In the name of God- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Amen.
“Christianity
is all about salvation,” is a phrase that you’ve probably heard. And it’s true,
Christianity is about salvation. Sometimes, though, we use words that are so
big and nebulous that they actually have very little meaning- and salvation is
one of those words. Salvation from what? What happens if we are not saved? Who
does the saving? These are all good and valid questions, but they are questions
for another day. Instead, today, the question before us is what are we saved
into? That is, what does it mean to be a recipient of salvation?
Today
concludes our survey of the story of King David. We’ve been considering this
storied and flawed leader of Israel, who is more like most of us than we care
to acknowledge. David has been, at times, selfish, manipulative, and lustful;
but he has also been a strong leader, a powerful artist, and last Sunday, was
found willing to acknowledge his sins and repent. David was a faithful, but imperfect,
follower of God. I’ll only speak for myself, but that description fits me. As
we conclude our study of King David, I want to talk a bit about the part of his
story that heard today in Second Samuel and consider what his story, in light
of Jesus, says about our salvation.
This
story is tragic in every sense of the word. Last Sunday, our reading from was 2
Samuel 12 and today we are in chapter 18, and not much good has happened in
those six chapters in between. Remember that David had more than one wife and
many mistresses, so there were a lot of half-brothers and sisters in his
family. His oldest son was Amnon, and he developed a crush on his half-sister
Tamar. Amnon raped her, and this, as you might expect, caused some issues in
the family. Another of David’s sons, Absalom then got revenge and killed Amnon
for this crime, and then went into hiding for fear of being punished for that crime.
David is grieved that Amnon has been killed, and is upset that he has lost
Absalom into exile as well, not to mention the wrong done his daughter.
Eventually, David gives
Absalom the chance to reconcile and allows him back into Jerusalem. But Absalom
had dreams of supplanting David as the king. So when Absalom comes back into
the city, he does so after making statements like “If I were the king, this is
what I would do differently.” Absalom is laying the groundwork for an insurrection.
And to top it off, when Absalom returns, he sleeps with several of his father’s
mistresses and begins a military battle against his father. This situation is
so bad that even Dr. Phil or Jerry Springer wouldn’t try to deal with it.
Recall what God said
through the prophet Nathan to David in last Sunday’s reading: “I will raise up
trouble against you from within your own house; and I will take your wives
before your eyes, and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your
wives in the sight of this very sun. For you did it secretly; but I will do
this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.” As I said last Sunday, I
really don’t think that God caused these things to happen. Rather, we humans
like to draw lines between cause and effect and having those connections makes
it easier to deal with tragic situations. But the point remains, you reap what
you sow.
That background is needed
to understand why, in today’s reading, King David’s army is chasing after the
army of his son, Absalom. Absalom, like his father, has committed sexual and
physical violence and was trying to overthrow his father from the throne. But
David still loves Absalom as his son. And so he tells his troops to “deal
gently with the boy Absalom.” That is, don’t kill him when you find him. But
the soldiers disregard that command and strike Absalom down and David is deeply
grieved.
It’s a troubling story,
and there really isn’t grace to be found in it. There are two points that I
want to make though before getting back to the idea of salvation. The first is
to reiterate what I said last week- that sin is real. Sin unites us to each
other, even when love does not. Even if we don’t love our neighbors, the sins
of climate change, greed, or a broken political system will bind us to each
other. David’s sins had consequences because nothing was done to change course.
And that’s the second point in this story- inertia is really hard to overcome.
When Jesus tells his followers to “turn the other cheek” when you are struck,
he is telling us to change course. David never broke the cycle of violence and
retribution, and so his life became engulfed in conflict and sin.
Inertia is hard to
overcome; it takes a tremendous amount of energy. When a rocket takes off for
space, it takes an incredible amount of force to escape the pull of gravity,
and the same is true for us if we are to go in a new direction. We see this at
play throughout our lives. Someone shuns or disrespects us, so we avoid them.
One party blocks legislation, so the other does the same. Terrorists kill
innocents in New York, so we kill innocents in Iraq, and then we wonder where
groups like ISIS come from. Someone commits murder, so we respond with the
death penalty. How we respond will dictate how the rest of the conversation
will continue. Whether it is in our homes or among our nations, there is simply
a lack of imagination and courage to do something differently.
There’s a story about two
people who are bitter enemies with each other. One day, an angel comes to one
of them and says “You have been chosen to receive the gift of whatever you
wish. You may choose anything, and it will be given to you.” The person was
elated, and immediately says “I’d like a large farm and lots of livestock to
make me rich.” And the angel says “Fine, but there is one stipulation to this
wish- whatever you receive, your enemy will receive double.” His stomach turned
at the thought of his enemy having a farm twice as large. So he says, “Never
mind.” He thought about asking for a big family, for wisdom, for strength, for
long life, for all sorts of things, but couldn’t bring himself to receive
anything good if it meant that his enemy would end up with more than him. He
then exclaimed, “I’ve got it! I know what I will wish for, knowing that my
enemy will receive double- I wish to be made blind in one eye.”
The Good News is that God
offers us a different way in Jesus. What is so amazing about this whole saga
about King David is that God does not abandon the promise of the Davidic
Kingship. When the Messiah comes, his connection to the throne of King David is
of utmost importance. Though we are fickle, God is steadfast. Though we are
stuck in cycles of violence, God gives us a new way forward. The salvation that
is given is a different way a being, and that way of being is rooted in
forgiveness.
Forgiveness is something
that I’m not so sure is widely understood in our society. We often think that we
are supposed to “forgive and forget,” but that’s actually not right at all. To
forgive is to remember. It is to remember that wrong has been done, but that
the hatred is not more powerful than love. Forgiveness is to remember that we
choose to be in relationship with someone who has wronged us, and that is an
even more powerful miracle than selective amnesia.
Other times, we think
that forgiveness is about being right or wrong. But as Jesus clearly shows us
on the cross, it’s not about winning and losing, it’s about being together.
There is no weakness in admitting wrong doing, nor is there shame. But rather,
there is strength to be found in admitting what everyone already knows to be
true- that none of us is perfect.
I remember in late June
hearing the news story about the family members of those murdered at Emanuel
AME in Charleston forgiving the killer, just days after the murders. My first
thought was “That’s not possible. They’re clearly in denial, or they don’t
understand what forgiveness really means.” I just couldn’t fathom how you could
forgive someone for such a heinous crime, and so quickly. But then a friend
reminded me of a book by an African-American ethicist, Peter Paris, about the
virtues and values that come from the African-American experience. In this
book, one of the virtues that he lifts up is that of forgiveness. And he
reflects on why it is that the African-American community is not defined by
hatred. After all, given the history of slavery, segregation, and disenfranchisement,
one would almost expect the cycles of oppression and violence to continue.
Paris notes that the
black response hasn’t been to, in turn, enslave whites or deny equal rights to
others. Instead, we have examples of people like Nelson Mandela and Martin
Luther King, who found the salvation of God in doing something differently, of
breaking the cycles that they were caught up in. He ponders what it is that
allows for the breaking of the inertia, suggesting that it is the case that in
the African worldview, the priority is often the community, whereas in many
Western societies, we focus on individuals. It’s also worth pointing out that
Christianity isn’t a faith about me or you, but rather us all of us together.
So we would do well to pay attention to this wisdom.
Forgiveness is the salvation
of God and breaks the cycles of violence and retribution because it is about
all of us together. When we make forgiveness about winning and losing, about
paying settlements without admitting guilt, or about personal pride instead of
unity, then we get trapped. David gets stuck, as we often do, in thinking about
his legacy and priorities. He worries about his personal honor and his sense of
being wronged by his children. Jesus comes though, in the line of Davidic
kings, to redeem us through forgiveness, by reminding us that we are the Body
of Christ. That identity as part of something bigger than ourselves is our
salvation and is what allows us to break the cycles of violence and revenge.
Forgiveness is not about forgetting or winning, but is about being together.
And so forgiveness is not about punishment, but restoration to the unity that
were created to be a part of.
Desmond Tutu is a
champion for an idea known as ubuntu,
which is rooted in the idea that “I am because we are.” This is stark contrast
to the predominant American mindset that is rooted in “I think, therefore I am.”
Forgiveness is nearly impossible, and largely unnecessary if we are separate
from each other, if we are not a part of the human race or the Body of Christ.
But we gather here today because we proclaim that we are, indeed, Christ’s
Body. We come to stretch out our hands and receive our very being in the
Eucharist. In the grace and mystery of the Eucharist, the Body of Christ comes
together to receive the Body of Christ.
The power of the
Eucharist though is not confined to Sunday mornings. In the earliest church,
when you received the Sacrament it was said “Behold the mystery of your
salvation. Receive what you are. Become what you receive.” There is strife
within our families, within our city, within our nation. The Good News is that there
is a solution, a different way forward than the ways of the past. David got
stuck in a cycle of violence and vengeance, and sin consumed his family and all
those around him. In Jesus, we have a model of forgiveness, of valuing the
community above the individual.
We were created out of
the love of God, destined to thrive in that love, but sin’s effects are felt
when we fall out of relationships of love. Jesus reminds us that we are to be
his Body, and we are blessed to be nourished by that salvation in the
Eucharist. Behold the mystery of your salvation- that there is an alternative
to the cycles of sin and brokenness which plague our lives. Receive what you
are- despite your flaws, a beloved part of the community of God. Become what
you receive- the salvation of God to the world.
