Pentecost 22 (NL3) John B. Valentine
2 Samuel 7:18-29 October 20, 2024

“DAVID ... AND GEORGE ... AND YOU AND ME”

Today marks a shift.

You see ... for the past six or seven weeks now ... we’ve been walking our way through key stories from the Old Testament.

• Stories about the Creation .....

• Stories about the patriarchs and matriarchs ... Abraham and Sarah and Joseph and the like .....

• Stories about the escape from Egypt and the relocation of the people of God to the Promised Land .....

And all of them ... taken together ... are stories about the early history of the People of God.

But today ... and moving forward ... things are different.

You see ... today’s Bible story has to do with the Israelites ... God’s people ... the descendants of Abraham and Sarah ...

• NOT as just this group of people wandering about the Sinai Peninsula ...

• NOT as just a tribe in search of a place to call their own ...

• NOT as a bunch of poor wayfaring strangers ...

But also as an actual nation-state ... as a country per se ...

With property and cities and national borders ... and a government and a military and a king.

It’s like the difference ... in our own nation ... between:

• The stories we tell ourselves about the initial voyages of discovery ... and then the pilgrims and the colonists and the like before 1776 ... and

• The stories we tell ourselves about our nation as a nation ... after the War of Independence ... and the Treaty of Paris that ended that war ... and the drafting of the Constitution and all.

How it is that stories about things before 1776 focus almost exclusively on people ... while the stories after about 1789 are much more about institutions and offices and the people who hold those offices.

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Anyhow ... I find it a bit ironic ... or maybe coincidental ...

When the people of Israel looked back on their national history ... when they told the story of their nation-state ...

Front and center in that story was the fellow whom we heard this morning ... David ... King David ... that guy.

Kind of like how when we look back on our national history ... and particularly on the early days of the United States of America ...

Front and center in that story is a fellow by the name of George Washington ...

Yeah ... THAT guy ... the one after whom our nation’s capital is named ... the one of whom my beloved is a great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grand-niece.

You see ... if we had to come up with an American equivalent of King David ... without a doubt ... it would have to be George Washington.

For instance ...

● God’s people recalled David as a top-flight military strategist would guided his people through perilous times ...

And George Washington is remembered in our history books as a top-flight military strategist would guided our people through perilous times.

● God’s people recalled David as the one who really set the pattern for future generations of leadership and governance in his country ...

Even today ... we look to George Washington as the one who really set the pattern for future generations of leadership and governance in our own.

● David was a charismatic red-head ...

And George Washington was a charismatic red-head ... although you’d never know it for the white-powdered wigs he always wore when sitting for his portraits.

● David was remembered by later generations as a larger-than-life figure who ... in many people’s eyes ... could never have done any wrong ... even though the Bible clearly witnesses to the contrary ...

And George Washington has been remembered by later generations in this country as being a larger-than-life figure who could do no wrong ... make no misjudgment ... perpetrate no evil ... fail no task ... tell no lie ... that story of the cherry tree notwithstanding.

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But there’s another correlation that I see between George Washington and King David ...

One that is FAR more consequential than any of the things I’ve already mentioned ...

One which has to do with each of those fellows’ sober awareness of the place of God in the history of the nation and the people that they loved.

I mean ... consider this prayer that David offered up in the lesson we just read. David prayed:

You know your servant, O Lord God! It’s because of your promise, and according to your own heart, you have wrought all this greatness, so that I – your servant -- may know it. You are great, O Lord God; for there is no one like you, and there is no God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears.

Is there another nation on earth whose God went to redeem it as a people, and to make a name for himself, doing great and awesome things for them, by driving out before his people nations and their gods? And you established your people Israel for yourself to be your people forever; and you, O Lord, became their God.

What David is basically saying is something along the lines of this:

“God ... this is really all about YOU! And it’s only in remembering you ... and being mindful of you ... and being mindful of your priorities ... that we have any hope for the future. Make us mindful of this, Lord God.”

But now ... in the same vein ... listen to a prayer that George Washington penned and then had delivered to the thirteen governors of the newly freed states at the event of the disbanding of the army at the end of the War for Independence:

“Almighty God , We make our earnest prayer that You will keep the United States in Your Holy protection, that You will move the hearts of the citizens to cultivate a sprit of subordination and obedience to government and to entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another and for their fellow citizens of the United States at large.

Finally we pray that You will most graciously be pleased to lead us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to conduct ourselves with that charity, humility, and peaceful, temper of mind which were characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed religion, and without a humble imitation of whose example in these things we can never hope to be a happy nation. Grant our supplications, we ask You, through Jesus Christ, our Lord Amen.”

Those sound pretty similar ... do they not?

Articulated by their nations’ most beloved and well-regarded leaders ... they are public acknowledgments of a personal realization that God alone is the author of liberty and peace ... of justice and of truth.

Recognitions that ... APART FROM GOD ... THERE IS NOT REALLY MUCH HOPE.

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Speaking of national leaders ... let me let you in on a little secret ... folks.

A couple of weeks from now there’s going to be an election across our land!

Once again ... if we haven’t already ... we’ll have opportunity to go to the ballot box and cast our ballots:

• for this, that and the other proposition ... and
• for this, that and the other local official ... and
• for the offices of President and Vice-President of these United States.

Now you know that I would never tell you HOW to vote ... because that’s not the way that we roll around here.

No ... Pastor Pam and Vicar Meagan and I are of the mind that God has given you a mind of your own and a heart of your own and life-experiences of your own ... all of which will help inform you as you make your decisions.

But as you play stare-down with that ballot that is probably right now sitting on your dining room table ... remember this.

Remember ... first off ... that that ballot itself is a gift ...

A gift that has been conveyed to you by conscientious public servants and selfless servicemen and servicewomen over the past two-hundred-and-fifty years.

And NOT using that gift would be disrespectful of their labors and their sacrifices.

Remember ... secondly ... that that ballot is a responsibility.

Martin Luther ... you know ... the ‘Lutheran’ guy ... once noted that all of us ... in our varied positions in life ... are given different opportunities to exercise authority ... and that those opportunities are ‘God-given’ ... and that NOT utilizing those responsibilities is downright irresponsible.

Kind of like how ... in the parable of the talents ... how Jesus commended those two fellows who put to work the gifts that were entrusted to them ... and how he berated the fellow who buried his talents in his backyard.

And remember ... thirdly ... that that ballot is an opportunity.

An opportunity to do what we say is our calling every time we close a worship service around here ... “To go in peace ... to love God by serving your neighbor.”

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Now I KNOW that you have probably found your mailbox inundated in recent days with reminders about how to vote ... and why to vote for this, that or the other candidate ...

Even though I suspect our daily haul at the mailbox pales by comparison to folks who live in one of those so-called swing-states ...

But I can’t imagine that any too many of those bits of campaign propaganda ... left, right or center ... appeal to your responsibility to your neighbor.

No ... from what I see and hear this year ... FEAR and SELFISHNESS are the only two things that political propagandists believe would motivate anyone to do anything!

But seen from the eyes of faith ... seen through the lens of Holy Scripture ... seen through the eyes of Jesus ...

Our ballots are a unique opportunity for us to set aside our fears ... and set aside our selfishness ... and be of service to those very people whom God calls our neighbors.

• Not just the neighbors who live right next door ...

• Not just these neighbors who sit beside us in these pews ...

• But those last and lost and little and least of our neighbors whom Jesus so pointedly calls us to be accountable for in Matthew 25 ....

• And even ... yes ... even ... those so-called aliens ... those ‘migrants’ as politicians seem to be calling them this year ... that the books of Exodus and Leviticus and Deuteronomy so pointedly declare to be a special responsibility of the people of God.

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You see ... folks ... fear is a lousy foundation upon which to build a future.

In fact ... fear ... at least to the writers of Holy Scripture ... is understood to be the opposite of faith.

So ... as and when you take up your ballot sometime over the course of the next couple of weeks ... don’t succumb to the political pundits and propagandists who would pander to your fears ...

But rather see that ballot as an opportunity ... and a responsibility ... and a gift ...

A tool by which you can love God ... by serving your neighbor.