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 1st 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 1st 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.”
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