Jesus as King Who Gives Us Rest; Oct 29 2023 sermon on 1 Kings 12:1-19

 

Rev. George Miller

Oct 29, 2023

1 Kings 12:1-19

 

Since September, we’ve explored the concept of the extended faith family, chisme, and the question “Why?”- why do we follow Jesus?

 

Today, as we honor the Saints, remember the Reformation, and celebrate the Gift of Grace, these themes unite.

 

We watched as our Spiritual Forefather Jacob sinned against his brother and did what he could to make it right.

 

We heard God tell our Ancestor Moses “I AM WHO I AM” and offer the 10 Commandments.

 

We witnessed a city of women come together to celebrate Naomi, Ruth, and the birth of her child. 

 

We were there when King David unified the nation around the Ark.

 

Today, we see a very sad moment in our faith family’s history- when King David’s grandson ruined it all with his ego and lack of care about the extended faith family.

 

This is a pivotal moment.  The 12 tribes of Israel, made up of the 12 sons of Jacob, have come together to crown Rehoboam as King.

 

This is not a nation of unconnected individuals- these are aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews who are connected through blood or their shared experience of God.

 

As chisme tells us, this family of Israel, who call Abraham father, have a simple request for their cousin Rehoboam-

 

“Please don’t treat us harshly like your Dad did, let our burdens be light and our yoke easier and we will diligently work beside you.”

 

They’re not asking for special treatment- they’re saying “Let us work honest hours, earn a livable wage and we will follow you.”

 

The elders advise him to be a servant to the people who speaks kindly.  The younger advisers say-

 

“Heck with them, that lazy lot- tell them you’ll make work harder for less pay and if anyone complains, you’ll whip them until they bleed.”

 

When Rehoboam could have shown equity and kindness, he chooses cruelty and punishment.

 

Immediately 10 of the 12 tribes say “Nope!” and create their own labor union. 

 

Rehoboam flees to the only family member who will have him- Judah, located in the south.

 

What could have been a joyous experience of love and unity becomes the moment when Israel goes from a nation of 12 tribes, to a nation of 1, leaving the faith family exposed and vulnerable to the enemies that surround them.

 

All because the uncles, aunts, cousins dared to say “Treat us right and we will love you forever,” and Rehoboam said “I would rather have you bear a heavy burden and show me fear.”

 

…so this story leads us to a question, one we’ve been asking for weeks- “Why?”

 

Why do we choose to follow Jesus as our Shepherd King, and not someone like Rehoboam?

 

What is it about Jesus that we know, that we experience, that we feel that makes Jesus our “Why?”

 

This morning we glean a second answer.  When Jesus had the opportunity to engage in a possible power struggle, he spoke a word that still resonates today.

 

In Matthew 11:28-30, the followers of John the Baptist come to Jesus to ask if he is the Messiah.

 

Instead of a “yes” or a “no,” Jesus recounts what’s been done, praises John’s work, gives thanks to God, and says these words-

 

“Come to me, all you that are weary, and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.”

 

“Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in my heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”

 

“For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

 

Why Jesus? 

 

…Last week we saw how Jesus learned from and listened to a woman of another culture and expanded his ministry, offering healing to her family.

 

Today we see how Jesus, as the Shepherd King, reaches out to us who are weary, to us who feel as if we are dealing with too many worries, too many things, and says that he will give us comfort, he will offer rest.

 

King Rehoboam says “You think it’s hard now, wait till I make your back break!”

 

Shepherd King Jesus says “I know your aches, I know your pains, come and lay in my arms.”

 

Why Jesus? 

 

Because Jesus looks upon us with compassion and care, sees the way our worries dig into our skin and bends our back.

 

Shepherd King Jesus says “Share my work, gain wisdom from me.  See how I am gentle and humble, so that you can…exhale.”

 

Why Jesus? 

 

Because when rulers like Rehoboam would rather watch us cry and make us bleed, Shepherd King Jesus says “My yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

 

Note that this is not Jesus the Enabler who will clean up our messes so we are forever helpless.

 

Nor is this Fairytale Jesus who says “With a wave of my wand all your yokes and burdens will disappear!”

 

This is a very real, a very healthy King Jesus who says “Walk with me, follow me, learn from me and you will discover ways in which your unbearable burdens don’t weigh you down and there are ways in which you can breathe.”

 

And one of the ways in which we breathe, one of the ways we feel less of a burden is through the grace we find in Jesus.

 

The grace we find in Jesus that says we are enough.  The grace that says we belong to God.  The grace that says we are assured a place in God’s heavenly kingdom.

 

Grace that says there is nothing we can do, nothing we can say, nothing we can fall victim to that will separate us from God’s love, God’s promise, and God’s glory.

 

Because of Jesus, we are part of the Family of God.  Which means we are part of the messiness of our ancestors.  We are part of the soulfulness of the Saints.

 

We are One in the glory and the power of the Lord, forever and ever. 

 

No earthly king can destroy that, no foolish decision can cancel that, no tragic mistake can undermine it.

 

Thanks to the grace of Christ, the call of Jesus and the love of God, we are assured that we are not alone and our lives are not in vain.

 

For that we can say “Amen.”

Contrasting King David With Jesus; Oct 22 2023 on 2 Samuel 6:12b-19

 

Rev. George Miller

Oct 22, 2023

2 Samuel 6:12b-19

 

Two thousand years ago in Bethlehem there was a Shepherd King.

 

He didn’t live in a palace, but was born in a manger.  He wasn’t seen with a crown of gold but a crown of thorns.  Instead of entering the Holy City with wild dance, he sat upon a lowly donkey.

 

His name was Jesus and he had a reputation.  A reputation for who he ate with.  A reputation for going toe to toe with authorities.  A reputation for engaging with women in compromising conversations.

 

The Samaritan Woman at the well.  The woman who was hemorrhaging.

 

The Canaanite woman with a sick daughter who Jesus calls a dog.  It’s not the proudest moment of Jesus’ ministry.

 

Matthew 15 gives us the news.  Jesus is touring around town, speaking here, talking there, when a foreign woman with a sick child comes up to Jesus. 

 

“Have mercy on us,” she begs.  He ignores her.  But she would not stay silent.  “Get rid of her,” the male disciples say.

 

Jesus says “I was only sent to the lost sheep of Israel.  It is not fair to take the food of children and through them to the dogs.”

 

This is a moment of classism, racism and misogyny all wrapped up in one, in which Jesus is showing his very human side.

 

This does not deter the woman with the sick daughter.  “Yes,” she says, standing firm, “But even dogs get to eat the scraps that fall from the master’s table.”

 

This reply amazes Jesus.  He says to her “Woman, great is your faith.  Let it be done as you wish.” 

 

With that the daughter receives healing.  Jesus reveals that his ministry has expanded to include those of other faiths, other cultures, and those who society deemed as the least of these.

 

We see Jesus, who was very much a man of his day and culture, be humbled, held accountable, and he learns something new.

 

Which makes Jesus even that more amazing, that more welcoming, that more real.

 

When Jesus had the opportunity to dismiss and discard, he instead listened and included.

 

Very different from what we today’s story.  Today we have David, the original Shepherd King, and a moment of pomp and power that ends with his not too happy wife, Michal.

 

The story of Michal is a very sad story.  It goes like this-

 

Once upon a time, Michal was a princess, the daughter of Saul, the 1^st King of Israel.  David was a young, up-and-coming warrior that made Saul nervous. 

 

Saul was jealous of David, always looking for a way to kill him.  So when he found out Michal loved David, he created a scheme- if David kills 100 Philistines, he can marry Michal.

 

Saul assumed David would be killed, but when David killed his quota, Michal was his to marry.  This scared Saul even more. 

 

Years later, David cheats on Michal with a woman named Abigail, and Saul gives Michal as a bride to a man named Palti.

 

Then, when Saul is killed, and David is to be crowned King, he demands that Michal returns as his wife.  As she makes the journey, Palti follows, weeping.

 

Here is Michal.  The Princess daughter of King Saul.  She loved David from back in the beginning when he was basically a nobody.

 

Her Dad used that love as a ploy to have David killed.  She was cheated upon.  Given away.  Ripped back to give David’s new position some credibility.

 

All which bring us to this moment. 

 

David has been anointed as the Shepherd King over all of Israel.  His coronation unites both the North and the South as one.

 

Then Kind David decides “It’s time.”  It is time to take the Ark of The Covenant out of storage and bring it into the capital city.

 

This is the Ark that carries the 10 Commandments; the Ark that Moses and the ancestors carried through the wilderness.

 

This Ark was seen as so valuable that it was put into storage like the family’s good China or wedding silver.

 

With Michal as his wife, David decides it is time to bring the Ark out and into the city to remind everyone who they are and how God is the center of their lives.

 

David is so excited, so ecstatic that the infamous Ark is finally coming into Jerusalem that he begins to dance, and not just dance- he gets down to his underwear and he shakes shakes shakes.

 

Michal looks out her window and is shocked- there is her husband, the king, her 1^st love, leaping and dancing for all the world to see, for all the servant girls and lower-class women to see.

 

She gets so mad, she despises him.  The kind you can only have for someone you truly loved.

 

Michal comes out to meet her husband and says “My, my, my.  How the King honored himself today, uncovering himself before all the female servants and slave girls, just as a drunk sailor would do on a Saturday night.”

 

David does not take kindly to his wife’s comment, responding with a sarcastic response.  And from that day on, Michal is childless, which means the family line of her Dad, King Saul, dies with her.

 

What we see here today is a contrast of kings, a contrast of servant hood and Shepherding.

 

King David has a desire to make the Commandments the center of the citizen’s life, but it seems as though he is the star.

 

Jesus has a desire to make the Commandments the center of our lives, but he does so by sitting with us in the green grass or meeting us at the shore or within our homes.

 

David enters the city with great fanfare, sacrificing animals every six steps, in his underwear, shouting, jumping as trumpets blaze.

 

Jesus enters the city from the side gate, sitting quietly on a donkey allowing others to sing, gather palm branches, lay down their cloaks.

 

Kind David is a man who cheats on Michal, demands her back, dances provocatively in front of other women, and then gets upset that she is upset.

 

Jesus meets a foreign woman who will do anything to have her daughter healed.

 

When the woman displays great courage to stand her ground, speak up, go toe to toe with Jesus using logic and reason, his response is to not feel threatened or use sarcasm.

 

His response is to publicly praise her, learn from her, and expand his ministry because of her.

 

Last Sunday and Today we asked “Why?”  Why doe we have a passion for God and compassion for all.

 

Jesus gives us a really good why, and Jesus really shows us how.

 

Why Jesus?

 

Because from what we see in the scriptures Jesus is someone who cared not just about men, but women and children.

 

Jesus wasn’t just about spectacle of salvation found in the 10 Commandments, he was about embodying the salvation found in the 10 Commandments by how he lived, who he ate with, how he communicated with others.

 

Why Jesus?

 

Because unlike mere mortals, when we confront Jesus, when we speak up for ourselves, when we have the courage the challenge Jesus, we discover that Jesus is right there, Jesus listens, Jesus hears, and Jesus can even learn.

 

David was king who dismissed, Jesus is the king who welcomes.

 

David is the king who uses authority to get what he wants; Jesus is the king who discards his authority so we can get what we need.

 

David is the king who denied his own wife’s feelings, Jesus is the King who welcomes our feelings, honors them, and uses them to bring about wholeness and healing.

 

For that, we can say “Amen.”

When Women Come Together; Oct 15 2023 sermon on Ruth 4: 13-17

 

Rev. George Miller

Oct 15, 2023

Ruth 4:13-17

 

A few days ago, Uncle Frank was on the phone, catching up.  Cousin Jeff just had his 5^th child; Maddie is in college.

 

Great Grandma came up in the conversation.  “Remember how she always wore a hat pin in her hair?”, he asked.  “That was to defend herself.  It was a weapon!”

 

What!  No way!  Frail, proper Great Grandma walked around with a hat pin as a weapon!

 

“Oh yes,” said Uncle Frankie. “Whenever she went to the bank, she’d keep her money in her bra, wear her black hat and keep her right arm ready for any moment that she needed to stab someone.”

 

Way to go Great Grandma!  What other stories could she share if we was alive today!

 

…This morning we learn more about our extended faith family, and if you know anything about great-grandparents Naomi and Ruth, you know the chisme is hot!

 

Here's the faith family gossip-

Naomi lived as a proper Jew in Bethlehem.  She married a proper Jewish boy and had two proper Jewish sons. 

 

A famine hit the land, so they immigrated to Moab, where their sons married non-Jewish women.

 

Then, in a series of unfortunate events, Naomi’s husband and sons died.  She moved back home, and Ruth, one of her daughters-in-law, pledged to go with her.

 

When they returned to Bethlehem, Naomi felt like a broken woman.  No husband, no sons, no grandbabies to inherit the family land or carry on the family name.

 

BUT there was a custom in her country- if a relative married Ruth, then the child would be considered a proper grandchild, thus able to inherit the land and continue the family name.

 

So Ruth and Naomi came up with a great plan.  Naomi had a rich relative named Boaz.  Ruth said, “Let me go to his field to gather some grain, and let’s see if I catch his eye.”

 

Of course, the plan works.  Boaz spots Ruth in the field.  He says “We have heard all you have done for your mother-in-law; may God reward you with great favor!”

 

Boaz invites Ruth to sit beside him and dip a morsel of her bread into the wine.  She goes home to tell Naomi how well the first meeting went.  Noami is muy feliz.

 

Naomi gives Ruth new instruction- “Anoint your body and put on your best clothes.  When Boaz takes his post dinner nap, uncover his feet and lie down.  He will tell you what to do.”

 

Naomi’s plan goes exactly as planned.  Boaz marries Ruth and they have a child.

 

The town’s women come to celebrate.  Naomi holds her grandbaby against her breast as the women name the child- Obed, who will become the granddaddy of David.

 

Today’s story works on so many levels.  For example, it has elements of Resurrection.

 

What seemed to be a dead end has now become an open road.

 

Naomi experienced such great loss and a deluge of death that she assumes the memory of her family will go forgotten.

 

But through a series of choices and the presence of God, new life emerges from Ruth’s belly. 

 

Second- the story is about return.

 

Naomi returns home, discovering it is not the same as before, nor will it ever be, and she finds a way to get new meaning in her return.

 

Third- there is the imagery of female community.

 

So often it can feel as though images of strong, sacred femininity is missing in Scripture. 

 

Eve is condemned.  Rachel and Leah are presented as fighting over a man.  Mary of Magdala is maligned and Martha keeps getting put into the kitchen.

 

But when do you recall a story in the Bible in which a child is presented in a room full of women?

 

Earlier, the men are seen at the gates of the city, dealing with the legal aspects of family life, but here in this room are the women of the city coming together to celebrate.

 

Here we have the elders, the aunties, the neighbors, the moms, coming to congratulate Naomi.

 

“Blessed be the Lord.  May your grandson refresh your life.  His Mom is worth more than 7 sons.”

 

Something wonderful happens. 

 

The women aren’t saying that Ruth or Naomi have value just because of the baby boy, they are saying that the baby boy has value because Ruth, his Mom, has value. 

 

Ruth, a foreign woman who once worshipped a foreign God, is seen by the local women as being worth more than 7 men.

 

They also see the extended family at play, that it is not just Ruth, but it is Naomi, who benefits from the baby.

 

Then, as if we are witnessing the coronation of a king, we hear the women of the town come together to name the child.

 

It’s powerful, because naming indicates responsibility, it represents legacy. 

 

It’s as if the women of the town are saying “No matter what, we are here for you, and if there is anything you or your child needs, you can call on us.”

 

In other words, it feels as though by naming the child, the women are saying “It takes a village…and we are your village.”

 

Naomi starts today’s story leaving her home, losing her family, and at the end she discovers she has a village.

 

Ruth starts the story as a foreigner who discovers she is part of the village, seen by the citizens as a person of value; a person of worth.

 

Ruth is a story full of chisme, a story full of faith family members doing things to survive and thrive.

 

Ruth is a story about welcoming someone from another nation, it is a story about aging, it is a story about death, birth, marriage, work, and new identity. 

 

In other words, Ruth is a story about life, about God, and about community, how we are more than just ourselves.

 

Amen and amen.