'Til Kingdom Come

Accompanying music if you so choose. Sanvean - Lisa Gerrard “As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this must die!”  David furiously shouts these words with the conclusion of the prophet Nathan’s story. A strange tale about a poor man’s only beloved lamb and a rich man who takes and slaughters it for his own dinner guests.  This story is fairly familiar and the connections between the parable and David’s unfathomable sins of adultery, deceit, and murder are quickly made. It’s just a creative way for Nathan to bring up an uncomfortable subject to the all-powerful ruler of Israel, is it not? I’ve heard this story countless times throughout my life as a part of the arc of David’s story. However, this part of the tale has been on a repeating loop in my mind recently. Why did this story stir up such a storm in David? He is the king. He is wealthy beyond measure. When he says “He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no...

I work at a church and a few weeks ago we were the victims of a tagger. In three places these lovely initials were sprayed on two of our parking lot lights and this retaining wall where all the water drains from our lot. The two on the cement bases for the lights came off fairly easily with a special cleaner and a lot of scrubbing. Did I mention it was over 100* the day I had to clean these. When I got to this final graffiti I sprayed and sprayed, and scrubbed and scrubbed with a steel brush. I have tried on two more occasions to get this stain off the stone bricks and if you come by the church it will still look like this. I am currently trying to team up with someone to get a sand blaster and hopefully get this removed. While I was drenched in sweat and striving to erase this mark I was reminded of a deep truth. This stain is as stubborn as my sin. My life, my heart, my soul are covered in the marring of disobedience and foolishness. Despite my greatest efforts, the sweat on ...

My church is reading through the Bible this year. At the end of a section of books we have a reflection service. Last night we had a service for the historical books of the old testament. The focus was on the life of David. Several of us in the church were asked to select people in David's life and write an account from their perspective. I chose Jonathan, the son of Saul. This is the piece that I prepared. Mephibosheth, my young lion, my son. I pray this letter finds you well in these troubled times. We are on the eve of battle and my mind is swarming with thoughts and questions that rob me of sleep. I wander our encampment here at Gilboa. My eyes search the heavens for a sense of hope or peace, yet only cold distant stars stare silently back. Mirroring them are the flickering fires of the Philistines across the valley. Burning into the night, into my heart. I wish the Lord would out stretch his hand and brush them from the hillside like dust. In my youth it was the thrill of...