My Sermon from the Molehill

Reflections on David, God’s favorite, the ancestor of Jesus, and seemingly the most unlikely choice to fight a giant.

David reminds me of my Irish ancestors: he’s a fighter, a poet, a musician, a dancer, and a charismatic leader, who both loves and lusts.  Love and lust are opposites.  Love puts the other first. Lust uses the other.  David actually loves Saul. To me the most amazing thing about David is that though Saul repeatedly tries to kill David out of jealousy, David continues trying to reconcile.  Why?  Because when David was just a youth, he often sat with this powerful man playing calming music when Saul was conflicted and overwhelmed by depression.  David understood Saul.  He knew his inner struggles that caused him to overreact.  David finally had to turn against Saul, but he did not hate him. He was able to love someone who was violently and illogically against him because he understood him.                                                                                                      And after decades of obeying God, when David sinned greatly and tragically, God taught him through consequences. But God still loved David tenderly and totally. Because God understands our humanity.                                                               The most fundamental and difficult challenge Christians face is to understand our enemies. We may be called to vote against them, but we are not called to hate or belittle them.  We are called to love them and the only way we can do that is to understand them. And while that takes both caring and effort, what it mostly takes is humility. Jesus not only showed us it can be done, but he calls us to do it.  We start by loving our neighbor as much as we love ourselves. In Jesus day, our neighbor was the person most like us.   But Jesus also calls us to love the stranger, to even become vulnerable by inviting them into our safe place, our home. To top that, Jesus also began to call us to love others more than ourselves. That’s a whole other level of love.  It’s the kind of love we reserve for our family.  Finally, on his cross Jesus not only forgave his enemies, but he asked God to forgive them.  Because he understood that they did not realize that what they were doing was evil.

 Our Prayer: God, our Father, we are small, like David.  We also have both strengths and weaknesses.  Give us the grace we need to fight the enemy within us. Give us understanding of those we perceive as enemies outside us. Help all your children find a way to work together to bring about your kingdom, not ours, on earth as it is in Heaven. God, you are the source of our lives and the grace that sustains us. We praise you and give you thanks.  We lift our hearts and minds to focus on you, so that we may see your glory and know your love with both heart and mind.  We offer our lives to you in thanksgiving.