Grace to you and peace, amid a violent world, amid a violent text, grace to you and peace from God who creates, redeems and sanctifies this world, despite our own decisions and actions. AMEN.
I want to just bring you up a little more on this story. It’s not one of the popular ones. Probably because most of us didn’t cover this in Sunday School, so I’m guessing it’s not imbedded in our biblical psyches...
Israel’s come a long way from slavery in Egypt, through the wilderness, into the conquest years, where they regained the Promised Land, survived through the period of judges, their attempt at a more democratic form of government, local judges -- they complained and cried out for a king. And then the Hebrew monarchy is born, when the prophet Samuel first anoints Saul king. That didn’t work out so well, and making long stories short, God selects David. Last week we spent time on that joyful scene of David entering Jerusalem dancing as the Ark of the Covenant is brought to the center -- the center of the kingdom. The Word, the Covenant of God, the 10 Commandments of long ago are now placed at the center, and the kingdom thrives and flourishes...for a bit.
Before too long, David’s power goes to his head. He begins to think that he can have whatever he wants, after all God is on his side, right? And he takes Bathsheba, a married woman, married actually to David’s top general, Uriah. This is the beginning of the end...in a way. But in time even out of that horrible episode, Bathsheba gives birth to Solomon. And God brings a good thing out of all that bad.
Solomon is like David 2.0. Upgraded on all accounts. He’s wiser, he’s more powerful, more wealthy, more glorious, may have even been better looking. Solomon builds the temple in Jerusalem (the long-time dream of many-a-Jew) (480 years after slavery in Egypt) -- the place where God can live! Solomon grows the monarchy, conquering and expanding, conquering and expanding. Division, corruption, seduction are always coming along for that ride...
 |
| (Shechem is right near Bethel) |
And that’s where our story for today picks up: Solomon’s son Rehoboam is now coming into power after his father Solomon has died. The monarchy has already fallen into division and corruption with Israel in the north and Judah in the south. So here, Rehoboam is coming up to the north, to Shechem, to be made king over the divided kingdom. (Interestingly, this is about the time they loose the Ark of the covenant.)
And the first bit of business is that the people ask for mercy. Will you lighten the load your father Solomon put on our people?
Rehoboam hears the request and asks for some time to think it over...
First he hears from the elders. The wise ones. With their council, “the pleas of the people rang heavy in his ears”.
Then he listens to the younger men: “If you exercise your authority and punish them with whips and even scorpions,” if you dominate and terrorize them, then they’ll be yours.
Rehoboam is seduced by that same power that seduced his father Solomon, his grandfather David. And I think all humanity can relate to this too. Maybe not physically--but to be ahead, to be on top, to be in control, to win in the world’s eyes, to have power: it corrupts, absolute power corrupts...
So where in the world is the Good News of God in all this?! We come to church, not to hear about how we’re bad, but about how God is good. (pause)
This is the line that leads to Jesus! Out of all this evil and division and pain and suffering comes Jesus. It must be said that God doesn’t will all these bad things to happen...just like in our lives. But out of the bad things, God can do something amazing, something loving, something forgiving, something divine.
Jesus is from the house and lineage of David, remember? We read that every year at Christmas, but I hope when you hear it this year, it makes your ears pop up, and maybe even the hair on the back of your neck, because this wasn’t a holier-than-thou lineage: there was all kinds of sin! And we’re just talking back to David! Not to mention all that trickery and deceit with Jacob and Esau, Joseph and his brothers...
God is the faithful one, sisters and brothers in Christ! God is the merciful one, even when we humans opt out of being merciful and loving. Even when we are seduced by power, by money, by fear and by envy, God is good.
God works good and is faithful even through pain. That’s a good theme for All Saints Sunday: even as we grieve, God is faithful, bringing all the saints through. God creates a way out of no way!
Maybe we’ve got a loved one, who is now deceased, who wasn’t all that holy. Maybe that’s putting it lightly. God creates a way out of no way, and we celebrate even the most despicable of our dearly departed as a saint today, not because of what they did, but because of what God has done! Maybe we’ve got a love one, who’s gone before us, who’s not all that forgivable, maybe he/she did things in this life that were on the caliber of King David’s sins...or Solomon or Rehoboam. God creates a way out of now way, and there is mercy and forgiveness in the grace of God! It’s not about us.
Forgiveness really is freely given. We need to embrace and proclaim this in a world that just isn’t very good at forgiveness.
 |
| Archbishop of Cape Town Desmond Tutu |
Desmond Tutu, the first black Archbishop of Cape Town in South Africa. Lived through apartheid. Just imagine what that was like. Living as a black man in a country where white people were clearly labeled as superior...everywhere you went. If you were black, how would you be doing with that? And yet Desmond Tutu is famous for saying, “Forgiveness is an absolute necessity for human existence.” He goes on...
“God’s family has no outsiders. Everyone is an insider. When Jesus said, ‘I, when I am lifted up, will draw...‘ Did he say, “I will draw some, and tough luck for all the others’? He said ‘I, when I am lifted up, will draw all [to myself].” All, all, all! -- Black, white, [brown]; rich, poor; clever, not so clever; beautiful, not so beautiful. All! All! It is radical. Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden, [George] Bush, [Barack Obama] - All, All!...Gay, lesbian, so-called ‘straight’. All, all are to be held in the incredible embrace of the love that won’t let us go.” (sermon at All Saints in Pasadena, 4 Nov 2005)
God creates a way out of no way. Where we say, “No, that’s not possible that [this person or that] is forgivable,” God calls them saints. God calls you a saint too. All Saints Sunday is a celebration of you too. Not because of anything you’ve done, but because of what Christ has done, when he was lifted up on the cross, he drew all creation to himself. King David, Solomon, Rehoboam, you and me -- our sin, has got nothing on God’s love and forgiveness. All we can do is accept it and respond. All we can do now is live, and die, and live eternally in what Desmond Tutu calls “the incredible embrace of the love that won’t let us go.” This is a good day. AMEN.
No comments:
Post a Comment