12 August 2018 – 12th Sunday of Pentecost
2 Samuel 18:5-9,15,31-33; Psalm 130;
Ephesians 4:25-5:2
“Be angry, but do not sin; do not let the
sun go down on your anger.” Ephesian 4:26
In 2nd Samuel 18, King
David had been forced to flee because his son, Absalom, had risen up against
him and would try to overthrow him. David chose to flee rather than
to fight because he wanted no harm to come to his son. He had even ordered
his commanders to “deal gently, for my sake, with the young man
Absalom” (2 Sam 18:5).
David’s army would still face Absalom’s army in
battle, however, because there was too much at stake. It wasn’t that
David refused to fight at all; he only wanted no harm to come to his beloved
son. Yet even as David had given his commanders a “hands off” order
regarding Absalom, Absalom had come face-to-face with David’s army and was killed
rather than merely captured.
When David was told of his son’s death, the king
mourned, wishing it could have been him who had died instead of his beloved
son. Rather than understand or share his grief, David’s commanders
got a little bent out of shape. Because of his death, Absalom’s army
had been hobbled and the rebellion put down. Yet the king was not
relieved; he was deeply grieved. Though Absalom had tried to
overthrow his father and would have surely resulted in the death of the king,
there was still one important and immutable factor that cannot be overlooked: the
depth of a father’s love. Rebellion did not change that, but that
love did not mean there would not be consequences for that rebellion.
Though the books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles are largely
considered historical accounts, this particular passage in 2nd Samuel is
a profound analogy of The Holy Father’s unwavering love for His
own. Despite our almost constant rebellion – sometimes hidden, at
other times in plain sight – the enduring Love of The Father is even more
constant than our rebellion. As St. Paul wrote to the Romans, “While we were
still sinners (rebels), Christ died for us” (5:8).
It is always easy to imagine The Lord’s wrath and
fury; the First Testament is filled with such images. Yet even Jesus
speaks of the Day of Judgment when the wrath of the Eternal Judge will “separate
the sheep from the goats” (Matthew 25:31-46), when true
disciples will be separated from Christians “in name only”. It will be that time when the disobedient
will be “cast into outer darkness where there will be weeping and
gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 25:30).
Yet before even all this, there is The Eternal Heart
of Grace that is quite capable of being broken. It is The Heart of
the Almighty and Eternal Creator who made us in His Image and gave us the capacity – though not necessarily the will - to love (that we must do on our
own, but we can IF we use
what is given to us). It is this Eternal One who has determined that
we, even at our worst, are worth redeeming, worth saving. This
manifest Love, revealed and perfected in Christ Jesus, exists as surely as you
and I will more often be found in rebellion than in grace. It must be noted that grace does not excuse
rebellion.
The very worst thing to have happened that has robbed
the contemporary Church of its vitality, its sense of gratitude, faithfulness,
and duty to one another, is what Dietrich Bonhoeffer termed “cheap grace” – expecting something for nothing; i.e.,
forgiveness without repentance. It is conveyed in “bumper sticker” and
social media theology that lacks engagement, depth, and wisdom, and is often
reduced to a “meme”. It is expressed in such a careless way that
active membership and participation in the life of the Church is cast aside as
inconsequential since, as so many try to claim, their salvation has already
been “assured”.
Salvation itself, rather than to be understood as the
Divine Gift which must be received AND
lived into, has become an “entitlement” we think we are owed; taking advantage,
as we often do, of that which is given seemingly without cost. The
vitality of the United Methodist Church is at risk not because of what may or
may not happen in St. Louis next year but because of what has already happened
at “home” for generations. We have stopped “making disciples”,
we have stopped “equipping disciples to make disciples”, we do not hold one
another accountable to discipleship, choosing popularity over faithfulness, and
we are no longer concerned with the “transformation of our communities”. We do not care, nor are we concerned, about
the cost of rebellion.
To be sure, Absalom was very intentional about his
open rebellion against his father. What he did to undermine the
king, he meant to do; and because of his false sense of pride and personal
entitlement, he did not care about the kingdom as a whole; he cared only about
himself. In the end, it cost him his very life. Yet though
he lived as his father’s enemy, he nevertheless died as his father’s son. And a father’s heart was broken.
Unlike Absalom, we are more often not so intentional in
our rebellion as we are neglectful of the relationship of the congregation
we are invited into; and rather than to “love our neighbors as ourselves”, we
selectively offer our love only to those whom we deem worthy. And
the very worst of it all is that, like Absalom, we are so blinded by our own
desires, our own ambitions, our own pride that we cannot see – nor do we seem
to care about – what we are doing to the Heart of the One who gave of Himself
so completely that His death was unavoidable. But the strength of
that Love made the Resurrection imminent because, as much as humankind has
tried to silence and “bury” or ignore the Living Word, The Word cannot be
silenced. “Though heaven and earth will pass away, My Words
will never pass away” (Luke 21:33).
This is the reality of Divine Love. This
kind of love is so completely vulnerable that if it is not respected, if it is
not embraced, if it is not reciprocated, the Broken Heart is
inevitable. It is the only measure of True Love and must be received
and shared as freely as it is given. For this is The Way that is
Christ, and it is the True and Full Heart of a Father’s Love. Amen.
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