This morning, I’m glad we have both the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament in our Christian faith tradition. To be clear, the Hebrew Scriptures paint a loving and just God. But in my read, they also paint an incomplete picture, focusing largely on revenge, retribution, and fear. While these have a place in the human heart – like it or not, the New Testament, particularly the Gospels focus on a God of love, mercy and justice.
Take this whole story of David and Saul. If it weren’t rife with death and murder, it might be comical. The Israelites hate the Philistines, they’re long time enemies. Saul is looking for someone to defeat the giant Philistine, Goliath. Saul looks to the family of Jesse, and dismisses all of his big strong sons, and finally figures out that puny David is still out tending sheep. But it turns out, David’s the one. So David goes into battle with Goliath, and famously sleighs Goliath with just the stones in his pocket, and the sword in his sheath. The Philistines had put all their stock in Goliath winning, and upon his death, they retreat and the Israelites are safe. David the hero.
David ends up a favorite of Saul. He’s a warrior, and he can play the lyre! So he ends up marrying one of Saul’s daughters. David also has an extremely strong bond with Saul’s son, Jonathan. Some go so far as to suggest it was a romance, while others say it was the ultimate kind of friendship forged between men in war times. In any case, Saul is so appreciative and aware of David’s gifts, he puts David in charge of the Israeli army. David the warrior leader.
But as David’s popularity waxes within the Israelites, Saul’s wanes, so he turns on David, and spends the rest of his days hunting him down to kill him. At times, David escapes through wile, and others because of Jonathan’s warning David of Saul’s coming threats. David on the run.
David hides out with the very Philistines that he’d defeated with his killing of Goliath. Eventually, the Philistines go to fight the Israelites again, including Saul and Jonathan. Saul is badly injured. He knew he was going to die, so he asked his own guard to kill him off, so he didn’t fall into enemy hands. His guard obliged, and then took his own life. Jonathan is also killed in this battle. David at this point doesn’t know all of this. David the unaware.
A man comes to tell David of Saul and Jonathan’s death at the hand of the Philistines. He tells David that he himself killed Jonathan at Jonathan’s request. Similar to Saul, Jonathan was mortally wounded but not dead. He asked this man to finish him off. The man obliged. He then came to tell David of this story. David in return killed the man. David the Hero?
We haven’t even gotten in the story to David taking someone else’s wife through very conniving ways, or all of the other drama surrounding David’s world.
There’s an awful lot of bloodshed, and retribution, and war. To be clear, I don’t believe that there was less bloodshed in the time of Jesus. I don’t think it’s an impossible story – the story of David. It’s neither impossible, or unique. And I do think God can work through all sorts, including hero-liars-murders-adulterers-musicians, like David. And David’s storied past makes him an excellent author of the Psalms, which reflect all sorts of human pain and suffering and confusion.
And the Gospels don’t dwell on that ugliness of humanity – other than the ultimate ugliness in the Passion of Jesus. And while there’s narrative of murder and mayhem in the Gospels, it’s rarely seen as positive trait of the hero of the story. Rather, in the Gospels we hear about how these things happen. There is ugliness in the human heart. Even in the hearts of beloved disciples, like the crooked tax collector Matthew, or the murderous Saul-turned-Paul. Those, however aren’t the point of the story. If mentioned at all, these traits are things that God works through. We don’t hear about Saul’s persecution of Christians as if that’s the point. He wasn’t a hero because of his involvement in killing Stephan. Despite his role in early Christian persecution, he was loved, and learned to move on to a message of God’s incredible and undeserving love.
This morning, I’m thinking about the way we still glorify the ugly. Murder mysteries. Reality TV. Hollywood gossip. Obsession with political intrigue. The stories we read, and the narrative we tell ourselves should be less like David’s early life, and more like Paul’s later life. We can be ugly humans. Yes. But let’s talk about, read about, and live as if that’s just the background to God’s incredible mercy and love.
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