The Rev. Virginia W. Nagel
Episcopal Diocese of Central NY (Retired)
Today's reading from the second book of the prophet Samuel continues the
story we began studying last week. You remember that King David had seen a
lovely woman bathing, and ordered her to the palace, and that some time later
she found that she was pregnant. David's plan to resolve this situation was to
get her husband home from the war, and hope that he would be seen as the father
of the coming child. But as a loyal, God-fearing man, Uriah had refused to go
home and spend his leave with his wife, and so David's plan fell through. He
then compounded his wrongdoing by arranging for Uriah to be put in the front
line of battle so that he would be killed. That is where we left off last week.
Today, we read that Bathsheba heard of Uriah's death, and after the proper
period of mourning, David brought her again to the palace and married her.
Eventually the child was born, and it was a boy. David was probably feeling
pretty cock-a-hoop about the whole thing...he'd gotten away with his affair and
with murder, and apparently nobody suspected; and he'd gained another wife and a
son into the bargain.
And then...
Then Nathan the prophet came to the palace, with a message for King David.
You remember that a Biblical prophet was not so much concerned with
predicting the future as with being a messenger between God and his people. God
told prophets what to say, and to whom they should say it. So the appearance of
Nathan at the palace was momentous. He would come only to bring a message to the
king from God.
The message from God took the form of a parable, which we read this morning.
The little ewe lamb, the poor man's darling, represents Bathsheba, of
course...and the poor man was Uriah. The rich man is, of course, King David
himself, who had at that time probably three or four wives at least. And the
parable shocked the king, even before he recognized what it was all about. It
shocked him so much that he was ready to order the execution of the rich man who
took the poor man's darling...and he must have been aghast when Nathan simply
said, "It is you!"
And so David found out that even kings are accountable to God. This was a
novel idea, because the general understanding of kingship at that time was that
kings were accountable to nobody but themselves. In effect, this was the
proclamation of the first constitutional monarchy, a king ruling within the
limits of a constitution. The constitution, of course, was the covenant between
God and his people...and David was being served notice that king or not, he was
responsible to God and to the covenant, just like any other Jew.
But things were even more complicated than that. Some time previously, God
had promised that because David was, at that time, God-fearing and
obedient to the Lord, that David's family line would always rule Israel and
Judah. So, what was going to happen to that promise of God's, now, in this messy
situation?
The punishment God gave David did not break God's prior promise. However,
from now on, David was told, there would always be trouble in his family; many
of his descendents would be at loggerheads over who would sit on the throne, and
many would be killed. What had been an exemplary and peaceful royal family would
become a family full of inter-necine jealousy, warfare and murder. Nevertheless,
kings of David's line would always rule in Jerusalem...although we find, later
in the Bible, that many ruled for only a few years, and ruled a nation full of
trouble and revolt and anarchy.
God's promise was kept, and justice and mercy were both satisfied.
Psalm 51 is another of the psalms David wrote, expressing his repentance and
sorrow for his sin. Even today, we use that psalm frequently during Lent and
especially Holy Week, for that very reason.
In Paul's letter to the church people in Ephesus, he begs them to lead a life
worthy of that to which we have been called. Obviously, David failed to do that!
Most likely, that's why the Church choose to pair this Epistle reading with the
readings from Samuel about David. It certainly is very explicit in reminding us
that we are given gifts to use for the good of the church and for God's glory,
not for our own benefit or satisfaction...a lesson David learned the hard way.
For us today, we need to continually be reminded that whatever gifts we have
been given...attractiveness of face or body, skills of various kinds, ability to
make money or to influence people or perform various feats...are not given us to
enlarge our hat size but to use for the glory of God and the spread and growth
of his church...that Kingdom that worships one Lord, holds one faith, and admits
members with one baptism. This is the exact opposite of the consumer-ethic
society that we live in, and of course it's hard to remember and to live in tune
with this teaching. But it is what we have committed ourselves to doing, in our
Baptismal and Confirmation vows. And we have just seen how seriously God takes
those covenants we have made with him.
Today's Gospel reading from John follows directly upon the feeding of the
five thousand, that we read about last week. Some people from that crowd
continued to chase after Jesus, hoping to see more exciting signs and, perhaps,
get more free food...or other things, maybe? At any rate, Jesus made it clear to
them that he knew what was bringing them along, following him. It wasn't the
teaching that was attracting them. It wasn't the question of whether or not
Jesus might be the Messiah...he had just shown that he was Lord of creation,
Lord of nature; what more proof could they need? Maybe they were seeking another
free meal, but they really did not understand what that meal yesterday had
proved...Jesus' lordship over Creation, his infinite power, in short, his God-ness.
He probably understood, too, that some of them just wanted the excitement and
fame of being able to say to their neighbors that they were there when Jesus did
a miracle. Not much different from us, today, flocking to fires and auto
accidents, to see all the excitement. They, like us, didn't bother to spend much
time analyzing the meaning of what they had experienced or seen....people will
turn from an accident and begin texting while they drive away, themselves...no
lesson seems to be learned. Perhaps we need regular reminders that we should
give thought and careful consideration to the meanings of things that happen to
us, or in our lives, and not just pass them off as "well, that's life." A lot of
what happens to us is simply life, yes, but many things are put in our paths to
teach us a lesson or clarify something we need to be aware of and think about.
When was the last time you gave real attention to a sunset, a baby's tiny
fingernails, or a lovely bird's song? When was the last time you learned
something about God from those things, or even bothered to thank him for those
experiences?
All of us are in a covenant relationship with God, by virtue of our Baptism
and Confirmation. We need to think about that...how does that fact make us
accountable to God for our actions, or our failure to act sometimes? We are also
accountable to one another, because we are all members of God's family, and also
because we are co-citizens of our nation, state and town. That gives us
responsibility to God for what we do or don't do, and to other people for what
we do or don't do. We have all seen in the papers or heard on the news about
people being arrested for not reporting child abuse or illegal or dangerous
actions on the part of others...that's one example. Our membership in God's
family comes with responsibility and accountability, and so does our citizenship
in our nation, state and town. Most of us probably don't even bother to think
about this, but we are going to be held accountable, either on the Last Day or
in a secular courtroom, at some time. We need to be aware of this fact, and make
that understanding a part of our lives, and we then will have nothing to fear,
on earth or in heaven. Amen.
