Midweek Musings from Upstate NY Synod

After reading Bishop John Macholz's Midweek Musing - I just had to share.  Enjoy and Blessings

O God, throughout the ages you judge your people with mercy, and you inspire us to speak your truth. By your Spirit, anoint us for lives of faith and service, and bring all people into your forgiveness, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen.

First Reading: 2 Samuel 11:26--12:10, 13-15 King David seduced his neighbor Bathsheba and was responsible for the death of her husband, Uriah. God sends the prophet Nathan to confront the king. Nathan tells the king a parable and opens David's eyes to see his own guilt. 26When the wife of Uriah heard that her husband was dead, she made lamentation for him. 27When the mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son.  But the  thing that David had done displeased the Lord,  12:1and the Lord sent Nathan to David. He came to him, and said to him, "There were two men in a certain city, the one rich and the other poor.  2The rich man had very many flocks and herds;  3but the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb, which he had bought. He brought it up, and it grew up with him and with his children; it used to eat of his meager fare, and drink from his cup, and lie in his bosom, and it was like a daughter to him.  4Now there came a traveler to the rich man, and he was loath to take one of his own flock or herd to prepare for the wayfarer who had come to him, but he took the poor man's lamb, and prepared that for the guest who had come to him."  5Then David's anger was greatly kindled against the man. He said to Nathan, "As the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves to die;  6he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity." 7Nathan said to David,  "You are the man! Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: I anointed you king over Israel, and I rescued you from the hand of Saul;  8I gave you your master's house, and your master's wives into your bosom, and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that had been too little, I would have added as much more.  9Why have you despised the word of the Lord, to do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites.  10Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house, for you have despised me, and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife."  13David said to Nathan, "I have sinned against the Lord." Nathan said to David, "Now the Lord has put away your sin; you shall not die.  14Nevertheless, because by this deed you have utterly scorned the Lord, the child that is born to you shall die."  15Then Nathan went to his house. The Lord struck the child that Uriah's wife bore to David, and it became very ill.

MUSINGS   "You are the man!"    There is some small satisfaction one takes when reading this part of the story of David and Bathsheba. He has her husband killed on the front lines after he learns of that fact that the child in her womb is his.    Nathan comes along and tells David a story about a rich man who has much and a poor man who has but one ewe, which the rich man takes. David, upon hearing this gets so angry that he prescribes what should happen to this man as he walks right into the space that Nathan has created. He confesses, unknowingly,of his own sin and sets the parameters for punishment, for himself.   I take some satisfaction in the fact that David has been caught until I realize, moments later, that I am David and, while I have not killed Uriah the Hittite, I have done equally wrong things in life, to others, feeling perfectly righteous, at least until Uriah comes along.   The fact of the matter is that we don't rank sins, naming some as worse than others. Not stealing, not coveting, not worshiping the true God? All on the same level! Our use of racial slurs against others is no different than David's taking someone's life. We diminish an individual with our name calling. Our inability to see beyond labels and types? No different, we knock people down when putting them into boxes or places that separate them from us. Our inability to carry on a civil conversation with those on the other side of the aisle from us? No different, we create strangers and enemies and diminish the kingdom of God. You see where this is going?   I am the man. The sin is John's. (Add your own name here if you want to play along) The wrong committed belongs to John, each day, every day, all along the way. Maybe this falls under the old adage of 'when you're pointing a finger at someone remember, there are three fingers pointing back at you!    And yet the story doesn't end there, does it? For along comes this Jesus and for no apparent reason, for nothing done on our part, out of sheer grace and love, he offers us forgiveness and hope and love. Read the Gospel for this day, she sinned greatly, he forgave greatly. And in this we take great delight and hope; that we, like David and this unnamed woman, are forgiven and set free to live once again in the Kingdom of God and all of its hope and promise. I'll attempt to remember today that I am the man as I drive about among hundreds of cars and a bunch of people who don't know how to drive or do what I do or fit my expectations and understandings or live much differently than me as I ask the big WHY question. And, I hope that in so doing, I will look in the side view mirror and the one over the sink and others that I encounter and see there the face of David and Simon and others but even more importantly, the face of our gracious and loving God and his Son, Christ Jesus our Lord. For our sake, he came down from heaven to live, to forgive and to love. May I follow that lead and, when I fail, turn to the One who holds all in hand and will always, always, know me by name. Amen.