Background before the Bible readings in worship:
Our story today is about a coup attempt made by David’s third son, Absalom. The Bible’s account of David’s wives and children is not consistent or complete. From what we do have let’s say that the family dynamics were offensive and disturbing, if not downright disgusting. The Bible records at least eight wives for David. He had children to most. I won’t get into the specific background to today’s text because the content is not appropriate for a public sermon. If you want you can read about it 2 Samuel 13-14 on your own. In summary though, David’s firstborn son and legitimate heir to the throne, Amnon, schemes to (and successfully) rapes his half-sister Tamar. David finds out about it… and does nothing. Time passes. Tamar’s full brother, Absalom, is not satisfied. Sometime later Absalom creates a scheme and murders Amnon. Now David is upset! David decides not to have Absalom killed but he refuses to be around him. Absalom pleads but David says no. Eventually, however, after getting into some criminal activity to get his father’s attention David does see Absalom and forgives him – sort of. And that sets us up for 2 Samuel 15…
Some people have wonderful family lives. Some do not. I certainly hope your family life is not (or was not) like David’s family. However, horrible and disgusting as it was, I’m glad the Bible records some of what went on in this highly dysfunctional family. Remember especially, this is the family God has chosen to be the leader of his people forever. Certainly, God’s choice of a family is not based on that family’s visible merits!
We do well to spend time looking at the Bible at this level of authority. I feel that all too many people view the Bible as God’s instruction book for how to live properly. Indeed there are parts like that; certainly the Law, some of Paul’s letters and some of Jesus’ sermons. But those who take it that way end up trying to apply overly simplistic solutions to complex problems.
Most of the time the Bible takes us deep into the real messiness of life and lets us know God’s grace is still at work. That is what we see today.
King David was a very sinful man. In today’s reading we see that he is paying a high price for the consequences of some of his failings as a king and as a father. The raw truth is that he’s a total mess-up. He is guilty. He knows it. Over and over again he’s done bad things. Many of those bad things have to do with women. He’s killed on more than one occasion over getting a woman. He’s manipulated and ignored his first wife. He’s completely ignored the exploitation of his daughter Tamar.
But David is not undone by the realization of his guilt. He is not blind to it, but he is still able to move forward. From him we learn that in the face of sin (and its death-dealing consequences) we must ultimately rely on the power of God’s grace.
In 15:25 we read that David will return if he, “finds favor in the eyes of the Lord”. There’s more. In 16:12 we read if the “Lord will look upon my distress” and “repay me with good.” This is not the “good” he deserves but the “good” that comes only as God’s grace. David trusts that in spite of his overwhelmingly sinful life there can be a good future through God’s gracious providing. If there is anything that makes David a model of faith it is this. He believes God can clean up whatever mess he’s made.
Theologian Bruce Birch notes of this passage that many who come to the realization of their own sin and are faced with its consequences in their lives find themselves mired in guilt – unable to move on from a past that has crumbled and move toward the possibilities of God’s new future.
Sometimes when our own sinful choices have broken relationships and ruined lives, we seem to believe that the broken reality is all that we deserve – and that it is all that can ever be possible.
I’m pretty sure none of you have ever been involved in as many vile things as King David got into on a regular basis. But in this scene David models a bold faith that believes the good news – that new life is available to us through the goodness of God, even when we now we do not deserve it in any way shape or form.
In the midst of the loss of his kingdom – a consequence of his own sin – David trusts that there is still a future for him – a future where God will be with him. Although he does not know that he will regain his kingdom, he trusts boldly in God’s promises that there will be a future. He says of God in 15:26, “Let him do to me what seems good to him.”
David also teaches that piety is not passively waiting around for God to just bring new life and a new future. On David’s retreat from Jerusalem he is actively meeting his own future while trusting that its shape ultimately rests with God. He plans, deploys, gathers information, and makes careful decisions. Faithfulness does not mean ignoring political realism or not having grit or not making shrewd decisions – although please to things ethically! God certainly provides new openings but we must be willing to open doors and find ways to go through them. Faith does not passively wait for God’s wonderful future to just show up. Faith works and boldly claims that God is working for good.
All of that being said, let’s note where David draws the line – for sinfully bad as he could be, he did have boundaries. David refuses to take the Ark of the Covenant with him when he flees Jerusalem. He refuses to manipulate religious symbols of power and God’s presence to further his own interests.
Many of you know I hold both of our country’s major political parties in contempt. And so this next statement is not political. You’ll remember several weeks ago when President Trump staged that photo op in front of a church building holding a Bible. In doing so he crossed a line even King David would not cross! After being appalled and offended, and nearly laughing at the absurdity of what he did, I though the president and his advisors certainly need to read the book he was holding. It prohibits doing exactly what he did. You just don’t do stuff like that! The church so used was appropriately outraged at it.
This does not mean that religious symbols need to be absent from public life. And I certainly hope all our political leaders act with a love and respect of God in their hearts. But King David shows us that religious objects of power are not to be used for promoting a personal agenda… and they are not to be used to promote a religious agenda either; no matter how faith-filled you think you are acting! God will take care of that stuff!
Learn more from David, for here is how God will act. God will act through the substance of our actions and our faith. Those are the values that must be in the public arena – that is the expression of God’s power – never publicly displaying objects of religious authority.
Though the reading from James that we had can be easily misinterpreted, and it upsets many a Lutheran thinker, I believe you get the point. We read, “Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith.”
That is where visible religious authority lies.
We’re moving on from David to his son Solomon next week. I invite you to read onward past 2 Samuel 16 to learn of how David returns to power, for indeed he does return to power. You’ll also discover that David continues to make mistakes – and some big ones! But he also leads by faith. Read Chapter 22 and discover how he knows that things are truly and forever in God’s hands.
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