First Reading: 2 SAMUEL 23:1-7 / Second Reading: JOHN 18:33-40
Well – there you have it – the last and final words of David. The implausible if not completely improbable shepherd boy who would be King. Chosen by God. Indeed “exalted by, anointed by and the “favorite FAVORITE” of the God of Israel – the God of all creation.
And how is he described? As “One who rules over people justly, ruling in the fear of God, 4is like the light of morning, like the sun rising on a cloudless morning, gleaming from the rain on the grassy land.”
So David is one who, by virtue of his sense of fairness and right-ness AND respect and humility before God, is FRESH and REAL and TRUE – like a dew drenched field of verdant green grass awash in the bright morning sun as it breaks unblocked and unfiltered across the land.
That’s quite an image to describe what God has done both FOR and THROUGH David. And he KNOWS it. So he’s not at all shy about speaking what GOD has and will accomplish.
5Is not my house like this with God? For he has made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and secure. Will he not cause to prosper all my help and my desire?
“All this outrageous success,” says David, “These wildly unexpected victories when we were surrounded by our enemies 10-1 had nothing to do with my – or anyone else’s – military prowess. This wondrous city (Jerusalem) and this nation that we have built with all of its amazing buildings and halls and temple and infrastructure really had very little to do with MY ability to lead. These lands that we have subjugated to our benefit and all of these people that now serve us in growing all that we have towards the future – its ALL by the hand of God and to the Glory of God!
David KNOWS where their blessings have come from. But do we? As individuals? As a country?
He then draws a stark contrast to those who have turned their backs on God and embraced the temptations and distractions of the world. “But the godless are all like thorns that are thrown away; for they cannot be picked up with the hand; 7to touch them one uses an iron bar or the shaft of a spear. And they are entirely consumed in fire on the spot.”
Indeed the godless are “sharp” in their response to God and cannot be “held.” i.e. there can be no personal touch – no real / intimate relationship. They must be held at a distance and kept separate as with “an iron bar or a spear.” And ultimately they are entirely consumed and destroyed.
So David’s final message is clear: “Be fair. Be just. Honor Him – and live in right relationship with others and you will find that God will live in right relationship with you. This is the way it works! God HAS made an everlasting covenant and if we will keep up OUR end, we can rest completely assured that He will keep up HIS! And the prosperity we enjoy will work itself out in the world for his divine purposes. No matter what!”
There’s simply nothing else to say. Remember where you came from and who and who’s you are. Do your part. God will do His! And David was absolutely right.
But the interesting thing is there’s more. Way more. Because God doesn’t actually stop there. Not by a long shot. Hear now the word of the Lord as it comes to us from the Gospel of John verse 18 chapters 33-40.
33Then Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” 34Jesus answered, “Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?” 35Pilate replied, “I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?”36Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.” 37Pilate asked him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”
38 Pilate said to Him, “What is truth?” And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews, and said to them, “I find no fault in Him at all.
The grass withers and the flower fades but the Word of The Lord endures forever.
Pilot seems to immediately know that there is something about this Jesus. Is it his eyes? Or his voice? Or the way he carries himself as he is being handed over by the Jews? Who knows – but there is clearly something. It seems unlikely that ruling Governors like Pilot would choose to have extended conversations with people who are handed over for a quick judgement – much less indulging them with such a philosophical back and forth.
Indeed, Pilot is a faithless man – yet he clearly has a sense that there is something much deeper going on – and for a moment he belies that understanding by not only asking his probing questions – but then turning to give the crowds the opportunity to free Jesus, before symbolically washing his hands of the whole thing – which somehow, just doesn’t feel right to him.
And if you consider the scripture closely I think it supports the idea that Pilot himself is fully being given the chance to be “one of Jesus’ own.” Pilot actually half acknowledges him as a king but he too rejects him and is willing to turn his back on him. Because, to fully accept who he said he was would threaten his worldly status and possessions – indeed his entire way of life. And of course it is so much harder for Pilot because he HAS so much worldly “stuff!” (Power, possessions, status – the same things WE spend our whole lives seeking – that has become our very definition of “Success!”)
No longer would Pilot be able to be “the ruler” of his immediate world (literally and figuratively) but rather he would be under the authority of something he doesn’t yet fully understand. And that, ladies and gentlemen, scares the hell out of him – just as it does us. It’s simply so much easier to let the voices of the world decide, isn’t it – to go with the flow of the culture around us – (to accept what IT offers up as truth) and simply wash our hands of him. “It’s not our fault God. We’ve done what we could!”
Or have we?
I’m going to offer a little bit of a political opinion here in drawing a parallel and a conclusion (which I hope you’ve noticed, I never do). And you may, or may not, agree with it – but being a lame duck I’m feeling a little more freedom in that. 🙂
Owing to what I believe amounts to vacuous leadership by the west in the middle east – and most particularly in Syria (which is the ONE country that did not succeed in its effort to reform its’ government during the democratization process that was the “Arab Spring”) we now have an abhorrently hellish situation – with human suffering on a scale that rattles even us Americans from our daily sleep walk. As we bask in the easy comfort of our $5 lattes in red cups and eat three times our fill of whatever we might choose to consume on any given day.
And what is our response to this suffering and strife?
Well, we pontificate from one extreme or the other on social media – about how we should simply let anyone and everyone fleeing from difficulty come in no matter what – because “that’s what Jesus would do.” (Now don’t we look good before the world in our unfettered righteousness!) Or we make a case for refusing anyone and sealing off our borders because “God never intended for us to sacrifice our own children for others who, after all, aren’t even Christians!” (And now don’t we look good before the world in our clearly God-based common sense!)
But I’m guessing that neither view probably works real well from God’s perspective. Who in all likelihood would probably be asking (and I’m thinking rather directly), “But what are YOU going to do about it? Yeah – you! Because let me tell you something. Your assumptive, cocksure opinions – no matter how eloquent or ‘well offered up’ or grounded in one scripture or another – are doing absolutely NOTHING for absolutely ANYBODY!
In fact, your words and endless debate are the mud and straw for just one more brick in the massive wall of human distraction and delusion that keeps you – who are THE MOST ABLE to help – perfectly comfortable in your endless cycle of . . . DOING NOTHING.”
As I was writing this a friend sent me a link to a story about a woman who having watched the refugees struggling to get out of the war torn Middle East decided she just had to do . . . SOMETHING.
Cristal Logothetis noticed that many of the refugees in all of the nightly news reports carried babies in their arms. As a mother herself, she knew that having a baby carrier would make their trips through Europe a whole lot easier, and she thought people might readily donate both new and used baby carriers. So she decided to collect 100 of them to send to Kos, an island where many refugees stop on their journeys. It wasn’t that much in her mind – but it was SOMETHING. And, of course, you can guess the rest of the story. God has blessed that effort and now it has grown exponentially.
Has it solved any of the far greater problems of the crisis? No. Will it necessarily lead to resolution of the situation in any real meaningful way? Seems unlikely. (Though God sometimes does choose to work through the most apparently innocuous means.) But it HAS eased the burden of a great many parents and children – and it is what SHE could do to serve and love her fellow human beings no matter WHO they are – and WHERE they are – and HOW they got there.
At the end of the story in an interview Logothetis said simply, “I just have to say this – as an American I guess I took interest . . . Finally.” And then her tears began to flow. “And now” she said, “I understand . . . In fact, I understand more than I want to know.”
Because yes – in her reaching, trusting, one act of caring her entire life has changed – and she now has to face the TRUTH she knows. A truth that won’t leave her alone – and one that has put to death all of the meaningless distractions in her life so that the real elements of who she was truly made to be can come to life.
I’m not even sure whether Cristal knows it or not, but she’s on her way to becoming a new creation. And so are so many others through her, as her inspired act sends ripples of grace and love across a world so desperately in need of it.
We are, all of us, both David and Pilot aren’t we. So faithful at times – and so faithless at others. And we too feel our selves being drawn to Jesus – but more often than not we too turn our back and walk away – because Jesus demands so much MORE than we’re willing to both give and give up. And he holds us accountable to what God REALLY wants from us – which is simply to love Him and to love others no less than we love our falling, failing, foolish, fragile selves.
His call will almost always involve at least some sacrifice on the surface – and perhaps even a deep one. Some thing we cling to like a selfish child – be it for our own comfort – or even the well intentioned desire to make or keep others “happy.” Which, while well motivated, may still be completely in the way of what God wills for our lives – and, ironically, theirs.
But we must hand it over – Everything – completely to Him And trust that HE will be faithful – even when we have been so completely faith-less. For when we do, we unleash the power of the Holy Spirit – and the blessing and fulfillment we receive in return is so beautifully and unpredictably beyond our imagining.
Looking back on your life, who do you trust more? Yourself? Or the God of creation who has in countless ways, both subtle and obvious, continually promised and shown His undying and unwavering love for you?
I think we all know the answer. So let us go live it. Wherever, whenever and however we are able.
Trust Him. With Everything.
– Stuart
Peace Sermons 