(Homily for Gayton Road Christian Church's Worship on July 8, 2018, Proper 9)
Greater and Greater, Less and Less
Today’s two scriptures tell the
tale of two cities: Hebron, where David is announced king, and Nazareth, where
Jesus receives a rather disappointing homecoming. The two stories are as far as apart as night and day. One is a story of acceptance. The other is a story of rejection.
On the one hand, we have David,
anointed king and applauded. But
not just by anybody—by his former enemies! Just before today’s scripture, the storyteller tells us that
the house of David and the house of Saul had waged a long war against each
other (2 Sam 3:1). In today’s
scripture, team Saul finally accepts defeat and accepts David as their
king. Acceptance does for David what
acceptance does for many of us. It
builds him up. It prospers
him. We’re told that after his
anointing, David grows “greater and greater.” In the scripture that follows our passage today, we learn
that David takes more wives and concubines, fathers a number of sons and daughters,
and leads Israel to victory in a series of battles, expanding their
territory.
On the other hand, we have Jesus
who has returned to the town of his upbringing, Nazareth. While David is accepted by his enemies,
Jesus is rejected by his old friends and neighbors. His hometown takes offense at him. (We’re never told why exactly.) This rejection corresponds with a certain diminishment in
Jesus’ movement, not unlike the way rejection sometimes reduces us to our
core. While David in his
acceptance grows “greater and greater,” Jesus in his rejection embarks on a
journey of less and less. Forsaken
by his hometown, Jesus and his disciples split up and travel to other villages. Jesus commissions his disciples to take
with them no money, no food, no extra clothes. He counsels them to prepare for rejection themselves, and
simply to move on when they encounter it.
It’s almost as though rejection has intensified Jesus’ focus on what
matters: not success but faithfulness.
Do what you are called to do, and keep moving.
More than Meets the Eye
Today’s tale of two cities, then,
shows us David flourishing in the City of Acceptance and Jesus languishing in
the City of Rejection.
But of course, there’s so much
more than meets the eye. The City
of Acceptance where David is celebrated looks wonderful on the surface, but
look a little deeper and you’ll discover that it is built on the foundation of
war, deception, and betrayal. Not
everyone in that city is as happy as they look. Many of the people at David’s anointing had lost a war to
David. Those wounds do not fade so
quickly.
And the City of Rejection where
Jesus dwells looks difficult on the outside, but look a little bit deeper and
you’ll discover a world of abundant life, where the poor have no riches but are
blessed with a deep companionship, where the sick are blessed with hands to
hold, where the sinners and rejected are blessed with a table to gather around
in communion.
Dying to the World
We all want acceptance and
affirmation. No one desires
rejection and difficulty. But as
these two cities show us, acceptance and rejection are not reliable guideposts
for life.
The earliest monks were fond of
saying that we should be moved by neither praise nor disapproval. One of my favorite stories is of Father
Macarius, who gave this advice to a young man: “Go to the cemetery. Rebuke the dead. Then praise them.” When the young man did this and
returned, Father Macarius asked him, “How did they react?” “They didn’t,” said the young man, to
which Father Macarius responded, “Go and do likewise.” In his own artful way, Father Macarius
expounds upon Paul’s metaphor of dying with Christ. When we die with Christ to the world, we become like the
dead to the world’s approval and disapproval. We orient our lives not by praise and condemnation, but by
trust in the way of Christ, which is the way of the cross, which is the way of
giving our life and finding it anew.
Acceptance and rejection no longer decide for us whether what we’re
doing is good or bad, right or wrong.
(Just a glance at the most popular Youtube videos will prove that
popularity bears no correlation to quality!)
And so for a
little church like ourselves, the ultimate question is not: “How many backsides
are in the pew? How many likes
have we got on Facebook?” That’s
no longer where we find our life.
We’ve died to that.
Instead, the question is very simple. Are we being faithful to the way of Christ, to the way of
abundant life that we have found?
Are we being faithful to the call that we’ve heard, that call to share
life around tables and in small groups and with the needful?
Perhaps
Disciples preacher and teacher Fred Craddock put it best: “The question,” he said,
“is not whether the church is dying, but whether it is giving its life for the
world.” How things look on the
outside say very little about the life that matters, the life that’s on the
inside. It was, in fact, amid
difficulty and trial that the gospel of Christ shone brightest. The stories we read of Jesus are not
stories of great acclaim and achievement, of high seats and long robes and
successful programs, but rather of the poor and the sick, the sinners and the
rejected. That’s where Jesus found
abundant life.
And that’s
where we followers of Christ have found it too. Whether it’s with the neglected and forgotten in hospitals
and memory care units and refugee housing developments, or simply with family
or friends or work colleagues with whom needs are shared, with whom healing and
repentance are found in truthful talk and tender touch—we find abundant life
not in acceptance or rejection, success or failure, but in the way of Christ.
Prayer
Dear Christ,
In whose rejected body
The fullness of God
Is pleased to dwell—
In our success,
When we are built up,
Humble us with a reminder
Of your simple call;
In our disappointment,
When we are reduced to our core,
Encourage us with a reminder
Of your simple call:
To give ourselves
For the life of the world. Amen.
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