To Be King

Just a quick note:

Pastor Steve and I have been going through the life of David in worship in a series called "Good to Be King". So I've read the life of David more carefully than I have in years. All I have to say right now is...wow.

Okay, you know me, that's not ALL I have to say. But what a screwed up life. And this is the guy God says is "a man after my own heart"? I mean, there's the whole Goliath thing, yeah, and not kicking Saul's butt when he could have - even mourning Saul's and Jonathan's deaths.

But then there's the adultery, coverup, murder. One of his sons rapes one of his sisters (okay, there were multiple wives and concubines so it's a little confusing, but if they all have the same father - we'll say brother and sister, okay?), that son is murdered by another son, who later leads a coup to take over the kingdom who is killed by yet another brother. When David is about to die his wife and Nathan scheme to put Solomon on the throne. Adoaijah is staging a coup and Solomon stages a counter coup. Among David's last words are, in effect, kill everybody that messed with me.

Whew. Is it really good to be king?

Okay - there's a lot more to David than that - but his life, which started with such a powerful explosion for God, ends with a bit of a self-pitying whimper.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

B C Comic

Image
So ten years ago Johnny Hart (who died like 4 years ago) ran this strip (click to enlarge): And there's been controversy since.  Okay, I get it.  Hart was a Christian and he expressed his faith in his comic strip - lots of people calling him a fundamentalist...dunno what his particular Christian religious persuasion was - except that his funeral was in a Presbyterian church. So, anyway, it's just clear that lots of people missed the point****.  In fact, Hart himself claimed to be shocked that people thought he was an advocate for  replacement theology  based on the strip...  He could be clever - a 2006 strip that I think has a well played double entendre: (And, for the record, I'm no more or less offended by that than I am by people who use  Fred Phelps  as the posterboy for Christianity - every religion has it's crazy fundamentalists...well, the big ones I know about, anyway...)  Nice double joke on "moon shaped" and bug - Luna-Tic...
Read more

Buzzword Bingo

Image
Everybody has buzzwords - business has theirs, the entertainment industry has a lingo, in sports, and in church work we have ours, too. Dilbert the other day had the pointy haired boss try to lead via catchprhases: copyright Scott Adams I have threatened to make up "Buzzword Bingo" cards for Annual Conference. You know, put words like "Holy Conferencing" and "Inclusiveness" and "Core Value" and, oh yeah, "Jesus" on the card and when you get five in a row you can jump up and yell "BINGO", or maybe "Holy Spirit" I don't know... We're not allowed to play bingo, so we definitely shouldn't yell out that word. Maybe if I had people yell out "Hallelujah!" when they got 5 in a row, the powers that be at conference would just assume that the person was powerfully moved by the point being made.* But we would know - and would secretly give them a prize.** The point being that we like to use the t...
Read more

It's Official

I know that when spring comes our minds all turn to the things that are going on around us - robins singing, flowers blooming - if you're a United Methodist, then you start thinking about pastors moving. So...I can officially announce (well, I HAVE officially announced - but this is for all of you far away) On July 1, 2008 I will be one of the Associate Pastors at Christ United Methodist Church in Bethel Park, PA. www.christumc.net I will be leading the 11:01 and the 6:00 contemporary/modern/non-traditional/emergent... well, whatever adjective we use... worship services. It is difficult to leave Warren. This has been home for 6 years. Elie was born here. Rachel went to kindergarten and first grade here. This church has been an amazing blessing to us and we are so loved. We are stepping into...well, we don't know what. So stay tuned. I know one thing for certain: God is leading us to Bethel Park so I know that God has amazing things in store for us, for Christ UMC and fo...
Read more