse.  The Psalmist writes that their soul is longing, even fainting for the Lord.  Commentators will often point out that the language used here is similar to language used when describing one’s desire for a lover.  It is an all-consuming longing, involving body and soul.  It is a deep guttural desire to be in the presence of God.

          It is often thought that this Psalm was sung by pilgrims as they journeyed on the way to the temple in Jerusalem.  The people of Israel would travel great distances to visit the temple of God and for many it would be a once in a lifetime event.  The temple was thought to be the most holy of places and people would feel the presence of God there more than anywhere else. 

          This is an interesting pairing with our reading from 1 Kings.  In that reading, Solomon is offering a public prayer of dedication for the temple.  We have thought a lot about what the temple might mean to Solomon and to his father David.  This morning offers us a glimpse of what the temple would mean to the average person of Israel.  As they entered the city and the famed temple came into view, their hearts would be bursting with joy and many would faint.  What sometimes has seemed marred with politics in the story of David; is nothing but divine glory in the eyes of the Psalmist. 

          I personally connect with the Psalmist’s longing to be in the presence of God.  I am someone who feels a profound pull on my body and on my soul, to seek out the divine in our world.  While not everybody is driven in such a fashion, I believe that within each of us is a core that hungers to know the divine.  We are created by God, we come from God, we are in the image of God, and a piece of us is always longing to return home.

          As I mentioned before, the Psalms were written not to be read, but to be sung.  It is hard for us to sing the psalm as it is written in our pew Bible.  Not only do we not know the tune, but we have lost the meter and the rhyme in our translation.  Of course, I’m not going to let that stop me from singing the Psalm with you today.  After all, this sermon is called “Singing with the Psalmist”.

          In your bulletin you should find an insert with another version of Psalm 84.  This is a page from the “Psalter for Christian Worship” by Michael Morgan.  What Mr. Morgan has done is arrange the Psalms in such a way as to enable us to sing them.  Rather than focusing on a strict translation from the Hebrew, like our NRSV pew Bible does, Mr. Morgan is trying to craft a sing-able Psalm.  He has arranged the texts so that they are well suited for congregational singing while also keeping the integrity of the message of the individual Psalms. 

You will see that instead of the laborious language of Psalm 84 in your pew Bible, what you have before you on your bulletin insert are several sing-able verses.  Mr. Morgan suggests three different tunes we could use for singing the Psalm.  I have chosen “Land of Rest” which I think will be familiar to many of us.  I’ll ask Andra to play the tune one time through and then we can sing the psalm together.

(Sing Psalm 84 to tune #545)

I love the second verse in Mr. Morgan’s setting of the Psalm the most.  In the original Hebrew, the Psalmist is jealous of the birds near the temple.  The Psalmist longs to be close to God, and so the birds that nest in the eaves and rafters are almost an offense.  In Mr. Morgan’s version of the Psalm, he seems to take a broader view.  The sparrow and the swallow are offered care simply by being part of God’s good creation. 

I think perhaps this is more meaningful to modern readers since we do not have a connection to the temple.  There is no holy place where we believe the presence of God resides in a similar way that the Israelites felt the presence of God in the temple.  More often, modern people experience the presence of God out in the miraculous wonders of nature.  It is in God’s care for the birds, the bunnies, the deer, and even the buzz of the cicadas that we often sense God’s providence in the world.  It reminds one of the words of Jesus in the gospel of Matthew that reference God’s care for the sparrows and the lilies.

Next, I am going to read to you Eugene Peterson’s version of Psalm 84 from his popular “Message” version of the Bible.  You will notice right away that he refers to God of the Angel Armies which is a bit strange.  Technically the Lord of hosts could be translated that way, as host refers to army, but it’s a bit militaristic to me.  He writes . .

"What a beautiful home, God of the Angel Armies!

   I’ve always longed to live in a place like this,

Always dreamed of a room in your house,

   where I could sing for joy to God-alive!

Birds find nooks and crannies in your house,

   sparrows and swallows make nests there.

They lay their eggs and raise their young,

   singing their songs in the place where we worship.

God of the Angel Armies!  King!  God!

   How blessed they are to live and sing there!

And how blessed are those in whom you live,

   whose lives become roads you travel;

They wind through lonesome valleys, come upon brooks,

   discover cool springs and pools brimming with rain!

God-traveled, these roads curve up the mountain, and

   at the last turn – Zion!  God in full view!

God of the Angel Armies, listen:

   O God of Jacob, open your ears – I’m praying!

Look at our shields, glistening in the sun,

   our faces, shining with your gracious anointing.

One day spent in your house, this beautiful place of worship,

   beats thousands spent on Greek Island beaches.

I’d rather scrub floors in the house of my God

  than be honored as a guest in the palace of sin.

All sunshine and sovereign is God,

   generous in gifts and glory.

He doesn’t scrimp with his traveling companions

   It’s smooth sailing all the way with God of the Angel Armies."

          As usual, Eugene Peterson manages to write things out in a way that is easy for us to understand.  On a light note, his preference for being in the physical temple versus a beautiful Greek Island is certainly interesting.  I particularly enjoy the twist he gives verse 5 changing “Happy are those whose strength is in you” to “How blessed are those in whom you live.”  It is a really interesting twist to consider one who dwells in the Lord, as oppose to one in whom the presence of God dwells. 

          Mr. Peterson continues changing “in whose heart are the highways to Zion” to “whose lives become roads you travel.”  I think this is a wonderful way to twist this Psalm to provide meaning for the modern reader.  If we remember that this was sung on the road to the temple in Jerusalem, we must admit that that is not a road we are on anymore.  There is no temple in Jerusalem.  And yet, we are clearly on a journey.  This psalm reminds us that we are fortunate to be on a journey of faith, even if we aren’t on a literal pilgrimage at this time.  And it is poetic to think not only of us on a journey seeking God, but that our lives would also become a journey for God to undertake.

          As we can plainly see, there is a lot hiding for us here in Psalm 84.  Whether you are in a space where your soul is longing for God, or rather you are feeling like a swallow on the outskirts, observing the Lord from a distance, there is something in this Psalm for you to relate to this morning.  Much like the wonders of Psalm 23, I think there is something that speaks to each of us as individuals in this much less studied Psalm 84.  It is a sure testament to the poetry of these Psalms that they can speak to the lives of people born centuries after they were originally composed and sung in worship.

          I can’t let you get away this morning without one more musical rendition of this Psalm.  The most popular modern setting of this Psalm is Arlo Duba’s “How Lovely, Lord.”  Let’s stand and sing it now.

Dancing with David: Life Goes On

August 16^th, 2015       “Life Goes On”      Rev. Heather Jepsen

Summer Sermon Series: Dancing with David

1 Kings 2:1-4, 10-12 and 3:1-15

          Today we finish our summer sermon series, “Dancing with David”.  For nearly three months we have charted the story of King David through the Old Testament books of 1^st and 2^nd Samuel.  We read about David’s anointing as a shepherd boy, his famous battle with Goliath, his joyous dance as he brings the ark to Jerusalem, and his desire to build the temple only to find out that God would build a dynasty in his name.  We also examined David’s darker hours; his sinful mistreatment of Uriah and Bathsheba, his judgement and the death of his young son, as well as the mess of arrogance and violence that seems to spin out of control in his household.  Today we will look at Scriptures in 1 Kings and finish our study of Israel’s greatest king.

          Prior to this morning’s reading there continues to be trouble in the kingdom, though not nearly as bad as things had been.  There are some uprisings with groups outside the kingdom as well as rebellions from inside, but mostly it is politics as usual.  As David nears old age and grows weak, his eldest living son, Adonijah makes a bid for the throne with the help of David’s military right hand man, Joab.  But, before things get too far along, the prophet Nathan and Bathsheba conspire to place Solomon on the throne instead.  Though there are 3 other brothers ahead of him in age, Nathan and Bathsheba are convinced that Solomon is the one that God has chosen as a successor since he was the one God blessed at birth.  David agrees, and Solomon receives his father’s blessing and is anointed as king of Israel. 

          Our reading begins with David offering some final words of wisdom to his son.  David reminds Solomon that the key to being a successful king of Israel is to follow the word of the Lord.  One is to keep the commandments, and to be strong and brave as they walk in the way of the Lord.  David has a stake in Solomon’s success as he continues to hold on to God’s promise that a successor from his line will always sit on the throne in Jerusalem.  The author then tells us that David died peaceably, having ruled in Israel for forty years.

          In the sections of chapter 2 that we skipped, Solomon is busy securing his place on the throne.  He orders his older brother Adonijah killed, so that he no longer poses a threat to his rule.  He also orders the death of Joab, David’s military commander who had supported Adonijah’s campaign to be king.  Solomon is careful to wipe the slate clean, so that he and he alone will have the power and claim to rule over Israel.

          When we begin chapter 3 we read of Solomon’s first acts as king of Israel.  As soon as he is in power, Solomon makes a marriage alliance with Pharaoh King of Egypt, taking Pharaoh’s daughter as his wife.  Solomon brings her to live in Jerusalem, even though he has yet to build his own palace or the temple.  It is a good move in world politics as it expands the reach of Israel into politics on a more global scale as they enter into trade relationship with Egypt and its allies.  It is a gamble though for the king of Israel, as the marrying of foreign wives is against the Mosaic Law.

          The writer of 1 Kings goes on to tell us that Solomon loved the lord and walked in the statues of his father David, even though he worshipped in the high places.  Again, like marrying outside the faith, worshipping with locals at community shrines is a really good political move.  It is also a risk for the king of Israel who is commanded by Mosaic Law to only worship at the holy tabernacle in Jerusalem.

          While sacrificing at a high place in Gibeon, Solomon has a vision of the Lord.  God asks what he can give Solomon, and Solomon replies that he and his family have already been richly blessed by the steadfast love of the Lord.  What Solomon asks for is not wealth or blessing, but wisdom.  “Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil; for who can govern this your great people?”

          God is pleased with this request and decides that this is the path to blessing.  Because Solomon has asked for wisdom, God will also give him riches, honor, and a long life on the throne.  One cannot help but think of the words of Jesus in the gospel of Matthew, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you.”  The reading ends with the note that Solomon wakes to realize this has been a dream.  He returns to Jerusalem to worship at the tabernacle, and shares his joy at God’s blessing by providing a feast for all of his people there.

          As the story continues beyond this morning’s reading, Solomon’s wisdom will come into question.  While he appears to have a heart for the Lord, like his father he has a penitent for bending the rules.  He will be slow to build the temple and fortify the walls of Jerusalem.  He will be greedy in his political endeavors, eventually forcing the people of Israel into stiff taxation and slave labor conditions.  He will be greedy with women as well, marrying 700 princesses as well as 300 concubines.  His relationships with women of other cultures will eventually lead his heart astray, and upon his death the kingdom of Israel will once again be split into two separate kingdoms, the northern tribes and the southern ones. 

          So, this is where our story ends.  With a request for wisdom, a desire to serve the Lord, and yet the reality of the mistakes of a king that are also an important part of the story.  It seems to me that this is where we have been headed all along.  For what is wisdom but an amassing of life experience, a telling of a life story?  Life is something we learn how to live as we go along, and I think faith works like that as well. 

          On his death bed, the words of David were certainly wise.  After 40 years in the throne, he had gained a deep awareness of how to rule Israel.  He had a wealth of knowledge that he gained through making mistakes and suffering hardships.  David had a deep faith that had developed over time.  Though it was not a gift God could give in an instant, Solomon’s request for wisdom is certainly a gift he received.  Like his father though, he had to earn it through a lifetime of trial and error.

          Though the stories we tell ourselves about these kings may not be the whole picture, they certainly contain a kernel of truth.  David’s heart for the Lord is clear and can be seen as a thread woven throughout his story, even in his darkest hours.  Solomon is famous for his wisdom, for surely it was wise to have asked for wisdom in the first place.

          I think this morning that this is where we find ourselves in the story.  Though we are not kings of Israel, we all have power and control in our own lives.  We can choose to seek after wisdom, to walk in the ways of the Lord.  Or we can choose to go our own way.  Many of us will move back and forth between the two during our lifetimes, for like our kings we are human and we will make mistakes. 

          Hopefully, like our kings, the end results for all of us will be the same, wisdom.  For what else can we gain from a lifetime of living a roller coaster of ups and downs?  And like our kings, we will be richly blessed.  Not prosperity gospel blessing, where God gives you money, but the true blessings of wisdom and thankfulness.  For certainly if we are seeking the kingdom of God above all else, then we will be more aware of the blessings and riches around us from the kindness of a stranger to a bounty of fresh tomatoes.

          As we close our sermon series for this summer, and close the book on David for the time being, I want to bring us back around to our very first reading from early June.  I want to go back to the beginning of the story, 1 Samuel 16 where the prophet Samuel stands before the sons of Jesse, looking for the next king.  As he stands in front of the brave and handsome boys, the word of God whispers in his ear, “Do not look on his appearance . . . for the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”

          As we close our sermon series, let this be the message for us.  From the outside, from our point of view centuries after these texts were written, David doesn’t seem that faithful, and Solomon doesn’t seem that wise.  They certainly don’t look like the greatest kings to rule the land.  And yet, the Lord does not see as we see.  The Lord looks at the heart, and the Lord sees faithfulness and wisdom in these men.

          So too, God looks on our own hearts this morning.  As our lives move on, in and out of messes, through the hills and valleys of daily living, God is looking at our hearts.  God knows if we are faithful, God knows if we are seeking wisdom, God knows what kind of people we are, and perhaps more importantly what kind of people we are longing to be.

          As we end our dance with David and step off the dance floor for the summer, make we take kernels of wisdom with us.  Life is hard, we will make mistakes, and things will get messy.  But the steadfast love of God is always with us.  If we seek God’s wisdom, if we seek the kingdom of God before other things; then eventually we will be richly blessed.  May God look upon our hearts with favor this morning, and may God bless us as God blessed King David.  Amen. 

Dancing with David: An Awful Mess

August 9^th, 2015                           “An Awful Mess”                       Rev. Heather Jepsen

Summer Sermon Series: Dancing with David

2 Samuel 18:5-15, 31-33 with Psalm 130

          This morning we continue our summer sermon series, “Dancing with David.”  We have been studying the story of David for several months now.  From his anointing as a young shepherd boy, to his brave defeat of Goliath, to his rise to power and prominence, the story of David is an inspiring one.  It is also a tragic one as we studied David’s arrogant taking of Bathsheba and his murder of Uriah.  Last week we discussed the punishment for David’s sin, and this week the tragedy continues.

          When the prophet Nathan confronted David with his sins, he promised that the Lord would raise up trouble for David from within his own house, and that the sword would never depart from him.  The chapters leading up to this morning’s reading fulfill that promise, and they seem like the script for a soap opera or even an R rated Hollywood tragedy. 

          David enjoys military success against the Ammonites but things at home begin to fall apart.  His first born son, Amnon, develops an incestuous attraction to his half-sister Tamar.  They have different mothers but they share David as a father.  Amnon cannot restrain himself, arranges an opportunity, and then forcibly rapes his sister.  He is distraught afterwards and casts her out.  Tamar has a full brother, Absalom and he is understandably upset about what has happened to his sister.  David, when told of the sins of Amnon, refuses to pass judgement.  Amnon is the first born, beloved son, in line for the throne, and while David is a strong military leader he is a weak father.

          Absalom is incensed at the complete lack of justice, so he arranges a little justice of his own.  He invites his brother Amnon to a party, gets him drunk, and then commands his servants to kill him.  When news arrives that Amnon is dead, David is upset and Absalom flees Jerusalem to avoid capture.

          With the death of Amnon, Absalom is now the oldest son and is next in line for the throne.  After several years pass he is invited to return to Jerusalem.  David, though, withholds his love and treats Absalom coldly.  Unwilling to wait for his turn in the throne, Absalom begins to stir up rebellion.  He spends time hanging out near the city gates, telling folks what a better king he would be than his father.  And before long he has enough men behind him to engage in a real military coup.

          Hearing word that Absalom threatens Jerusalem, David flees the city and heads to the countryside to hide out.  Absalom takes over the palace and rapes David’s concubines on the roof as a show of his power and might.  Battle begins on the outskirts of the city and even though David knows Absalom is a military threat, he cannot let go of his fatherly love for his son.  And so our reading begins, with David hoping for military success, while at the same time pleading for the life of his son.

          In our reading we find Absalom riding into battle through the forest.  It is a bit of a strange picture as his hair gets caught in a tree.  Absalom was a vain man and earlier in the text we read about how famous he was for his long heavy hair.  It is a poetic scene as Absalom is hanging helpless, trapped between heaven and earth.  His position is the essence of vulnerability, will he live or will he die?  Will he be treated with the arrogance and cruelty he showed others, or will he receive grace and mercy?

          Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann makes some insightful observations of this text, noting that Absalom’s suspension between heaven and earth reflects the tensions in which the narrative itself now stands suspended.  He writes, “Absalom is suspended between life and death, between the sentence of a rebel and the value of a son, between the severity of the king and the yearning of the father.”

          At first it appears as if Absalom might be spared.  A man from David’s troops sees him hanging in space, but leaves him alone as David has commanded.  Joab, David’s good friend and right hand man, thinks better of it though.  He is sure the king is wrong, the rebellion must be stopped, and so he takes it into his own hands to kill Absalom.  While it is certainly violent, it is also certainly an act of loyalty to the kingdom.  Even though David cannot see it, Joab knows that Absalom must be killed for the rebellion to be stopped.

          With the death of their leader the rebellion is over.  Runners come to tell David the news and though he is eager to hear of victory in battle, he is afraid to hear of the death of his son.  When he realizes that Absalom has been killed David is overcome by his grief.  In one of the most moving scenes in our scriptures, David crumples to the floor weeping, “O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom!  Would I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!”  

          David is undone by the death of Absalom and unable to act as king.  In the chapter beyond this morning’s reading Joab once again encourages David to do the right thing.  The father can mourn, but the king needs to lead.  There has been a military victory and David’s job is to stand out front and greet the victorious troops.  If he cannot muster the courage to do it, Joab warns David that he will not be king for much longer.  Eventually David swallows his grief, rises and takes his place as king, to welcome home the warriors that have killed his son in battle.

          In today’s story we find David’s sins fully come home to roost.  It is a tragedy of epic proportions and it is an awful mess.  It is also a story that is extremely relevant in our own lives today.  From the ways that children seem to echo the sins of their parents, to the deep parental love that defies all logic, to the complicated roles of grace and justice; all of the pieces in today’s story are alive and well in our own world.

          We talked last week about how the sin that we commit, though forgiven by our Lord, still has consequences in our world.  Like dropping a stone into a pool of water, our own arrogant and sinful behaviors reverberate in the world around us.  David has sown the seeds of arrogance and violence in his family.  His sons have seen his behavior and though they have also witnessed his suffering, they are well aware of his ability to argue his sin away.  It is no wonder that they follow his example of arrogance and violence. 

          David’s inability to act as a king in this story is also very understandable.  His desire to switch places with his son is keenly felt by all parents who watch their children suffer.  Even children who make poor choices and bring suffering upon themselves are loved in this way.  How many parents would willingly take the place of a child who has set themselves on a self-destructive path?  Such is the deep love that David has for his sons Absalom and Amnon.  Throughout the story David fails to rule as king because he is so wrapped up in his grieving as a father.

          Finally there is the question of justice.  Like the reality of our own lives, there are no easy answers in this story.  The behavior of David’s sons is a natural consequence of David’s own actions.  When David refuses to deal with Amnon and secure justice for Tamar, it is up to Absalom to make things right.  Arranging the murder of his brother may not have been the best choice, but is David’s willingness to ignore the rape of his own daughter a better option?

          The same goes for the role of Joab in the story.  Is he a callus murderer as he takes the life of Absalom, hanging vulnerably in the balance?  Or is he a faithful and loyal general, doing the best thing for his country when his king is not strong enough to take action?  In the mess that David has made, it is hard to find a clear right and wrong.  It is hard to find an easy answer.

          So often I hear people tell me that they Bible has little relevance in their own lives.  I think they just don’t read the Bible!  Our story of David and his sons is a very modern tale.  So many of our lives reflect the elements of this story.  So many of us turn around at some point and wonder, “How did I get in this awful mess?”  And so many of us find ourselves in a place where there is no black and white, and the answers of life are not clear.

          When I imagine David weeping over the death of his son, I imagine he is also weeping in grief for his own actions and his own responsibility in the story.  In fact, I can also imagine him weeping for the whole of humanity.  For this is the world we have created, this is the way we treat each other.  Read the newspaper any morning and you will find arrogance and violence come home to roost on a global scale.  Like David, I weep for all of humanity.  What an awful mess we have made.

          So where does that leave us?  There is little mention of God in the story, and in fact God has been left out of today’s reading entirely.  Like much of our own lives, God is simply a silent figure in the shadows of the mess that is David’s life.  Thankfully we have another voice to add to the story this week; the voice that we find in Psalm 130.

          Tradition holds that many of the psalms were written by David, and whether that is true or not, I imagine that this psalm could have been written on the very night David hears of the death of Absalom.  Out of the depths the psalmist cries to God, “O Lord, hear my voice!”  The psalmist is clear that his sins are many, and is also clear that he hopes for forgiveness in the Lord.  Though it feels like the end of the world, the psalmist continues to hope for God to make things right.  “My soul waits for the Lord . . . O Israel, hope in the Lord!”

          When we reflect on the mess of our own world; and the messes in our own families, in our own lives, I would counsel us to heed the words of the psalmist.  Wait for the Lord, hope in the Lord.  For surely with God there is steadfast love, surely with God there is forgiveness and redemption.  Surely with God there is a way to clean up the awful mess that we have made.

Today we gather at the communion table.  This is an excellent opportunity to be reminded of our hope in the Lord.  This is a chance to remember the promises of Jesus Christ of new life and redemption.  This is the time to experience the presence of God with us, nourishing us, even when our lives are in the depths, even when we are in an awful mess.

          It has been a long summer following the ups and downs of our king.  Next Sunday we will complete this series, and we will find the grace that we so long for this morning.  For unlike his brothers the next king to reign in Israel takes after his father in a good way, a king who has a heart for the Lord.  Amen.

Dancing with David: Judgment

August 2^nd, 2015                          “Judgment”                           Rev. Heather Jepsen

Summer Sermon Series: Dancing with David

2 Samuel 12:1-25  

Today we continue our summer sermon series: Dancing with David.  Throughout the summer we have charted the course of David’s rise to prominence in the land of Israel.  Last Sunday we discussed David’s fall and his sinful actions in the story of David and Bathsheba.  David’s acts of evil in the rape of Bathsheba and the murder of Uriah were hard for all of us to face.  Today we will discuss the consequences of David’s action.

          At this point in the story, David is probably thinking that the matter with Bathsheba and Uriah is finished.  He has done his best to hide all evidence of his wrong-doing.  But unfortunately for David the Lord is far from finished with the matter.  The reading opens with the statement that what David had done displeased the Lord, or was evil in the eyes of the Lord.  The Lord sends Nathan to speak with David and to inform David of the Lord’s great disappointment with him.

          Nathan begins by telling David a parable.  It is the story of a rich man and a poor man.  The poor man has only one ewe lamb to his name, and it is an animal that he loves.  The poor man has brought the lamb up in his household, feeding it food from his table and cradling it in his arms.  The lamb is like a child to him.  In contrast the rich man has many sheep and lambs to his name.  One day the rich man is visited by a traveler and not wanting to loose any of his bounty, he takes and slaughters the poor man’s lamb to serve the stranger.  The rich man’s act is particularly callus as he is disguising his injustice as hospitality in the service of his guest.

          David reacts as we all do to the story, with great anger.  Being the king and familiar with the role of judge, David declares that this rich man deserves no less than the penalty of death for his heinous act.  David seems particularly incensed that the rich man shows no pity to the poor man in the story.

          In what is one of the most powerful scenes in our scriptures, Nathan now turns the tables saying to David, “You are the man!”  In his condemnation of the rich man, David has condemned his own act of taking what was not his to take.  Nathan goes on to state the Lord’s disappointment with David.  God is clear that God had given everything to David; land, kingship, and wives.  God would have done even more if only David had asked.  But for David to go and take Uriah’s wife and to kill Uriah, such an act is not only a sin against Uriah and Bathsheba; it is a sin against the Lord.  Nathan asks David, “Why have you despised the word of the Lord, and done what is evil in God’s sight?”

          And now the punishment is given.  Because of David’s acts of rape and murder, the very acts David has committed will now be committed against him.  While David’s line will be blessed to rule forever in Israel, he has now brought down upon it a curse.  David will reap what he has sown and the sword will never depart from David’s house.  God will now raise up trouble in David’s family, and from this time on his kingship will be marked with violence and calamity from the death of a child, to the incestuous rape of his daughter and wives and concubines.  Murder and violence will mark the remainder of David’s reign until his kingdom is overthrown.  As punishment for the crimes David has committed, he will live out the rest of his days in shame.

          It is here, at the lowest point in his life, where David shows his true colors.  It is now, I believe, when he really shows his heart for the Lord.  Many people at this point would turn away from God.  Many people would be unable to admit their own sin, and would turn away in anger at the things God has spoken against them.  But not David; it is at this moment, when judgment against him has been passed, that David turns toward the Lord.  “I have sinned against the Lord,” he boldly declares and begins his repentance.

          Despite David’s repentant spirit, the Lord strikes the child he has conceived with Bathsheba and it becomes gravely ill.  For days David prays and fasts, pleading with the Lord for the child’s life.  David has declared his own sinfulness, he has shown he is sorry for his evil acts, and he is hopeful the Lord will spare the life of his son.  But it is not to be, and on the seventh day the child dies.

          Again the strength of David’s faith is remarkable.  After the death of his child the first thing David does is worship God.  It is almost an unbelievable act that David could turn toward the God who has executed judgement in such a harsh fashion.  David forgoes the dictated period of mourning, for he has already pleaded with the Lord for grace that was not given.  Now he believes it is the time to move on.  He rises from his fast, washes and eats.  David’s acts of mourning show an advanced theology of suffering and death as he appears to accept the death of his child as a part of life, but not the end.  As he tells his servants, “I shall go to him, he will not return to me” he already shows a budding faith in the afterlife.

David then returns to Bathsheba and lays with her again, conceiving another son.  For traditional readers of the Scriptures it is at this point that grace enters into the picture.  David is given a new son, Solomon, and this child will be loved by the Lord.  In fact Nathan sends word that the child should be called Jedidiah, “the beloved of the Lord.”   

          Now I have to admit, I had a hard time last week with the story of David and Bathsheba.  In fact, I don’t think I liked preaching that sermon any more than you liked hearing it.  While I believe that what I said was the truth behind the text, facing David’s acts of rape and murder makes me uncomfortable, and speaking about them from the pulpit made it even worse.  And I am fairly confident that I was not the only one to be uncomfortable last week.

          Today, I am afraid we are no better off.  I have been quick to pass judgment on David, for the rape of Bathsheba and murder of Uriah are surely despicable acts.  And like David, I am also quick to pass judgment regarding the parable that Nathan tells; it is wrong for the rich man to take the poor man’s lamb.  But then I am afraid that leaves me in the same place that David finds himself; with Nathan pointing an accusing finger and declaring “You are the one!”  For although I haven’t raped and murdered, I have certainly committed my own share of wrongdoings and have racked up plenty of tallies in the sin column of my life. 

          From the declaration of guilt comes the declaration of judgment, and the judgment David faces is a cruel one for certain.  It is painful to read, but the text pulls no punches as it clearly states, “because by this deed you have utterly scorned the Lord, the child born to you shall die.”  And later, “the Lord struck the child that Uriah’s wife bore to David, and it became very ill.”  What sort of punishment is this?  I believe that Bathsheba and the child are innocent in the matter, even victims, and now they too are made to suffer for David’s sin.  This week as I pondered the text in the presence of my own children, I began to think that this punishment is even cruel for David the very committer of the atrocities. 

          As a modern reader I am troubled by this text and wonder what it says about our God.  But, the writer of the text is not concerned with such matters and they don’t ask such questions.  In fact, in their view, grace is present in the text; for though David will suffer all that the Lord declares against him, he still bears another son.  This son is loved by the Lord and he will be richly blessed; that is the moment of grace. 

I don’t think that’s good enough and I am not satisfied with this ending.  Although grace is present here, it is not what I am accustomed to when thinking of grace.  Frankly, the grace that God shows to David just doesn’t seem like enough to me.  A God who punishes us by taking the life of another is not a God I am interested in worshipping.

This is where my opinion as a 21^st century pastor and the opinion of the writer of the book of Samuel differ.  I do not believe that the Lord will strike us down in such a way for our sins.  I do not believe that the Lord punishes us like this.  And frankly, when we suffer the tragedies of illness and death, especially the death of a child, I do not believe that the Lord is in any way the cause of such a thing.  The grace that I believe in tells a different story, the story of Jesus Christ, the one who is present with us in our suffering.  The grace that I believe in is one where if you turn to the Lord in true repentance, declare yourself a sinner as David did, then you are given forgiveness.  This is the God that I have come to know and love.

          Even though I can argue away God’s role in the punishment David receives for his sin, I cannot argue away the horrible things that David’s sin brings into his life.  Although David experiences grace in the birth of his new son, the consequences of his sin remain as his family will now suffer because of his example of wrongdoing.  It is from David’s acts that they have learned to excuse their sinful behaviors.  For the remainder of his life David will reap what he has sown, and it is not a pretty picture.

          Perhaps that is why I am so uncomfortable with this story.  None of us can read the story of David and Bathsheba and not think of our own sinful nature.  While I do believe that we receive grace when we turn to God in repentance; our forgiveness does not erase our sinful acts.  Like David, the consequences of our sin will remain in the world and in our lives.  No amount of grace can erase the harm we cause when we sin.  We cannot poison the world around us and then expect to receive only good things.  We cannot sow violence and then expect to harvest blessings. 

          But, there is grace for us nonetheless.  For David, grace came in the form of his son Solomon, and in a small way it comes for us this morning by that same path.  As I mentioned last week Jesus himself will come from this union of David and Bathsheba.  But, rather than bring conceived in violence, Jesus will come from the line of this new son, who was conceived in love; Solomon, who is so favored by God.  While the writer of Samuel does not see God’s whole plan of salvation here, the modern reader certainly does. 

          Such is God’s love for us; a love that transcends all time and space, a love that offers true forgiveness to those who repent, a love that will make good of even David’s sin, a love that will not let us go, even as we struggle with these ancient stories of punishment and retribution.  Thanks be to God for the freedom to honestly explore these stories and their meaning in our lives; and thanks be to God for a grace we can never fully understand.  Amen.