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Sunday October 5, 2008: "David: The Shepherd King" 2 Samuel 5:1-5, 10 |
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Location: Blogs Brad's BlogBrad's Sermons |
 | | Posted by: Brad Miller | 10/13/2008 6:11 AM | I’ve known Mr. McDonald my whole life.
He and his wife and kids lived in our neighborhood. They went to our church. His family participated in family camp at the camp my parents ran in northern Michigan. His oldest daughter was in the same grade as my older sister and his youngest daughter was in my grade. Like so many of those folks from my childhood, I don’t remember meeting Mr. McDonald, he was just always there.
But I do remember Mr. McDonald.
I remember that he seemed awfully strict as a parent. His kids had to be in the house earlier than everyone else. There was an inordinate amount of “yes sirs” around him. He was a bit of a yeller, and didn’t hesitate to upbraid his kids in front of others.He was a businessman of some sort. Owned his own company, as I remember. He dressed a little differently that the other fathers who were teachers and line workers and city employees. He was always in a sharp business suit, or well coordinated casual clothes. You never saw him in a t-shirt and jeans like my father and some of the others.
I remember overhearing a conversation where one of the other men was talking about how he wouldn’t want to get into a disagreement with Mr. McDonald over business, because he was really “hardnosed.” I didn’t know exactly what that meant, but the way I heard it was both respectful and a bit fearful at the same time.He could get loud and obnoxious. At a couple of weddings for people in the neighborhood, he got a couple of drinks in him and got into several arguments over politics and such. My mother would say she really didn’t like being around him at times like those and that it was a shame, because he was such a good man.I felt a little sorry for Mr. McDonald, because he didn’t really seem to fit all that well.
He was not the sort of man I gravitated toward. He would try to tell jokes, but not in the easy, welcoming way that Mr. Schulz did. He would get out and play ball with us at times, but you could tell he was always a little afraid of getting dirty, or embarrassing himself, or something, unlike Mr. Renton or my dad. He was always nice enough to me, but he was not the sort of man I would feel comfortable confiding in, like Mr. Newhouser.Until that day in the winter of 1965.I was nine years old, and was at the wake for my grandmother Conely, my mother’s mother. She had struggled with cancer for 2 or 3 years, and died at the age of 60. My two grandfathers had died within a month of each other when I was seven, but both of them died of heart attacks, quickly. Here and then gone.
Grandma Conely was different. Even though I didn’t understand it all, I knew that she was struggling. I knew that she was in pain, especially those last few months. But she had persevered, and fought, hard. She lived us with a good chunk of her last year, and it was wonderful to have her there. Even though she wasn’t always feeling well, it was a wonderful time.When she went to the hospital that last time, she assured us she would see us soon, but it wasn’t to be.
At the wake, I was a little overwhelmed. I had been to wakes and funerals before, but this one was different. I saw how hard it was on my mother. I was at some pretty big loose ends, for a nine year old.
I can still picture it today. I was sitting off to the side, in a big overstuffed chair by a window. There was a folding chair right next to it, and as I sat and stared into space, Mr. McDonald sat down next to me. I don’t think he was really looking at me when he started talking. He talked about what a good woman my grandmother was. He talked about how hard it was to lose someone so good. He told me about losing his grandmother. He spoke so softly, so kindly, that it surprised me. I don’t remember any specific words he said, but at one point he reached over and put his hand on mind and just sort of patted it. And then we just sat there, for a long, long time.
From that day on, I looked at Mr. McDonald a little differently.
I think it was one of the first times that I realized that people can surprise you. That people are not always what they seem. That people are more complicated than we want to let on.
It’s easy to categorize people. It helps us organize our world, I think. He’s mean. She’s sweet. She’s smart. He’s funny. But too often, our organizing, our catergorizing of people give them the short shrift. Mr. McDonald may have been a gruff, loud, opinionated, short tempered man. But if that was all you focused on, you missed the fact that he was also a kind man, a loving man, a good man.
We can fall into that trap sometimes with our Biblical stories, too. King David is a perfect example. Who is this man? How do we categorize him? Is he the great warrior king, ancestor to the lineage of Jesus? Or is he the terribly flawed, self centered man who woos Bathsheba and sends her husband to his death? Is he the humble shepherd boy who steps up to slay the Philistine giant, or is he the effete musician who won Saul’s respect with his soothing music? Is he the loving friend of Jonathan, who seeks to protect his fallen friend’s disabled son? Or is he the political leader who seeks to destroy what is left of Jonathan’s family to take over the throne of Israel?
David, is indeed, a riddle. Your view of him will largely be dictated by how you encounter him. The fact is though, that we can’t concentrate on only one part of David’s story. We can’t dwell only on certain character traits at the exclusion of others. We can’t ignore the bad and trumpet the good. Why? Because we do those things, we will miss one of the great lessons that David’s story can teach us: that all of us are walking contradictions. If we, in our dealings with each other fail to see the whole person, we will fail to see the person that God sees, the person that God can use for God’s purposes. And likewise, if we fail to face up to our own contradictions, if we consider ourselves only unworthy, we will find it difficult to accept that God can use us for God’s purposes.
Do you remember David’s story? The one that leads him from being the shepherd boy to being the shepherd king?David was the 8th son of Jesse, of Bethlehem. The king of Judah, Saul, had been a disappointment to God and so God sent Samuel to anoint a new king, a future king. Samuel’s travels took him to Jesse’s house, where all of David’s brother were brought before Samuel who was perplexed, because the one he had come to anoint was not among them. “Are these all your sons?” Samuel asked. “Well, no,” Jesse answered, “there is David, but he’s out keeping the sheep. And he’s just a boy.”
"Bring him to me, anyway.”
David was brought in: beautiful eyes, ruddy complexeion, handsome. And Samuel anointed him as the future king.
Now, this is a pretty big burden to be put on a boy. What does it mean? Clearly, he is not in the royal line to become king. His family has no experience in such matters. But here is this king, the retired king Samuel, saying that David will be king. How bizarre! Might this have something to do with David’s behavior and personality development, both good and not so good?
It may have given him a special calm that allowed him to become the great warrior that he would become. Surely God would not let David be defeated in battle. It might help explain how he so calmly faced the giant Goliath. (Although our good friend Bill Travis asked me one time, “If David was so sure that God was on his side, why did he choose 3 stones for his sling instead of just the one that he needed?”)Having been anointed by Samuel might have given David the confidence to enter into Saul’s courts to play his music. It might have filled his heart with such joy that
the dozens of psalms he wrote for worship flowed effortlessly from him. It certainly would have emboldened him as Israel’s military savior when he commanded Saul’s armies.
But it might have also led to an arrogance that so many have pointed out in David. In this vein we see the David who marries the kings daughter, not for love, but because it would please him to be the king’s son-in-law. It is this David we see when we hear the story of his infatuation with the lovely Bathsheba, his immoral act of adultery with her, and his use of power to make sure her husband would not survive. It is this arrogant David we see whose ambition causes him to raise his own ragtag, tenacious army in what many scholars believe was his unbridled grab for power. It is the arrogant David who revels in the elders of Israel coming to him, begging him, to become their king.
How are we to reconcile these David’s? The contradictions are staggering. The caring, gentle, wise David vs. the greedy, self-satisfying, self-aggrandizing David. How many people in David’s life got to see both sides? How many people worshipped him as the savior king without any consideration of how many people he had stepped on to get to the top? How many people despised him because of those same things, never recognizing his great leadership abilities or wisdom?The contradictions are indeed enormous. The shepherd boy becomes the shepherd king. Why a shepherd? Sheep are dirty, ornery animals, but the good shepherd realizes that he is there to serve them. People are much the same way, and it takes a firm hand and a gentle spirit to truly be a good shepherd.
David is both of those things, both firm and gentle. But the contradictions do not stop there.
After having agreed to become the king of the newly united Israel, David sets out to find a capital for this new kingdom. He had ruled in Hebron as King of the Southern kingdom of Judah, and now that he will also be king of the northern kingdom of Israel, he needs a new city from which to rule. He chooses the Jebusite city of Jerusalem. But first he must overrun it. In his conquest of Jerusalem, soon to be known as the city of David, something very curious happens. Hear the words of 2 Samuel 5:6… “The king and his men marched to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, who said to David, “You will not come in here, even the blind and the lame will turn you back”—thinking, “David cannot come in here.” Nevertheless, David took the stronghold of Zion, which is now the city of David. David had said on that day, “Whoever would strike down the Jebusites, let him get up the water shaft to attack the lame and the blind, those whom David hates.” Therefore it is said, “The blind and the lame shall not come into this house.”Clearly, this was not the compassionate David speaking. In fact, in his grab for power, his arrogance and ruthlessness comes shining through. And all of it continues to add to the contradictions: the city of David, the holy city of Israel, the city that will eventually become the great symbol of inclusion is borne out of desire for exclusion. The city of peace, founded in violence and aggression.
What are we to make of all this? If our goal for the next few weeks is to hear the stories of some of the kings and discern lessons for our use, what lesson are to learn from this seemingly endless series of contradictions?
First, I think we need to understand that even at his most arrogant and immoral, David could still be used by God. Even when we despise his actions, or his motives, God saw past that and ultimately used David for God’s purposes, God’s glory, God’s honor.
Second, God can use us, too. We are not one-dimensional people who are entirely good or entirely bad. We, too, carry with us contradictions that can be surprising and sometimes, disconcerting. But still, God can use us.
Third, and I think this might be the most important: we need to go beyond our one-dimensional perceptions of other people in order that we might more readily see people as God sees them. People are too complicated to be put into a single category. People have more to offer than we can sometime see. People need us more than they will allow themselves to let on. People need the community of faith to help them deal with their own contradictions, to help them truly become the person that God would have them be.But when we decide that we have everyone all figured out, we will put them into that simplistic single category, we will not see what they have to offer. We will not be there for people when they need us the most. And if we are not there for them, they will not allow themselves to break free of their contradictions and find their place in God’s kingdom.
This is after all, what I learned from Mr. McDonald. People will surprise you. If only we will welcome them and get to know them, contradictions and all.
In the end, the world today is every bit as contradictory, confusing and difficult as the world in David’s time. But if we look hard we will see that normal people can be transformed by God’s presence. We will see shepherds become kings. We will see kings become shepherds. We will see cities of violence become cities of peace.We will see God at work. And that is awesome sight.
Let us pray: Thank you Lord, for the remarkable variations in your children. Thank you for staying with us, for allowing us our mistakes, for allowing us the time to become the people you would have us be. Strengthen us for the journey; give us wisdom to see those all around us, really see those around us, so that we might join together to serve you in all we do. In the name of Jesus, who is the Christ. Amen.
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