2 SAMUEL 5:1-5, 9-10 / 2 CORINTHIANS 12:2-10
Our first reading this morning from I Samuel describes David finally being anointed King over all of Israel. But a lot sure has happened prior to this. Do you remember all of Saul’s misgivings and misleading’s about David and his several attempts to murder him! This in spite of the fact that Saul’s own son Jonathon (who loved David like a brother) had tried so hard to convince him that David, as God anointed successor, could and should be trusted?
But the paranoid and power-hording Saul goes a little crazy and with no real checks and balances in place, David (and the entire nation of Israel), has to deal with him and the whole sordid situation as best they can.
But of course no matter HOW BAD it gets (and even with a perfectly justifiable reason – after all Saul is trying to kill HIM!) David continues to seek a peaceful way forward. Even when he finds himself behind Saul in a darkened cave with spear in hand David refuses to act. He believes that God needs to affect the moment in HIS time – and not his own. So in lieu of killing “God’s anointed” (as he refers to Saul) he uses the moment to confirm his allegiance in an effort to demonstrate that he can indeed be trusted. David’s men probably think he’s completely lost his mind. “WHY WON”T YOU JUST KILL THE CRAZY OLD CODGER?!!” They surely said!
And of course Saul is about as crazy as they come and in spite of David’s demonstrated purity he continues his maniacal vendetta against him and does the exact OPPOSITE of David – by knowingly going AGAINST God’s Most Perfect Will . . . Which is NEVER a very good idea.
Eventually Saul (and David’s beloved friend Jonathon) are killed while fighting the Amalekites and one of the enemy soldiers comes to David and gives him the news of the Kings death. (That he, of course, thinks David – as Saul’s adversary – will welcome.) But instead David is shocked and grieved, so the Amalekite’s soldiers reward for traveling all that way to share the news is that he himself is immediately executed at David’s instruction.
So David and all of Israel (by his example) mourn Saul and shortly thereafter the leaders of the Northern Kingdom of Judah make David their King. But Abner the commander of Saul’s army, takes Ish-bo-sheth, the son of Saul and makes him king over all of the Southern Kingdom of Israel. And the result is a very bloody civil war not unlike our own.
But even in the midst of this war as David’s men constantly get the upper hand and all manner of subterfuge and drama play out through broken alliances and promises that always work in his favor, David seems completely content to let things “play their way out” – in lieu of more directly influencing the outcome. In fact, David all but RUNS from the Kingship that in theory he knows he is supposed to have as promised by God!
And for one simple reason: He doesn’t want it to be brought about by man – he wants it to be brought about by God. Because it’s the only sure way he will ever know that all was as God fully intended. So he gets himself out of the way and waits for God to ultimately affect the outcome. But one has to wonder. Does he go too far? I certainly think it’s possible.
In my own life I can think of many examples where I have likely deferred too much towards the side of “Let’s see what happens” – which in my best moments I hope translates as, “Let’s allow God room to work.” Verses a more intentional effort that may have been what was needed to accomplish His Most Perfect Will. And of course I can think of several situations where just the opposite was probably true – where I got myself completely and even cataclysmically IN the way by trying too hard to affect the outcome when I should have shown prayerful fortitude and patience.
In fact, right now I am in the midst of what I believe is a genuine call to the full “full time work of the church” – in lieu of splitting my efforts and energy between both the needs of the church and those of the community newspaper I started almost 8 years ago.
I have to admit that I have sensed for some time now that between both of those endeavors and family obligations, that I am often simply spread too thin, and I find myself asking, “Am I doing either of these callings as well I could be or should be?” If I am honest with myself I think I know the answer to that question – and mostly it’s a rather emphatic, “No.”
So accordingly over the last several months I have opened myself up to that possibility by letting a few others in the publishing world know that I am now considering just that. And while the paper has received a couple of good honest looks by some reputable outfits, nothing has happened so far. So I have found myself questioning: “Do I need to be more intentional about this? Or is my more laissez-faire approach (which is perhaps more in keeping with David’s) allowing me to better align myself with God’s Most Perfect Will and timing?
Well, if I find myself questioning it (as I do now) then the real answer is that I probably need to be praying a whole lot more about the situation than I have been – and I likely also need to more proactively engage both my heart and my mind so that God can better engage both as well.
When you think about it, it’s kind of hard to walk alongside someone who is taking hesitant and uncertain steps – and while I don’t question God’s ability to do anything He has decided to do, experience tells me He is far more likely to match His stride to ours (or, as is more often the case, to get our stride in step with His) when we are already actively seeking to do the same.
In David’s case the circumstances finally do line up such that God’s will is accomplished. Abner, (who initially helped Saul’s son come to power in the southern kingdom) pulls a Benedict Arnold and winds up helping David become King over both Judah and Israel – but not before he (Abner) and a great many others are killed in the process.
In fact, if you’re looking for a great story involving plenty of insults, innuendo and intrigue look no further than I Samuel – it’s got it all. Abner actually “turns turncoat” because Saul’s son (the one he had helped to the throne) implies one night that he (Abner) was hanging out with the wrong sort of woman! And one in particular who Abner repeatedly said he had never been with. But Ish-bo-sheth apparently doesn’t believe him and in the end it’s enough to make Abner join the other side! The moral of the story being perhaps that even as King you still need to watch what you say and who you say it to. Especially when it comes to your right hand man whom your kingdom and very life may well depends on!
But what I Samuel truly highlights, above all else, is David’s incredible humility – and his willingness to keep himself out of the way, so that God would have room to work. Not as one who could have easily been full of “boasts and bravado” – but rather a TRUE leader who knew fully where his power and kingship came from – and he honored that truth with all that he was.
Our second reading from II Corinthians also highlights the nature of genuine humility and how God uses it to work through us in our submissive weakness – which he transforms into His perfect strength. Did you notice how carefully Paul chose his words in describing the reality of his situation that bears witness to this truth?
First he describes a person whom he knows as having once been “caught up in the third heaven.” Interestingly, the Hebrews divided the universe up into three heavens. The first heaven consisted of the earth’s atmosphere where the clouds and birds were. The second heaven was where the sun, stars, and moon are. And the third heaven was everything beyond that which was the more physical dwelling place of God outside of time and space as we know it. So really they saw it as three separate “atmospheres” of existence, if you will. Which is pretty much in line with our common understanding today when you think about it. So When Paul said his friend was taken up into the third heaven, he was referring to the very dwelling place of God.
A “near death experience” as reported in the first century AD? Perhaps.
But no matter what, it is, nevertheless, a rather spectacular claim – and Paul further clarifies it, by saying that nothing that the individual experienced could be permitted to be repeated. It was all simply too glorious. He then likewise goes on to say that he too has had his own “revelations of exceptional character” – the minimum of which, of course, was his being struck down directly by the Lord on the road to Damascus and being asked by Jesus himself. “Paul – Paul? Why do you ‘kick against the goads’ and persecute my people?”
So yes, Paul has clearly experienced some remarkable moments of the Spirit – but as a warning to the church in Corinth (who have apparently become a bit cocky and perhaps grandiose in their testimonies) he tells them that he NEVER speaks of such things in seeking to win others to Christ. To the contrary, he reminds them that God is seeking to work through them just as He worked in Christ – through weaknesses and suffering and trials – and ultimately the very suffering that was cruxifiction upon a brutal Roman cross.
There is no “prosperity gospel” here – not by a long shot! They are not to imply that if you do what we say you will necessarily enjoy great success and / or beatific visions. To the contrary, “Go out and do what we say and you will most likely encounter the world in all its dreadfulness and suffering – and God will use all manner of weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ!”
“For whenever I am weak, then I am strong!” says Paul. “Don’t you get it? God has told us: My grace is sufficient for you, for REAL power is made perfect in weakness. So if you’re going to brag and pontificate about anything, then brag and pontificate all the more gladly of your weaknesses – because THAT is the way the power of Christ will be made manifest within you.”
And this is what we see in David’s humble approach to the madness of Saul – whom he continued to treat as the “anointed of God” even though he (Saul) was acting like anything but. David did not use his position of strength to force the issue but rather he staid lowly and humble – allowing God to work things out in HIS time.
It is TRUST with a capital “T” that Paul is espousing – that doesn’t rely on the worlds definition of success – and certainly not on coercion or force or brute strength – but rather on the very opposite of those things – summed up as “weakness” – which God uses to shame both the worldly strong and to bring to humility the worldly wise.
So yes – welcome to God’s crazy, zany mixed up world! Where up is often down, hot is sometimes cold and the weakest kitten in the litter might just have the power to move like a lion! Or not! And that “or not” is a big part of what we must understand. God may choose to work in whatever way, shape or form he deems necessary to affect HIS purposes. But even knowing that he often choses to do so paradoxically can – in itself – be its own very misplaced assumption!
The bottom line it would seem is that our expectations (regardless of wisdom and intuition) are simply rarely IF EVER going to be in line with His greater view . . . So while the unexpected might turn out to be the best bet – even that can never necessarily be the only one we make with any certitude. For God will not be predicted – save for His unfailing goodness and love over the long haul – and His willingness to forgive and continuously seek us over the short. Outside of that simple truth there’s just not much more we apparently need to know!
So our calling is to recognize and live the TRUTH IN HUMILITY just as David and Paul did in both word AND in deed . . . When the chips are down – when life is really happening – not just when we’re ruminating sublimely about it from our comfortable chairs!
Yes! To practice what we are all inclined to preach in our own best moments – for even as lukewarm Christians we KNOW the truth as we encounter it in the Word and all around us in life every day. We really do!
The only question is whether our response will be of the nature that God has been trying to fully awaken in us since day one? Or will it be that part of us that has so much more in common with what, by all appearances, is a continuously deeper and tragically fallen world?
In the end we all have to give our own answers, don’t we.
Nobody can do it for us – or even with us.
What’s yours?
– Stuart Revercomb
