Seventh Sunday After Pentecost Year B 2009

07 Pentecost B 09
July 19, 2009

2 Samuel 7:1-14a
1 Now when the king was settled in his house, and the LORD had given him rest from all his enemies around him, 2 the king said to the prophet Nathan, "See now, I am living in a house of cedar, but the ark of God stays in a tent." 3 Nathan said to the king, "Go, do all that you have in mind; for the LORD is with you."

4 But that same night the word of the LORD came to Nathan: 5 Go and tell my servant David: Thus says the LORD: Are you the one to build me a house to live in? 6 I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent and a tabernacle. 7 Wherever I have moved about among all the people of Israel, did I ever speak a word with any of the tribal leaders of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, "Why have you not built me a house of cedar?" 8 Now therefore thus you shall say to my servant David: Thus says the LORD of hosts: I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep to be prince over my people Israel; 9 and I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies from before you; and I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. 10 And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may live in their own place, and be disturbed no more; and evildoers shall afflict them no more, as formerly, 11 from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel; and I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover the LORD declares to you that the LORD will make you a house. 12 When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me.

Psalm 89:20-37
20 I have found my servant David;
with my holy oil I have anointed him;
21 my hand shall always remain with him;
my arm also shall strengthen him.
22 The enemy shall not outwit him,
the wicked shall not humble him.
23 I will crush his foes before him
and strike down those who hate him.
24 My faithfulness and steadfast love shall be with him;
and in my name his horn shall be exalted.
25 I will set his hand on the sea
and his right hand on the rivers.
26 He shall cry to me, 'You are my Father,
my God, and the Rock of my salvation!'
27 I will make him the firstborn,
the highest of the kings of the earth.
28 Forever I will keep my steadfast love for him,
and my covenant with him will stand firm.
29 I will establish his line forever,
and his throne as long as the heavens endure.
30 If his children forsake my law
and do not walk according to my ordinances,
31 if they violate my statutes
and do not keep my commandments,
32 then I will punish their transgression with the rod
and their iniquity with scourges;
33 but I will not remove from him my steadfast love,
or be false to my faithfulness.
34 I will not violate my covenant,
or alter the word that went forth from my lips.
35 Once and for all I have sworn by my holiness;
I will not lie to David.
36 His line shall continue forever,
and his throne endure before me like the sun.
37 It shall be established forever like the moon,
an enduring witness in the skies."

Ephesians 2:11-22
11 So then, remember that at one time you Gentiles by birth, called "the uncircumcision" by those who are called "the circumcision"--a physical circumcision made in the flesh by human hands-- 12 remember that you were at that time without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us. 15 He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, 16 and might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it. 17 So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; 18 for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father. 19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, 20 built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. 21 In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; 22 in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God.

Mark 6:30-34, 53-56
30 The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught. 31 He said to them, "Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while." For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. 32 And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. 33 Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them. 34 As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.
53 When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored the boat. 54 When they got out of the boat, people at once recognized him, 55 and rushed about that whole region and began to bring the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. 56 And wherever he went, into villages or cities or farms, they laid the sick in the marketplaces, and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed.

Allegiance

A few weeks ago, on Fourth of July weekend, we were treated to a patriotic song, sung by Ernie Winn. He did a great job, didn’t he? I’m hoping he’ll sing a lot more in our worship services. What do you think?

Did you notice the passion it aroused in our congregation? In our early service, almost spontaneously, the whole congregation stood up. They did so in the late service too, but with a little prodding from Ernie. People began to sing along. It’s a popular song, and the refrain is apparently pretty easy to remember. I noticed many people had tears in their eyes.

Now before anyone begins to worry that I’m going to challenge anyone’s patriotism, let me say that I am a patriot. I love the United States of America. I stood up with you all, at both services. I sang along, too, and my heart soared. I certainly love my country. It is one of the greatest experiments in human history, and I deeply believe in it, and I earnestly pray that it will continue to work. I am particularly proud of the peaceful intentions of our governmental system. It is designed and intended to diminish violence as a means of changing the country’s direction. We have regular revolutions in America, but they are very rarely violent.

I love other values on which our Constitution stands. Justice, freedom, equality. These are my values, and I treasure them, and I treasure my nation for submitting itself to such noble things.

And I know many here may be worried that I’m going to launch off on some theory of church and state. Let me comfort you. I believe in the freedom to worship as we choose and I believe that the government should not establish any particular religion. These are more reasons I love the United States of America.

No, the reason I bring up this moment in our congregation’s life was the intense passion I observed in the faces of our members and friends. I identified with this passion, feel it myself. I can’t tell you how often I’ve wept hearing a stirring rendition of some great American anthem, how moved I am by seeing our troops marching in a parade, how proud I am of our struggles and our victories, how sad our losses make me.

The feeling is deeply embedded I think in most Americans, despite being divided on many other issues. Liberal Americans sing national anthems, recite the pledge of allegiance, are swept up in the pride in our country, just like conservative Americans. It’s one of our best features in fact.

I would tell anyone I’m proud to be an American, and I would probably get a little heated if anyone really criticized my country. I wouldn’t have a bit of problem sharing with anyone why I believe in my country.

I did a little research on the history of the Pledge of Allegiance, and I was kind of surprised by what I found. I guess I assumed that the pledge had its beginnings at the founding of our nation. As usual, I was wrong. It’s a very interesting history.

In 1891, a Christian schoolteacher named Frances Bellamy was pressured to leave his congregation because of his socialist sermons. I don’t believe he submitted to the pressure. He was a fighter, was old Frances, and he belonged to a movement called Christian Socialism. His father was a Christian utopian writer who imagined a future United States in which the government provided for the welfare of every American, regardless of creed, gender or ethnic origin.

The next year, 1892, old Frances composed a pledge for his students to recite when the flag was raised every morning. It read as follows:

“I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

It ended up being pretty popular and people started using it a lot. Frances even designed a salute. Some of our members may be old enough to remember it. Arm extended, palm down. When the Nazis adopted the same salute for the Fuhrer, FDR suggested we change it to putting our hands over our hearts.

The changes in the pledge were under the authority of the National Flag Conference until 1923, when Congress finally adopted it as the official Pledge of Allegiance. It was the National Flag Conference that changed “my Flag” to “the Flag of the United States of America.” Bellamy actually disliked the change, but he was ignored. His vision for the pledge was to focus on the word “Republic” and it was largely influenced by the experience of division in the Civil War.

Incidentally, after Bellamy retired, he finally left the church over the issue of racism among Christians.

After the Pledge became official, immigrants were compelled to recite the pledge as the passage to citizenship. It also became compulsory in public schools. In the early forties a radical Christian group fought against the public schools requiring students to recite the pledge, because they believed pledging allegiance to a flag was idolatrous. Mob violence ensued and quite of few of these Christians were beaten and killed. But the Supreme Court agreed with them and ruled it unconstitutional to compel unity of opinion, even about the flag of the United States. To my knowledge that ruling has stood since 1943.

In 1954,in the depth of the Cold War against the communist nations, the DAR and the American Legion lobbied to include “under God” in the pledge. It was voted in, and Eisenhower wrote: “These words will remind Americans that despite our great physical strength we must remain humble. They will help us to keep constantly in our minds and hearts the spiritual and moral principles which alone give dignity to man, and upon which our way of life is founded.”

I don’t intend to get into a debate about taking these words back out of the Pledge. But these scripture passages have raised the issue in my mind of allegiance, and last night, I wondered, if those words were removed, what would I do as a Christian? Would it not push upon me the necessity of making a choice?

Allegiance. The scriptures bring to us a word from God about allegiance. David says to God, “Let me build you a house,” but God says to David, “Let me build you a house.”

God was making a pun. Hard to believe but true. God is a punster.

Puns, many think, are the lowest form of humor. I’m sure you’ve heard of the three-legged dog who walked into a saloon in the Old West and announced: “I’m looking for the man who shot my paw.” Or of the girl who had a boyfriend with a wooden leg, until she broke it off. Or about the guy who emailed ten puns to friends, in the hope that at least one of the puns would make them laugh; but no pun in ten did.

God was making a pun on the word “house.” David meant a building, God meant a dynasty. God was saying that from that day forward, only descendants of David would rule over Israel, and that Israel would forever be ruled by descendants of David. This is one of the covenants.

A covenant is a mutual promise made on the basis of mutual love. It’s a very, very important idea for us. Governments are run on laws, and that’s a good thing. We need laws, because lots of us are still willing to take advantage of each other, and laws protect us. But a covenant, even the covenant at Mt. Sinai, where God laid out the Ten Commandments, is not a law or even a set of laws. A covenant, a mutual promise made on the basis of mutual love, is a core concept of our religion.

The simplest example of a covenant is a marriage in its ideal form. A couple who loves one another exchange solemn promises on the basis of that love. In fact, God often compared his relationship to his people to a marriage. God even compared his relationship to David with a marriage. In its ideal form, a marriage is not governed by laws. We have laws protecting married couples from each other in the event of a failure of the marriage, and this is a wonderful example of the difference. Every couple that divorces wants the courts to award the custody of children and marital assets to the spouse that is in the morally superior position, but the courts could care less about that. Usually, except under extreme circumstances, assets are split fifty-fifty, male children go to Dad and female children go to Mom, period. The courts don’t have anything to do with covenant.

To be a Christian is to be in covenant. It is exactly like a marriage, except of course that it doesn’t involve sex or procreation. It is a mutual exchange of promises based on mutual love. Without the love there can be no covenant. Without the promises there can be no covenant.

Our patriotism, I believe, is also a good example of a covenantal relationship. We love our country, and on the basis of that love, we solemnly pledge our allegiance to it. My question this morning is, do we have the same passion, the same almost reflexive pride and joy, in the nation to which we belong under Jesus Christ?
It’s a very different nation, the kingdom of God, and its ruler is very different from any human government. We’ve been hearing a lot about David these last weeks, and we’ve been seeing the contrasts between ruling God’s people in God’s name and other human types of governance. Last week we had fun dancing before the Lord, but the point of the sermon was serious. David was willing to abandon the dignity usually according to heads of state in order to lift up the dignity of God. Before that we contrasted the dependence of most nations of wealth and military might to the people of God’s dependence on the power of God. The people of God have always gone into battle outnumbered and outgunned, to deliberately demonstrate that they depended on God to defend them.

And in the new covenant in Jesus, whom we believe sits at the right hand of God for all eternity as the descendant of David who is king over God’s people, we practice forgiveness as our security policy, in contrast to human nations who defend their security with violence.

Do I feel the same swelling passion for this strange and otherworldly kingdom that I feel for the fifty United States of America? Less, more? Am I willing to give account to anyone of my love for my king, Jesus, as I would for my earthly government? Do I truly pledge allegiance to the kingdom of God? Do I believe that my citizenship in the kingdom of God is truly covenantal; am I as committed to Jesus as I am to my marriage? Am I as passionate about announcing the forgiveness of God for all people, as dedicated and willing to work for the invitation to people of all nations into the kingdom of God, as I am passionate about American values and the interests of my country? Am I able to distinguish the difference between a human government backed by wealth and force, and the kingdom of God backed only by the power of life and love?

I ask these questions not only of you but also of myself. It’s something I’ve never really considered quite so closely. But I will say this, without hesitation. The word of God today is a call to God’s people for allegiance to his chosen King, Jesus.

Amen.