Sermon Seeds: For Redemption

Sunday, August 11, 2024
Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost | Year B
(Liturgical Color: Green)

Lectionary Citations
2 Samuel 18:5-9, 15, 31-33 and Psalm 130 • 1 Kings 19:4-8 and Psalm 34:1-8 • Ephesians 4:25-5:2 • John 6:35, 41-51
https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts/?z=p&d=68&y=382

Focus Scripture: 2 Samuel 18:5-9, 15, 31-33 in conversation with Psalm 130
Focus Theme: For Redemption
Series: Here I Am…Praying (Click here for the series overview.)

Reflection
By Cheryl A. Lindsay

The king has a peculiar request. Deal gently, he asks, with my son. As a parent, it makes sense to ask for someone to treat your child well. This parent, however, was a king and one known for waging war on others. He dealt aggressively with others, and this directive is being made to commanders of his forces not to relatives, friends, or even neutral strangers. He’s asking for preferential treatment for one among thousands. It makes one wonder why he would even send him among the troops if he were so concerned with his welfare. Of course, David does not send his son. His son comes as his enemy, waging war against his father and his father’s army.

Human beings often do nonsensical things and irrational actions. Redemption offers a hope that all those mistakes, mishaps, and misunderstandings cannot only be overcome but may also be salvaged for good purposes. In his commentary on the text, Walter Brueggemann notes that David is portrayed with all his complexity; his vulnerability as a father is not concealed behind a false bravado or a contrived strength. David is a father and has a parent’s concern, which he freely reveals.

The fighting took place over a wide area of countryside, in a mixture of trees and tangled undergrowth in craggy terrain. There was little to sustain life if supplies were cut off and plenty of pitfalls to trap the unwary. It was not a matter of two forces meeting head on but of smaller groups battling in separated situations. In this context the trained men would have a tremendous advantage. The army of Israel, that is, the tribal forces assembled at Absalom’s call, was defeated. There were mass casualties. Many were killed in the fighting, but a greater number died because they were ill-equipped to survive in that kind of terrain. Absalom’s ambitions to bring glory to the land and solve all the people’s problems (15:4) had brought only conflict and death.
Mary J. Evans

The text exposes violence and its terrible costs. Further, this is not an isolated incident but one in a string of countless battles. The king has become so desensitized to it that the psalmist within him seems to have disappeared. The commander is in charge and only allows the father a moment to emerge with that simple plea requesting gentleness for his son. Of course, the most violent aspect of the story may be that his son is his adversary, and the request, while understandable, could not possibly be honored. The violence is to the soul of a fighter who will not enter this battle and can only cling to hope that this army will display the same care toward his son that he himself extended to his predecessor Saul.

David has only one piece of advice for his troops (v. 5). As the three commanders are about to be dismissed for action by David the commander-in-chief, David the father addresses his troops. Up to verse 5, we have been watching David’s nervy strategy, but we have been given no glimpse into David’s sensibility as he struggles with a coup led by his own son. Obviously David wants the coup defeated, in order to retain his throne. Now, however, the father speaks. It is David’s yearning desire that the coup be settled decisively, but without damage to his son who leads it. That is a tall and difficult order. After his hardness and clarity, David speaks almost pleadingly to his hardened commanders. “Deal gently” (v. 5), not harshly, not cruelly, not with vengeance. In that moment the narrator perhaps wants us to remember with David that Saul went berserk when he found his own son against him (I Sam. 20:30–33). David does not go beserk, but he yearns powerfully against his obvious best interest as the king. David’s terse and seemingly simple address in verse 5 is an intensely freighted statement. Two things strike us about his statement. First, he does not name Absalom as his son, but only as “the young man.” It is as though David is reticent about identifying the relationship too directly. Perhaps there is an intended distance to control the pathos. Second, it is to be done “for my sake,” not for the sake of the son. The narrative is cast with attention turned completely away from Absalom to David. Even as the son of the king, the narrative has no interest in Absalom or sympathy for him. What counts is David’s yearning to be a father and to have his fatherly sensitivity taken seriously. David avoids any direct expression of fatherhood and sonship. Of course the characters in the narrative (and we) are aware of this bonding of father and son (14:1). The narrative, however, offers no such words at this point. This is a commander who must have the coup smashed. In the mouth of the commander, the father speaks, but with restraint and with control. The people hear the imperative of the king, and so does Joab! The imperative “Deal gently” is terse and not without ambivalence. We cannot be sure what this means in the mouth of the commander who is a father, on the lips of a father who is the commander. We do not know if the words are ironic or direct. As the narrative unfolds, we shall see that more than one reading is given to the command of the father-king. In that simple imperative are held together the requirements of state and the yearnings of a father. In the event itself, the king-father is removed and another, Joab, will give the reading of David’s words that finally counts.
Walter Brueggemann

Against this text, the lectionary provides a psalm that is not of David. It is perhaps fitting that another’s words express the contrition, remorse, and repentance that the king, who cries out to his dead son but not God, seems unable to express. So many psalms ask the Holy One not to turn from God’s people; David needs a reminder not to turn from his God. He has been engulfed by violence, and violence offers no comfort as it only takes never gives. David—warrior, father, king, commander, worshipper—has forgotten how to pray. He is lost and broken, and the text ends without resolution, restoration, or redemption.

Yet, the psalm offers a word of encouragement to continue to wait with hope. God hears those repentant cries and does not keep score of wrongdoing. God is forgiving, merciful, and redemptive. The psalmist insists that the people trust, hope, and wait based on the character of God.

At the same time, the juxtaposition of these texts proves troubling. Why does God allow and even participate in violence? Daniel Hawk suggests that readers not dismiss this participation but consider it contextually. He writes, “As a whole, the narrative portrays God’s participation in violence as a consequence of God’s decision to enter a violence-saturated world to work with human partners within it.” Human violence imposes itself upon a God whose covenantal commitments obligate the Holy One’s presence and influence if not approval.

Where is the redemption in this story? It’s not in the text from 2 Samuel; it is only broadly presented as a possibility in the psalm. Perhaps it comes in recognizing the horrible costs of violence and turning away from it in horror, grief, and longing for a new way. And perhaps it rests in the assurance of knowing that like David, the Holy One witnessed his Son sent into a violent world with the impossible hope that it would deal gently with him.

Here we are, Holy One, praying for redemption.

Reflection from Voices of People of African Descent
The 33rd General Synod adopted a Resolution to Recognize the United Nations International Decade for People of African Descent (2015-2024). As part of its implementation, Sermon and Weekly Seeds offers Reflection from Voices of People of African Descent related to the season or overall theme for additional consideration in sermon preparation and for individual and congregational study.
“Now there is a final reason I think that Jesus says, “Love your enemies.” It is this: that love has within it a redemptive power. And there is a power there that eventually transforms individuals. Just keep being friendly to that person. Just keep loving them, and they can’t stand it too long. Oh, they react in many ways in the beginning. They react with guilt feelings, and sometimes they’ll hate you a little more at that transition period, but just keep loving them. And by the power of your love they will break down under the load. That’s love, you see. It is redemptive, and this is why Jesus says love. There’s something about love that builds up and is creative. There is something about hate that tears down and is destructive. So love your enemies. (from “Loving Your Enemies”)”
― Martin Luther King Jr.

For Further Reflection
“Contrary to what we may have been taught to think, unnecessary and unchosen suffering wounds us but need not scar us for life. It does mark us. What we allow the mark of our suffering to become is in our own hands.” ― bell hooks
“Was it you or I who stumbled first? It does not matter. The one of us who finds the strength to get up first, must help the other.” ― Vera Nazarian
“The day misspent,
the love misplaced,
has inside it
the seed of redemption.
Nothing is exempt
from resurrection.” ― Kay Ryan

Works Cited
Brueggemann, Walter. Interpretation: First and Second Samuel. Louisville: John Knox Press, 1990.
Evans, Mary J. 1 and 2 Samuel. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2000.
Hawk, L. Daniel. The Violence of the Biblical God. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2019.

Suggested Congregational Response to the Reflection
This sermon series invites us to explore the call to Christian discipleship and to examine our response. Invite the congregation to explore the impact of violence in our communities and ways to engage in peace building, including engaging Just Peace resources found here: https://www.ucc.org/just-peace/.

Worship Ways Liturgical Resources
https://www.ucc.org/worship-way/after-pentecost-12b-august-11/

The Rev. Dr. Cheryl A. Lindsay, Minister for Worship and Theology (lindsayc@ucc.org), also serves a local church pastor, public theologian, and worship scholar-practitioner with a particular interest in the proclamation of the word in gathered communities. You’re invited to share your reflections on this text in the comments on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/SermonSeeds.

A Bible study version of this reflection is at Weekly Seeds.