Pentecost 509, Otto, Mo. 2 Samuel 5:10
I was sitting on my backyard patio in the cool of the day enjoying my bit of the Garden of Eden recreated, when I imagined what it would be like to hear the gate open, look over and see God coming to join me there. God used to practice that kind of presence with our ancient parents, Adam and Eve. But of course the whole thing got botched up when said parents snacked on the forbidden fruit. Something died within them and God evicted them. He sentenced them to one day return to the dust from which they were taken. In a way God also evicted himself, because he went with them. Ever since, life on this earth, our relationships with one another and with God has never been quite as simple as God walking with us in the cool of the day.
Our theme for today, “God with us,” is based on the last verse of our Old Testament lesson, “and David became greater and greater, for the Lord, the God of the heavenly armies, was with him.”
Now if we were to consider only today’s lesson and those in the previous Sundays, God’s presence would be easily understood. Samuel anointed Jesse’s eighth son, David, king in waiting. And “the Spirit rushed upon David from that day forward.” The Lord who delivered him from the paw of the lion and the bear delivered him from the fore skinned Philistine, Goliath, who was defying the armies of the living God. Last week we saw that David lamented a lament over the death of King Saul and his son Jonathan the glory of Judah fallen on the field of battle.
However, skimming through David’s rise to royalty in such a manner would be like only viewing the events leading up to July 4th 1776, as if everyone in Philadelphia were waiting for Thomas Jefferson to finish up the Declaration of Independence so that the delegates could sign their John Hancock. Then the Liberty bell would ring out the news of 13 colonies had declared themselves to be a new nation, independent and free from King George. What would be omitted is the lengthy wrangling among the delegates in the hall. We would ignore John Adams unflattering characterizations of the character of some of his fellow delegates as the debates droned on. We like to think that God has blessed this nation, which He has, and has used us to be an influence upon the world, which is also true. Still, we have much of which we are not proud and wonder how is it that God is with us in those less than stellar moments.
The same is true upon a closer reading of David’s rise to the throne.
Several years ago I was leading the Sunday school staff in covering the lessons for the week. We were studying Old Testament history. At one point I asked, have you noticed that we can go for chapters with one thing after another occurring and find that God is not mentioned at all? Then suddenly God pops up from out of nowhere. We would be reminded, oh yes; God is involved and somehow is working out his will to bring about the salvation of the world through Jesus Christ even in the midst of the ungodly actions of humanity.
So when the tribes of Israel came to David and spoke of their kinship with him, his heroism in battle on their behalf and recalled that promise that the Lord had chosen David to be “shepherd of my people Israel and prince over Israel,” they came because they had no where else to go. Saul’s son Ishbosheth had been put on the throne. However, two brothers, Rechab and Baanah, came to Ishbosheth’s house killed the doorkeeper and then while the king was taking a nap they killed and beheaded him. They brought the head to David as proof that they had gotten rid of the opposition. However, instead of being appreciative, David, was incensed. He ordered his men to execute Rechab and Baanah. Yet, we read in our text, “the God of hosts was with him.” His victory over Goliath had earned him the prize of Saul’s daughter as his wife. However, he had difficulty collecting his reward. Finally, after Saul’s death he demanded his prize. However, Michel was already married, so she had to be pulled away from her husband, who ran after his wife weeping. One just has to know that that marriage is not going to work out, and it didn’t. How is God present in all this? How is God Immanuel, God with us, in such circumstances? No wonder someone has written a book about this era called, “Men behaving badly.” Yet our text tells us that god was with David.
The short sentence “I am with you” is at the heart of the good news in the bible. God chooses to be with us with good news in the midst of all the mundane matters of day to day life, and in the untidy and disappointing actions of our world.
When God called Moses to lead His people out of slavery to freedom, Moses thought up fives excuses about his lack of qualifications for the job. Then God said, “I will be with you,” or “I will be with your mouth” when Moses came up with the lame excuse that he did not know how to talk. Jeremiah had argued that he was only a teenager and therefore could not be a prophet. God countered, “Do not be afraid of them for I am with you to deliver you.” In Matthew’s presentation of Jesus birth, he drew on the old word in Isaiah, “They shall name him Emmanuel, meaning, “God with us.” All of those previous promises in the Old Testament of God’s presence were precursors to God with us in His son, Jesus Christ. Jesus was God with us when his own people rejected him, when his arrest and trial, and when he died on the cross. From the cross he called out, “Father, forgive them.” God, in Jesus bowed the heavens and came to be with you not only when things are going good for you, but also in the worst of times when life is falling apart.
Jesus last words in Matthew’s gospel are: “And remember, I am with you to the end of the age.” However, sinful and however lacking we might be, God is not ashamed to hang around with David, Bathsheba, or us. The simple statement, “I am with you,” carries with it the forgiveness of our sins.
“I am with you,” is a word of encouragement. It gives us the ability to trust that in our day to day life, as we carry out our vocation as man or woman, husband or wife, father or mother, or child, we are never alone. When we face the challenges of life, including our own mortality, God’s “I am with you” means that we have the promise of strength and encouragement to do what we have to do.
It all starts with our baptism. When the pastor said, “Ronald, I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” I was marked with the cross of Christ forever. So were you in your baptism.
Christ’s real presence in the Supper says to us in ways that we can taste, touch and smell, “I am with you.” God is with us in the assurance of Christian brothers and sisters, in their words of encouragement and forgiveness and by their witness.
There was great excitement when David was anointed king replacing Saul. It’s an excitement we feel at our first job, or first love or each new day. It’s the excitement of a pastor being installed in a congregation as shepherd of God’s people. It is the excitement in each new day or new venture that God is with us, even after the excitement wears off.
So when I sit in my bit of backyard Eden, I don’t have to wait for God to come through the gate and be with me. He is already there when I arrive.
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