"Being the Elect" August 12, 2018

2 Samuel 18: 5-9 John 6: 35, 41-51 What does it mean to be Elect, to be a Chosen People? There are responsibilities that come with being in leadership. For some, this means seeing yourself as being Special, privileged, able to do what you want, that rules for other people/ordinary people, do not apply to you. This is what Frederick Nietzsche described as “Men and Supermen”, not the kind from Krypton with an S on their chest, but that some understand others to be animals and themselves, by race, by power, by education, to be Better, to be elect, to chosen. Judaism, Christianity had a different revelation from this, of Election, being Chosen. In Fiddler on the Roof, Tevya says “I know there is no shame being chosen to be poor, but it’s no great honor either”! Throughout human history, God has demonstrated to the world: Being in Relationship with God, through individuals, a tiny remnant of all humanity, who are an example for all the world. God’s identification of a King, a Son of a King, A Messiah, was never an identity of power or privilege. God’s election in Jesus, Job, Daniel, the Judges, Isaac, Simon Peter, James, John and Paul, was A Life as an Offering, one who bears the responsibility of a relationship of faith with such humility they die not for believing they are right, but for offering everything including their lives to God. When in the Gospel of John, Jesus describes himself as being sent from Heaven, the crowds hear him claiming scandalous authority as being Superhuman, being Chosen by God, when they knew his father the Carpenter and his mother. One of the cultural lessons we learned from Africa, is that there is The Tall Poppy Syndrome. In a field there are always individual plants that grow up higher and faster than all the rest, which causes the others to choke that one for standing out. One of the early fears about Christianity, was that we practiced Cannibalism by eating Jesus’ flesh and drinking his blood. All of the Christian denominations have described what happens in Communion is a Mystery, “The Visible Sign of Invisible Things”, yet each has also tried to explain that Mystery. The Roman Catholic Church described “Transubstantiation” that the Ordained Priest changed the substance of the bread into Jesus’ Flesh, and the Wine becomes Blood. Martin Luther in the 1500s described that, as Magic; reciting an incantation in Latin, to change a Rabbit into Flowers, or Bread into Flesh. Luther instead described “Consubstantiation”, that “The Real Presence” of Christ was invited to come down out of heaven to be present in relationship with the Church. The Swiss theologian Ulrich Zwingli, who wrote the specifics of the Reformed Church, emphasized the importance of “Remembrance” that believers remember what Jesus did for us once and will do for us again. John Calvin at age 27 wrote the theology adopted by the Presbyterian Church, that Communion is more than Remembrance or Magic, and that we cannot command Christ do anything. He emphasized that what Jesus meant by saying that we need to eat his flesh and taste his blood, is that every believer in Communion needs to name and own: the sins of their own broken relationships and lives, for we are human. Only in naming these addictions, human wounds, sins, can we then have a foretaste of the new Covenant, where we are in full communion and sharing with God and with one another without sin. This morning’s passage from Samuel is among the most scandalous soap operas in all Literature. I am forever shocked by Sunday School teachers who complain about the stories of Wars and killing of thousands in the Book of Judges, because this story of a family, the love of a father, I believe is far more troubling than any in other in the Bible, Shakespeare, or Stephen King. Two weeks ago, we read of the Love of God for David, God choosing election that no matter the sin David committed God would chastise and forgive rather than destroy. Last week, we heard of David’s sin, coveting the wife of Uriah, committing adultery, lying, and murder, and that the sins of the King would be born by his loved ones. The baby conceived by Uriah’s wife and David, died. Afterward, they conceive again, and this one is Solomon. But David had other children, as well. David’s son Amnon lusted after his sister Tamar. In order to take advantage, Amnon pretended to be too ill to feed himself. David sent Tamar to Amnon with food, and Amnon scamming that he did not want to be seen so weak, demanded that everyone leave the room while Tamar fed him. Alone with her, Amnon raped his sister. Afterward, Tamar’s brother Absalom avenged her, by having Amnon come out to the field, and like Cain killing Abel generations before, Absalom killed Amnon. One chosen-son killing another, inciting a Civil War between those following Absalom, and those loyal to David. But David provided an odd request of his Generals. Do not kill the boy Absalom, for he is a Son of the King. This morning’s Scripture, is that Absalom riding a donkey, gets his head caught in a tree, where the Son of the King is suspended high up between heaven and earth by crossed wood. The New Testament uses this as foreshadowing for what happened to Jesus, lynched on a tree, lifted up for all to see, not in heaven/not on earth, as he died. Although David had instructed them not to do so, his Generals pierced his sides with spears until he was dead. This week one of the Bishops of Pennsylvania testified before the Attorney General the names of over 300 Priests who had committed sexual abuses. In our own community, I was never trained for this in Seminary, but we have had a number of marriages destroyed by pornography on the internet. The issue in each of these is that ones you trusted have betrayed that trust. We cannot simply remove the offender (the Tall Poppy) and imagine everything is better, we are broken, we are wounded, there is sin, that we need to own and discuss until it is dry as dust. The issue of election, of being chosen, as described by our Scriptures and the sung Prelude this morning is not that “Love” is good or evil, but what Love bids us do. Love for their King and Nation, bid the Generals to kill Absalom. Love for his own Son, bid David sacrifice the Nation. Love for his sister Tamar, bid Absalom to kill Amnon, as Cain killed Abel. Love for her brother and Father, bid Tamar make herself vulnerable and alone. Lust, masquerading as love, bid Amnon rape his sister Tamar. Love, bid God, offer God’s own son to save the world. Love bid Jesus sacrifice life, for the sins of the world. What would we not do for love? While those seeking power and control, as the world does, read Nietzsche and wonder whether their desires are more important, than everyone else’s, whether they know better than others do, and that the rules established do not apply to them; believers have always loved the Lord and loved people so much as to sacrifice all that they have, to offer their lives rather than cause greater conflict and suffering.