Proper 8
Preaching
Preaching And Reading The Old Testament Lessons
With an Eye to the New
During the reign of Saul (ca.1020--1000 B.C.), Israel's principal enemies were the Philistines, those seagoing peoples from the island of Crete who had settled into five city--states along the coast of Palestine. While Saul and his son Jonathan were sometimes successful in battle against them (cf. 1 Samuel 14:13--46), the Philistines literally threatened Israel with extinction, and one of the reasons David, Saul's successor, was considered to be so great was because he subdued the Philistine threat in battle. It is no surprise, therefore, that the deaths of Saul and Jonathan occurred in a battle on Mount Gilboa with the Philistine armies (1 Samuel 31; 2 Samuel 1:1--10). Our text for the morning consists of David's lament over those two fallen heroes.
We are not used to great expressions of grief in our society. Indeed, we try to hide the fact of death. The dying are often left alone down sterile hospital corridors. When they die, we use cosmetics to make the corpse look as alive as possible. And grieving is confined to private tears in a small company of friends, with the survivors choking back their emotions at the funeral. Not so in the scriptures! David rends his clothing in grief (1:11), has the Amale--kite slain who rendered the last blow to Saul (vv. 11--16), and then cries out in the poetry of verses 19--27. "How the mighty are fallen!" he cries three times in an anguished refrain (vv. 19, 25, 27). Israel's "glory," the Lord's anointed king and his successor, Jonathan, lie slain on the slope of Mount Gilboa. David is overcome with grief, and his expression of that grief is public and heartfelt and therapeutic. The biblical faith never tries to escape from the reality of death, but confronts it head--on and deals with it and finally overcomes it.
How strange it is that David should grieve over Saul, however! Saul has been jealous of David and repeatedly tried to kill him, so that David has been forced to flee for his life, with 600 of his men, and to live as an outlaw in Philistine territory (1 Samuel 27). But now David laments the tragic death of Saul. Despite David's selfish concern to grasp power for himself that finally leads to his kingship over all of Israel, David recognizes that Israel has lost its one figure that unites it, that it now stands helpless before the powers of this world, and that it is like sheep without a shepherd. For that reason, he wants no news of Saul's death published among the Philistines (v. 20), he curses the mountain where Saul was slain (v. 21), and he calls the professional grievers and even the wealthy women in Israel to join him in his grief (v. 24).
But was Saul the "glory" of Israel? Was he the "mighty" one whom David mourns? Certainly he was a failure as a king. Subject to fits of depression, and led astray from the will of God by expediency in battle (1 Samuel 13 and 15), Saul even broke the law to consult the banned witch of Endor (1 Samuel 28). Yet Saul was a mighty warrior (2 Samuel 1:22). He was courageous beyond all reckoning, entering into the battle in which it had been foretold that he would die (1 Samuel 28:15--25). Above all, Saul was the Lord's anointed, the one whom God had chosen to be king, and David, in recognition of the will of God, laments Saul's loss to Israel.
David states in his lament that "in life and death," Saul and Jonathan "were not divided" (v. 23). That overlooks what actually happened, of course. When Saul turned against David and sought to kill him, Jonathan joined league with David against his father, and 1 Samuel 18:1--2 tells us that Saul banned Jonathan from his house. But it seems always to be the case that when death occurs, the enmities, the faults, and the shadows that marred a relationship recede into the background, and only the good is remembered. And so David portrays father and son, fighting together, in the unmarred unity of kinship. We rarely hear anything bad about a person at his funeral. Only the good is recalled.
When David mourns Jonathan's death, a personal note enters in, and it is significant that the note occurs at the climax of this lament (vv. 25--26). David loved Jonathan, in the deepest bond of friendship. 1 Samuel 18:1 tells us that "the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul." And so David mourns the loss of Jonathan as his "brother," whose love for him "was wonderful, passing the love of women." It is a travesty when some interpreters turn that into a perverted, homosexual relationship. In our sex--saturated society, we think that every intimate relation must involve sex, and we have thereby sullied the nature of intimate friendship. We no longer know how two men or two women can share their lives and thoughts and activities with one another, purely and unselfishly, and we have thereby impoverished ourselves. Intimate friendships can be an expression of unconditional love, mirroring the love of God; David, in his grief, mourns the loss of that marvelous love.
The final line of David's lament mourns the loss of Israel's defense. She now stands naked before her enemies. But by the grace of God, David will ascend the throne of Israel and defeat the Philistines. Israel is the chosen people of God, his "holy nation," set apart to serve his purpose for all humankind, and no earthly power will ever defeat that purpose.
Lutheran Option: Lamentations 3:22--33
The book of Lamentations is made up of a series of individual laments that mourn the defeat and destruction of Jerusalem at the hands of the Babylonian Empire in 587 B.C. It was perhaps recited at the site of the ruin of the temple on fast days, and its laments were probably gathered together to form the present book sometime after 538 B.C. It is not a prophetic book, but prompted by 2 Chronicles 35:25, it was included after Jeremiah in the canon, because its laments were thought to mirror that prophet's sufferings.
The siege, fall, and destruction of Jerusalem to the Babylonians, and the subsequent exile of all but the poorest inhabitants, were nothing short of an ancient holocaust for Israel. We have only to read Lamentations to have an intimation of her plight. Reviled and looted by her enemies, Israel lost her nationhood, her davidic king, her land, her temple, and much of her populace. The covenant was broken (cf. Jeremiah 31:32), and Israel considered herself "dead," her plight forgotten by her God (cf. Isaiah 40:27; Ezekiel 37:11) - all because of her rebellion against her covenant Lord (Lamentations 1:8--9, 18, 22; 3:1, 42; 4:11, 13, 22).
In the midst of Lamentations' descriptions of her awful suffering, however, we find this hymn of praise that makes up our text, and its words reveal the source of Israel's perennial hope for the future. God has judged his people for their faithlessness toward him, yes. They have been subjected to the conqueror's yoke and oppression (vv. 27--30), yes. But "the steadfast love (i.e. the covenant love) of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end" (v. 22). Beyond his judgment there is always the love and undeserved grace of God. The Lord pours out that grace in common forms every morning, causing his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, sending his rain upon the just and on the unjust, granting to all his creatures his breath of life by which they are sustained. And even beyond that, God will not give up the people he has created for himself, or cast them off forever. God never throws us away. Rather, in overwhelming and undeserved mercy, he comes to us and delivers us from the death we deserve for our sin, and takes us back into his good fellowship. Israel learned that when she was delivered from her Babylonian exile and returned to her land. We learned it most finally in the forgiveness and new life granted us by the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ. "This I call to mind," says our text, "and therefore I have hope." In faith in Christ, we always have hope. Therefore, says our text, "wait" for the Lord. Cast yourself upon his mercy. For that mercy is everlasting and his steadfast love never ceases.
We are not used to great expressions of grief in our society. Indeed, we try to hide the fact of death. The dying are often left alone down sterile hospital corridors. When they die, we use cosmetics to make the corpse look as alive as possible. And grieving is confined to private tears in a small company of friends, with the survivors choking back their emotions at the funeral. Not so in the scriptures! David rends his clothing in grief (1:11), has the Amale--kite slain who rendered the last blow to Saul (vv. 11--16), and then cries out in the poetry of verses 19--27. "How the mighty are fallen!" he cries three times in an anguished refrain (vv. 19, 25, 27). Israel's "glory," the Lord's anointed king and his successor, Jonathan, lie slain on the slope of Mount Gilboa. David is overcome with grief, and his expression of that grief is public and heartfelt and therapeutic. The biblical faith never tries to escape from the reality of death, but confronts it head--on and deals with it and finally overcomes it.
How strange it is that David should grieve over Saul, however! Saul has been jealous of David and repeatedly tried to kill him, so that David has been forced to flee for his life, with 600 of his men, and to live as an outlaw in Philistine territory (1 Samuel 27). But now David laments the tragic death of Saul. Despite David's selfish concern to grasp power for himself that finally leads to his kingship over all of Israel, David recognizes that Israel has lost its one figure that unites it, that it now stands helpless before the powers of this world, and that it is like sheep without a shepherd. For that reason, he wants no news of Saul's death published among the Philistines (v. 20), he curses the mountain where Saul was slain (v. 21), and he calls the professional grievers and even the wealthy women in Israel to join him in his grief (v. 24).
But was Saul the "glory" of Israel? Was he the "mighty" one whom David mourns? Certainly he was a failure as a king. Subject to fits of depression, and led astray from the will of God by expediency in battle (1 Samuel 13 and 15), Saul even broke the law to consult the banned witch of Endor (1 Samuel 28). Yet Saul was a mighty warrior (2 Samuel 1:22). He was courageous beyond all reckoning, entering into the battle in which it had been foretold that he would die (1 Samuel 28:15--25). Above all, Saul was the Lord's anointed, the one whom God had chosen to be king, and David, in recognition of the will of God, laments Saul's loss to Israel.
David states in his lament that "in life and death," Saul and Jonathan "were not divided" (v. 23). That overlooks what actually happened, of course. When Saul turned against David and sought to kill him, Jonathan joined league with David against his father, and 1 Samuel 18:1--2 tells us that Saul banned Jonathan from his house. But it seems always to be the case that when death occurs, the enmities, the faults, and the shadows that marred a relationship recede into the background, and only the good is remembered. And so David portrays father and son, fighting together, in the unmarred unity of kinship. We rarely hear anything bad about a person at his funeral. Only the good is recalled.
When David mourns Jonathan's death, a personal note enters in, and it is significant that the note occurs at the climax of this lament (vv. 25--26). David loved Jonathan, in the deepest bond of friendship. 1 Samuel 18:1 tells us that "the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul." And so David mourns the loss of Jonathan as his "brother," whose love for him "was wonderful, passing the love of women." It is a travesty when some interpreters turn that into a perverted, homosexual relationship. In our sex--saturated society, we think that every intimate relation must involve sex, and we have thereby sullied the nature of intimate friendship. We no longer know how two men or two women can share their lives and thoughts and activities with one another, purely and unselfishly, and we have thereby impoverished ourselves. Intimate friendships can be an expression of unconditional love, mirroring the love of God; David, in his grief, mourns the loss of that marvelous love.
The final line of David's lament mourns the loss of Israel's defense. She now stands naked before her enemies. But by the grace of God, David will ascend the throne of Israel and defeat the Philistines. Israel is the chosen people of God, his "holy nation," set apart to serve his purpose for all humankind, and no earthly power will ever defeat that purpose.
Lutheran Option: Lamentations 3:22--33
The book of Lamentations is made up of a series of individual laments that mourn the defeat and destruction of Jerusalem at the hands of the Babylonian Empire in 587 B.C. It was perhaps recited at the site of the ruin of the temple on fast days, and its laments were probably gathered together to form the present book sometime after 538 B.C. It is not a prophetic book, but prompted by 2 Chronicles 35:25, it was included after Jeremiah in the canon, because its laments were thought to mirror that prophet's sufferings.
The siege, fall, and destruction of Jerusalem to the Babylonians, and the subsequent exile of all but the poorest inhabitants, were nothing short of an ancient holocaust for Israel. We have only to read Lamentations to have an intimation of her plight. Reviled and looted by her enemies, Israel lost her nationhood, her davidic king, her land, her temple, and much of her populace. The covenant was broken (cf. Jeremiah 31:32), and Israel considered herself "dead," her plight forgotten by her God (cf. Isaiah 40:27; Ezekiel 37:11) - all because of her rebellion against her covenant Lord (Lamentations 1:8--9, 18, 22; 3:1, 42; 4:11, 13, 22).
In the midst of Lamentations' descriptions of her awful suffering, however, we find this hymn of praise that makes up our text, and its words reveal the source of Israel's perennial hope for the future. God has judged his people for their faithlessness toward him, yes. They have been subjected to the conqueror's yoke and oppression (vv. 27--30), yes. But "the steadfast love (i.e. the covenant love) of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end" (v. 22). Beyond his judgment there is always the love and undeserved grace of God. The Lord pours out that grace in common forms every morning, causing his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, sending his rain upon the just and on the unjust, granting to all his creatures his breath of life by which they are sustained. And even beyond that, God will not give up the people he has created for himself, or cast them off forever. God never throws us away. Rather, in overwhelming and undeserved mercy, he comes to us and delivers us from the death we deserve for our sin, and takes us back into his good fellowship. Israel learned that when she was delivered from her Babylonian exile and returned to her land. We learned it most finally in the forgiveness and new life granted us by the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ. "This I call to mind," says our text, "and therefore I have hope." In faith in Christ, we always have hope. Therefore, says our text, "wait" for the Lord. Cast yourself upon his mercy. For that mercy is everlasting and his steadfast love never ceases.
