Children of God, August 09, 2009

2 Samuel 8:1-9, 15, 31-33
Ephesians 4:25- 5:2
We want to be the Adopted-Claimed-Loved Children of God, yet we are also Children of Adam & Eve. The dilemma for us, different from earlier times, is that in a post-Modern world, all options become possible and held in tension. The Enlightenment = Modern era was focused on finding the one right true answer to every dilemma, but in the 1960s, 70s and 80s we began to realize that different cultures perceive what is right differently, and often have conflicting priorities. The Post-Modern era recognizes that there are differences, and for some of us old answers still work, and there can be other alternatives, but the challenge is to hold these in tension, acting in faith. It is not simply that we choose to create a different God, or give our God new priorities. God is God, we do not create God. But in different times, we do understand God's priorities differently... How in one time God can command to make swords into plowshares and in another to beat our plowshares into swords. Today, different from a Priest, I can be Ordained and Married, I can be involved in the life of the Church and in the Community, and be the Father of Children, but there are different responsibilities and new questions of faith.

Among my favorite Versions of the Bible, are those of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, for in those times, the believer made up a book of the passages they most loved. Just as in our lives, there are stories in the Bible we like to read, and passages we wish we could delete.

The Great Feast where all are welcome. The Feeding of the 5000. The Prodigal Son who returns home. Yet for these Banquets to have their meaning, they must be set against harsh reality that we do not like. When invited people made excuses. The masses came to be fed the word of God, but they had little or no food to eat. The Return of the Prodigal Son, is response to the reality of David's Son, Absalom.

The problem of faith is rarely the choice between good and evil, so much as between two, two rights, two sets of responsibilities, professional and personal, for David being King and David being a Father. How amazing that we have the stories of the implosion of David's family!

The Court Chronicler could have recorded only the stories of David being anointed, David and Goliath, David and the Jebusites; but they also recorded, that the most beloved King of Israel, the Shepherd who wrote the Psalms and united the Nation, committed adultery with the Wife of Uriah, committed murder, which as King he had power to do, but as a Man, as Child of God, he had sinned; then his son Absalom emulating the father also lusted after power, also lusted for what was not his, instead of seducing the wife of another seduced and raped his baby sister, killed his brothers and created a civil war that divided the Family, divided the Nation, divided the King against himself, such that David the Father waits forever at the Gate of the Kingdom for his Prodigal son to come home.

We hear snippets of this tale and immediately our heart goes out, for what could be more tragic, more painful for a parent than the death of a child. We dare not talk of such things, but as much as there are those who go off to college with the parting epitaph “Whatever you do, don't touch my room!” there are those who have lost a child, who for 40 and 50 years after, keep their room just as it was for them. There are those who were pregnant, never permitted to give birth, who grieve the life that never was.
I recall as the father of a 6 month old with an ear infection, feeling so helpless, as you sat up rocking, singing to them in a chair throughout the night, wishing, praying you could take the pain for them, you could suffer for them. Yet, with all the power at our disposal, we can have compassion, we can have empathy, but the power to truly suffer for others is not ours, not even David as King of all Israel could do that. The only one who was able to suffer for others, is God in Jesus Christ.

But there is more to this sad tale, than the death of a child. Recall the story of David and Bethsheba, when the Prophet Nathan told the parable of the Rich man who stole the lamb from the man with only one, King David had judged that the Rich man should die. But speaking for God, Nathan had said “No, but your own family will suffer.” David is a man suspended between two identities:
between being a Person of Faith and Man with Desires. Between being King and being a Father, Between being at War for your survival and the survival of the Nation, and the suffering of your Son.
SO, as great a Warrior and Strategist as King David had been, he also instructs his Generals, when you find Absalom “Deal Gently with the Young Man.” There is affection here but no statement of MY Son.
The part everyone always forgets in the Bible, in life, is that this is not simply a war between two, between father and son, between opposing armies. Remember at Adam and Eve being Judged, Noah and the Animals sent out, Moses at the Red Sea & receiving the 10 Commandments, ALL CREATION serves as Witnesses. So in this battle, what catches Absalom is not David or his Army, but the TREES of the Forest. As his father David is figuratively, so the Son is literally SUSPENDED BETWEEN Two Heaven and Earth, between Life and Death, between Victory and Defeat.

Though the King had publicly instructed them to “Deal Gently with the Young Man”, Joab David's General does what must be done to end the fighting. High and lifted up, the Son of the Anointed hangs until Joab and the Mob put him to death for the Nation, and for David.
Then comes, the dilemma of What Message to Send, how do we tell David.
Ahimaz the Son of a Member of David's Cabinet volunteers, but Joab knows sending the family of a Cabinet Minister will send A Message of Good News for the King, so he sends an unamed Cushite instead. What is to be a neutral voice, reporting.

Yet Ahimaz presses that he too wants to run. Ahimaz outruns the first and arriving tells Father David that he and the Nation are safe, because Absalom is suspended. But this news while important to a King, would not satisfy a parent. The second runner is spotted, who comes bearing news for the King, He and the Nation are Safe because Absalom is suspended... and when pressed tells that Absalom is dead. The events of this week in North Korea's release of two women journalists are fortunate indeed. But the spouse of the Secretary of State, former President of the Nation, volunteering to carry a message by his going to obtain release of those who were being held, is bizarre in similarity.
While the Coup and Civil war for the King is ended, David the Man is overwhelmed with Grief. The story of the Prodigal Son only makes sense, knowing that most often Prodigals never return, lost forever, we know not where they are or if they care.

We are in a strange and wonderful time. Earlier generations, other nations, have never known the choices before us. CHOICE is a matter of privilege, but choice is also a matter of responsibility & faith.

In EPHESIANS, Who among us if asked, would you rather be:
False, a Thief, a Fornicator, Covetous, filthy, silly, unfit OR
in the IMITATION of GOD, a BELOVED CHILD of GOD, Walking in Love as Christ himself did;
Of course we Choose to BE CHILDREN OF GOD.
The challenge for us today is all options have seemingly become equal. Now with all the choices, will we still choose to be a Child of God?
What are we saying by the ways in which we live?

In the last month U Tube has had a video of a Wedding in which the Bridal Party dance up the aisle. This is fresh and fun, even more because the Bride was a Dancer and Choreographer, and her Aunt was the minister. But doing so, the Bridal party emphasize this not about “Reverence” and “Contemplation” but is a Celebration.
If the Engagement is that extended period of reflection and contemplation, and the couple are now truly ready to celebrate, this seems a demonstration of their faith. IF like so much of the wedding, this is one more celebration without thought for why, we have lost our intent.

The challenge for us as Children of God, is less a matter of Sin versus Right, and more a mater of questioning the motivations and intent to be certain we are not headed into heresy, but are instead witnessing the further development of faith in God.