SPEAKER_01: Blessed be God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Blessed be God's family, now and forever.
SPEAKER_01: Men together.
SPEAKER_01: Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you no secrets are hid.
SPEAKER_01: Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you and wordily magnify your holy name through Christ our Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Let us pray.
SPEAKER_01: Lord of all power and might, the author and giver of all good things, graft in our hearts the love of your name, increase in us true religion, nourish us with all goodness, and bring forth in us the fruit of good works.
SPEAKER_01: Through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Please be seated for the lessons.
SPEAKER_01: I now invite all of our kiddos, fifth grade and under, want to follow Miss Emory and Miss Kim in the back.
SPEAKER_01: They're going to head on back for godly play.
SPEAKER_03: To Abigail, wife of the bull, one of the boys reported.
SPEAKER_03: Look, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to greet our Lord.
SPEAKER_03: And he screamed that the men were very good to us, and we were not put to shame, and we never missed anything.
SPEAKER_03: All the days we were with them when we were in the field.
SPEAKER_03: They were a wall to us, even by night, and also every day we were with them keeping the sheep.
SPEAKER_03: Now know this and see what you can do for evil against our master and against all his house has been resolved.
SPEAKER_03: He is worthless.
SPEAKER_03: No one can speak to.
SPEAKER_03: Then Abigail hurried and she took two hundred loaves, two skins of wine, five prepared sheep, five nases of parched grain, one hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred fig cakes, and she loaded them on doggies.
SPEAKER_03: And Abigail said to her voice, Go on before me, I'm coming after you.
SPEAKER_03: And her husband, the bull, she did not tell.
SPEAKER_03: And Abigail saw David and she hurried and got down from the doggy, fell before David on her face, bow into the ground.
SPEAKER_03: She fell at his feet and said, Upon me, my lord, the iniquity.
SPEAKER_03: Please let your slave woman speak in your ears and hear the words of your slave.
SPEAKER_03: Please, my lord, do not set your thought on this worthless man, the bull.
SPEAKER_03: For as his name, thus he is.
SPEAKER_03: The bull, meaning great disgrace, is his name.
SPEAKER_03: And he is a disgrace.
SPEAKER_03: And now I, your slave, did not see my Lord's voice whom you sent.
SPEAKER_03: And David said to Abigail, Blessed be the Holy One, the God of Israel, who sent you to meet me today.
SPEAKER_03: Blessed be your discernment, and blessed be you who have kept me today from coming for blood and saving me from my own hand.
SPEAKER_03: Truly, as the Holy One, the God of Israel is, who has restrained me from hurting you, unless you had hurried and come to meet me, truly by the light of daylight, there would not have been left to Nabal anyone, you're just a woman.
SPEAKER_03: Later after Nabal's death, Abigail hurried and got up and rounded the dark into five of her girls on her heel.
SPEAKER_03: She went after the messengers of David and she became his wife.
SPEAKER_03: David also married a anyone of Israel.
SPEAKER_03: Both of them became his wife.
SPEAKER_03: Make known to me your ways, angels God.
SPEAKER_03: Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation.
SPEAKER_03: Remember your maternal love, a womb of light.
SPEAKER_03: The sins of my youth and my transgressions, remember not.
SPEAKER_03: Good and upright is the fount of wisdom.
SPEAKER_03: She guides the humble in what is just.
SPEAKER_02: Likewise, the husband does not have authority over his own body.
SPEAKER_02: Yet the wife do not ever defraud each another except for by agreement for a time and devote yourselves to prayer.
SPEAKER_02: And then come together again so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.
SPEAKER_02: This I say is a concession, not a command.
SPEAKER_02: I wish that all were as I myself am.
SPEAKER_02: But each has their own gift from God, indeed, one to one and another to another.
SPEAKER_02: To the unmarried and the widows, I say that it is good for them to remain so.
SPEAKER_02: If they are not showing self-control, they should marry.
SPEAKER_01: But I say to you, do not set yourself against the wicked.
SPEAKER_01: But when someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other to them also.
SPEAKER_01: And when someone wants you to be judged and take your coat, let your other clothing go as well.
SPEAKER_01: And when someone forces you to go a mile, go the second mile too.
SPEAKER_01: Give to those who ask from you, and those who want to borrow from you do not refuse.
SPEAKER_01: Friends, it's the gospel of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Praise you, Lord Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Please be seated.
SPEAKER_01: Good morning, everybody.
SPEAKER_01: Now I know there are some of you that are sitting here desperately thinking, I sure hope Sean talks about Paul and all of his issues with sex today.
SPEAKER_01: But let me tell you, I learned early on that there are some scriptures I think are best for Bible study.
SPEAKER_01: And some that are best for the pulpit.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm going to tell you that uh Corinthians is usually best for the Bible study.
SPEAKER_01: And so I do think that it's an important thing to read.
SPEAKER_01: But I actually have this belief that uh a preacher could actually preach just what is called the Sermon on the Mount every week.
SPEAKER_01: Like that could be it.
SPEAKER_01: Like we could just come here every week and try to understand the Sermon on the Mount.
SPEAKER_01: And the reason is, is because it's not actually a sermon.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, yes, it's three chapters, it's the longest sort of teaching that Jesus has in all of the gospels, but it's not like a classic sermon like I'm preaching now.
SPEAKER_01: It's really and we don't like this word.
SPEAKER_01: Well, a lot of us don't.
SPEAKER_00: It's it's a manifesto.
SPEAKER_00: It's a manifesto.
SPEAKER_01: Now the problem is that most of us, when we hear that word, we're like, the only manifesto I know is that guy Karl Marx, and boy, we don't like them communists.
SPEAKER_01: And you know, yeah, obviously, like we've had some issues with the way that that's played out.
SPEAKER_01: But really, what a manifesto is, is it's somebody doing a public statement that is criticizing the culture, and it's also casting a vision about how people can actually live together.
SPEAKER_01: Like that's exactly what a manifesto is.
SPEAKER_01: So what we're doing and what Jesus is doing.
SPEAKER_01: Where do you want to go?
SPEAKER_01: She's like, I'm not sure if this is a good idea anymore.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna go this way.
SPEAKER_01: So, what a manifesto is doing is a manifesto is is casting a vision.
SPEAKER_01: And and that's why I think that like this is Jesus' vision about how humanity can live and be together.
SPEAKER_01: And it's it's complicated and it's worth talking about, but essentially I think that's why we're coming here, right?
SPEAKER_01: Is we're trying to figure out how we can leave here and do life together and create and build what we colloquial say is the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_01: Some people like kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_01: We could be a family when we leave here and and be heaven on earth, right?
SPEAKER_01: And so, so this is this part of it right here is actually we've been talking about this like five, we chapter five, then six, then seven, then we're back to five.
SPEAKER_01: We've been doing this for a couple of weeks now.
SPEAKER_01: And if you remember my sermon from a couple of weeks ago, it was talking about love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
SPEAKER_01: This piece actually is right before that.
SPEAKER_01: So they kind of go together, right?
SPEAKER_01: Uh, this little section right here.
SPEAKER_01: And what it's doing is Jesus is is helping us look at a human experience that has been around since humans have had consciousness and have tried to gather together as a community.
SPEAKER_01: Like this predates the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: The question Jesus is addressing is not a biblical question, it's a human question.
SPEAKER_01: And that question is what do I do when somebody wounds me?
SPEAKER_01: Like, that's like a deep, primal human question.
SPEAKER_01: What do I do when somebody wounds me?
SPEAKER_01: Early on, I think humans said, well, the answer to this question is of course, power.
SPEAKER_01: What you do when somebody wounds you is anything you can get away from.
SPEAKER_01: And in fact, if you push hard enough, they might not ever wound you again because they might be dead.
SPEAKER_01: Let's look at our first reading today.
SPEAKER_01: So if you look at our first reading, if you look at the story of David, David has 400 men, and he's hanging out in the wilderness, and he's actually being a pretty good dude because this guy named Nabal, he owns all the land and he's a shepherd, and he's got a bunch of people out there raising sheep.
SPEAKER_01: And David's like, I like Nabal, I like this guy.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna make sure nobody kills his men and eats his sheep.
SPEAKER_01: And so he's kind of watching over them, protecting them, and then it's sheep shearing season.
SPEAKER_01: And so they bring the sheep in, they shear them, it's joyous, it's abundant, it's celebratory.
SPEAKER_01: And David sends some men and he's like, Hey, tell Nabal, we've been pretty good to you.
SPEAKER_01: So, can we have a little bit of that?
SPEAKER_01: Can we have a little part of the feast?
SPEAKER_01: Can we have some of the cotton and all the goods and maybe some of the meat and blah blah blah?
SPEAKER_01: And Nabal's response is who's he?
SPEAKER_01: Essentially, is like the biggest insult.
SPEAKER_01: Who is this guy, David?
SPEAKER_01: Who is the son of Jesse?
SPEAKER_01: I don't care about his line.
SPEAKER_01: Like, slapped in the face.
SPEAKER_01: And David's honor is deeply hurt as it should be in that culture.
SPEAKER_01: So he has wounded David.
SPEAKER_01: He has basically given him the big metaphorical finger and said, I don't care about you.
SPEAKER_01: And so David does what many of us would do.
SPEAKER_01: He turned to his 400 men and he said, Grab your swords, we're gonna kill everybody.
SPEAKER_01: Like, that's what the story says.
SPEAKER_01: David tells his men, grab your swords, we are going to kill everybody, all the men.
SPEAKER_01: They're gonna save the women, right?
SPEAKER_01: Kill all the men.
SPEAKER_01: Do you know why?
SPEAKER_01: Because he can.
SPEAKER_01: Because the law of power has been the law that has dominated societies for a very long time.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, the law of power dominates a lot of our life if we're honest with ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, anybody heard of mutually assured destruction, the law of nuclear deterrence?
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, do you run your household?
SPEAKER_01: Like always without saying, Because I said so and it's my house.
SPEAKER_01: How many of us work for a supervisor that every now and then likes to remind us that at any given time our employment is conditional and we have mouths to feed, so they better fall in line.
SPEAKER_01: You better not transgress, you better not wound me.
SPEAKER_01: The law of power is everywhere, right?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's about as human as human gets.
SPEAKER_01: So what's interesting in this story, right, is so David, rightfully, according to that culture, sort of, I don't know, he says, let's go and kill everybody.
SPEAKER_01: So they go to kill everybody, and Nabal's wife, she meets David on the road.
SPEAKER_01: And they have this interesting interaction, and and she says, she doesn't say, hey, he's a good dude.
SPEAKER_01: She doesn't even say, hey, he doesn't deserve it.
SPEAKER_01: She stands there and she says, David, what kind of man do you want to become?
SPEAKER_01: God has anointed you.
SPEAKER_01: And does your future self want a story where the roads ran with the blood of Nabal?
SPEAKER_01: Is that who you want to be?
SPEAKER_01: Is that who future you want to be?
SPEAKER_01: And he says, You have avenged myself.
SPEAKER_01: I have avenged myself, thank you.
SPEAKER_01: What he says is, thank you for reminding me about the man I want to be.
SPEAKER_01: Interesting.
SPEAKER_01: So this prime question of what do we do when somebody wounds us is deep and it's human.
SPEAKER_01: And and what happened is in human civilization, I don't exactly know around what time it was, but it was a long time ago.
SPEAKER_01: Kind of around the, they say the law of hammurabi, culture started saying that like we actually need to run a society not on might makes right.
SPEAKER_01: We need to run it on what we want to call proportional justice.
SPEAKER_01: So we see this movement from power to justice.
SPEAKER_01: And in fact, they call it the lex talionis, which means the law of retaliation, which is interesting.
SPEAKER_01: Retaliation just means the word to give back in kind.
SPEAKER_01: And they said that we want to have a society that at worst is proportional justice.
SPEAKER_01: So if you take somebody's eye, the worst that they can do to you is take your eye.
SPEAKER_01: Because what they saw was, you know, Jim transgresses against me, and so then I go and I kill Jim and his brothers, and then Jim's uncles and brothers come and kill me and my brothers, and then my cousins, they come in and they kill him, and ten generations later, nobody has any idea why they're killing each other.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: You ever been in one of those fights?
SPEAKER_01: Like you've been so angry for so long, you have no idea why you're even angry at the person anymore.
SPEAKER_01: You're just kind of constantly coming back and forth, and they said, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: We need justice.
SPEAKER_01: So, what we're gonna do is we're gonna mediate systems where the worst that can happen to a transgressor is what they cause somebody else.
SPEAKER_01: The Lex Talionis, an eye for an eye.
SPEAKER_01: Friends, this is not barbaric.
SPEAKER_01: Most of us read this and we're like, that's so barbaric.
SPEAKER_01: This was an absolute godsend technology to civilizations.
SPEAKER_01: It said just because you can doesn't mean that you're allowed to in society.
SPEAKER_01: Just because You have the power.
SPEAKER_01: Now, there weren't a lot of like one-eyed people running around near East Jerusalem, right?
SPEAKER_01: Like, because what they also said was, we're going to attach like monetary value and other things to this.
SPEAKER_01: And so you play that out, and we kind of get our modern-day justice system in some ways, right?
SPEAKER_01: We got to find out what is the pain and the harm that was caused, and we want to try to even the scales.
SPEAKER_01: We want to make the past right.
SPEAKER_01: The thing is, is like Jesus then comes on the scene, and remember, like Jesus is giving us a manifesto to tell us who we could be, to inspire us about a society that we can have.
SPEAKER_01: And he says, Listen, justice is good.
SPEAKER_01: I want justice.
SPEAKER_01: But who's looking forward?
SPEAKER_01: Like, is there a way that we just don't have to make the past right?
SPEAKER_01: There's like a way that we can live where we make room for a new and beautiful and hopeful future.
SPEAKER_01: So he says, You have heard it say unto you, an eye for an eye, but I say unto you, if somebody slaps you on the right cheek, you offer them the left.
SPEAKER_01: If somebody takes your coat, then you give them your undergarments as well.
SPEAKER_01: If somebody pushes you in for a mile, you go the second mile.
SPEAKER_01: It's like, what does this mean?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is not saying that we should be dormats.
SPEAKER_01: He's saying that there's got to be another way other than I fight back and dominate with you in power or I kind of cower away and allow you to abuse me.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is saying there's a way for us to stand up for justice, but do it in a way that like respects the dignity of every human being and proclaims as Christians that we can be different in the world.
SPEAKER_01: Like we can have a hopeful future.
SPEAKER_01: There's a way that we can orient our life where we're not imprisoned and bound by the wounds that people have caused us.
SPEAKER_01: This guy named Walter Wink, you know, he he did an analysis of this and he really flushes this out.
SPEAKER_01: He calls it the third way.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Jesus is all about the creative third way in the world.
SPEAKER_01: You know, he he says that when when you wanted to hit somebody in that time, when you wanted to like slap them and they were your equal, you would hit them with a forehand.
SPEAKER_01: So you'd hit them on their left cheek.
SPEAKER_01: And if you wanted to treat them disrespectfully or like they were less than you, you would backhand them.
SPEAKER_01: And so what Jesus is saying is like just because somebody wounds you, they can't take away your dignity.
SPEAKER_01: So you can stand there and say, You can hit me, but you're gonna hit me like an equal.
SPEAKER_01: That's a third way.
SPEAKER_01: If you owed money to somebody and like they could make, they could embarrass you, they can shame you.
SPEAKER_01: So most people wore underwear and then they wore an outer tunic, and so they would, you know, take your outer tunic, so you had to walk around in your underwear all day, so everybody knew you owed somebody money.
SPEAKER_01: So Jesus said, go to the courts and strip naked and shame everybody and say, you know what, if you're gonna shame me, we're all gonna be in this shame because there's something wrong with a system that does this to people.
SPEAKER_01: So you can't take that away.
SPEAKER_01: It's interesting.
SPEAKER_01: And the one that I think is super fascinating, right?
SPEAKER_01: The one that I did that may be the key to this is is that this this go the extra mile thing.
SPEAKER_01: So Roman soldiers could push somebody into carrying their gear for up to a mile.
SPEAKER_01: Like pretty much anybody.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, non-citizens definitely.
SPEAKER_01: So they could go up to somebody and they could say, hey, listen, carry my stuff for a mile.
SPEAKER_01: And and Jesus said, if somebody, but the problem with that, right, is they could take you and bring you off to a place you couldn't work that day, right?
SPEAKER_01: You couldn't get your daily wage.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it was very disruptive.
SPEAKER_01: And so Jesus said, you know, if somebody forces you and takes away your agency, remember that you still have agency and choose to carry it a second mile.
SPEAKER_01: To remind yourself that you're you you are choosing that.
SPEAKER_01: They can force the first, but you're choosing the second.
SPEAKER_01: That's an interesting thing right there, this idea about freedom.
SPEAKER_01: I think so many of us are just reacting to the wounds that we have in our life.
SPEAKER_01: People hurt us, people have hurt us, people hurt the people that we love, and we feel like we're stuck in like two options.
SPEAKER_01: I either absolutely fight back, get more power, make them hurt the way they've hurt me, or I slink away.
SPEAKER_01: And I think Jesus is saying, no, there's a way for us to like stand in justice, a third way where we name the hurts of the world, we name the injustices of the world, but we also make room for a new future.
SPEAKER_01: We respect our own dignity and the dignity of other people.
SPEAKER_01: There's this guy named Sam Wells.
SPEAKER_01: He did our Being With series.
SPEAKER_01: He's a he's a bishop in England.
SPEAKER_01: And he wrote a book called Improvisation.
SPEAKER_01: And it's fascinating because he's an ethicist and he talks about this, and he says that sort of the goal of the Christian life is improv.
SPEAKER_01: If anybody's ever done improv before, it's kind of like a yes and.
SPEAKER_01: You know, you don't have to pretend like the reality that you have been given isn't true.
SPEAKER_01: Like, you know, so in a situation like this, the wound is real, the hurt is real.
SPEAKER_01: And how do we overaccept and choose a future out of our own freedom where we're trying to participate in the way that God is creating all things new?
SPEAKER_01: That we're making room for truths that hurt people, hurt people.
SPEAKER_01: That we're all just next in line of generations of people who have been kind of failing each other.
SPEAKER_01: Y'all, your parents failed you.
SPEAKER_01: But their parents failed them.
SPEAKER_01: And their parents failed them.
SPEAKER_01: And our society has failed all of us.
SPEAKER_01: So, like, maybe at some point we stop pointing fingers and we just accept that like this is hard.
SPEAKER_01: But how do we make room for like a creative, hopeful future, and how do we not be imprisoned by the traumas and the hurts and the wounds that people have given us?
SPEAKER_01: I think that's what Jesus is trying to say.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, like Jesus is not interested in giving us just like new rules.
SPEAKER_01: Like, well, those rules kind of stunk.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna give you better rules, and if you follow them, then you get enough points, and if you get enough points, then you get to go to the carnival.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, Jesus is not interested in that sort of way of doing faith.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is saying that we're made in the image and likeness of God.
SPEAKER_01: We're made like as these beautiful beings that are meant to reflect the reality of who God is.
SPEAKER_01: We're supposed to look like our parrots, you know?
SPEAKER_01: Like, that's what Jesus is saying.
SPEAKER_01: Look like you're your parents, your father in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: And that that process is a process of becoming.
SPEAKER_01: And this reality of woundedness and how we deal with it is an important part of like how we are becoming.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I I can't be the only one right now that is like still holding on to hurts and wounds from 10 years ago, 20 years ago.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes we hold on to wounds so many times and for so long that they we just form our identity around them.
SPEAKER_01: Our whole identity is around our wounds.
SPEAKER_01: And we're just wanting the scales to get balanced in our best days, and on our worst days, we like pull out our sword and we gather our 400 men and we're rushing to Nabal's house because we want to kill everybody.
SPEAKER_01: So I wonder, like, the the the person that I can't stop thinking about in all of this is is Abigail.
SPEAKER_01: Is like she's the one for me in in my reflection.
SPEAKER_01: It's like she stood, like she had the courage to stand in front of David and change the question.
SPEAKER_01: She said, sure, David, the question could be, do you have the power to get away with this?
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
SPEAKER_01: Or the question could be, is this just?
SPEAKER_01: Maybe.
SPEAKER_01: But instead, she says, Who's the man you want to become?
SPEAKER_01: And is what you're about to do going to help you become that man?
SPEAKER_01: And I I gotta believe that maybe this is the whole spiritual life, friends.
SPEAKER_01: Like the spiritual life is this space right here between what happens to us and how we respond to what happens to us.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe that's it.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe that's all we're doing.
SPEAKER_01: It's just just trying to live in that space.
SPEAKER_01: And I think what Jesus is saying is the Holy Spirit is real, and like we don't have to be imprisoned to responding in a predetermined way just because somebody hurt us.
SPEAKER_01: Like there's a creative way where we can like set boundaries.
SPEAKER_01: Here's my PSA, I gotta do it every time.
SPEAKER_01: Like, if you are in a situation where somebody is harming you, you do not stay in it, right?
SPEAKER_01: Like Jesus is crystal clear.
SPEAKER_01: Like people being abused should not stay in their home, kids being abused should not stay at their home.
SPEAKER_01: You like no one, you're not allowed, like there needs to be justice, there needs to be boundaries.
SPEAKER_01: And is there a way for us when people wound us that we can respond in a way that maintains their dignity, it maintains our dignity, and it also proclaims like the kingdom of God that healing and reconciliation is available, and that we can all live together healed in some way?
SPEAKER_01: And I think that that's the invitation.
SPEAKER_01: And so I just wonder like where's that place in your life where you're stuck in a binary?
SPEAKER_01: Your swords are drawn, you're ready for justice, you think that there's only one way to be.
SPEAKER_01: It's us or them, it's win or lose.
SPEAKER_01: And I wonder, I wonder what it means for us to to sort of say spiritually they may have made the first move.
SPEAKER_01: But in Christ, they don't get to determine.