I needed to write something. Anything. And so I did.
But the Holy Spirit would not let me preach what I wrote. She made me preach something else. And it was all Spirit. I did nothing but give voice to the words God put in my heart.
The text of the sermon I wrote is below. The sermon I preached was recorded here. It is titled Lament.
July 1, 2012
Fifth Sunday after Pentecost
2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27
In 1952, President Harry S.
Truman signed a bill which created a mandate for each following President to
declare a National Day of Prayer. This
date was originally intended to be picked by each President, but in 1988, it
was permanently set as the first Tuesday of May. The National day of Prayer had its origins in
1775, before the Declaration of Independence was even signed. It was declared by the Continental Congress
and was described by George Washington as “a day of fasting, humiliation and
prayer, to acknowledge the gracious interpositions of Providence; to deprecate
[to pray or intreat that a present evil may be removed] deserved punishment for
our Sins and Ingratitiude, to unitedly implore the Protection of Heaven;
Success to our Arms and the Arms of our Ally”
Subsequent National Days of
Prayer have been declared in times of crisis by Presidents John Adams and
Abraham Lincoln, who wrote: “...it is the duty of nations as well as of men, to
own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins
and transgressions, in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine
repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth,
announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations
only are blessed whose God is the Lord."
In essence, National days of
Prayer were intended to be days of humility and national lament, to re-declare
our dependence on God in all manners and forms that God is called upon, and to
ask God’s continued guidance and healing.
And according to Wikipedia, the National day of prayer is now celebrated
by folks going to courthouses, churches, synagogues, temples, mosques, with
luncheons, picnics, concerts, etc. But
those events have never been on my radar.
Sure, I see the national
prayer breakfast on the news and hear about who gets to speak at that each
year…but I don’t think that the National day of prayer is held to the same
importance that it was in 1775 or even 1952.
Partially because our religious demographics have changed and the number
of folks proclaiming atheism or agnosticism have increased greatly. But I also wonder if we have, as a country, have
become so caught up in waging moral and ethical wars on each other, many in the name of God and country, that we have forgotten the
lessons of events like Pearl Harbor and 9-11 which, for a little while, brought
this country together to lament and to rebuild, to stand united instead of
divided.
We can certainly look to
David as a reminder of what it means to lament in the midst of loss and
division.
David had just returned home
from battle against the Amalekites and had been there for two days when men
approached him and informed him that Saul and Jonathan died in battle against
the Philistines. Jonathan had been
killed by the opposing forces, and Saul, when he realized that the battle was
lost, he fell upon his own sword after his servant refused to run him through
with it. This is not the version of the
story that David hears, however. Upon
hearing that Saul and Jonathan are dead, David tore his clothes and began
mourning, and fasting, and praying for Saul and Jonathan. During this time, David meets an Amalekite
soldier who tells David that it was he who killed Saul, not Saul who killed
himself. This information does not bode
well for the Amalekite, who soon after meets his own death for claiming to have
killed the Anointed of the Lord. This
part of the story was not included in our reading, however, just the
information about David’s return and the lament that he teaches the
people.
David’s lament over the deaths
of Saul and Jonathan is beautiful in its poetic nature, if not unusual in its
content.
There is amazingly unexpected
mercy for Saul in David’s words. Saul,
who had invited David into his home to play the lyre and soothe Saul’s often
frayed nerves, had attempted on many occasions to kill David, especially as
Saul’s paranoia increased in his later years.
And yet David speaks words of genuine grief over this man’s death. David recognized and respected greatly the
nature of Saul’s title as the Anointed of the Lord, a title the two men shared
as Kings of Israel. When David was given
the chance to kill Saul, he backed down and refused to do it, showing mercy to
Saul who had shown David little mercy.
And now, with genuine emotion, he mourns Saul’s death, knowing that this
was the Lord’s Anointed who had died, and knowing that this meant defeat for
Israel.
And then there is David’s
lament over Jonathan, a man whose love to David passed that of women. David and Jonathan had been wonderful friends
for a long time and, in fact, they entered into three covenants together. It says in I Samuel that Jonathan loved David
as he loved his own soul, protected David from Saul’s many attempts on his
life, and even ceded the throne to David even though Jonathan was the rightful
heir according to what was expected among men.
So we see David not just mourning the death of the Anointed of the Lord,
who was also David’s greatest enemy, but he is also mourning the death of his
most beloved friend.
Both men died in battle, both
men were swift and strong on the field of battle. But as we know all too often to be true, the
weapons of war often perish. And so,
though divided in life, Jonathan and Saul did not die divided, they died
together on the Mountain of Gilboa. O,
how the mighty have fallen!
God is never mentioned in
David’s lament, which is unusual considering other biblical laments like our
psalm this morning “Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord. Lord, hear my
voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications!” That being said, there are glimpses of God
within the lament over the loss of Saul and Jonathan. There is mercy proclaimed to one who showed
no mercy to David, who in the midst of paranoia and jealousy attempted to rob
David of his life. There is even a hint of forgiveness for Saul for his lack of
mercy. There is also healing that comes
from words of lament spoken over the death of a beloved friend…this mercy,
forgiveness, and healing are things that God brings to us in the midst of crisis
and loss.
In a short period of time, we
here at Trinity have experienced a lot of loss.
Friends have moved, other friends and family members have died, and in
the midst of all this loss, David’s lament and the lament of the psalmist
become our laments. And just as in the
laments of David and the psalmist, within our laments, we hear the voice of God
speaking of healing, mercy, and forgiveness.
And in this, we can stand united, knowing that when we lament and go to
God for healing, God will be there to grant it to us.
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