2 Samuel 18:5-9, 15, 31-33
Proper 14 (19) - Year B
It is a scene to pull at our heartstrings - David mourning the death of his rebellious son Absalom.
Had David shown the same level of involvement with his daughter's rape by another of his sons we may never have come to this moment of grief.
So, whose misdeeds are you ignoring or protecting through your silence and what might you project will be the larger consequence that will come from ignoring the pain of one?
This kind of pericoping (huh?) is fair warning to look beyond the moment or particular piece of scripture. Since this is a continuation of the prior story from chapter 13, it will be important to do some contexualizing. If we just let it go with this part of the story we will get into the same bind the church has gotten into with particular verses justifying slavery or condemning women in leadership and miss the larger picture. This kind of narrow-vision approach has also caused us to reap the whirlwind regarding other gifts of sexuality (pray for the Episcopal church in these days). The larger picture reminds us there is no racial difference between Gentile and Jew, no gender difference between female and male, no loving difference between homosexual and heterosexual, etc.
On a lighter note, note that the ents had their day, doing in more than swords. Ancient and slow though they be, when engaged they are very powerful.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2003/august2003.html
Somehow our desire and greed for life has gone bitterly astray. We run until we are surprised by a noose disguised as a tree; until we fall exhausted of all reserve; until we find ourself in the disinterested grasp of despair; until our waiting only brings forth more waiting.
So it has been for us and for all of our image (read G*D). The imitation of our own image imagines another way beyond the stillness of an overly humid day with a hazy gray sky hanging featureless over our heads.
This alternative presses back against the anger of unmet desire and greed - limiting it to this day, this moment; presses back against our thieving actions until they come out another side as sharing. In shorthand, we "live in love" and shift our experience from claiming others as our daily bread to being such daily bread - unconcerned for cosmic, heavenly authority for so being, and simply believing/claiming/acting eternally in each moment available.
- - -
["-- Who can tell truth from falsehood any more?
I say it, and you feel it in your hearts:
no man or woman on this big small earth."
- e.e. cummings]am I not
but the gene pool
of mother and father
narrowed down
to one option
masquerading
as all other optionsam I not
a feast
for generations to come
opening a broadening way
willing one form
to dive deep
into each next
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_08_01_archive.html
Let's back up a bit to 14:25-26. "No one in all Israel was so admired for his beauty as Absalom; from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head he was without blemish. When he cut his hair – he had to have it cut every year, for it grew too heavy for him – the hair of his head weighed two hundred shekels by the royal weight."
Absalom's outer beauty went to his head. From the time David did not punish Amnon for raping Tamar (Absalom's sister), Absalom plots revenge upon both Amnon and David – "I'll be a real king". Absalom succeeds in killing Amnon but is finally killed in a revolt against David, caught by his own beautiful and bountiful hair.
David would not discipline Amnon and did not grieve with Tamar. Now he weeps for Absalom. Remember when he wept for his dying son (offspring from his adultery with Bathsheba) and then simply went on without weeping when that son actually died?
How is it we are such a mass of contradictions? Do David's genes seem to be in you as well? Privileged by G*D and yet unable to build upon that? May we be given the gift of seeing more of the consequences of our own behavior and engaging in the difficult parts of life regarding them now, rather than mourning them later.
This "we" is both royal-we-speak, meaning individuals, and whole communities. You will have to answer for yourself and together we need to have better conversations as we answer to suicide by environmental degradation and war for fear of terror and other.
Finally, what irony will show up in your obituary? What unexpected source will weep for you? Will any response made to these questions actually lead to a change in community participation?
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2009_08_01_archive.html
“The men of Israel were defeated by the servants of David.” Can you say Civil War? It happens even where covenantal partners live.
It appears to be rather run-of-the-mill for humans to ultimatize one particular or another, draw a line in the sand over it, and begin a battle royal. Things got so confused there are huge contradictions about Absalom’s death from verse to verse. We are likewise confused in this day about church life.
It seems the result of these rising energies for power always end in regret. Whichever way things turn out, the result is a lessening of communal cohesion and hope to build on for a better option for tomorrow.
Intentions, whether best or mediocre, go awry all the way to grief. There is something about that middle part, the going gang aft agley that we should be more curious about. How do things get messed up? “Original sin” is not a sufficient response.
This may be an investigation that is particularly apt during Pentecost. Starting with such strange energy blasting its way out of a closed room of closed people, we might find sufficient freedom to ask why we insist on our own way instead of crossing boundaries and speaking another’s language rather than demand our own as standard.
Blessings on looking again at options available.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2012/08/2-samuel-185-9-15-31-33.html