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Game of Thrones: The Cost of Love and War 2 Samuel 1: 1, 17-27 July 8, 2012 University UMC
It would have been easier – much easier! – to skip this lesson. When Bill and I put this sermon series together we were thinking “Summer! A good time for some of the great Old Testament lessons: David and Goliath; David dancing before the Lord, bring the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem; Solomon and the building of the great Temple. Summer! A great time for Scripture lessons that children can act out and remember.”
We didn’t choose these Scripture readings out of the blue. They’re part of the lectionary. The lectionary offers four readings from different parts of the Bible for each Sunday, and if you stick with the lectionary for three years, reading all four each week, you will have gotten through almost all the Holy Scriptures. Some churches do that “religiously.” Some churches ignore the lectionary completely. So far, Bill and I seem to be hitting the middle ground; we use the lectionary, but not slavishly. Sometimes we take detours or rearrange the order of things.
I don’t know why we didn’t plan to take a detour today. Based on the vast supply of biblical commentaries available on the web, it seems clear that most preachers were smart enough to avoid 2nd Samuel , chapter 1, and focus on the New Testament lectionary readings. The Gospel reading, for example, is the story from the Gospel of Mark about Jesus healing two people: the woman with the flow of blood and the little daughter of Jairus, the synagogue leader. It’s a great passage – full of hope and promise, just right for acting out during the children’s time.
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But no. Here we are, instead, listening to David’s lament of pain and sorrow at the death of Saul and Saul’s son Jonathan. How did we get here from last Sunday’s story of David and Goliath?
There’s a lot of biblical ink spilled between then and now. Here’s the short version:
If you’ve been here the last two Sundays, you know that we’ve heard two different versions of how David was selected to be king. Upon God’s direction, Samuel, the last of the great judges, anointed David, when it became evident that King Saul was not the right man for the job. The story of David’s courage and faith facing the Philistine giant, Goliath, reinforces that he is the right man to lead Israel.
But David doesn’t actually sit on throne for quite some time; and the time he spends before his actual coronation is a mixed bag, at best. He travels around with a band of four hundred soldiers and even becomes a mercenary for the Philistines, Israel’s arch-enemies. He marries Abigail, the death of whose husband, Nabal, happens under strange circumstances. David also marries Michal, Saul’s daughter; he and Saul’s son, Jonathan, pledge faithfulness to one another.
Meanwhile, Saul is increasing portrayed as losing control both mentally and militarily. He tries to kill David on several occasions, but – even when he’s working for the Philistines – David refuses to exact revenge. Finally, Saul’s death comes upon Mount Gilboa in a battle with the Philistines. They have killed three of his sons, including Jonathan, and Saul recognizes that all is lost. Rather than dying at the hand of his enemy, the king chooses suicide and falls on his own sword.
And you thought soap operas were melodramatic.
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This brings us to today’s reading: an old poem expressing David’s deep grief over the death of Jonathan and Saul. The first one makes sense to us. But Saul? How odd for David to mourn the man who chased him across the country intent on killing him. David calls him a mighty warrior, well-loved and deeply cherished. He curses the mountains on which Saul died, praying that they would have no rain, and that all of nature would mourn the fallen king. He reminds the people that it was Saul’s leadership that made their nation wealthy, and calls upon them to weep over their loss.
David‘s lament over the death of his enemy is a sign of his growing wisdom and experience with the cost of war. Those who have seen too much bloodshed know that all victory is bittersweet.
The loss of life – even the life of one’s enemy – is always a cause for mourning. Now
reconciliation is impossible; now there is one more reason for revenge; now one more life is cut short, one more mother loses a son, one more child loses a parent. We can disagree about whether and under what conditions war might be justified, but we must never dismiss the cost of war, especially if we are on the winning side.
David’s deepest grief, though, is for Jonathan, the man who saved David’s life, gave up his right to the throne for him, who had pledged his enduring loyalty and fidelity to him. David knew the love of many women, but Jonathan’s, he says, was greater than all of them.
What do we do with this passage…in a family-friendly worship service in which we’ve already taken on the issue of war, no less?
Well, let me say this. It would be irresponsible for a preacher to fail to acknowledge that over the last 35 years, this passage has increasingly been interpreted as describing a homosexual
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relationship between David and Jonathan. It has been increasingly interpreted that way, and therefore it has also been increasingly refuted to be that way.
So, a few words are warranted here:
• It is difficult, if not impossible, to draw direct lines of comparison between relationships portrayed in scripture and those lived today. That is true for arguments on both sides of the sexual orientation debate.
• On the one hand, if you’re going to invoke “the biblical value of marriage” you need to admit that the overwhelming picture of marriage in the Bible is polygamous, which is probably not the view of marriage you’re trying to promote.
• On the other hand, if you’re going to use this testimony of David’s love for Jonathan as an argument for the Bible’s acceptance of homosexual relationships, you’re going to have to admit that the Biblical prohibitions of same sex relations are more numerous and less ambiguous.
• Lastly, nowhere in the Bible are we presented with the kind of committed, monogamous same-sex relationships that are the topic of contemporary debate. Expecting the Bible to address that question is like asking it for specific answers to questions about internet privacy laws or genetic engineering.
The point I’m really trying to make is this: proof-texting – the art of picking out Scripture verses in order to justify an already-established point of view -- is never a helpful way to read the Bible.
At best it’s a waste of time. At worst it makes the Bible a harmful tool of our own ideologies.
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All that said, this passage does, quite clearly, describe a deep, committed, loving relationship between David and Jonathan. It is a relationship that leads Jonathan to make a covenant with David, to warn David of Saul’s desire to have him killed, and to speak well of David to Saul in spite of Saul’s obvious hatred of David. It is a relationship that leads David to sing of Jonathan’s death as if he himself had died.
David knows the cost of love and war, which is the grief of loss.
After this year’s General Conference, the cost of love and war was known by United Methodists, too.
If you are visiting us this morning, have no ties to the United Methodist Church, and need a few minutes to put together a shopping list or catch a few zzz’s – now’s the time. Otherwise, I would suggest to you that what happens at General Conference – our once-every-four-years meeting of delegates from around the world – is as important to you as a United Methodist as what happens in our elections is to you as a citizen.
We are a global denomination. We began in England, and our development as a separate denomination took place in the United States, after the Revolutionary War. But in the last half century, the United Methodist churches in the US started to decline in numbers and the ones outside the US, especially in Africa and Asia, started to grow by leaps and bounds. The balance of numbers and power has slowly started to shift, but our structure hasn’t shifted with it.
For example, at the General Conference that just took place in late April and early May, an hour was spent debating a new pension program for U.S. clergy. 41% of the delegates to General
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Conference are from outside the US; they had to vote on something that didn’t apply to them in any way.
This might seem like nothing more than a case of how to waste other people’s time, until you get to the big, hot-button issues, like sexuality. Then the differences between the many cultures that make up United Methodism take on a much larger significance, and the effect on our
denomination is like the effect of war: loss, grief and division.
This year, as it did at the last General Conference four years ago, the controversial legislation around sexuality was not a statement about marriage or ordination or even church membership: it was a simple statement that good and faithful disciples of Jesus Christ differ on this issue.
Late in the second week of General Conference, Adam Hamilton and Mike Slaughter, two of our best-known pastors, leaders of two of our largest churches, submitted a substitute motion that would have altered our Social Principles to state that we are not of one mind in the United Methodist Church around homosexuality. In the United States, this seems obvious. No matter where you stand on the issue, it seems fully evident that American Christians hold differing opinions.
But this is not the case for those from cultures where homosexuality is nothing less than evil.
For them, admitting that Christians can believe differently on this issue is akin to saying that homosexuality is acceptable. Delegates from Africa and the Philippines reported that they were told that, if General Conference moved in this more tolerant direction in any way, they should not return to their home countries. Or that if they did return, it would be to churches with empty pews.
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The motion was defeated. Which made me grieve about the empty pews here at University UMC and other American churches. It made me grieve for the people who would be sitting in them, if they felt that they, or their children or their siblings or their best friends or their co- workers were welcome here. More importantly, it caused me to grieve for all the missions and ministry that would not be done because of the people who would not be here to do it: the children who won’t be taught, the music that won’t be played, the hungry who won’t be fed, the poor who won’t be lifted up, the sick who won’t be visited, the bereaved who won’t be
comforted.
Brothers and sisters, the cost of the internal war in our denomination around this issue is the damage it is doing to the life of our church and thereby to the life of our world.
I am sorry to say I have no solution to this problem. I have no peace proposal for this war. I have no balm for this grief.
Which may be why this difficult passage from 2nd Samuel is exactly what I needed to hear.
Sometimes there is no answer except to express the pain of loss that is the cost of love and war.
That is true whether the love is for a lost person or a divided church; it is true whether the war is won or lost.
“When we grieve and mourn,” says Pastor Doug Green, “we learn and discover so much. We learn how important love is. Grief opens our eyes to the realness of life. It opens our hearts to the comfort and love of one another. It makes us more aware of the need for love in our life. It makes us more aware of the power and presence of God’s spirit in our lives.”
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Had we taken the easy way out, and skipped this lesson on grief from David, we could very well have turned to the lectionary’s Gospel readings: the story about Jesus healing of two people, the woman who had been hemorrhaging for 12 years and the little girl who had already been
declared dead. In neither case was there an evident solution to the problem; in neither case was there any obvious reason for hope. 12 years is a long time. Dead is dead.
But it is ironically the case that God’s best work often happens in the dark nights of our souls.
It’s in the wilderness of our lives that God shows us the way to freedom. It’s after the
crucifixion of Good Friday that God works the miracle of Easter. It is when we cry out in grief that God hears us and listens to us and strengthens us and transforms us into something new.
The woman’s bleeding stopped. The little girl sat up and ate. David became a great king.
I do not know how this particular battle within the United Methodist Church is going to turn out.
Maybe we will find a way to be both united and inclusive. Maybe we won’t. Maybe we will split in two, as we did over the issue of slavery before the Civil War. Maybe we won’t.
What I know is this: Weeping may endure for a night, but joy will come in the morning.
What I know is this: The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.
What I know is this: If God is for us, who can be against us? For I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God.
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Laurie Haller, GC Dispatch for Thursday, May 3, 2012, “We Need a Different Way” and Friday, April 27, 2012, “God Bless You.”
Available at http://www.westmichiganconference.org/pages/detail/2610 or at LaurieHaller.org, posts for May 3 and 4, 2012.
Samuel Giere, Commentary on Alternate First Reading, at WorkingPreacher.org, July 1, 2012.
http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?lect_date=7/1/2012#tab2
Ralph W. Klein, Commentary on Alternate First Reading, at WorkingPreacher.org, June 28, 2009. http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?lect_date=6/28/2009&tab=2
Douglas J. Green, “Someone You Love Has Died,” sermon preached February 26, 1984.
Personal copy.
You can learn more about General Conference 2012 through our West Michigan Conference website: www.westmichiganconference.org. Type “General Conference 2012” into the Search bar or go to http://www.westmichiganconference.org/pages/detail/2505.
Another source of General Conference information is our denominational website, www.umc.org. Click on “General Conference 2012” or go directly to
http://www.umc.org/site/c.lwL4KnN1LtH/b.7989685/k.1FD3/General_Conference_2012.htm.
