Mail Archive of the old Santa Clara Valley Lutheran Parish

Subject: Today's devotion

Date: Fri, 13 Nov 2009 12:57:43 -0800 (PST)

From: David Bonde <pastorbonde@gmail.com>

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Subject: Today's devotion
From: David Bonde <pastorbonde@gmail.com>
To: SCVLP <scvlp@googlegroups.com>
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So I=92m reading Psalm 52, =93Why do you boast of evil, you mighty man=94NI=
V
and it begins with that little note =93When Doeg the Edomite had gone to
Saul and told him =91David has gone to the house of Ahimelech.=92=94

It=92s a chilling story.  I remember that much.  I=92ve written a note in
the margin that Doeg killed 85 priests of Nob along with the reference
to 1 Samuel 21:7 and chapter 22.  So now I=92m rereading 1 Samuel 21 and
22.

David is on the run but tells Ahimelech he is on an urgent mission for
Saul.  He is given the bread of the presence from the previous day and
the sword of Goliath that had been placed =93behind the ephod.=94  =93There
is no sword here but that one,=94 says Ahimelech.

There is no sword here but this one that testifies to the triumph of
God over the might of armies, the one captured by David who armed
himself with the name of the Lord and five smooth stones.

And then the fateful words of 21:7 =93Now one of Saul=92s servants was
there that day, detained before the Lord; he was Doeg the Edomite,
Saul=92s head shepherd.=94

In a fight for his kingdom Saul rails against his officials accusing
them of conspiracy against him.  Doeg steps forward: =93I saw the son of
Jesse come to Ahimelech...=94  When the priests have been hauled before
him he orders their execution, but =93the king=92s officials were not
willing to raise a hand to strike the priests of the Lord.=94

Saul, however, has read Doeg accurately.  And Doeg strikes down not
just the 85 priests, but their whole town, men, women, children,
cattle, donkeys, sheep.

It puts our little church fights in context.

There were riots in Egypt over the doctrine of the Trinity at the time
of Athanasius, mobs fighting one another over who would be Bishop.

Being church is messy business.  We are messy creatures.  Somehow in
this mess, despite all the wounds, all the harsh and even hateful
words that get spoken, all the stormy scenes and quiet desperation,
somehow the church lingers on like a woman I once knew, an alcoholic,
who lingered on life support from her failing liver.  I was angry at
the doctors for not letting her go.  But she lived.  And a few months
later I was visiting her in her home.

Somehow the church lives.  Somehow it survives the political
infighting, the love of power, the lukewarm spirit or hardness of
heart.  Somehow the church survives.  Somehow the Word gets spoken.
Somehow Gospel gets done.  Even if God has to use discarded paving
stones to sing Hosanna, it happens.

Along the way there are great saints like Obadiah who had hidden a
hundred prophets of the LORD from the murderous Jezebel (1 Kings 18.3)
and decidedly unsaintly =91saints=92 like Samson.

We are people who deal with ideals: what the world should be, what
Christians should be, what the church should be.  And we never are.

But God is.

God is what God =93should=94 be.  God takes the wounds of the world on
himself rather than taking out his wounds on the world.  God witnesses
the Doegs and Sauls and Davids and Ahimelechs of the world and remains
God.

And with us, without us and in spite of us, God works God=92s mercy.
And so David sings, =93in your name I will hope, for your name is
good.=94 (Psalm 52:9)