“A Theology of Consequence”

Karen Sloan 08/08/2021

Readings - 2 Samuel 18:5-9, 15, 31-33; Ephesians 4:25 - 5:2

Our faith is like a prism, sometimes we are to ponder our own journeys and life, and sometimes we are to take ourselves out into the world.

Last week I spoke about finding God in the dark and the light, but what we also need to remember is that we are the product of our own doing as well.  If we accept God is a God that is everywhere and in all things, part of the process of life, we also have to accept that we have the choice to follow that presence or not.

And so much about what humans do is our choice not Gods, and the consequences are ours to bear.

For the past few weeks the lectionary has been following 2 Samual and the story of King David. 

Wow what a saga, we heard today the result of some of the things that have gone before.

So I want to fill you in.  and  I have left it till now because the lectionary is a bit disjointed. The story of David actually goes from 1 Samual to 2 Kings, and probably was written in the 10th century in the time of King Solomon, David’s son.

Wes Howard Brook compares the entire sage to the godfather series, thinking David is a near perfect match to Vito Corleone, who also began his career as an avenger of injustice, gathered around him desperate men for whom the system didn’t work, and became rich and powerful via extortion and murder.  Like the elder Corleone David settles down in old age and watches his family come apart before his mostly helpless eyes.

So let me give you a potted history.. I thank a site called “Daniels desk” for the summary.

David was born into an obscure family in the town of Bethlehem, in the Hebrew tribe of Judah. He was the great-grandson of Ruth, and the youngest of eight sons of Jesse and had a deep, unending love for God.  As a child he developed skills in music and fighting, and was given the job of looking after the sheep owned by his family.

His shepherd years were interrupted suddenly when Samuel, the great judge and prophet of Israel, showed up in Bethlehem to anoint David as a future king of Israel even though the current King Saul was still alive.

Saul, king of Israel at that time, was railing against God and Gods way. David entered the court to play music for the tormented king, and quickly became the king’s armor-bearer.

David evidently alternated between life at court and life with the sheep. Eventually he ended up near the battlefield between the Israelites and the Philistines. When he heard a Philistine warrior, Goliath, insult the God of Israel, David determined to do something. He killed the giant with a stone, cut off his head, and was quickly hailed as a hero by the nation.

However, David’s popularity did not sit well with Saul. Even though Saul appointed him as a commander of the army, the king became jealous and eventually tried to murder David with his javelin. Saul’s son Jonathan, however, befriended David, and David married Saul’s daughter Michal as the king continued to make plots on his life. Even as he continued to wage successful war against the Philistines, David’s life was rescued by both Jonathan and Michal.

Finally, David fled the court, and into the countryside. More than once Saul pursued him with armed men, but David continued to escape, even sparing Saul’s life when he had the opportunity to kill him.

While David was fighting elsewhere both Saul and Jonathan were killed, and David mourned when he heard the news. The leaders of the southern Israelite tribe of Judah responded by anointing David as their king; he became king of Judah at the age of 30 and reigned for seven years and six months.

Yet it was not a time of peace. To the north, the remaining Israelite tribes selected Ishbosheth, Saul’s son, as their king. A civil war broke out between the northern Kingdom of Israel and the southern Kingdom of Judah.

Ishbosheth was removed, assassinated, the leaders of Israel gathered together and anointed David to be king over a united kingdom. David would reign for 33 years over the twelve tribes. He conquered the city of Jerusalem from the non-Hebrew Jebusites, renaming it as the City of David. However he did not build the temple, something that was done later by Solomon.

However David’s greatest years came to a sudden end when he fell into a scandal. While his army was away, David was relaxing at the palace. He happened to look out over the city of Jerusalem and saw a beautiful woman, Bathsheba bathing. He brought her into the palace and committed adultery with her. In an attempt to cover his sin, he eventually murdered her husband, one of his most trusted military leaders, and married the now-widowed Bathsheba.

Nathan the prophet appeared, condemning David for his sin and using a story to rub it in. He tells of a poor man who can afford only one tiny ewe lamb, whom he loves to distraction, treating it as if it were his child. Into the poor man's house saunters a very rich man, who has thousands of lambs he might choose to cook for a visitor. But instead of taking one of his flock for the meal, he determines that the poor man's beloved lamb will do nicely as the centerpiece of his feast for the wayfarer.

David's response to the story is rightly one of outrage at the injustice, until he realises that "You are the man" (2 Sam. 12:7),

Suddenly filled with remorse, David repented with grief, crying out to God for mercy. Meanwhile, his child with Bathsheba died. Later, David had another child with Bathsheba, a child whom he named Solomon – the next king of Israel.

Yet the consequences of David’s choices would continue throughout the rest of his reign. The sword never departs from the sad house of David.  

A military victory over the Ammonites was soon forgotten when his son Amnon committed incestual rape against his daughter Tamar. Tamar’s brother, Absalom, determined to take justice into his own hands, and he responded by killing Amnon. Later, Absalom revolted against his own father. David and his trusted followers fled the capital, while Absalom moved into the royal palace and the royal harem.

Civil war broke out in Israel, leading to the defeat and death of Absalom in a battle with David’s forces. Yet David was grieved to lose a son, which we heard today.  But the turmoil was not over; another conspirator, Sheba, later made war with David. Sheba also ended up dead.

In his last years, David married Abishag, a beautiful young Hebrew maiden. Adonijah, another of his sons, then tried to seize the throne, but David – though decrepit from age – intervened, ending the conspiracy and selecting Solomon as his successor. After giving words of wisdom and advice to his son Solomon, David died and was buried in Jerusalem, the City of David.

………….

Phew!!!  What a story.  A complicated story of a complicated man . You can see why Wes Brookes relates it to the Godfather. Yet David was also, despite his flaws, known as ‘a man after God’s own heart,’ the most pious of all Hebrew kings, and the standard by which every other Judean king would be measured. The prophecy of a king whose throne would endure forever fuelled Messianic hopes among the Jews – hopes which were finally fulfilled in the coming of Jesus, the physical descendant and promised ‘Son of David.’

Such a contradiction.

So what to do with all of this. There are so many things I could speak about.

What about the role of a prophet, who speaks truth to power. I loved the way Nathan tells a story that strikes at the heart of David’s terrible choices. Prophets are everywhere in the bible, not foreseeing the future, but speaking of the present. Maybe a question for us is where and who are our prophets today.  Calling out the life denying ways of the world.

What about the role of violence, redemptive violence,  and how it can continue from one generation to another. Because once it starts it doesn’t stop, instead having a life of its own.  The consequence of what we do can live on in those that follow, going down through the generations.

The David/Solomon story is the product  of this redemptive violence, where starting out with an act of “good” violence ends up as a means to acquire wealth and power, which become ends in themselves. Even though David at times tries to change his ways, violence always seems to be part of his story.  Something we see countless times today.

And what about the message of Jesus, which would have shocked those who were enmeshed in this other understanding. 

 Jesus comes along, calling us to love our enemies, to say no to violence and yes to compassion and to forgiveness and justice.  A message that takes courage and an inner fortitude, but represents for him the kingdom of God.  No wonder he was killed, when this goes so against everything the world knew. 

  But maybe if I go back to the beginning, there is another message we can take from the saga of King David, one we also need to hear.  

David was complicated, probably described by the royal scribes rather badly, not that he didn’t terrible things while Solomon his son, and inheritor of the kingdom, was not all squeaky clean, according to Wes Brooks, something he has been painted as by the writers. 

So maybe David wasn’t so bad and Solomon wasn’t so good. Politics can paint the other in different ways.

I think what stands out to me is that this story in all its fullness will push us beyond the polarities that often order our thinking. David is remembered as a murderer, adulterer, and predatory king as well as a hero, beloved of God, and singer of psalms. It will break up the stories we tend to tell about others and ourselves, stories in which we are either good enough — not perfect, but good enough — that we have no real need of forgiveness, or so bad that we are beyond the scope of forgiveness

We are not as bad as we think or not as good as we think. We are both.. We heard in the reading from Ephesians today, which guides us in terms of a new life, acknowledges we also have a dark side.  .

The author Talbot in a book called “Paradox and Evolution” believes we can behave as war mongers and peaceniks, selfish thieves and altruistic Samaritans, cooperative bees and lone wolves, conformist teacher pets and rebels without a cause.  Not just different people, the same people can do all these things.   Much like David.

That’s  the things isn’t it.  We are all a bunch of paradoxes.  In little and big ways.

Jesus calls out for us to transform our selves and others for the sake of the world. But he also saw people as they really were and loved them none the less 

For we and he knew we are both light and dark.

Today we know that we can love fully and hate terribly, we can forgive one another but are also capable of vengeance, we can feel anger and strike out either with words or actions, then regret what we have done to others.  We can seek justice for the poor, then live like kings or we can want to protect the planet then behave as though our resources are limitless. We can act in noble, selfless ways, then retreat to selfish and individual ways.   All of us, each one of us is capable through circumstance or upbringing or from some unknown urge to do things we think we would never do.

Brining our contradictions into the light, to be examined and owned is a good starting point to understanding them. Maybe if we then look to our guide we can make our choice between them. Because we also know that these choices have consequences.

How we live today can affect the future in both negative and positive ways. Negative like the ones in David life. David made choices, that even in the end he couldn’t escape from. Positive ones, like the stories I heard at coffee group this week.  Where an act of friendship and kindness and welcome has made all the difference in the lives of others.

Maybe by accepting we are human, not more or less than each other, we will see each other as humans too.  Fallible and prone to many many mistakes, perhaps not so extreme as David, but certainly prone to weird contradictions,.  Maybe we have to taking responsibility for our choices and forgive ourselves, but acknowledge the road we want to be on.  . And if it is the road of Jesus, the road to Shalom, then let us follow it together.  For in the human Jesus there is transformation not judgment, peace not war and the ability to start again, always.

Maybe then the consequences of our theology will be a transformed world and transformed communities and transformed people. We can only hope!

Amen