BACK from vacation and BACK in the pulpit! Thanks be to God!
A Sermon
for the 10th Sunday after Pentecost (RCL B) 8-5-2012
Offered by
Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry
Texts: 2
Samuel 11:26-12:13a; Psalm 51:1-13; John 6:24-35
Themes: David’s
repentance and contrition, the works of God, individualism
Title: The Works of God
“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and
renew a right spirit within me” (Psalm 51:11).
These words are attributed as sung by
David after this fateful confrontation with the prophet Nathan., and after
David’s conviction by the words of his own mouth. “I have sinned against the
LORD.”
Now right there, my friends, is the
understatement of the day. “I have sinned against the LORD.”
Do you think? Let’s see: in this
horrendous episode with Bathsheba and Uriah, David coveted his neighbor’s wife
with lust, committed adultery, raped a married woman, lied to his own loyal
servants and to Joab, one of his life-long friends, and murdered an innocent
and good man. What did I miss?
This is the odd paradox of King David.
He is known in the scriptures as a person after God’s own heart (see 1 Samuel
13:14); one whom God could entrust with the power of the monarchy to unite the
disparate tribes of Israel into one national entity.
And yet, in that horrible series of
events involving Bathsheba and Uriah, we see David acting entirely without
compunction, seemingly with no conscience at all. David acts with no regard for
the consequences of his actions, but those consequences will be dire and
severe, as we shall see.
In fact, David’s sin unleashes
generations of turmoil and recklessness within his family. Brothers killing
brothers, brothers raping sisters, sons covertly undermining and also overtly
attacking their father.
After his horrendous act of
disobedience, David’s family is never the same again.
Consistent with the worldview of the
Hebrews at the time, the text states clearly that God is the one who brings
these consequences about.
“Thus says the LORD: I will raise up
trouble against you from within your own house” (2 Sam. 12:11).
For these early peoples, God was seen as
the primary agent behind every event in life, so obviously God was the one who
brought these ills upon the house of David.
That is one way to look at it.
For me, I tend to see such a situation
as a normal process of cause-and-effect. If you act with such wanton disregard
for human life, with such complete lack of respect for human beings, then it is
not that difficult to predict that this same kind of behavior will be aimed at
you, perhaps even in retaliation and revenge.
In his power, in his comfort, I suspect
that David thought he could do as he wished. He was King, after all, and he
held supreme power in the land.
And he could do as he wished, but not
without suffering from the consequences of his actions.
Into this setting the prophet Nathan
arrives with a godly message.
Now, it is common for people today to
misunderstand the role of prophets in biblical times. We tend to think of them
as predicting the future, giving an oracle that presages some event in the
future.
But that is a gross misunderstanding.
The primary task of a prophet, my friends,
is not foretelling, but forth-telling! Not predicting the future,
but interpreting the present and imaging the consequences that are bound to come
based upon the current reality, and then faithfully proclaiming – or telling forth
– the truth of what their actions will produce.
With keen insight, Nathan confronts David
with his parable and teaches him a vital lesson: what is done secretly, in private,
can have enormous impacts for our future life and for the lives of those around
us.
This makes me wonder: how often are you and
I tempted to think in the same way as David? To think that our own private
faults, our own personal failures will have no impact upon those around us?
That, my friends, is a lie.
One of the things that we learn about
life from our Master Jesus is that we are all connected, and anything that we
do in one sphere of life can have major impacts upon every other person in our
life and perhaps upon far more even than that. What we do with the hours and
days and years given to us can have an enormous impact upon the world around us
– for good or for ill.
Never doubt that, my friends.
Martin Niemoller was a prominent German
Lutheran bishop throughout the time of the Third Reich.
Bishop Niemoller was one who was called
upon to negotiate with Hitler from time to time in order to protect the German
church from being closed by the Nazis, who did not trust the preaching of the
gospel coming from those pulpits.
Toward the end of his life, years after
Hitler’s defeat by the Allied forces, Bishop Niemoller told of a recurring
dream that plagued him. In this dream, he saw Hitler standing before the
judgment seat of Christ, and then he saw the Lord Jesus come down from the
throne, put his arm around Hitler and ask him: “Adolf, Adolf! Why did you do
the ugly, evil things that you did? Why were you so cruel?”
In the Bishop’s dream, Hitler answered
quietly with his head bent low and said, “Because nobody ever told me how much
you loved me.”
It was at this point every single time
that the Bishop woke up from his dream in a cold sweat, remembering that
throughout the many meetings which he had had with the Fuhrer, never once did
he pause to say, “By the way, Fuhrer, Jesus loves you! He loves you more than
you will ever know. He loved you so much that he was willing to die for your
sake. Do you know that?” (reported in Let Me Tell You a Story by Tony
Campolo, p. 108).
Consider it, my friends: would that
message, faithfully delivered, have had any impact upon the heart of that man?
Would it have altered the course of world events? I wonder.
I was away up in Canada when the
shooting happened in Aurora, Colorado, so I have been slow to catch up on all
of the news surrounding this sickening tragedy. But I have read some about
James Holmes in the days since returning. And the same kind of question forms
in my mind when I read about him, when I look at pictures of this young man.
Does he realize how deeply he is loved? Did
anyone ever tell him about the love that God has for him? Did he ever open his
heart to that love of Christ?
Don’t misunderstand me: I know that
diagnosing and treating mental illnesses can be a difficult task.
And it seems clear that both Adolf
Hitler and this James Holmes suffered from some form of mental illness. They
must have, in order to perpetrate such atrocities with careful preparations.
But I also know that God works in
people’s live with healing power and grace! I know it.
And I know that love is a powerful
healing force, and I believe that there is no healing force more powerful than
the love of God!
Are you with me? Amen!
My dear sisters and brothers: like the prophet
Nathan, you and I in the church today have that same prophetic calling given to
us. To us!
That calling to embody and point out an
alternative reality in which all of our actions are vital and important – in which
nothing done in private stays “in private” – in which nothing done in Vegas
stays in Vegas, as the saying goes!
Everything matters, everything is important,
and we are all connected by the Spirit of God.
We’ve all seen how much harm can be done
by one lost person acting in apparent isolation.
But who knows what impact you and I might
have upon the world today by sharing a word of encouragement, by telling someone
about the love of Christ, by giving generously to someone in need, by defending
the innocent.
This is why we are here, why we are fed with
the bread of life. To do the works of God in this time and place - right here and
now. Amen.
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