Jesus the Mother Hen

Journeying with Jesus

Luke 13:31-35 

Jesus The Mother Hen

  

 As we move through Lent this year we will continue to follow Luke as he traces the steps of Jesus toward Jerusalem. In the book of Luke Jesus is continually moving toward Jerusalem always walking, always moving toward the cross. As we journey together through Lent; together we will journey with Jesus as he moves toward Jerusalem and the cross. In the gospel of Luke Jesus is constantly turning the world on end. Jesus is always drawing illustrations from unexpected places and he is continually raising up the despised, the rejected and revealing to us that our stereotypes are often incorrect. We make assumptions and Jesus reverses them. We think things should be one way and he shows us that the opposite way is true. The last are first, and the first are last. The children are gathered in instead of turned away, we are told to be more like them instead of less like them, the unclean woman is praised, the gentile is welcomed in, the Samaritan is the hero. Here in this passage things are no different. It almost seems like this passage was engineered to be contrary, to shock and dismay the average gospel reader. Nothing in this passage is the way it should be. And since this passage is only four verses long I am sure a fair few of you are looking at them, skimming them real quick and thinking to yourselves, what in the world is she talking about? Nothing in this passage seems out of the ordinary. There is nothing here that shocks me or even causes me to raise an eyebrow. Well, then perhaps you are not reading it close enough. Nothing in this passage is what is should be. Nobody is playing the roles we would have laid out for them. Our passage this morning begins with Jesus being confronted by Pharisees. Well, that is not out of the ordinary. The Pharisees are always confronting Jesus, in most of the gospels that is almost their vocation. They are there to try to trap Jesus, to challenge him and call him out when he is eating with sinners or picking wheat on the Sabbath. I mean, that’s what Pharisees do right? But what are they doing here? Are they challenging him? Are they attempting to trap him? Are they telling him that he is doing or saying things that are contrary to the law as they see it? No, they are doing none of these things. They do come to him and try to chase him away, “Go, get away from here! (CEB)” But their motivation is what is unexpected. Herod wants to kill Jesus and apparently these Pharisees, unlike the ones we are so used to encountering in the gospels, don’t want Jesus dead. They want to protect him. And Jesus then responds kindly by thanking them for their concern. And tells them he will take their advice into consideration as he books for his future speaking engagements. Jesus responds to these warranted concerns from these unlikely candidates exactly how we think Jesus would respond, with polite, thankful thoughtfulness. No Jesus responds rather strangely. He calls Herod a name and tells them to go tell Herod for him, that he will here casting out demons and healing people for the next couple days and then he will be on his way. Herod wants to kill him and he gives Herod his traveling agenda. He will move on in a few days. But he is not running away, he knows that Herod can’t kill him while he is here, he knows that the prophets like himself die in Jerusalem, so he is on his way there. He is not going to bother running and hiding, he knows where he is going and he knows the end he will meet there, not need to worry that it will happen before then. Thinking about Jerusalem, seems to distract Jesus (I have never imagined Jesus easily distracted but hey, nobody is doing or saying what I would expect them to, in this passage, so why stop now?) and he begins to talk about Jerusalem. Jerusalem is the place where he will die; Jerusalem is the place that kills prophets and stones the people God sends to her. And this upsets Jesus? Bothers him? Angers him? No, it causes him to want to gather all of Jerusalem up like a mother hen. Now let us stop and think about this for a moment. I want you to bring before your minds’ eye the images of Jesus you might have. Think about it, catalogue them for me. Bring them up. There is the ever popular, Lamb of God. And then there is the Lion of Judah (that’s Aslan but the imagery is the same) and then there is the ever popular, Mother Hen. Come on that was the first one that came to your mind wasn’t it? I know whenever I go into one of those Christian bookstores, the place is covered with images of Jesus the Hen. It is such a good strong, image. I know if I have the choice between being protected by something it is going to be a Mother Hen. No, not at all. Even I, who am fond of pointing out all the feminine imagery of God in the Old Testament, had completely forgotten that Jesus had ever said this. Jesus is the mother Hen who wants to gather her own close and protect them, nurture them and care for them. So in the upside down, backwards world of our passage this morning, the Pharisees come wanting to protect Jesus, wanting him to flee for his life, but Jesus is not concerned, hands out his travel plans and says that will die when and where is will die, in Jerusalem. In fact he is concerned for Jerusalem (and by extension all Israel), Jesus wants to protect and care for them, like a mighty eagle, like a great big mama bear, no like a hen. The whole passage brings us to Jesus the Mother Hen, gathering and protecting her chicks, but not being able to. It is almost heart breaking. Jesus wants to, has wanted to many times, but is unable. The chicks won’t come. They will not be gathered, they will not be protected. In fact in some ways in this passage they have come to him wanting to protect him, but they can’t and in turn he is unable to protect them. But he tells them he will come to them, he is coming to them. And they will know that he has come when “Blessed is the name of the Lord,” is sung. But we are still left with this unexpected image of Jesus; Jesus the Mother Hen; gathering and protecting; caring and nurturing, longing for her own. But not only that, Jesus the Hen is apparently denied what she longs for. She does not get her chicks. She does not get to gather or protect. He nest is empty, it is barren. But that does not mean she stops longing. It does not mean that she stops hoping, that does not mean that if one day her chicks do hear her and do come running that she will refuse them, that she will close her wings and turn her back. If they come, when they come, even as she is continually coming toward them, she will open her wings wide, gather them in and then hold them close, safe and warm. Jesus has his face set toward Jerusalem. He is journeying toward her every day. He does not care that he will die there; he does not care that he will be rejected there. He will still go and he will go with wings wide open, a mother hen calling to her chicks, desiring to gather them in, to protect and care for them. He will continually walk toward Jerusalem longing, desiring, and wishing to gather his own to himself. Jesus is always longing; desiring for his own; not just Jerusalem; not just Israel, but all the world. We don’t always need a loving, caring, nurturing, protecting Jesus, but it is nice to know that Jesus is all these things, as well as a sacrificial lamb or strong lion. Jesus the sacrificial Lamb of God is a humbling image. Jesus the Lion of Judah is powerful and awe inspiring, and sometimes those are the right image. They are the image we need. Sometimes we need a rawring Lion, or a gentle Lamb. Good images that show us the power and the sacrifice of our Savior. But sometimes, sometimes we need Jesus the Mother Hen; the Hen who gathers and protects, the Hen who is patient and waits for us. Sometimes we need to know that Jesus longs for us, longs to gather us up in his arms, to protect us, but also to nurture us, to care for us. And he wants do to this even when we turn away, even when we choose to do things differently, even if we want nothing to do with him. He still wants, he still longs, and continues to long, even when we don’t come home, or say we don’t need him, or turn around and think that we can try to protect him. Jesus the Mother Hen, is always calling to us, always has her wings open wind, her face turned toward us, journeying toward us, calling our name, longing to gather us, longing to protect us, longing, to care for us. No matter how we, as wee little chicks, wander off, and think that we can handle the world on our own, she is still there, waiting, empty nest, warm and inviting, just waiting for us, with no shame, no guilt trips, no retribution for our wandering, just loving acceptance. And sometimes we chicks do wander. Sometimes we do things we know we should not do, sometimes we go down paths we know we should not go down. Sometimes we begin to think we can handle life on our own, we are too grown up, too mature to need to come home, be protected, nurtured, cared for, we are too big for that. We don’t need to turn to Jesus in prayer; we don’t need to read the Bible every day (after all we live it what need is there to read it EVERY day?) We don’t need to seek Godly counsel on the decisions we are making. We can handle this; surely Jesus will come to us if he does not like our decision. We come to believe that we know what we are doing, where we are going and we wander away from the nest, on purpose, by accident, the result is the same. Jesus is still there calling to us, waiting for us, longing for us to return, and desiring to gather us in, to protect us, care for us, and nurture us. No matter how far we have wandered, not matter where we are, Jesus is waiting.  

                               

Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday is the one day a year in which we attempt, as Christians, to remember who we are. We remember from whence we have come. We remember exactly where it is we stand in the great cosmic scheme of all universal things. We remember. We remember, although we like to believe that God does not get dirty, that God can not be with that which is dirty, it was out of the stuff of the created universe that we were created, specifically the dirt. God reached down out of Holy Heaven and created a human or two. Two humans created out of the dirt, made of dirt, called from the beginning dirt, because after all that is what “adam” means. Although it may not be true that to sin is human (no that is what it means to be fallen) but it is true to be dirt is to be human. We remember that we are dirt. But not only are we dirt, but we are dirty due to sin and sin’s contamination, we are dirty. We are so full of sin. We fall from what it truly means to be human and fail to be clear reflections of the divine nature. We do not always love God with our whole hearts. We do not always love each other. We do not always do the things we should do and we all too often do things that we should not. We are dirty because we fail all too often at being images and reflections of God we were created to be. We remember that God-Jesus came to live in the dirt, among us, surround by these dirty humans. God lived alongside of the dirty humans, and showed us how to not be dirty. Showed us that, although we are dirt, we do not need to be dirty. And he died so that through the cleansing of his death we might, even as dirt, live clean lives, holy lives. That we can reflect the love of God, the truth of God, the nature of God, here on this earth. We remember that through Christ we are raised up out of all that is dirty. We remember that through Jesus Christ we are made clean. That there is hope for us dirt beings. We can be simply dirt, and not dirty dirt. We can be clean, holy, loving dirt. We remember that Christ died. And through the cleansing of his death we might live as clean dirt, holy dirt, holy ground. But also that we can, not only be holy ground, but that we might live holy ground, that our very lives, in the very act of living them, might be holy ground. We remember that this does not simply happen that this happens by living, by living as Christ lived. Following his example; living as he lived, speaking as he spoke, loving as he loved. So that we might as he was, be holy dirt. So we begin Lent remembering that we are dirt, that we are dirty dirt and, we through Christ, have hope of being clean dirt, holy dirt. We remember that being holy dirt is a journey. So today we remember that journey and we remember that that journey always has a beginning and we mark that beginning today, in Ash.

Being like David: Repentance

2 Samuel 11:26-27, 12:1-13 Oh how our hero has fallen! He rose so far, he had done so many things right but our hero has also, at this point done so many things wrong, last week with Heather you went over the series of poor choices David made that lead him to the situation he is in this morning. It all began with him failing to do the one thing that the people wanted a king for in the first place. When the people came to God at the beginning of 1 Samuel begging for a king they told God they needed a king so a king can lead them in Battle. Last week’s passage began with David staying home allowing someone else to lead his armies in battle. That is how it began but it ended with murder. (Kind of ironic how not going to war leads David to murder.) Our passage this morning begins after the adultery, after the pregnancy, the dishonesty and attempts at coercion, and after the murder. In fact our passage begins with the “wife of Uriah” (not once in this passage does she get called by her own name) lamenting in the proper manner for her husband and then David attempting to make this whole situation “right” by marrying her, and then seeming to believe that he can just go on with life from there. Add her as his seventh wife; take her and her unborn child into his household. Whew, dodged that bullet. All is well. But all is not well. He has done a serious of very sinful things. He watched a married woman bath, he called her to him, he committed adultery with her. She turns up pregnant. He attempted to trick Uriah, her husband into believing the child was his, when that did not work he had Uriah murdered. When Uriah’s murder is reported to him by Joab, he actually tells Joab to not let this seem like evil in Joab’s sight. It is almost as if, if he declares that it is not evil it will not be evil. Then when the dust has settled and the mourning period is over, David takes Uriah’s wife as his wife! And he goes on with his life. All is good. He might have gone on with his life thinking that the whole thing worked out pretty well, but then God sends the prophet Nathan to him with a story. We all like stories. Learning from stories is an age old tradition. In fact we are participating in this tradition by going over theses Biblical stories about David and seeing what God has for us to learn from them. Nathan comes to David with a story to teach David a lesson. And since David spent his early years with sheep, the story is about a beloved lamb. When I was a teenager, my mother had a friend who had a small family farm. They had horses, which the mother used to teach horse riding lessons to earn money. They also had a cow once a year, a lamb once a year and several goats that reproduced twice year. The children would play with these animals, feed them, clean up after them take care of them watch them grow. All their animals had names and all of their food had names. They always knew who they sold and who they ate. As a young teen it was the first time I was really confronted with the fact that meat did not naturally grow on Styrofoam packaging with cellophane wrappings. It might sound cruel to eat an animal who had a name but these children understood that animals were raised for meat and were fun while they were alive and were yummy when they were dead. In the story that Nathan tells, there is a man and his family who have a ewe lamb. This little lamb, which this family had, was not just another lamb among large herd they were preparing to eat or sell to be eaten. This is the only lamb of a poor family and was treated as one of the family. It was a pet lamb that was apparently, unlike the “pets” the family I knew, was not meant to be eating. It was kept, and cherished. Well this family had a rich neighbor who one day, when a visitor came to town decided that he did not want to kill one of the many sheep in his large herd for dinner for his guest, but would instead steal the beloved lamb of this family, kill it and eat it. What a horrible thing to do! It was unfair, unkind and just wrong! I can understand how this family and this man felt. When I was 5 years old we had a stray kitten who came to live in our yard. It was beautiful. It was orange and it was fluffy. She was friendly and sweet tempered. She let me pick her up and play with her, and you know do all the things a 5 year old wants to do with a kitten that most kittens won’t let children do to them. My mom gave me permission to feed her and take care of her. I named her Cattie. Soon she took up residence in our dog’s house. Our dog refused to ever go in her dog house, but the cat seemed to love it in there. She and the dog would play together in the yard. In fact she rarely left our yard, she was our cat and we were her family. She was the kind of cat who would cuddle with me and play with me. She was loved by everyone in the family. At this time my mother had just recently had my baby sister and was busy with the new baby, but she intended when things settled down to get the cat her shots and bring her in the house, but until then she wanted the cat to stay outside so as to not bring her potential germs into the house with the new baby. Before my mother could do this though our neighbor’s parents came to visit. They kept their RV in the neighbor’s drive for about a week. We would often see them talking to Cattie through the fence, and reaching over to pet her. And then one morning the RV was gone and the cat was gone as well. We inquired of our neighbors and they told us that their parents took her home with them because she needed a home. WHAT? She had a home! She was ours. They had to reach over our fence to take her. We were devastated. They took our cat. They took my cat. I loved that cat. And someone just decided to take her home with them without even asking. I guess from David’s reaction to Nathan’s story that he had loved a lamb or two in his days as a shepherd. He probably knew what it was like to nurture and care for an animal in such a way that it became more than just another animal but became a beloved pet. When told this story David declares that not only should the rich man have to pay fourfold back to the poor man and his family but he should be put to death! You don’t take another man’s beloved animal! And the Nathan goes in for the punch and tells David that he is the rich man in this story. He took Uriah’s wife for his own and David may think he has gotten away with it but God knows what he has done. In fact God is taking this as personal offense. God does not simply see this action as a sin against Uriah, which most certainly it is, but God sees this as an offense against God. God had anointed David king, saved him from the hand of Saul who wanted to kill him, gave him a kingdom, a house and many wives and God would have continued to bless David. But David has returned God’s kindness and provision with evil. Where God has worked to spare David’s life, David has murdered Uriah, where God has blessed David with wives; David goes and takes another man’s wife for himself. The consequences for David’s actions will match the sins committed, David has killed Uriah with the swords of the Ammonites and therefore there will be killing in his own household, David has taken his neighbor’s wife and therefore his wives will be taken by his neighbor; seems just and fair. When confronted with his own sin, David realizes the extent of his own sins and repents before God of all that he has done. He realizes that he has not merely sinned against Uriah or Uriah’s wife, but he has sinned against God. And he seems to truly be repentant of what he has done, so God forgives him. That is it. David repents and God forgives him; nothing more nothing less. Our modern sense of justice is almost offended by how easy it is. David says, he has sinned and God puts David’s sin away. We can only assume that David seeks to remedy the problems in his life, in how he is living and his ways of thinking that have brought him to this place. We know after the death of the child the wife of Uriah bore to him, he once again did as a good king should and lead the armies in battle when they went out against the ammonites. After the conclusion of these events in his life, David works to be a better person, a better king and to do what is right and good in the sight of the God. The death of the child and many of the issues David has within his family are seen as part of the consequences of David’s sinful actions. The natural consequences of David’s sin aside and the ongoing issues in his family life. The amazing thing about this passage is that David repents and God forgives him and then both he and God move on from there. David had done so much. He had failed God, he had failed Uriah, he had disrespected Uriah’s wife, he had allowed his power and privileged to blind his judgment and give him the idea that he had rights that were not his, allowed him to see himself above other men and beyond the taint of evil. But when confronted with the reality of his sin and the extent to which he had fallen into evil, he repented, he turned to God and God forgave him. This is good news! Good news for me and for you. Many of us will probably never commit adultery in our lives, most of us will probably never murder somebody, we may look lustfully at someone else’s spouse, we may misuse those around us, we may allow power and prestige to blind our judgment or any number of other sins, failings, and wrong doings. The fact of the matter is that most of us in our lives, in our Christian walks will be less than God’s best for us, we will not love God with our whole hearts, we will not always love our neighbors, in fact we might even treat any number of the people we encounter from day to day, people we meet in passing as well as those we hold dear, with something less than the respect and loving kindness they deserve. We will fail God and one another in many ways between now and when we find ourselves on the other side of eternity. We will sin; we will do evil in the sight of the Lord. But the good news is that God forgives! And God does not expect much from us. God simply expects forgiveness and then allows us to start fresh, anew to work with God to live right, to love God to love one another as we should. We will have to deal with the consequences of the poor and sinful choices we have made, but with God we can start over. Our relationship with God can be restored. We can repent and we will be forgiven! This is a glorious thing.

NOT Being like David: The Woman in the Window (Sidetrack:The story of Michal)

2 Samuel 6:1-5, 12-23

So I wanted to preach about rejoicing and worship today. I wanted to preach a joyous message about how important, great, wonderful it is to be able to just rejoice in the presence of God, about the place of worship in our lives and in the Church, which I am sure would have said good Biblical things about worship and rejoicing. But. . . then I got distracted by the woman in the window. Briefly I toyed with seeing the problem here as the difficulty which arises when two different people see worship differently and then talk a little about how it is ok for some people to be more exuberant in their worship and for others to b be more reserved; placing Michal in the position of one who is a bit more reserved and David as one who is a bit more exuberant (to put it mildly), and then discuss how none of us should look down on or “despise” others, who are legitimately worshiping God, for the way they are worshiping God. And, although that is an important lesson to learn as the people of God; that really is not what is going on in this passage. So in our series about David, we are taking a little sidetrack to look at this woman in the window. Look at her story, her relationship with David, and the role she is playing in the events of David’s life. The passage we have here this morning just a much marks the beginning of a new era in the life of Israel and a new era of the center of all religious and political power being placed in Jerusalem, the city which David conquered that was neither a part of Judah or Israel but was neutral ground from which he could rule the whole kingdom without showing favor to either side, as it also marks the end of the story about Michal and David. In our focus on David and his ascent to kingship we have left out many threads in David’s story. One of those threads is his relationship with Michal. The story of David and Michal begins the day he slew Goliath on the fields of Ephes-Damim. Among other things, Saul had promised his firstborn daughter to the one who was able to slay Goliath. So after the defeat of the Philistines following the death of Goliath, Saul begins the process of acquiring Merab for David as his wife. There is only one minor little problem in this plan. Merab is already married to Adriel the Meholathite. Luckily Saul had two daughters the younger of which was named Michal who had seen David and loved him. The scriptures tell us that this pleased Saul. At this point he was not so keen on David or on the idea of David being his son-in-law, perhaps thinking that having the nations’ new favorite warrior and the one Samuel had already anointed as king, as his son-in-law and thus possibly having claim to throne, was perhaps not such a great idea. So Saul saw that he could use Michal’s love as a way to entrap David. So he offered Michal to David as his wife. When David inquired about the bride price pointing out that he and his family were not very well off and did not have what would be appropriate to offer a king as a bride price for his daughter, King Saul shrewdly thinking that by asking something absurd from David, he was either be sending David to his death or giving himself a good reason pull out of his promise to marry David to his daughter, due to failure to pay the bride price, so her told David that he would not ask for much, just the foreskins of 100 Philistines. But to everyone’s surprise and perhaps even a little horror and dismay, David does this and wins Michal as his wife. Marrying Michal moves David into the King’s household, placing him dangerously close to Saul when Saul’s moods turn him against David. On one such occasion after David had helped defeat the Philistines, yet again, while David sat in the court playing his harp for Saul, Saul threw a spear at David in an attempt to kill him, but David moved out of the way and the spear hit the wall instead. Michal fearing for David’s life talked him into escaping the Palace so that Saul would not attempt to kill him again the next day and that next time actually succeed in doing so. So she while he was in her room that night, she helped him escape through her window and on this occasion Michal watches out the window as the husband she loves runs away into the night. She then takes and idol (what was an idol doing in her room anyway?) and dressed it up to look like David and put it in the bed so people would believe that it was David. She lied to the men who came looking for him and lied to her father in an attempt to save David’s life. She is mentioned again in 1 Samuel when David takes Abigail and Ahinoam as wives, the explanation being that when David had fled Saul had given Michal to Paltiel, son of Laish from Gallim as his wife. She is not mentioned again until after the death of Saulwhen David insists upon having Michal brought back to him at the expense of her new husband who apparently cares enough for her to follow after the men who are taking her weeping. So here is a brief summary of her life prior to the events in this passage, as depicted in scripture. She was offered to David as a prize, used as was way to entrap him, forgotten, given to another man in marriage, and then torn unwillingly from that marriage by Abner who a member of King’s Saul’s court using her retrieval as way win David’s favor. Here in this passage she is again standing in a window watching her husband, this he is dancing (how shall we say this?) wearing an insufficient amount of clothing. As she looks back at their relationship and watches him now she can’t help despise David. Despise, a pretty harsh word, considering she entered the story because she loved David.When David returns from his revelries she speaks somewhat harshly and with no small amount of sarcasm to him about exposing himself to God, the virgins and everyone. David responds to her in kind, and thus, apparently, ends their romantic relationship, because Michal remained childless to the end of her life. Most people like to make Michal out to be in the wrong in this story. David is worshipping and praising God and Michal is getting upset about that? What right does she have to dictate to her husband how he should worship? She must be angry that he usurped her father’s throne, she must be insecure because these woman are witnessing a little more of David’s glory than she would like. She sees David worshipping half-dressed publically and she is not embarrassed by him, she is not ashamed of him, no she despises him. What has brought Michal to this point where this incident would cause her to despise him? Why would she go from loving him to despising him, from saving him to being distant from him until her death? This is a woman who became a piece in the rise to power. This was a woman who brought power and prestige just by being married to her. This is a woman who offered herself to another, did all she could to protect him and ended forgotten, as the spoils of war and left alone and then set aside as the one she loved pursues better things. She loved David but as most women of her was treated as an object, as a thing that could win favor with Saul, gain access to Saul’s household, and his court, something that helped him escape then be forgotten until her presence could help him again; until he could use her as part of the booty needed for another man to win his favor. When she is remembered she becomes not a wife, but a part of a harem in a polygamous marriage. By the time David brings her back into his household, he does not simply have the two wives, Abigail and Ahinoam, but he has five other wives, making Michal the sixth. Now the way that polygamy worked was that the first was the most important wife, the only one who would have gotten the title “queen”, the first among six. But still in a marriage that involves six women, although you maybe first you are still one among six. And as such she is the oldest, the forgotten prize wife from David’s past affairs with Saul. On the day that the Ark of the Covenant is brought into Jerusalem, she is alone in her room, forgotten once again, on the outside of the festivities. Of course she is angry, and now to add insult to injury she sees that not only is David celebrating, but he is doing so in a less than clothed fashion. And she realizes that she means nothing to him. It is one thing for him to reject her love by not waiting for her and taking another wife, but five other wives? And now he does not care to whom he exposes himself, even if he is worshiping God it is not befitting a king to go about in this manner and it hurts her. She loved him and she was just a piece of the puzzle that was his life. So she looked down on David and despised him, despised him for not loving her, despised him for forgetting her, for replacing her, for not caring about her or her feelings. It would be easy to say; well of course he treated her that way, that is the way women were treated at that time in history. I know that was a different time and a different place. People thought of women differently. I know it has only be in the very recent history that woman have enjoyed the kinds of freedoms and respect we enjoy now. I know and understand that as one of two daughters of a king she had only one option in marriage, and that is to marry the man her father felt would win him the political alliances he needed. She was his property to give for a bride price to the man he choose. She got lucky; she loved the man her father gave her to. It is not David’s fault that when she helps David flee for his life; her father then uses her to make some political alliance with Paltiel. David might not have known about Paltiel’s apparent love for her when he brought his wife back into his household. He might not have even considered the marriage to Paltiel legitimate and saw himself as retrieving his wife from a man who took her from him. I know that women were not seen as human beings but as pieces, as pawns, as property. But God did give women rights in a marriage as part of God’s instructions in the Torah. A wife had a right to food; a right to clothing, a right to be able to take care of her children. And it was a woman’s right to not have the ability to bear children denied to her. The passage is very delicate about this but the writer is careful to say that Micah had no child until her death, it does not say that she was barren, just that she did not bear any children. It is one thing to declare a woman barren and therefore remained childless, it is another for her simply to not bear children. The implication is that David chose not to do right by her. David denied her one of four rights she had a wife and therefore she remained childless. David did not do right by his wife. David was a good man. He was man of God. He was following God’s guidance in his life. He was a wise leader, a great warrior and a pious follower of God. But in all this he lost sight of individuals in his life. He forgot that Michal was a human being, a person who loved him, and risked her life for him. David forgot that she had feelings and needs and concerns. It is easy when we are doing the work of the Lord, when we are listening to God, doing the things that God told us to do to loose site of the living breathing people in our lives. It is easy sometimes to forget that every person matters, has worth and value. That each person we encounter has thoughts, feelings, and dreams and that they are not means to an ends. Not just another piece in the plans that God has for us.We are living our story, living our relationship with God but we are a part of other people’s stories and even when we are doing our best for God, even when we are rejoicing in the presence of God, glorying in how God has guided us and shown us our way, we cannot forget the people in our life, the individuals who are not merely a part of God’s plan for us, and our life, but that we are a part of their life, a part of the plans that God is working out for them. Are we working with them, encouraging them, helping them as they are accomplishing the things that God is calling for them to be, to do? In our quest for God’s best, for God’s plan, for being the people we are called to be, we cannot in our neglect, in our forgetfulness deny those around us, those with whom our life intersects the right for God’s best in their lives, to be the people God is calling them to be. It is possible to see the things that David did as not havingbeen done to purposefully harm Michal. He probably never meant her harm, but in his neglect, in his forgetfulness, he denied her the very things that God commanded to not be denied her. He in his benign oversight of her as are very real person in his life, in his forgetfulness of her love and loyalty, in his neglect to put her first, he denied her the ability to have God’s best in her life. Without his love, without his care, without being cherished and taken care of by her husband, she could not have the very things that would have won her respect and honor in her society. God did not desire for her to be alone, abandoned, over looked and forgotten 'til the end of her days. David perhaps through no malicious or purposeful intent denied her these very things. As Christians, attempting to be the people God is calling us to be, as people of God striving to love God and our world, we cannot forget to love the people in our lives; to treat all the people in our lives as if they are the precious people they are. No one is just another person; each person is a person God loves. Each one is a person God has a plan for. Each person is one of the people we are called to love when God calls us to love God and to love our world. Our world means the people in our world, the individuals, each one precious, each one to be respected, each one to not be forgotten, overlooked, or left alone, each one loved.

Being Like David: Being with God

2 Samuel 5:1-5, 9-10 And here we come to the end of this movie we have been “watching” for the last six week, and the crown is finally on the head of the king. This event, toward which David has been working since he was a young lad, has been achieved. It was just about twenty years ago that Samuel came traipsing into town claiming to be making sacrifices, but secretly looking for the man God wanted him to anoint as Israel’s next king an instead of anointing a man he had anointed a shepherd boy just come in from the fields. Since that day, David has killed a giant, married the old king’s daughter, declared everlasting friendship with his son, lead the armies of Israel into battle and generally won the acclamation, and respect of everyone. Last week I said, “Women swoon at the sight of him, fathers want him to wed their daughter’s, boys play act at being him and men try to emulate him,” and it’s the truth. David is the man. So much so that after the death of Saul, David has to do nothing to get himself appointed king. The people are clamoring to have him as their next king. David gets appointed king because he is a pretty awesome guy. The people came together and saw that David was the best choice for king. In many ways they come together to confirm God’s choice. They wanted a king who could lead them in battle; David has proved he can do this. They need a king who will be just and fair, and David has proved that he is this as well. They need a king who listens to and follows God, David has shown that this is his way of life. Look, isn’t it amazing, God choose well! This is the high point toward which David has been moving almost all his life. Here he is, he is being crowned king of Israel and suddenly all the many nights, and months of nights he spent hiding in a cave or sleeping in a tent, running for his life, fade into the back ground. Triumphant music plays and flashes of memories from that day when he was summoned in from the fields with the sheep to be anointed as king by Samuel are inter-mingled with the coronation events. He was the shepherd of sheep and now he is the shepherd of God’s people. By the music we, his audience know that he is to be a great king and the way the light play around his face, his crown his shoulders, we can see that the presence of God almighty is upon him, it is God who has brought him from the sheep fields to this place today. The journey has been long, circuitous and has had its’ fair amount of trials along the way, but the fact of the matter is that God has been with David the whole time. The scripture tells us that the Spirit of God came upon David on that day so long ago when Samuel anointed him king and God has been with him ever since. God has been with David and David has walked with God. This journey has not been a journey of chance or happenstance this has been a guided tour; a guided tour of a life that leads to greatness, a king who is honored and respected by all, of one who walks with God. I was thirteen when God called me into the ministry. I was young and immature. I was one of those thirteen year old girls who cried if you looked at me slantways. But I loved God and I was stubborn. If God wanted me to be a pastor, than woe be it to the person who choose to stand in my way. Isn’t great how God uses even our most unattractive traits to accomplish God’s will. It was during an evening service, one of the first ones our new youth pastor preached. I don’t know what Pastor Rick preached about that evening. I just know that I knew that God needed to speak to me, so after church I went forward to pray and God told me in no uncertain terms that I was called to pastoral ministry. From that day forward I told anyone and everyone who would listen that God had called me to pastor. I finished up High School knowing I would attend a Nazarene College and study religion, so that I would be best prepared to attend Nazarene Theological Seminary, so I could then be a pastor. I asked for and received my local ministers’ license when I was still in my freshman year at Eastern Nazarene College. I spent a summer working with the youth group at The Lamb’s Manhattan Church of the Nazarene and another summer with the youth group at Hollywood Church of the Nazarene in Hollywood, Maryland outside of DC. I applied for and received my district ministry license while I was finishing up my senior year at ENC. I went to NTS and received my Masters of Divinity, married Mike the January of my last year there and we got our first pastoring job in Mulvane, Kansas, which we started within weeks of graduation. After two years of ministering in Kansas, General Superintendent, Talmadge Johnson, District Superintendent Ed Nash and the minsters of the Kansas District laid hands upon me as I was ordained elder in the church of the Nazarene. My ordination day is one of the most important events in my life, up there with my wedding and the births of my two girls. I think the sanctuary of Wichita First church of the Nazarene will always be an especially holy place for me. I remember sitting there with Dr. Johnson’s hands on my head thinking, this is it, this is the day toward which I have been moving since I was still really a very young girl. This is the arriving point. This is where I have always wanted to be, this is the moment, God has been leading me here my whole life, I have arrived. And then after the GS prayed and my father prayed and the ordained elders of the Kansas District prayed and I stood up I looked out across the delegation from the KS district who had gathered that day and my life went on. Everything had been building to that one moment and just as all moments that had come before, it was gone. Moment was followed by moment just as always. I had arrived at the point toward which I had oriented my whole life and life just went on. For 15 years, God has been with me, guided me, directed me, had been with me when I had made poor choices, had been my strength and support in the rough times. God had brought me to this point. Everything I had ever worked toward had brought me to this moment in my life and then that moment was gone. Life moved on, I had to go on from there. Here David was, he had come to the point in his life, toward which he had been moving since he was still a boy. Everything in his life had prepared him for this moment. He bows his head the crown of kingship is placed upon it, he rises and he looks out across the crowd of people who are now his subjects and he had to realize the same two things I realized when I stood before the delegates of the 2004 Kansas District Assembly, that first of all God had brought me to this place and secondly I was not going to continue to make it unless I continued to walk with God and God was with me from this moment forward. David knew, God was there with him in the field of anointing. God was with him when he slew the giant. God was with him as he played songs for Saul in his courts. God was with him when he befriended Jonathan. God was with him as he led armies into victory. God was with him as Saul chased him across the countryside attempting to kill him. God was with him when he heard of the death of Saul. It is God who brought him to his coronation. It is because of God that he had arrived and if any of this was going to work out God needed to continue to be with him, in all things, all of his days. And God is with David throughout his reign. “David became greater and greater, for the Lord, the God of hosts, was with him.” David’s greatness, David’s success is due to one thing and one thing only, that God was with him in all that he did. He walked with God and God walked with him. It is easy for us to come to believe that there is a point at which we have arrived, at which we have or will have accomplished that which God has before us; that our walks with God are finally complete; that we have arrived, when it comes to us and God. We want there to be an end game, a goal toward which we are moving, something that once it is gained we have what we need. Let me tell you a story, about a man who lived on one side of a mountain and had spent his whole life wondering what was on the other side of the mountain, he talked about how he would one day climb the mountain and see what there was to see, that he would see the glory of the land that the mountain kept hid from his eye. When he as young and told the other villagers about this they chuckled and said it was a young man’s dream. He married a beautiful young woman from the village and he would tell her about how one day when he had the time, the money the inclination he was going to climb the mountain and see the mystery it hid from his eyes. She would smile and say, “Go then, climb your mountain, and then return to tell me what it is you see there.” He would nod and say, “Someday.” Seasons passed and she bore him little boys and little girls and in the evenings, when all the chores were done, he would gather them on his lap and tell them about how one day, he was going to climb that mountain and bring back the treasures he found on the other side to give to them. But the children grew and had households of their own. And as he aged he would go and talk to the other old men about his dream and they chuckled because they knew that he would never go. Then one day, his wife died and he realized that his life was soon to come to an end, so he sold everything he owned packed up all he had left and journeyed to the top of the mountain. He journeyed one night and one day, stopping frequently because his old legs wearied easily. When he reached the top and looked down at the world, he saw that there was another mountain and beyond that another mountain, that beyond his mountain was a whole world that he was too old to explore. So he went back down the mountain disappointed that he had spent his life not in the shadow of just one mountain but in the shadow a world of mountains. He had lived his whole life believing that when he reached the top of the mountain he would have arrived, but the top of the mountain proved to be just a gateway to an entire world. We really cannot live our lives believing there is a point at which we have arrived. When we have arrived, when we stand at the top of that mountain we will then see that there is beyond this point a whole life yet to be lived. And we have to live our whole lives with God, not just up to a point, not just aiming for a stopping point, but a whole life in relationship with God, a whole life lived differently, a whole life given over to loving God and loving one another. David did not abandon God once God had brought him to the place of kingship. But he became greater and greater because God was with him. God was with him from the time he was but still a young lad; through all the years that led up to his kingship and then God continued to be with him all the years of his life. He became greater and greater because on the day of his coronation he realized two things. God had been with him all along the journey that had brought him to this place and if he was going to continue to prosper and flourish he needed to realize that he had not arrived at a stopping point, at his destination with God, but that this was just another whey point on a greater journey that must be continually traveled with God. God must continue to be with him all the days of his life. The kingship did not mark the moment of his arrival, the moment when he had received all he needed to receive, the moment when he no longer needed God because he had it all, but this was the moment that would now lead to all the moments that are to come and if God has brought him to this place here, then the only way he would ever be able to go on is if God continues to be with him in all things from this moment on. There is no point at which we have arrived. There is no point toward which our spiritual journeys are moving that once gained we can count ourselves as having arrived. We are always moving, always walking, always journeying with God. Every moment, every stopping point, every mountaintop to which God brings us, is a moment that leads to all the next, is yet another stopping point along the journey, is the mountaintop that reveals to us the mountains we have yet to climb. Being with God is not something that culminates, it is not something that has an arriving point, there is no place along this journey that is our ultimate goal. The goal is the journey, the goal is the relationship, the goal is to be with God and for God to be with us all the days our lives. A life lived differently, a life lived with God.

Being Like David: Honoring Life

2 Samuel 1:1, 17-26 As our movie about the making of King David continues, we follow David to the next stop in his life, the death of Saul. We have come a long way in the life of David since he left Goliath dead in the fields of Ephes-Damim last week. Last week, he was just a boy with a promise that someday he will be king, some stones, a sling and God on his side. This week his is a man lamenting the death of his enemy. After David killed Goliath, Saul gave Michal, one of his daughters to him as a wife and David became a member of the royal household and the royal court. David was Saul’s champion, the mighty warrior of Israel, the go to man when it came to getting battles won and foes defeated. David is not only Saul’s son-in-law but he is Saul’s son Jonathan’s best friend. David has managed to ingratiate himself everyone. Women swoon at the sight of him him, father’s want him to wed their daughter’s, boys play act at being him and men try to emulate him, But it is only a matter of time before Saul goes from being absolutely thrilled with David to jealous of his fame and popularity, and then his jealously turns to homicidal thoughts and actions and begins a long campaign during which he attempts to kill David. David on the other hand has several opportunities to kill Saul and decidedly chooses not to, making a point to let Saul know that although Saul means David harm at every opportunity, David is not working in like manner to end Saul’s life. In fact David says on more than one occasion that it is not his place to bring an end to Saul’s life. No matter how many times or how many ways Saul attempts to kill David, David refuses to respond in kind. He might work against Saul, he might in Sung Tzuesk fashion declare the enemy of his enemy his friend and go fight alongside the Philistines. But he would not work to directly bring about the death of Saul. In fact he does not fight in any battles in which the Philistines attack Saul’s forces. David spends years in hiding, fearing for his life, living in caves; doing whatever needs to be done to keep himself alive. All the while Saul is working to bring an end to him. No matter what he does, no matter how hard he works, to prove to Saul that he is not only not Saul’s enemy, but he is not a threat to him in in way shape or form, Saul continues in his full attack against the life of David. Just prior to the passage we have before us this morning, Saul and Jonathan are killed during a battle. Jonathan is his best friend, so of course he is pretty broken up to hear of the death of his good friend. David writing, singing and requiring all the men of Israel to learn a lament about the death of Jonathan is not too surprising. But, considering the history David has with Saul, one would think that, upon hearing about Saul’s death, David would be rejoicing. I mean, seriously come on, how many times has Saul tried to kill David? And now he is dead. All David’s cares and woes are gone. He can walk opening in the daylight once again without worry or fear. I would think that David would have a parade, throw a party, write a song of rejoicing and victory, but instead David writes a dirge, a song of mourning. Instead of a victory shout, David lets out a wail, a sigh, a lament. One would think that he would want the death of his enemy proclaimed from the mountain tops, proclaimed in any and every way possible. Let Saul’s enemies know that Saul is no more that he is finally gone, rejoice with me oh enemies of my enemy let us sing for joy together. No David, declares that this information should be kept from Saul’s enemies, not only is David not rejoicing but David does not want Saul’s enemies to have the ability to rejoice either. This is not a day of victory this is a day of sorrow and torment. Everyone should be in mourning. This is a day of regret and great sorrow. Mighty men have fallen and we should lament their falling. Now that is an incredible response to the death of the man who has spent the last several decades trying to kill you. From the time of the death of Goliath, until this day, David has time and time again showed that he is a man of integrity and honor; a man, who when given the choice, will choose the high road. Here is a man of honor if I ever saw one. David knows that God has appointed him to be the king after Saul. The throne is his rightful place. Most of us knowing where it is that God is leading us, might be tempted to do all that is in our power to hurry things along, especially if it would ensure our safety and put us in place in where would could breathe a little freer and get us where we want to be a little faster. But David does nothing to force God’s hand. He does nothing to bring harm to Saul. And now when Saul is dead and not only is the path to kingship now open to him, but he no longer has to live in fear of what will come next, David writes a lament over Saul. Mourning is something with which we often have a hard time in our culture. We have our rituals. We have the viewing or wake, we have the funeral and the dinner to follow. But we pretty much expect people to move on from there. It is ok to be sad for a little while, but pretty soon after the death of someone we expect them to go on with their life, no matter what your relationship is to that person, we don’t really understand why someone would continue to struggle with dealing with another’s death, months, years, decades later. It is almost as if we expect people to just get over the fact that someone they loved dearly is gone and there is no getting that person back. There is no righting in any wrongs, real or perceived, there is no saying that one thing you always wanted to say, that shoulder to cry on is gone, that person’s strength in our lives is no longer with us and we can no longer go to that person for advice. They are gone from us and we miss them. Especially as Christians we want to down play the affect death has on us. Yes, we have hope in a reality beyond death; in a life eternal. But that does not negate the reality and seeming finality that death has here in this life, on this earth. In this broken world, we live and we die. This is the way of things. And no amount of hope for the future, can change the reality of the pain that death causes in our lives. Heaven brings us glorious hope, but we mourn now, we hurt now, we miss our loved ones here today in this place. One of the most real things I think someone has ever said to me about the death of a loved one, was spoken by a 90 some odd year old lady I had the privilege to Pastor when I was in Kansas, she turned to me one day and said, pastor, it has been 40 years, but I still reach for the phone and attempt to call my mother. I miss talking to her so badly. 40 years! She was not “unhealthy” she was not crazy. She missed her mother and that is the honest truth. Death is final. Death is real. Death changes our lives and in very real ways who we are forever. David I not only mourning for someone he loved, but he is mourning for someone who in a very real and literal way, wanted him dead. It takes a lot to lament the death of your enemy. It takes a lot to see harm for another human being, no matter how good it may be for you and your situation in life, as a tragedy. The death of a human being no matter how convenient is a cause for rejoicing. Death is always a cause for mourning. Death is always a tragedy, whether it be that of a still born infant or a person who has lived a long, full life; whether they be the president of the United States, a famous actor or a heroin addict; our mother, our father, our dearest friend or our worst enemy. Everyone’s death is to be lamented and mourned. This is the honest truth. We may be relieved that our loved one is no longer suffering, we may be relieved that the one who hated us so much will no longer plague our lives but it is still a tragedy a reason for sorrow. David as a man of dignity and honor, mourned over the death of his enemy, lamented the ending of one who tried so hard to end his own life. He did not see a victory in death. He did not find pleasure in the passing of another. When confronted with both the death of his dearest friend and his worst enemy, his response was exactly the same anguish, lamenting mourning. We can expect no more and no less from ourselves. We should neither rejoice over the death of one who has continually sought to bring us harm, nor should find it odd that we mourn over the loss of a loved one. Death is real. Death is hard.

Being Like David: Being Used by God

1 Samuel 17:1a, 4-11, 19-23, 32-49 As David’s train through live takes him toward kingship, this stop at the fields of Ephis-dammin is one of the more important stations. This is the one event in David’s life that moves him from being sheep herding, harp playing youngest son of Jesse the Bethlehemite to being the champion of the Hebrew peoples. This event moves him from the fields outside of Bethlehem into household of king Saul himself. It is a caption of a young boy full of vigor, faith, courage and insurmountable gal. Perhaps here we get a glimpse of the seed in David’s heart which God saw inside the boy when Samuel anointed him king. Here truly is one who is willing to be the king God will have for Israel. The scene begins with the armies of Israel encamped between Socoh and Azehah, doing nothing. There is no battle there is no fight. Just a call from the enemy to settle this thing like civilized people. A battle of the best. One from each side comes to the field of battle and dukes it out. Apparently this is the philistine’s idea. The philistine’s have already chosen their champion but the Israelites have not chosen a champion and Goliath, the philistine champion has taken to mocking the armies for not having a champion to send for. So each day he comes out calling for their bravest and best to come fight, to settle this disagreement between two nations with as little waste and blood shed as possible, and then taunting them for their lack of response. What is interesting is that the people of Israel wanted a King who could lead them in battle; a king so that the other countries would respect them. But here not only do we find that having a king does not keep other nations from disrespecting them on the battle field, but King Saul is not even attempting to lead them, he just sitting there waiting for someone else to step up to the challenge of this philistine. In fact, if King Saul had not directly disobeyed a command from God, Israel would not be in this battle at all. So here is the entire Israelite army daily being taunted by this philistine, while they are just sitting around looking at each other wondering who is crazy enough to step up to this giant of man and take his challenge, because crazy is exactly what it would take to do this. Not only could stepping up mean death, but it could also mean shame for your entire family, better to sit in communal shame than to have the entire shame of Israel poured upon your family for generations to come. Who wants to take this risk. It is not just a risk of one’s own life but it is the risk of the lives of all those in your line from now until forever. Untold shame, in this situation, seems much more likely than untold fame. Who wants that? Then in walks this impetuous boy who comes to the field to bring provisions to his brothers and news back to his father about what is going on with the war. After witnessing exactly what is going on with the war, this boy just has to do something. This is an outrage, this Philistine can’t talk to the people of God like that! What nobody is willing to fight him. Well then if no one else will, I will. And after some discussion with his brother and then the king, a failed game of dress up, he heads out to the battle field with some stones, a sling and his shepherds rod. Goliath takes offense to the Israelites sending this boy out to fight him, like he is nothing more than a dog that needs to rounded up and showed his proper place. If the Israelites had wanted to purposefully insult the huge warrior and the entire Philistine army, they could not have done better if they had tried. I mean think about what it would be like. The Philistines have sent out their biggest, best, scariest warrior and after many days deliberation the Israelites send out this boy, as if saying, “We really don’t take your or your threat seriously, even this boy could take you out, with nothing more than a stick and a pouch full of rocks.” But what adds injury to insult is the fact that this boy with his sticks and stones actually succeeds in taking down this giant of a man. David makes short work of him and defeats him without much trouble at all. You may or may not have noticed that I skipped over a very important little speech David made before he headed out to defeat Goliath. When questioned by Saul about how exactly a little wisp of a boy plans on killing the Philistine champion. David explains to him that as a shepherd he has on more than one occasion needed to take down a bear or a lion, and this Philistine is not all that different than a bear or a lion, besides, that same God who helped me when I was defeating the bear and the lion is the same God who will take down this Philistine. As he begins this speech David almost comes off as a swaggering braggart, not all that different from Gaston, the antagonist in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, he is a mighty hunter who has taken down all these animals and now he is going to take down this beast. But David does not list off the many bears and lions to let Saul know exactly how big and bad he really is, he brings up the bears and lions to let Saul know that if God can help him with some bears and lions, God can surely help him defeat this lousy Philitine. This is not about what David can do, this is not about the strength, intelligence and ability of this young man. This is about what that young man can do when God is his strength, when God is using him and directing him. David knows that God will be with him, that God has helped him on many occasions before and David knows that God will be with him now. And resulting death of the Philistine champion is not a victory for David but a victory for God. This is what we can learn from this young boy. We as Christians know that God is with us, giving us strength and ability beyond our own to help us accomplish the things God is calling us to do. Now let me make myself clear. I am not saying that because we are Christians God will assure us that everything we set our hand will succeed because God is with us, that God’s hand goes where ever we go, that God’s strength is backing us no matter what. It doesn’t work quite that way. This is not a blanket approval and support from God in all things. When we follow God, when we rely on God, when we are going where God is directing us, doing the things God is calling us to do, then we will be able to accomplish that which God has set aside for us to do. God’s strength will be our strength, God’s power is our power, God’s comfort, and guidance will be with us each step along the way. But it begins and ends with God, not with us. Anyone can invoke God’s name, anyone can do just about anything and say they are doing what they are doing in God’s name, but saying you are doing something in God’s name is not a “magic spell” that infuses the task you have before you with the power of God, or procures the will of God for this thing you are about to do. Doing something in God’s name means that you are going where God leads, doing what God is calling you to do. Saul, said that he was going to defeat the Philistine in God’s name but God had directly told him to not attack the Philistines. Those events surrounding this decision are what have led to this battle. Saul is at this battle, God could have just as easily used Saul to defeat Goliath, but Saul had come to the battlefield against the will and the wishes of God. God’s strength was not with Saul, but when David stepped up and relied on God, then David was able to succeed where Saul could not. When we are doing what God has called us to do, then God can and will use us to do the things to which God has called us. God will be with us, God will guide us and direct us, God will carry us all along the way. It might be difficult, David’s call to be king has a little more than a few difficulties along the way but God still leads David each step, along this journey. Good continually puts David in positions and places where if David trusts and relies on God, they will ultimately lead him to the kingship over all Israel. Here God brings David to the fields of Ephes-Dammin, God gives David the courage to speak up and volunteer, and the strength and ability to defeat this man no one else is even willing to dare to face. David trusts and relies on God. When we trust and rely on God not only can we take down the lions and bears that we find in lives, but we can win battles and take down giants as well.