Introduction. The tragedies of death and lost opportunity 2 Samuel 1

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1 1 Introduction The tragedies of death and lost opportunity 2 Samuel 1 I am glad to be back again after four weeks away preaching in Goulburn. I ll be away again for another three weeks after today so it will be late Oct before I am back. My subject today is tragedy. Today s reading is the second telling of the death of King Saul. It s a tragic story and it inspires a deep grief in David. So I want today to speak about the tragedy of death. And also about the tragedy of lost opportunity. Words:???? St Stephens Belrose Oct 01, 2017 So that s our cheerful topic for the day! Once before I was preaching on Jonah ch 1. And the day or so before the service leader rang and told that this would be an outdoor service and that we needed something light and easy. Unfortunately I had already prepared and my theme was You can run but you will die! That s about as light and easy, bright and breezy as I get! So it s something similar today: two of life s great tragedies death and lost opportunities. But don t get me wrong. In my view the story of the world is not a tragedy but a comedy. The biblical story starts with love and ends in joy. But it s a very long story and the truth is that we all face tragic moments in our lives from time to time. We all face the tragedy of death and the tragic disappointment of lost opportunities. And so I trust you will find something helpful from this discussion. And that it

2 2 is not at all dispiriting. But rather life-giving and encouraging. And of course we are here in 2 Sam 1 because we are starting a series on 2 Sam today. We worked our way through 1 Samuel last year and now we have the chance to pick up that story and explore it further. Let s begin then with the obvious subject matter of this chapter: the tragedy of death 1. The tragedy of death Explanation Let me summarise the story so far. Early in 1 Samuel Israel demanded a King and the prophet Saul grudgingly anointed tall Saul as their first King. But Saul proved to be a disappointment. At a critical moment he failed to obey God s instructions through the prophet Samuel. And as a result the kingship was given to young David. That was in 1 Sam 16. Which means we have had 15 chapters in which there were two kings in Israel: Saul the public king on the throne and David in the background. Saul for his part was consumed with a very great hatred of David. David on the other hand was guided by a very deep respect for the properly appointed King the Lord s anointed as he expressed it. And caught between the two kings was Saul s son Jonathan. He was David s greatest admirer and was immediately convinced that David would be king rather than himself. But he was also fiercely loyal to his father and stayed with his Father to help him as the King. That s why we find them together in 1 Sam 31 fighting the Philistines and why it is that when the battle turns against them they die together. That s the terrible story of the previous chapter. But here in 1 Sam 1 we get the story a second time, a slightly different story from the mouth of an Amalakite. This Amalakite is the one who brings the news to David about Saul and Jonathan. He does so bringing with him the crown and the royal armband Saul was wearing when he died. And he tells a different story in which the dying Saul asks him to kill him and so prevent the Philistines from torturing and humiliating him. This Amalakite gladly gives the account of how he himself then had both killed the former king and now delivered the crown to the new king. He was hoping no doubt that this would mean that he would derive some benefit under the new regime. How wrong he was!

3 3 He was wrong because David saw this moment in a very surprising way. This news of course meant that the big problem of his life was solved. The king was dead! Long live the new king David! Not only that but three of Saul s sons died on the same day. Which meant that three possible rivals to the throne were out of the picture. It s a Steve Bradbury moment! If David was at heart a politician, then that s how he would have seen things. But David has his eyes on something else. This was the death of the LORD s anointed (14,16). The man whom God appointed king has just died. And so from David s heart comes this extraordinary lament (19-27). He calls for the whole of Judah not just to listen to it but to learn it (20). David will teach his people how to grieve; how to respond to the tragedy of death. The refrain of this lament is the line How the mighty have fallen! (19,25,27). The lament demands that the Philistine cities of Gath and Ashkelon not be told the news lest they rejoice (20). Instead the daughters of Israel are called to weep for Saul (24). And in it the mountains of Gilboa are called to share in the grief by experiencing a period of drought (21). And so David laments the tragic death of Saul and Jonathan. And in this way 2 Sam 1 brings us face to face with the tragedy of death. Illustration 'Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone' Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone, Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone, Silence the pianos and with muffled drum Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come. Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead, Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves, Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves. He was my North, my South, my East and West, My working week and my Sunday rest, My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song; I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong. The stars are not wanted now: put out every one; Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun; Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood; For nothing now can ever come to any good. W H Auden

4 4 Application How the mighty have fallen! Isn t that the tragedy of death? Not just for Jonathan and Saul but for all human beings. Death robs us of our strength and our honour. It humiliates us and brings to nothing all our hopes and dreams. Everything we have worked for all our lives comes to dust and ashes. All that we have stood for and represented and fought for all reduced to emptiness and nothingness. Like Adam every human being is destined to the exquisite frustration of death. We fight and struggle against the earth and the thorns and the thistles and in the end the earth wins and we return to it. How the mighty are fallen. It is good for us from time to time to recognize that we live in the face of death. And to recognize that everything we hold dear is opposed and corroded by the universal reality of death. Death in the Bible is our enemy. And it is good to know that and to remind ourselves of it. Death is always a tragedy. You may be thinking well of course. It s obvious. But we live at a time when our culture is making a friend of death. Death we are told is just a part of life. Just one more step in the cycle of life. Of no more or less significance than birth. when death can be our servant and can be harnessed to a greater purpose. An unwanted pregnancy can be solved by death. An undignified life or unwanted dependency can be solved by death. We call that euthanasia: good death. It s good because it serves the greater purpose of preserving our autonomy, our supposed independence, our dignity. Popular culture loves death. We cheerfully watch movies in which hundreds of people die. We play games in which we actively kill other people. This is leisure. This is fun. That s why we Christians need to insist that death is not fun. And death is not our friend. Death is the enemy of human beings. It dishonours us. It weakens us. It renders us corruptible. It corrodes and disfigures us. Why take so hard a line? Because of the resurrection. When God sent his Son he sent him to face the enemy of humanity and the whole of creation. To face it and to overcome it. The cross and the resurrection teach us that death really matters and that in Jesus it has been overcome. In the cross and the resurrection sin was condemned and death died. Even more, we are coming to believe that death is our ally, our helper. That there are times in life

5 5 And so here in 2 Samuel we pause to register the significance of death; the tragedy of death. How the mighty have fallen! If the tragedy of death is not enough there is another tragedy here in this chapter. It is 2. The tragedy of lost opportunity Explanation This tragedy centres on the person of Jonathan. The narrator calls this poem a lament for Saul and his son Jonathan (17) and twice the lament itself refers to them together. But in vv 25-6 the focus is on Jonathan alone. Read. David grieves openly and publically for his dear friend Jonathan. To understand this we need to remember the story of their relationship. After Saul was rejected as king the prophet Samuel went and secretly anointed David. Now David came to public prominence on the day he solved the problem of Goliath. You remember the story: how David overcame the huge Philistine warrior Goliath with his slingshot and a few pebbles. This victory made David very popular in Israel. The people sang a new song which compared David with Saul: Saul has slain his thousands and David his tens of thousands (1 Sam 18:7). Saul had the office of king but David had the charisma, the capacity, the success and the popularity. And this was the moment when Jonathan recognized that David would be the next king of Israel rather than himself. Hence 18:1-4. On the day David confronted Goliath Saul too had offered his royal armour to David. Now Jonathan takes off his princely robe along with his weapons and hands them to David. In this way he symbolized his devotion to David not just as a person but as the coming king of Israel. But then David s relationship with Saul deteriorated very badly so that David s life was at risk just by being near Saul. Several times Saul tried to kill David but he failed. Jonathan was caught between these two men. He tried to persuade his father that David was loyal to him and that he should be kept in the royal court. Jonathan could see that it would be best if Saul and David worked together and he tried to make that happen. But Saul s hatred and jealousy of David was so great that it became impossible. And so amidst great tension the day came when David had to leave Saul s court permanently. And in 20:41ff we see the very private scene in which Jonathan and Saul say farewell to each other. They pledged their loyalty to each other, they kissed each other and they wept together. And the narrator tells us that David wept the most (1 Sam 20:41). And they parted company. And in the narrative of 1 Sam they never see each other again.

6 6 And that is the story which explains why Jonathan died alongside his Father. Although he remained loyal to David he could not abandon his father who was after all the anointed one. And despite his best efforts he could not reconcile David with Saul. Jonathan was not the king in any sense but he could see how history should have proceeded. He could see that Israel would be best served by having both men exercising leadership together. And by his loyalty to both men he provided the means by which that outcome might have been achieved. But now he was dead. Dead because of his unfailing loyalty to his father. And his hoped for reconciliation would now never happen. History had not turned out as Jonathan had hoped. And now it never would. This is the tragedy of a lost opportunity. And so David grieves for Jonathan in v 26. He calls him his brother and he recalls his love, a love which was more wonderful than that of women. David and Jonathan knew each other. They knew what the core issues of their lives were all about. And they were committed to each other at just the point in their lives which really mattered to them both. Theirs was a covenantal relationship. It was more than a contract or an agreement. It was a covenant. Their deep commitment to each other was written into the deepest and hardest decisions of their lives. The strength of their relationship rested not in the pleasure they took in each other s company but in the suffering they each had to bear to remain consistent to their deepest values. And at the deepest place they agreed on the importance of the role of the king, the Lord s anointed. This was the thing, the big thing, the greatest thing God was doing in their day and in their lives: he was making a king and a kingdom. And at the core of their lives they agreed on that and they acted on that even at great cost. They knew each other. And their lives were pointed in the same direction. And so they were very dear to each other. But now Jonathan was dead. And David grieves the loss of a friend. And the loss of an opportunity to live out their mutual values together. Before I go any further I need to address a question about David and Jonathan: was there s a homosexual relationship? I need to address it because it has become increasingly asserted that this was the case. For example Geraldine Brooks 2015 novel The Secret Chord depicts them as homosexual lovers. Of course 1 and 2 Samuel depicts a very intense relationship and a very deep commitment between these two men. But at no point is anything like a homosexual relationship imputed to them. The

7 7 intensity of their relationship is adequately explained in the way I have just described. They were of a common mind on the core values of their lives and in fact they sacrifice the enjoyment they might have gained from their friendship to the greater cause they both approved of: the founding of the Kingdom of Israel. The need to see David and Jonathan as two gay men says more about contemporary culture than it does about the Bible. So back to the tragedy of lost opportunities. Illustration In about 2001 someone offered me $1m/yr indefinitely to start a new theological college here in Sydney. That was in addition to $3m over 3 years for capital expenditure. This fellow was managing $1b for an American Christian. His fee for doing this was about 1% of the going rate in the US and part of the deal he had was that he could direct some of the fund profit to Christian ministry as he saw fit. So he approached me with an open-ended offer. It was an amazing proposal, almost too generous to be credible. But for the year we worked on the project it began to take shape as a viable ministry. And a life work began to take shape before me. It drew together so much of what I believed was really needed here in Sydney. And it seemed to be an opportunity for me to use my various gifts and abilities in an exciting and creative way. I worked on this project for a year and was within a month or so of making the first appointment when the source of funds closed down. So just as quickly as the prospect arose, it disappeared again. An amazing opportunity lost. Application How to cope when this happens to you? Here s two things: First, keep your ego out of the equation. This was a pivotal moment in David s life. While Saul was alive he was destined to remain a fugitive in his own land, living a double-life and unable to settle peacefully and get on with his life. But now that Saul was dead he was free to pursue what Samuel had already prepared him for: to take up the role as the anointed one and to lead Israel. He could have been forgiven for placing himself at the centre of his response to Saul and Jonathans death. And yet David seemed able to place himself to one side. His seemed able to keep his heart and mind on the bigger picture of what God was doing among his people and centred on the thing of greatest value which in his life was the foundation of kingship in Israel. Not that he negated himself. Here he was acting as king by ordering that his lament be written, recorded and remembered. But he kept himself and those around him centred on the

8 8 things that really mattered. He kept his ego out of the equation. I learned this when I was a child. I realized that a game of backyard cricket could be ruined if one person batted all afternoon. If someone was so good that no-one could get them out then their individual enjoyment of the game ruined it for everyone else. Sometimes it was better for everyone to hit a catch and to give up your wicket. Get yourself out of the middle for a time. Then everyone got a turn and stayed interested. Sometimes history takes our wicket; takes a turn that sidelines us. Sometimes the river of the Spirit flows in an unexpected direction and we find ourselves on the opposite bank. That s disorientating and confusing. And it is easy to let our ego guide us: that s not fair, I didn t sign up for this, that s too much to ask, this is not easy or what I expected, this is my moment, I have a right, surely I deserve This is a problem especially for baby-boomers like me. We grew up thinking we were a special generation and we expect to be at the centre of things. Instead we can ask ourselves What really matters here? What is the central thing the Lord is doing here? And then how can I be part of that? How can I contribute to that? Or at least how can I make sure I don t get in the way of that? The answer to those God-centred questions will help us to find where we fit. Second, don t get paralysed by what might have been. Of course there must be a period of time while we get our bearings. But then we have to get up and get going. Read 2:1. David has a plan. He is on the move. He asks the Lord. And once he is clear he gets moving. He does not let the past limit him. He is not paralysed by the way things could have been. Or should have been. This is a problem for the current generation of young adults. They are not nearly as resilient as the boomer generation. When things don t go according to their plan they really struggle. It doesn t take much for them to drop their shoulders and to give up. Yes things go wrong. Sometimes what goes wrong is not only not our fault but in spite of all our best efforts to prevent it. Sometimes even because of our best efforts to prevent it. And that is exquisitely painful and demoralizing. And yes that flattens us for a time.

9 9 But then the time comes where we must move again. In the course of time we come up with a plan and we enquire of the Lord Shall I do this or that? After the crucifixion comes the resurrection. Something dies; and then something new comes to life. Get up and find that new life. One of the strengths of my personal life has been the deep conviction that God gives me enough strength to love and serve him every day. His divine power has given me everything I need for life and godliness Even on the worst day I lack nothing to live for the Lord. That conviction makes me a very resilient person. We can name them and address them and confront them because we believe that God has himself named and faced and confronted them. And overcome them. In fact the NT gives us licence even to boast in the face of death. Paul remember addresses both death and the grave directly. Death! Where is your sting? Grave! Where is your victory? Conclusion So there s my cheerful meditation on the twin tragedies of death and lost opportunity! You may think I have done us all a disservice by addressing such sad and distressing subjects. But I have done it in the belief that the scriptures speak to life as it really is. And that we are able to do so not because we are heroic realists. But because we are people of faith. We can stare death in the face because of the resurrection. And we can stare lost opportunities in the face because of the resurrection.

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Funeral Mass Matthew Joseph Walsh February 2, :00 AM Corpus Christi Church Upper Gwynedd, Pennsylvania

Funeral Mass Matthew Joseph Walsh February 2, 2004 10:00 AM Corpus Christi Church Upper Gwynedd, Pennsylvania Scripture Readings: Wisdom 4, 7-15; I Corinthians 12:31 13:13; John 14, 1-6 Stop all the clocks,