Based on Psalm 51:1-12; 2
Samuel 11:26-12:13a
A friend in Maine
has a bumper sticker – one of many – on her pickup truck that reads: “If you’re
not OUTRAGED, you’re not paying attention.”
According to the BBC, in March, 2011, pro-democracy
protests erupted in the Syrian
city of Deraa
after the arrest and torture of some teenagers who had spray-painted revolutionary slogans on a wall. By July, nationwide protests demanded
President Bashar al-Assad’s resignation.
One thing led to another and the country descended into civil war. Since
then, some 200,000 people have been killed; 11,000,000 displaced from their
homes; and 3,900,000 live as refugees in other countries.
CNN reported in April that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had ordered the
executions of 15 government officials so far this year, based on information provided
by the South Korean National Intelligence Service. For example, one senior official with the
Ministry of Forestry was executed for expressing dissatisfaction with the
country's forestry program.
Neither
Assad in Syria nor Kim Jong Un in North Korea can afford to allow any dissent
or challenges to their authority, and so their default position is to crush it
completely. How might things be
different in their respective countries today had they a Nathan of their own to
tell them parables about the abuse of power.
Psalm 51 is one of about a dozen psalms that
respond to a specific situation in Scripture.
Thus, the context for Psalm 51 comes from today’s reading from Second
Samuel, and it is a psalm of David, not by David. But let’s forget David for a minute; these
twelve verses become highly personal and affecting when we hear them with our
own situations in mind.
The
root of Sin is a distorted or broken relationship with God, and we know
it when it happens, as in verse 3: “I know my transgressions, and my sin is
ever before me.” We tend to be pretty
quick with our Sunday assurances of pardon, but we can’t just wave our sin away with words. We need to face up to our sin as David
did. Our confession of sin implies the need
for a clean heart and a new spirit.
This
is God's judgment: that we need purging 'with hyssop;' we need wisdom; we need
to acknowledge our iniquities, our transgressions. Only then can forgiveness and reconciliation
with our neighbors occur. Only then can
God create in us a clean heart and a new spirit.
Imagine
how difficult it must be to continually dodge the truth that we have sinned
before the Lord; how much physical and emotional energy that must take. Do you think Bashar al-Assad thought at all
about the toll the civil war must be having on Syria's people, or is the
enormity of his sin so great that he can't even speak about it? Closer to home, do we ever wonder about the
toll exacted upon our homeless population by policies that seem to be helpful
when all they actually do is frustrate and make the problem worse. At what point do we lose our compassion and
fall into the sin of complacency and inaction?
Nathan
tells his parable in such a way that David becomes outraged by the rich man’s
behavior only to realize that they are his own actions, his own sin. And it is a rude awakening. I think it would be quite humbling, not to
mention shaming, to hear Nathan say, “You are the man! You are the one without compassion!” When do we become outraged by our own
behavior?
The Bible scholar Patrick Miller wrote that
Psalm 51 “bids us open our eyes to look for evidence” that wickedness leads to
its own destruction “in a world that is shaped and governed by God’s moral
order.” The al-Assad’s of the
world will be defeated by the weight of their own sin.
Psalm 51 is a reaction to Nathan’s parable
and David comes up against the hard truth that his sin is ever before him. Thomas Long, a professor at Candler School of
Theology in Atlanta,
wrote in response that “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall tear you
apart.” This truth is only bearable by
God’s grace and willingness to judge us and restore us.
There is a moment in reading Psalm 51 when we
know ourselves to be forgiven. That moment
represents a new beginning which we owe to a faithful God of steadfast love and
abundant mercy.
Which brings us to Jesus: today’s Gospel
reading from John finds Jesus in Capernaum
immediately after the feeding of the five thousand. The crowd continues to follow him, Jesus
said, “not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the
loaves.” Who wouldn’t follow a prophet
who also provides a buffet?
So
they said to him, “What sign are you going to give us then, so that we
may see it and believe you? What work
are you performing?” Of course, Jesus
himself is the sign. And the connection
to Psalm 51 is this: the work Jesus is performing, then and today, is to
cleanse us from our sin; to put a new and right spirit within us; to create in
us a clean heart; and to reconcile us one with each other. Through Jesus, our relationship with God is
restored. That’s what I hear when I read
the psalm and the gospel together.
Psalm 51 includes tension, challenge, and
promise. It speaks of places
within us where we don’t want to go. It
also celebrates redemption and God’s steadfast love. The afflictions we deal with in this psalm
are spiritual. Our bodies are not broken
but our relationships with God and our resistance to God are. The psalm also gives us an awareness of God’s
saving action and cleansing ways. When
we say “thy will be done,” we free ourselves to be filled with the will and
grace of God.
The
good news here is that God can and will restore the relationships we have broken. We are not doomed to remain in a cycle of
sin, repentance, and forgiveness followed only by more sin. Through this psalm, we can see both our past
and God’s future for us with new understanding. God will create in us a new beginning, sustain
us in times of spiritual drought, and restore to us the joy of God’s salvation.
Maybe
it’s time for our friend to get a new bumper sticker that reads: “If you’re not paying attention, God have
mercy.”
Amen.
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