Tag: David

Posted on

Where Can I Carry My Shame? – 2 Samuel 13:1-22

The subtitle of this sermon series is “Renewed Life in Christ and His Body”. That last part is key because healing is not only an individual activity but something that happens corporately and in community.

The previous Sermon looked at the hurry created by our families of origin. It started with a look at the family of the patriarchs and all the dysfunction there, and how through the work of God in Joseph, healing came to that family.

The story today is of another high profile biblical family that was deeply dysfunctional. David’s son Amnon lusted after his half-sister and manipulated her into being alone with him where he raped her.

It’s key to understand in this context that God hates abuse like this. Violence led to Him causing the Flood; Jesus warns that violence against the vulnerable will lead to millstones around necks; Christ Himself was abused and betrayed.

So when we look at this story of abuse and violence, we should not be centering the perpetrator of that abuse, but rather Tamar herself. We need to listen to what she has to say: “Where can I take my shame?” Ties of family and society barred her from doing more than being silent.

This is in contrast to the four men in the story who had far more freedom of movement and agency. Amnon was infatuated with Tamar, and instead of setting aside an inappropriate desire or finding a legitimate way to address it, sees what he wants and takes it. Then having done that, the deception (self-deception and otherwise) is over and his “love” turns to hate.

Absalom, though ostensibly on her side and offended on her behalf, does not do anything for two years. When he eventually does, it is a mirror of Amnon’s behavior, taking Amnon’s life much as Amnon took Tamara’s dignity.

David, responsible for this whole household, does nothing but wallow in impotent anger, and certainly does not take any responsibility for his own part in unknowingly enabling Amnon.

Finally, Jonadab, who actively and knowingly enabled Tamara’s violation, appears to get off scott free, and is still advising David towards the end of the story.

This is a story with important implications for us as a church. A massive proportion of people, women especially, have been sexually in some way. We have victims in our church and in our lives. When a victim of sexual abuse enters our church we need to be in a place to welcome and love them.

Tamar asked the question “Where can I carry my shame?” It’s a question that goes unanswered in the original story, but we see the answer come under the new covenant: she can carry her shame to Jesus, and so can we.

And as we are Christ’s body, as a church we must be a safe place where the hurting and abused can carry their shame. We must listen, acknowledge and walk alongside the hurting without being presumptuous or impatient.

Abuse and shame thrive in silence, so if you have lived that, find ways to break the silence. Start small, maybe writing a letter and then destroying it if you aren’t ready to share it. But seek someone you can trust to share it with. If you are mired in shame and self-blame for what someone else did to you, forgive yourself, and let go of any self-recrimination. Seek the redemption and healing Christ offers both directly and through His body.

God wants to renew every part of us – mind, body, soul, spirit. He wants to make us all whole again.

— Sermon Notes, Dave Sim, Renew Church, Lynnwood WA, June 9, 2024

Posted on

The Good Shepherd – Psalm 23

This is probably the most beloved of all Psalms, bringing comfort to so many in times of fear and difficulty. Henry Beecher wrote of it,

The twenty-third Psalm is the nightingale of the Psalms. It has charmed more griefs to rest than all the philosophy of the world. It has remanded to their dungeon more felon thoughts, more black doubts, more thieving sorrows, than there are sands on the sea-shore.

Henry Beecher

The first line opens the metaphor of God as shepherd and the writer, David, as a sheep. As king, David could have seen himself as a lion or an eagle, but instead he lands on the simplicity and vulnerability of a sheep, and compares the King of Creation to a blue-collar shepherd.

This metaphor sees its fulfillment in Christ, who calls himself the Good Shepherd. The catacombs where the early church met in secret are littered with images of Jesus as the good shepherd.

The picture painted here is of God as provider, echoing the promises of God to Israel as they wandered in the desert, keeping them safe often without them knowing. How often do we receive these material blessings without even realizing it? The illnesses we do not get, the car accidents we do not have.

But more than that, even in the midst of illness, injury and difficulties, God Himself is our portion, he is our sufficiency.

Aristotle provides the broad ancient view of sheep: “The sheep is said to be naturally dull and stupid. Of all quadrupeds it is the most foolish: it will saunter away to lonely places with no object in view; oftentimes in stormy weather it will stray from shelter; if it be overtaken by a snowstorm, it will stand still unless the shepherd sets it in motion; it will stay behind and perish unless the shepherd brings up the rams; it will then follow home.”

All that to say, the sheep need the shepherd. Isaiah 53:6 says “We all like sheep have gone astray.” We need to be brought to the still waters and the pasture. We see a picture of this in how David treats Mephibosheth, a son of Jonathan who had beg crippled. David, if he had been like other kings, would have had him killed. But instead, he brings him out of the town of Lo-Debar, which means “no pasture,” to eat at the table of the king.

Then verse 3 echoes what we saw in psalm 85:13 – “Righteousness will go before him and make his footsteps a way.” It’s not the God carries us, per the Footprints poem, but he makes our way forward in righteousness plain.”

Then in verse 4 the psalm shifts – from speaking about God to speaking to Him directly. It does so at the same time as another shift, from green pastures and blue waters to darkness and danger – where else do we turn when in fear?

It refers to the staff and rod used by shepherds. The staff, broadly, is a support, something to lean on. The rod can mean the same thing, but it can also mean branch or tribe. There may be a connection here between the branch and tribe six Israel with whom God made His covenant.

Then the metaphor shifts from us being sheep to us being people at his table – as Jesus says, “I have called you friends.” Our ultimate destiny is not as sheep, but as guests of the king of the universe, and we will dwell in His house forever. Spurgeon writes, “While I am here, I will be a child at home with my God. The whole world shall be his house to me; and, when I ascend into the upper chamber, I shall not change my company, nor even change the house. I shall only be in the upper story forever.”

Is Christ your shepherd? Do you hear His voice? He loves you and is calling you to join his flock and to be His friend in His house forever.

-Sermon Notes, Bart Hodgson, Seed Church, Lynnwood WA, August 1, 2021

Posted on

The Hope of Redemption – Psalm 107

This Psalm, from David, recounts the steadfast love of God for the people of Israel – the word is חסד or hesed. It is a story of redemption.

The initial redemption, the foundational rescue event that served as a sign for all the future redemption events, was the rescue of the people of Israel from Egypt and being brought into the Promised Land. This is a common theme throughout the Old Testament, of remembering God’s goodness in and through that moment.

But Psalm 107 looks at a continual redemption, an ongoing story in which God acts as redeemer. David does this through four characters: the wanderer, the prisoner, the fool and the ship captain.

The wanderer calls back to the time the Israelites spent wandering on the wilderness. They had been redeemed out of Egypt, but rejected God’s plan for them to enter the Promised Land and spent 40 years wandering in a circle in the desert. It is us, too, when we wander in our own spiritual circles,

The Psalm says that the Lord will make the way of the wanderer straight, and bring him into the city where he can have rest and safety. David calls these wanderers to be thankful, when we are brought out of whatever wilderness we have wandered in.

Next, we have the prisoner, imprisoned and oppressed because of their own wicked deeds. Again, it calls back to the history of Israel, when rebellion against God would result in discipline through foreign conquerors. The discipline is not there to harm them, but to reorient their perspective and bring them back to God.

Again, this is like us, whether situations of literal imprisonment, or spiritual imprisonment by sin, God is there to forgive and save us from our distress when we cry out to him. Has this happened to us? David instructs us to be thankful.

Then there is the fool, entirely devoted to his own pleasure and desires, even to the extent that they forego food and drink. The fool goes beyond the wanderer and the prisoner in their complete abandonment to sin. But when they hit bottom and cry out to God, once again He comforts, heals and forgives their sin. And again, we who have been the fool are called in to be thankful.

Next, we have the ship captain. Unlike the others, he seems to have things together, and his vice isn’t rebellion or depravity. Instead, it is overconfidence and pride, a belief that they are self-sufficient and is able to chart their own course. This is many of us in our Christianity, trying to live good lives in our own strength, with our own plans and towards our own goals.

But God wants dependent worshipers who live in love and relationship with him. And so he sends mighty waves and storms to remind us that we ultimately cannot survive under our own power. We call out to him and he again redeems us from the storm. Once again, we are to live in gratitude to the Lord who rescues is.

Then in verse 32, David goes into all the ways God works to bring his people back to him – turning rivers into deserts and deserts into pools of water, doing whatever is needed to bring us to redemption. God customizes our redemption to exactly what he wants for us in exactly the ways we need.

For us, we also look back to an original redemption, the salvation brought to us by the death and resurrection of Christ. And we also see ongoing redemption and rescue throughout our lives, whether as wanderer, prisoner, fool or captain. But the rescue is not from our situation, but primarily from our own self-dependence and rebellion.

The rescue will look different for different people. The wanderer is left to their own fumbling devices for a long period of time. The prisoner must have their rebellion crushed and their lives restricted to turn then around. The fool must hit rock bottom before they turn their eyes heavenward. The ship captain must fail on their own so they will depend on God.

This multifaceted, steadfast love has no limits. There is not a set number of redemptions on a cosmic punch card. God’s redemption is bottomless and never ending. We are a forgetful people, and so constantly need reminding of this.

Or maybe we are frustrated and confused that we don’t seem to be moving forward spiritually. We may be moving backwards, and the shame or frustration of that may be keeping us from actually moving forward again. But our spiritual life is not and was never promised to be a steady upward climb. It is a constant forward and back motion, confession and repentance and returning to God. But we cannot wait until we are better to turn to God. We must turn to him before we can get better at all.

Or maybe we have never sought the redemption of God. Maybe we are turned off from it by the public face of Evangelical Christianity on the news and in social media. If you reject the ugly, false pictures of God and Christ being portrayed, then good for you. Seek the God of the scriptures and understand the true Christ and the redemption he offers.

Wherever we are in this story, whatever the reason we need rescue today, we should turn to God and throw ourselves on his mercy. God loves us more than we love ourselves, which means we have a mighty hope.

– Sermon Notes, Brent Rood, Seed Church, November 26, 2017

Psalm 107

Something went wrong with the bible. Please make sure that you are requesting a valid passage! If this problem presits please contact joshuawiecorek@outlook.com

 

Posted on

A Psalm of Disorientation – Psalm 143

The psalms can be divided into three types (first done by Walter Bruggemann). First, songs of orientation that in a basic way orient ourselves towards God, casting the world in a simplified form and ourselves as faithful followers. Then, songs of disorientation, when the simple worldview of the initial psalms are upended by confusion, pain and disconnection. Finally, songs of new orientation, the emergence from those times of struggle into a new, more mature relationship with God. Psalm 143 falls best into the disorientation category.

In the psalms, we see various descriptions of human nature: the soul, the real self and appetites; the spirit or breath, our emotions; and our heart, best understood as our mind, the part that is supposed to know right from wrong. Our hearts are broken, and so are ruled by our emotions and appetites, not by that understanding of right and wrong.

Psalm 143 opens and closes with reflection on the righteousness of God. It then moves directly into a request that God not judge the singer based on their deeds. This is directly reversed from psalms of orientation like psalm 7, when he specifically asks to be judged based on his righteous deeds.

He then moves into the meat of the prayer: his enemy is closing in and it is causing emotional turmoil within. It is on one hand a foxhole prayer, written while David is hiding from Saul or the Philistines. On the other hand, the specific enemies are not named, because this is a song written to be sung by many people, all of whom have enemies, whether physical or spiritual.

He comes to God, then (and us with him) thirsty like a parched land. We can easily have our need God dulled by the pleasures of the world, and it is only when that world has fallen apart on us that we truly feel the desperate that within us.

Attached to all this, he hopes that this feeling of abandonment does not mean God has turned His face from him, that this temporal darkness does not have eternal significance.

He then moves into five specific requests, paired with the reason for these requests – notably, not because of his own righteousness. Answer me quickly, do not hide your face, bring me word quickly, show me your will, rescue me from my enemies. The reasons given are not based on David’s abilities (or ours), but rather on the nature of God Himself and the trust that David places in Him.

So David brings faith rather than righteousness. He brings no currency to the transaction, only faith that God will rescue him based on three things: His name’s sake, His righteousness and his unfailing love.

The term “unfailing love” literally means “cut a covenant” with the implication of blood. God specifically made covenants with David, that he would be king, live a long life, that his son would build the temple, and the Messiah would come from his line. For God to keep these promises, God must rescue David from his troubles. From that perspective, it is fairly cold and impersonal. It gets to the unfailing part, but not the love.

The second component to the righteousness of God are the parts of His character that lead him to make these promises to begin with. God is the one who created the relationship with David (and us!) not the other way around. God has rigged the entire situation so that our faith is substituted for righteousness. His righteousness is unfailing in its commitment, and love in its motivation. When David appeals to God’s righteousness, he is appealing to the love and mercy of God, not to His perfection.

What do we learn ourselves from Psalm 143? Primarily, that we can call on God based not on our righteousness, but His. We do not have the individual covenant that David did, but instead we have Christ as our representative. Like David, we have no currency of righteousness. If we, through faith, are linked to Christ, then all the promises of God to Christ fall to us. Through faith, we become the anointed ones, and Christ’s story becomes our story, His unending currency righteousness becomes ours.

This means that the first step in calling on God is to connect ourselves to Christ. We need Him as our mediator. If we have done this but still pray from a place of self-righteousness, entitlement and pride. Are we angry at God for not responding in the way we desire or expect? Are we putting ourselves up as judges of God? Or are we on the other end of the spectrum, disheartened by our own sin, we pray (or fail to pray) out of our own sense of unrighteousness. We are called to boldness, not based on our abilities but on the imputed righteousness of Christ.

As Martin Luther is said to have written:

For feelings come and feelings go, and feelings are deceiving;
My warrant is the Word of God, Nought else is worth believing.
Though all my heart should feel condemned, For want of some sweet token,
There is One greater than my heart, Whose Word cannot be broken.
I’ll trust in God’s unchanging Word, ‘till soul and body sever;
For though all things shall pass away, His Word shall stand forever.

– Sermon Notes, Brent Rood, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA, August 27, 2017

Psalm 143

Something went wrong with the bible. Please make sure that you are requesting a valid passage! If this problem presits please contact joshuawiecorek@outlook.com