2024 07 28 Pentecost 10 proper 12 year B2
Samuel 11.1-15; Psalm 14; Ephesians 3.14-21 ; John 6.1-21
When we look out at the world
today, we can easily give a nod to this psalm and agree. However, if you were to go out on the street
or into the schools to ask people if they were good people, they would all tell
you that were. Some even do some amazingly
good things. We have a town that has
produced a multitude of incredible people... some are Olympic athletes and
others have gone on to work and influence so many people… especially when we
think of our voice of Siri and navigation systems is a local who learnt dancing
with my sister. And there are people
here who have initiated programs to support the poor and plenty who support
programs that help others.
So many good people, but at
times, let’s face it… we all fall.
We’ve had a number of stories
about King David in our readings over the last number of weeks. He was a different kind of King… a shepherd
King. He was one who was honourable and put
himself between danger and the people.
He was a mighty warrior who claimed victory, not in his own strength,
but by the power of God. David was a
good man.
In our reading about David
today, we read these words from the soldier Uriah; "The ark and
Israel and Judah remain in booths, and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord
are camping in the open field; shall I then go to my house to eat and to drink
and to lie with my wife? As you live and as your soul lives, I will not do such
a thing." These are the
words of an honourable man. They are the
kind of words that David would previously have spoken and they are those of a
culture that HE, David, cultivated by being that kind of example himself. Sadly, these words stand in stark contrast to
the actions of David in that Spring time.
David allowed his people to go to war, but he stayed home.
Where are we in this story? Are we Uriah, who will not sleep easy in his
bed because he is in solidarity with those who are on the front line? For us the battle is not physical, but we are
in the Lord’s army. Our call to arms is
to fight the spiritual battle, perhaps in the prayer room. They say that this is where all battles are
truly won. Our particular call, may be
to work with the poor, in giving or working in op shops etc…., or even working
with the poor in spirit who need our love and friendship while they battle the
illness of themselves or their loved ones.
Or are we like David, allowing others to fight for us? Sitting comfortably in the church is like
David sitting comfortably in the palace… the place where he fell to great
error.
David had taken off his armour. When we put down our weapons and the armour
of faith, is when we get into trouble. Our
weapon is prayer. The Bible tells us
about the armour of faith – the shield of faith, the belt of truth. However, I think we can be confident to say
that David was neither wearing his physical battle armour or spiritual armour
at this time. This story is the one that
shows the weakness of King David and the mercy of God.
King David was described as
being a man after God’s own heart. He
was usually such a good, compassionate and honourable man, but he fell from that
standard rather monumentally. It is interesting
to read the Gospel reading in the light of this story of David’s fall. That multitude of 5000 were the people of God
and Jesus came with compassion and love for them all. He died to save all, and this includes those
who fall… and those who fall monumentally.
Jesus cared for them as a shepherd King, but when they wanted to make
him King, he slipped away. He wasn’t
their idea of King and refused to be made into that image….. King David fell
when he acted as that image of King as opposed to shepherd King. When King David allowed others to go to war
without him, he Lorded it over others.
Jesus always served God’s purposes, but King David, though he was a
person after God’s own heart, was merely a man and prone to fall…. Like us all.
Among those 5000 people who were
hungry, there were many we’d consider unworthy.
Many who we’d consider downright despicable. All of them were divinely nourished, both
physically and spiritually. How it can
be that God lavishes His good gifts on all, both good and bad and somewhere in between,
is something hard to comprehend, but important.
Saint Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians, tells us; “I pray that
you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth
and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ that surpasses
knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
What would that look like; The
love of God that surpasses Knowledge so that we may be filled with all the
fullness of God? The fullness of God is
love beyond comprehension. Saint Paul
understood this because he had been persecuting Christians – to the point of
death. But God reached down and
dramatically chose him and saved him.
The slave trader, John Newton, understood this… God saved him and he
completely changed his life. These are
the fallen who found the unfathomable love of God…. But King David already knew
God and he had already been chosen…. Then he fell.
A wise man once said, “While I’m
in this body I am still vulnerable to sin, and will continue to be so, until
the Lord calls me out of this body.” One
thing for certain, God does not give up on us.
He knows us, and just like those multitude, he still chooses to nourish
us both physically and spiritually. This
understanding of God needs to inform the way we treat each other.
After Jesus feed the multitude,
he asked that all the left overs be gathered so that nothing is lost. The crowd…. And especially the disciples
witnessed a big miracle that day, and the crowd had enough to have some
discarded food. I imagine that the
disciples were blown away in that act, as they pondered just how much food came
from such a small amount. That act of
gathering the left-over blessings, drew their attention to God’s
blessings. We are naturally prone to not
counting our blessings. In fact, we tend
to diminish all the works of God in our lives and often fail to see his hand at
work.
We live in a physical
world. Jesus physically fed the people,
but he also fed them spiritually. It is
a bit like the story of the man whose sin Jesus forgave. Jesus said is it easier to say, “Your sins
are forgiven or heal” – and Jesus proved his authority to forgive sin by
healing physically. Those things that
we can’t see, we can say we believe, but it is in our actions that they are
proved true. Jesus performed miracles,
but when he performs the next one people are again amazed. They disciples witnessed the food
multiplication, but thought they were seeing a Ghost instead of Jesus walking
on the water. We constantly
underestimate what God can do and wants to do in our lives.
We are a church, with fewer
numbers than previously, and not so many resources, but just look at what Jesus
did with 5 loaves and 2 fish! Some time
ago I listened to a speaker talk about this passage. He came up with this conclusion; human resources, however limited, willingly
offered and divinely blessed are more than adequate to achieve God’s purposes.
In the light of our readings
today, I’d like to take this conclusion a little further. We the church are to continue the ministry of
Jesus. Our resources are not just for
our good, but also for the good of our community…. For the good of that multitude
of people… good, bad and all others in between. We are called to bring the love and
nourishment of God to all – physically and spiritually. You and I are soldiers in the Lord’s
army. We can sit comfortably in the
royal palace, knowing that God loves us, but we can do more than this and God
can do more with us. We need to step up
to the battle. But who are we? We have little to offer… nothing more than
some loaves and fish….!!!
Today, let our vision be bigger
for what God can do in our lives, and through us reaching out in
love to others.
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