Monday, July 2, 2012

I wait for the Lord, my soul waits

2nd Samuel 1: 1 and 17-27, page 275-276
After the death of Saul, when David had returned from defeating the Amalekites, David remained two days in Ziklag.
David intoned this lamentation over Saul and his son Jonathan. (He ordered that The Song of the Bow be taught to the people of Judah; it is written in the book of Jashar.) He said:
Your glory, O Israel, lies slain upon your high places!
How the mighty have fallen!
Tell it not in Gath, proclaim it not in the streets of Ashkelon; or the daughters of the Philistines will rejoice, the daughters of the uncircumcised will exult.
The mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew or rain upon you, nor bounteous fields! For there the shield of the mighty was defiled, the shield of Saul, anointed with oil no more.
From the blood of the slain, from the fat of the mighty, the bow of Jonathan did not turn back, nor the sword of Saul return empty.
Saul and Jonathan, beloved and lovely! In life and in death they were not divided; they were swifter than eagles, they were stronger than lions.
O daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, who clothed you with crimson, in luxury, who put ornaments of gold on your apparel.
How the mighty have fallen in the midst of the battle!
Jonathan lies slain upon the high places. I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan; greatly beloved were you to me; your love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women.
How the mighty have fallen, and the weapons of war perished!
Sermon
Last week was Vacation Bible School here at the church. Evidence of it is still all around, and I hope that any of the 50 children who participated will be able to tell you about their week and how wonderful it was.
The Bible story that provided a theme for the week was that of Daniel who was captured and taken from Judah to Babylon where he interpreted the king’s dreams and was invited into the upper echelons of the Babylonian court. However, he refused to compromise his beliefs. Rather than accept the fine food he was offered, food that he considered unclean, he lived on a diet of vegetables. Then, along with his friends, Shadrack, Meshach, and Abednego, Daniel refused to bow down to a giant statue of the king even though worshiping this idol was a requirement of the Babylonian law.
The guards came for Daniel’s three friends, all who refused to worship this statue, and I, pretending to be Daniel, watched from the window as they were taken to the fiery furnace for their execution.
“Isn’t this awful? My three best friends are about to be thrown into that furnace!” I told the kids.
Then one little boy, full of righteous indignation stood up and said, “I think we should go and bust them out!”
“Yea!” all the kids in his group agreed. And before I could regain control a plan was emerging that involved dynamite and booby traps and kicking those mean guards until they let my friends go.
I am sure that all of you who are teachers, every once in a while, are encouraged by what your students say. That every once in a while their response reflects whatever lesson you’ve been trying to teach and you realize that they’re really getting it.
You’ll know then that this response wasn’t what I was hoping for.
The point that our curriculum for Vacation Bible School was trying to get to was a clear reflection of the Scripture passage it was based on – that by being faithful as Daniel was faithful, and by refusing to compromise your morals, you can influence the culture around you for the better. Just as Daniel’s faithfulness in Babylon eventually resulted in an edict from the king testifying to our God’s greatness, all of you can testify to God by your actions wherever you are.
Maybe that seems impossible. Too big, too drastic, too idealistic, and certainly not the way anyone in the movies deals with the bad guys.
Our temptation, then, is the same as it has ever been: to settle for something that seems more realistic. We are tempted to hope, not that the Babylonians will eventually be converted but, having reduced them to the bad guys, we hope simply to bust out our friends and to escape back to Judah.
We see the world too simply now, just as we always have. We divide it up into black and white, and we cast ourselves in the role of the good guys while casting those who might hurt us or stand in our way in the role of the bad guys.
Our first scripture lesson is proof that it has always been this way. Not understanding why God would prefer Abel’s offering of meat over his offering of produce, Cain reduced his brother to an enemy. Rather than try to understand or grow enough to accept the unfairness of life, Cain simply destroys his brother, choosing to live in a world of good guys and bad guys rather than in a world where it’s not always clear why bad things happen or why preference, even the preference of God, is often given for reasons that don’t make sense.
The Lord warns Cain before he’s done the thing that he’ll never be able to take back: “Sin is lurking at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master it.”
You must learn to live in a world where it’s not so simple – where your brother is still your brother even when he is treated better and you can’t understand why – where your brother is still your brother when he has what you want and you’re tempted to take it away. You must learn to live in this world as a master of jealousy, envy, and anger before these forces take you over and you do something that you’ll regret for the rest of your life.
Sin offers a clear picture though. Make them your enemies and then you can take from them what you want. Those bad guys don’t deserve what they have. That promotion, that raise, that happiness – he got it unfairly so why shouldn’t I take it away? I should have been given God’s favor – that he has it just isn’t fair, and rather than live with this unfairness why not take justice into my own hands?
This way of thinking is easier to understand and get our heads around than the reality that blessings and curses are given out in ways that often don’t make any sense. And a world of good guys and bad guys is much easier to handle than a world of people – all a mix of good and bad – especially when war is commonplace.
King David, at war against his best friend and his best friend’s father, finds that war is all the more tragic when you love your enemy.
Rather than celebrate or set off fireworks David writes a song -
O daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, who clothed you with crimson, in luxury, who put ornaments of gold on your apparel.
How the mighty have fallen in the midst of the battle!
Jonathan lies slain upon the high places. I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan; greatly beloved were you to me; your love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women.
How the mighty have fallen, and the weapons of war perished!
This song is what makes David different from Cain. While they both were the cause of their brother’s death, while the blood of Able cries out to God, David himself cries out.
He cries out against the unfairness of war, the tragedy of death, and the nobility of his enemies. He laments the reality of life and longs for another way. He gives words to what is so complicated – a world where your friend and your enemy can be one in the same.
Here we are on the Sunday before the Fourth of July. This holiday calls us to celebrate all that is great about our country. It calls us to sing for what we stand for and to take pride in the men and women who have given up their lives that we might live in freedom.
But the Fourth of July also calls on us to make a choice: who is your enemy?
Is he a shadowed villain deserving of death – or is he your brother?
Christ calls us all to love our enemies, and how complicated this command gets when war is involved.
This day be bold and be different, even as sin is lurking at the door. Be bold and be different to recognize all people as created in the image of God.
Daniel was there in Babylon living a way of life that was different from all those around him. Here, in our society where enemies are demonized and complicated issues are simplified, be something different – stand for something different – and be bold to lament the death of this country’s sons and daughters along with the death of any country’s sons and daughters. For we are all one in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Amen.

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