First Presbyterian Church
Integrity Collage
Sermon for July 16, 2006
by Pastor
Susan Barnes
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The story of King David's rise to power is full of political intrigue and royal court machinations that would rival France in the eighteenth century. King Saul saw David's power, and at first promoted David and gave him his daughter Michal as a wife, thinking to control David through Michal. When Saul saw how much Michal loved David, he regretted the marriage. As David's influence grew, King Saul plotted to kill David, who was now a rival. Once in the middle of the night, Michal saved David's life by helping him escape from her father. David's troops and Saul's soldiers continued to fight one another and their mutual enemy the Philistines. Later, to form other political alliances, David married Ahinoam and Abigail. Then King Saul gave Michal as a wife to another man. David took her back when he needed her politically. He took many other wives. After Saul died, the elders of Israel asked King David of Judah to be their king. David took the strategically-placed Jerusalem for his capital, as we heard last week. This week, David takes the ark of the covenant, the chest of the ten commandments, into his new capital, as a sign of his religious as well as political power. We hear about Michal, Saul's daughter, again. Listen for the word of God as it is found in 2 Samuel 6:1-19.
This ends our reading from 2 Samuel. I have a lot of questions about this text. I expect you do too. Some of my questions come from verses 6-12a, the part of the reading the lectionary leaves out. I went ahead and included them because I think it's important for us to know what's in the Bible, the whole Bible. There's princess Michal, who was used by her father and her husband for political reasons. All she has now, it seems, is her role as David's first wife among many wives. Her status is dependent on David's status. And here David is, dancing among these low-lifes. She knows she is a daughter of a king, and David comes from lower stock; he isn't even a first born son. He needs all the honor he can get. She urges him to remember his station, presumably so she can hold on to her own tenuous place. David disagrees with her, and she has no children. Saul's line dies out with Michal. David has had military victories over the philistines as well as his former allies, Saul's sons. He attributes his victories to the Lord and celebrates by dancing. He wants to make Jerusalem a religious shrine as well as a political capitol. So he takes his peoples' most precious object, the ark of the covenant, from his old capitol, Hebron, to his new capitol, Jerusalem. But on the way, the oxen stumble, the ark shifts, and Uzzah, a nephew of David, reaches out to steady it, which angers God, who kills Uzzah. Why punish someone who is just trying to keep your throne from falling off a cart? My study Bible notes that Hebrew here is uncertain. I do not know what it is. The verse is about God's power being so great that you cannot take it for granted, or treat it casually. David understood that, and was afraid to have the ark too near him, and made Obed-edom take it. But as it became clear that having the ark near Obed-edom for three months brought him blessings, David decided that after all, he did want it near him, and took the ark to Jerusalem with more celebration and fanfare. Listen for the word of God as we read it together from Psalm 24
This ends our reading from the psalm. So the only people who can come into the temple are holy and clean. I understand that; you are supposed to offer God your very best, the cleanest and holiest part of you. But for those of us who don't feel particularly clean or holy, we are left with two choices: either figure out a way to get clean and be pure, no matter what crimes and sins we've committed, or pretend that our crimes and sins aren't crimes or sins after all. We can repent our actions, or justify them so we don't need to repent. In our gospel reading, Jesus has just sent out the disciples to proclaim repentance, and they cast out demons and cured the sick. Listen for the word of God as it is found in Mark 6:14-29.
This ends our reading from God's word. So we have Herod, who even though he liked to listen to John, arrested and imprisoned John. But it says because of the girl and the courtiers present he put John to death. Historian and Roman toady Josephus tells this story as if King Herod was mesmerized by the girl's seductive dance. He names her Salome, although that isn't in the Bible. This is a story told to show us King Herod's character. This is how little he valued the life of his people, the Jews, in his kingdom of Israel . 1 King Herod had told the girl she could have anything, and the girl asked her mother, Herodias. Herodias knows that John denounced her marriage to the King. Like Princess Michal, Herodias' marriage was political. Herodias wanted to get rid of the problem of John. So King Herod, despite having protected John, and being intrigued with John, protected his own honor in front of his guests and did what Herodias wanted. The text is confusing here – is Herodias his wife or his stepdaughter? Do they both have the same name? I don't know. But it's clear that he speaks rashly and offers her or them anything. Mark tells us that the king was grieved. But he didn't let any sense of integrity interfere with keeping his impulsive oath, and killed John. This demonstrated his power to his guests. When we get away with doing something wrong, it often makes us afraid. Afraid someone will find out, afraid we will be caught, afraid we will be punished. And so when Jesus came along, and started preaching like John, of repentance and the Lord's coming, Herod was afraid. And when people in power are afraid, they reinforce their power with violence. All last week I was at Summer Conference. The theme for the conference was “Walking with Integrity in an Age of Crisis.” We worshiped, listened to a lecture, ate together, and attended two workshops each day. Our speaker, Steve Doughty, listed some signs and openings for the way of integrity. He began with reflecting on mystery, that is, being open to the mystery of God, and humility, recognizing our limitations. He spoke of the need for simplicity, honesty and compassion, and developing the capacity for lamentation as well as joy. He shared a poem he wrote called Room Imagine for a moment one so simplified in her living, And imagine for a moment the expression on her face, And imagine for a moment the wondering this one stirs I attended a class on Faith journey as collage. The speaker had plenty of beautiful pictures for us to cut and rearrange. She asked us to look through all the pictures and find ones that we felt a connection to. She prayed, then gave us an assignment to make a collage about being a person of faith for us to share at the next class. I had so many ideas, I made one collage and started another. The second one was had to do with the first lecture. I wanted to portray this sort of roominess and expansion and God being ‘more.' The next morning, I decided not to take written notes during the lecture. I needed a break from writing words. Instead, I listened and glued down the pictures I had already chosen and trimmed (a concrete mosaic of rectangles surrounding a black circle, pink, black and purple galaxy, and a baby's surprised and delighted face). I felt a little guilty doing so even though I just had a glue stick and paper. As I was assembling the collage, I listened to him read this poem by Gail Kittleson, called “The Older I Get.” The Older I Get The more I notice outrageous beauty of sun and moon against the sky… By the end of the lecture, I had finished the collage – the concrete mosaic had become a church; the black circle replaced with the baby's face, with the galaxy in the background. I didn't feel guilty anymore for gluing down pictures. I felt moved and hopeful and glad. I showed it to the speaker afterwards. When we walk in integrity we are not afraid. The community is with us, God is with us. Our clean hands and pure hearts don't come from never making mistakes – it comes from admitting them. We don't have to defend ourselves by holding onto power; we can rely on God's power. That's what Jesus did. Even when Herod was afraid, and tried to keep his power, Jesus kept on walking in integrity, doing what God called him to do: share the gospel in word and deed. May this Lord's Supper spread before us nourish us on our walk. Amen. 1 Actually by this time, it was a tetrarchy – Herod was technically a tetrarch, that is, ruler of a fourth of a kingdom, but he was popularly called a king. 2 Steve Doughty, from his book To Walk in Integrity, Chapter 6 – Compassion. |
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