Year B
July 3-9
July 5, 2015
Cross~Wind UMC
Title: God Shed His Grace on Thee
Going deeper
II Samuel 5:1-11, I Chronicles 11:6b, 12:23-40 is an account of David
anointed as king over all Israel.
II
Samuel 5:1-5, 9-10
Then all the tribes of
Israel came to David at Hebron, and said, “Look, we are your bone and flesh.[The
loss of Abner and Ishbaal frightens the people of the north. The Philistines
had just killed Saul in I Samuel 31. They are still active, and Israel needs a
war leader. 2 For some time, while Saul
was king over us, it was you who led out Israel and brought it in. [They
acknowledge the leadership of David in war, even when Saul was king., for which
see I Samuel 18:5-19:10.] The LORD said
to you: It is you who shall be shepherd of my people Israel, you who shall be
ruler over Israel.” [We have no record of this statement in the Bible other
than this statement. However, Jonathan in I Samuel 24:4, the men of David in I
Samuel 24:4, and Abigail in I Samuel 25:28-31 also referring to the Lord making
promises to David.] 3 So all the elders
of Israel came to the king at Hebron; [This shows they need him.] and King David made a covenant with them at
Hebron before the LORD, and they anointed David king over Israel. 4 David was
thirty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years. [He would have been 37.] 5 At Hebron he reigned over Judah seven
years and six months; and at Jerusalem he reigned over all Israel and Judah
thirty-three years.[1000-960 BC]
[In verses 6-25, David quickly
moves to consolidate his power. “Jerusalem” in Judges 19:10 is “Jebus” and in
Genesis 14:18 and Psalm 76:2 is “Salem.” The Jebusites mock up by saying that
even their weakest warriors can defeat him. David responds by mocking those
warriors. Note that the tradition that the city would not fall is older than
Israel. Yet, the city does fall, but not to a full-scale attack. The soldiers
of David enter through the water shaft. David secures a centrally located
capital that did not previously belong to any of the twelve tribes. Zion is the
mountainous plateau. We find a strange
phrase, “Whoever would strike down the Jebusites, let him get up the water
shaft to attack the lame and the blind, those whom David hates.” One can see Leviticus 21:16-23.]
9
David occupied the stronghold, and named it the city of David. David built the
city all around from the Millo inward. [David carried out a building
project, but the city belongs to David because he captured. 10
And David became greater and greater, for the LORD, the God of hosts, was with
him. [The Jebusites still ruled
Jerusalem. His men took the city. King Hiram of Tyre supported the new king
with cedar trees, carpenters, and masons, who built David a house. “David then
perceived that the Lord had
established him king over Israel, and that he had exalted his kingdom for the
sake of his people Israel.” As the Chronicler put it, “all the rest of Israel were of
a single mind to make David king. They
were there with David for three
days, eating and drinking, for their kindred had provided for them.” The
importance of this event is that king and capital are one. The historical right
of David to be king in Israel was in his marriage to Michal. The city belonged
to neither Israel nor Judah.]
Introduction
David and the leaders of Israel and Judah
sealed a covenant. Any time two parties
enter this kind of arrangement, the implication is that the parties have freely
entered agreement, and they may freely negate the covenant. They united under David and Solomon, but later,
Rehoboam, king of Judah, became an arrogant and self-centered king. This led the leaders of the northern tribes
to break away from Judah. Their covenant
lasted a little over 80 years.
When the leaders of
this country gathered to form a constitution, they were carrying on a long
tradition of political leaders establishing a covenant with each other and with
future generations.
In America, we have wrestled with the nature
of that covenant. After the establishment of the constitution in 1787, the
first several decades still wrestled with the place of America in the world.
They knew they wanted to expand to the west, but that mean conflict with Native
Americans, Spain, England, and France. The British would attack Washington DC.
After America seemed to secure its place in the world, it wrestled with its
Declaration of Independence. After all, while they had declared that God
created all people with certain inalienable rights, and that among these were
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. A significant portion of its
population was in slavery. Some of those who signed the declaration recognized
the hypocrisy here. John C. Calhoun, a political leader of the South, lamented
that the ideas of the Declaration had spread too broadly in the population. In
any case, we have wrestled with this covenant in race, gender, and morality
ever since. How seriously will we take freedom? What would happen if we took
freedom so far that nothing binds us together as a nation?
On June 15, 1215 , King John of England
signed the Magna Carta. He had to
because he abused the power of being king.
As democracy began to flourish, we began to understand that the covenant
between leaders and all the people was involved.
"God shed his
grace on thee." Does this statement
look to the past and marvel at the grace of God in previous generations? Is it a prayer that God might pour this grace
upon the nation today? I would like to
consider both ideas as possibilities.
God has blessed this nation. I hope we do not forget that the noise and
celebration of this day celebrate the most important ideas ever expressed about
government and the actions that embody them and make them live. Thomas Jefferson put them on paper in 1776.
It took him two weeks. Congress considered, discussed and debated the paper for
several days and struck out Jefferson's denunciations of slavery and the slave
trade, which would haunt and bleed the nation in time to come. Jefferson said it was on the evening of July
4 that all except one agreed to it. It
listed the abuses of King George III, while at the same time setting forth the
principles of proper government:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that
all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain
inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of
Happiness. That to secure these rights,
Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the
consent of the governed. That whenever
any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of
the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its
foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to
them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.
The same day, Patrick
Henry delivered a famous speech to the Virginian legislature. He began by
commenting on the need for civility, even for those with whom he disagreed on
the matter of separating from England. Yet, it was a courageous civility, for
he boldly put forth his reasons for declaring independence. It courageously and
famously ended, “As for me, give me liberty or give me death.”
That powerful dream of liberty is still
frightening tyrants and giving hope. The concept of basic human rights and limited
government, with the consent of the governed, expressed so clearly and
forceful, are also embodied in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. So, let us celebrate. Safely.
But celebrate.
Application
I have just a few reflections,
largely because I hope that we can spend some time during communion to pray for
this country. Our mission is to make disciples of Jesus Christ to transform the
world. One of the ways we can do that is to love the place we live, and seek to
make it a better place.
First, this country has learned some of its greatest lessons through failure and struggle.
Why
is it that we look back at the leanest, cruelest years of the Great Depression
and see in them the time of greatest strength in our communities and families?
Why is it that we recall our single
greatest naval defeat, the attack on Pearl Harbor, and see exhibited in it the
greatest spirit and loyalty of this nation?
Why
is it that we remember the darkest, most evil years of legalized segregation,
discrimination and Jim Crow and see in them the greatest demonstrations of
love, commitment, bravery and selflessness among the Civil Rights workers?
Why
is it that we made a movie to re-live the tension and the helplessness of
watching a crippled Apollo 13 hobble slowly back to Earth, and see in it the
prayers and the hopes of the whole country?
In the period between the formation of the constitution in 1787 and the
Civil War in 1861, slavery received the backing of the courts. A particularly
horrific decision was the case of Celia, a 19-year-old slave woman who killed
her much older Missouri master in 1855 after he had been sexually exploiting
her for five years, since buying her at age 14. When he tried to force himself
on her, after she protested that she was already pregnant, she whacked him with
a stick and burned his body. She was condemned to hang, the local court
effectively deciding that a slave had no right to prevent a master from raping
her. Missouri’s supreme court declined to intervene. Celia’s execution for
trying to defend herself from a beast was just two years before the far more
infamous Dred Scott case, in which the U.S. Supreme Court, 7–2, effectively
ruled against any restrictions on slavery and decreed that black people, even
if free, had no rights to citizenship. President James Buchanan, alongside much
of America, celebrated that the slavery issue was supposedly put to rest.[1]
Second, what have we
not yet learned?
In June of 1997, when
I was pastor of the church in Vincennes, I went to the Vietnam memorial that
was then touring the country. During the ceremony I heard one Vietnam veteran
say that they came home to a nation that simply wanted to forget the war as
quickly as possible. Many vets learned
quickly that it was better to not talk about their experiences or even let
people know they risked their lives for their country. I heard a Medal of Honor soldier speak of how
the whole team had to pull together to survive. I hope we never forget the
honor we ought to give to those who have fought for this country. They deserve
our respect.
Third, we need to
consider the prayer we have for this
country.
"God, shed your
grace upon us!"
The church typically
raises uncomfortable questions for the society in which it exists. Our Book of Discipline states that we are
responsible to God for social and political life. Separation of church and state means no organic
union of the two, but does permit interaction.
The church should continually exert a strong ethical influence upon the
state. (Par. 74) In the case of the
church in America, we are often concerned with how people abuse their freedom.
St. Augustine says the freedom to choose is the minor freedom we have. The more important freedom we have is the
freedom to choose rightly, that we are free to be who we are created to be. I
am thinking here of what has since the 1960s people have called the sexual revolution.
We keep expanding what that means. I think the church is at a point where it
needs to recognize that the culture values something in this area that the
church does not. If the church is right, people will be making a shipwreck of
their lives. They need to know they have a safe and loving place to find their
way in this intimate area of their lives. Hateful language is not going to
help. My preference would be that such an intimate area of our lives had not
become so entangled in our political life. The church must not lose this
opportunity to show love to the gay person or to anyone wrestling with their
sexual identity. We must not lose this opportunity to love our neighbors or to
be the Good Samaritan, stopping to help one who is hurting due to what is
happening in the cultural air or due to their own errors. We must not lose this
opportunity to reflect Christ as we relate to each other or the world.
God, fill our moral
and spiritual emptiness with your Life-giving Spirit.
Many people believe
that we live in a time of moral and spiritual emptiness. We have lost our moral and spiritual
bearings. My perception is that I grew up in the 1950s and 60s in a culture
that still had norms and values with which the church could agree. America has
been in a long process of liberating itself from such norms. Many Americans no
longer feel guilt, because we have norms to transgress, no moral target to
miss. In this setting, I think, people still wrestle with the meaning of their
lives, and that is something with which the church can help.
In Wesley's sermon on
“The Reformation of Manners," he expressed concern that the church had
fallen away from its high calling. He
defines that church as that group of people who have entered a covenant with
each other. The first purpose of
entering this covenant is to save your own soul. The second purpose is to assist each other in
working out your own salvation. The
third purpose is “to save all people from present and future misery, to
overturn the kingdom of Satan, and set up the kingdom of Christ." He wonders if too many people of the church
have actually become part of the world.
Wesley is also concerned about the state of his nation. After all, just as many believe America is a
Christian nation today, people believed England to be a Christian nation
then. Yet, it had fallen away from the
ideal. A society of people could reform
the nation. However, what kind of people
can undertake the reform of the nation?
Those
who believe it is a work of God,
Those
who are people of faith,
Those
who are people of courage,
Those
who are people of patience,
Those
who persevere,
Those
who know that the wrath of people worketh not the righteousness of God.
Conclusion
Are you willing to be
the kind of person that can help answer the prayer that God might continue to
shed his grace upon us? Let us begin
right here. Each of us has influence
within our circle of family and friends and co-workers. If you have a concern for the nation, let us
begin with us!
[1] Read more at:
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/420719/christians-celebrate-july-4-same-sex-marriage-patriotism
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