“YOU ARE THE
MAN”
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A sermon preached Readings
2
Sam 11:26-12:13, Matthew 7:1-5 |
2
Sam 12:7 “You
are the man”
At
the front of the Church we have a marvellous model of a Mississippi steamer
created by the children of our Holiday Club during the past week.
The theme of this year’s club was “Huckleberry Finn”
“Huckleberry Finn” is set in the deep
south in slave owning days.
Much of the story concerns Huck and Jim, an escaped slave,
making their way down the Mississippi on a raft.
At
one point Huck stays with the Grangerfords –
who are involved in a bitter and acrimonious blood feud with the Shepherdsons.
On the Sunday Huck goes with the Grangerfords to
Church –
their enemies the Sandersons also attend the same
Church –
both families take their guns to Church and keep them at the ready
in case they need to fight the other family during the service.
This is how
Huck describes the scene –
“Next Sunday we
all went to church, about three mile, everybody
a-horseback.
The men took their guns along, so did Buck,
and kept them between their knees or stood them handy against the wall.
The Shepherdsons done the same.
It was pretty ornery preaching --
all about brotherly love, and such-like tiresomeness;
but everybody said it was a good sermon,
and they all talked it over going home,
and had such a powerful lot to say about faith and good works
and free grace and preforeordestination, and I don't
know what all,
that it did seem to me to be one of the roughest Sundays I had run across yet.”
Of course that scene is just part of a wider attack on the values of a society
which speaks the language of love
but lives the life of slave owning and racism.
The Church goers simply fail to relate the Biblical
message of love to their own lives.
Mind you Huck himself also fails to see the
relevance of the Bible.
At the start of the story,
the Widow Douglas adopts Huck and tries rather unsuccessfully to teach him the
Bible stories.
Huck says:
"After supper she got out her book and learned
me about Moses and the Bulrushers,
and I was in a sweat to find out all about him;
but by and by she let it out that Moses had been dead a considerable long time;
so then I didn't care no more about him,
because I don't take no stock in dead people."
And there is huge irony here –
For
this dead man Moses was the Moses who followed God’s instruction to free the
slaves of Egypt,
and who has a huge amount to say to a slave owning society –
about God’s call to love and acceptance of the poor and the needy.
And as the book develops,
Huck gradually sees through the injustice and hypocrisy of a slave owning
society -
a society whose failing is precisely to ignore Moses and his message.
All
of which springs to mind as we see this wonderful Mississippi scene before us -
but all of which can also act as a commentary on our set Old Testament reading
for today.
You recall the story.
King
David falls for Bathsheba –
but she is married to Uriah the Hittite.
Uriah is a poor man with just one wife -
David is rich and has many wives already – but he must have Bathsheba.
So he arranges for Uriah to be placed on the very front row of a violent
battle.
Uriah is killed, and David takes his widow Bathsheba as his wife.
The
American plantation owners
treated their African slaves as foreign less-than-nobodies whose rights – even
to life –
were of no consequence should they interfere with their masters’ wishes.
And
that is how David treats Uriah –
a foreign less-than-nobody whose rights – even to life –
were of no consequence should they interfere with David’s desires.
But God speaks to David through Nathan the prophet.
We heard this part of the story read to us –
Nathan tells of a poor farmer with one sheep.
A rich man – even though he has great flocks -
steals the one sheep to put on his table.
David is furious and says the man must be punished.
Like
the feuding gun toting slave owners listening to the sermon on brotherly love,
so David hears the word of God –
but is to deaf to its relevance to his situation and his sins.
Only
when Nathan says “You are the man” –
you are the one who has stolen the sheep -
who has taken the one wife of Uriah –
only then does David see his sin and his judgment.
Ten
days ago I was on the Island of Leros in the
Dodecanese.
It was the scene of a huge battle in 1943 and there is a British War Cemetery
on the island.
Walking along the graves you read the names and try to
imagine
the heartache behind the death of each and every one.
Here is the grave of a Lt-Col – and here next to him a
Private –
Jonathan and Uriah side by side –
equal places in garden and in God’s sight.
And next to them one of many un-named unknown graves –
just “a soldier died Nov 1943”
and then the wonderful words – “Known unto God”
And
David sent Uriah into battle and to his grave.
And
David suddenly realized that Uriah was known unto God –
that you can’t get rid of a Uriah without being called to account by his
heavenly father.
David had not just disposed of a nobody, a dispensible foreigner–
he had disposed of a human being, a child of God,
Uriah even in an unmarked grave was “known unto God” –
and so his murderer was equally known and judged.
Nathan
of course preaches God’s judgement in every generation –
and time and again we are challenged.
But
so often we don’t understand that we are the guilty ones.
And Nathan
says to our generation
“You are the man” –
you have enslaved the weak,
you have ignored the outcast,
you have stolen the sheep,
killed the child of God,
taken food from starving nations,
allowed innocents to stumble into the way of bombs and bullets
”You are the man”.
And
says Nathan, you think I am preaching about someone else
but forget the other fellow -
think on your own sins -
”You are the man”.
Samuel Clemens, otherwise Mark Twain,
became an immense celebrity in his later years.
He received sacks of fan mail
including lots of photos from people claiming to be his double.
In the end he had a standard letter of reply printed
which went like this
"My dear Sir, I thank you very much for your
letter and your photograph,
In my opinion you are more like me than any other of
my numerous doubles.
I may even say that you resemble me more closely than I do myself.
In fact, I intend to use your picture to shave by.
Yours thankfully, S. Clemens."
God
is not so confused by look-alikes.
and on Judgment Day he will know us for who we are and
for what we have done
and he will say “You are the man”.
And
meanwhile Ol Man River keeps rolling along….
Every
slave in the deep south knew there were two important
rivers –
The
Mississippi and that other River, the Jordan –
Symbol of death and escape from the tribulations of this life into the
world to come.
As
for Moses and the Children of Israel of old,
crossing Jordan was the dream of the future when slavery and hardship would be
no more,
on the shores of the Promised Land.
Ol' man river,
Dat ol' man river
He mus'know sumpin'
But don't say nuthin',
He jes'keeps rollin'
He keeps on rollin' along….
Let me go 'way
From the Mississippi,
Let me go 'way
From de white man boss;
Show me dat stream
Called de river Jordan,
Dat's de ol' stream
Dat I long to cross.
So
some brief final thoughts on those two rivers –
1.
God intended our journey on the river this life
to be a wholesome and fulfilled journey of joy and peace-
We should strive to make sure that for all the poor and needy this life is
not a vale of tears to be endured
but a foretaste of heaven to be embraced.
2.
Where we have caused others pain in this life –
even if we have failed to recognize or acknowledge it –
God knows every child and every suffering moment –
and on Jordan’s further bank he will gently and loving weep with us over our
sins –
and that will be the pain of judgment for us all
3.
But – and here is Gospel –
however hard this life has been for us,
and however hard we have made it for others,
God knows us by name and loves us each and every one –
he bears our sins and sorrows
“The river Jordan” may be “chilly and cold”,
But it “Chills the body but not the soul”,
”The river is deep and the river is wide, “
But there’s “Milk and honey on the other side”
Let
us share God’s love and freedom in this life
until that day when we know it to the full in the life to come.