Proper 5 (B) + The King of our Hearts + 6.7.15

(Top part of The Code of Hammurabi,
historians.org)

M. Campbell-Langdell

All Santos, Oxnard

(1 Samuel 8:4-11, (12-15), 16-20, (11:14-15); Ps. 138; 2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1; Mark 3:20-35)

When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, "He has gone out of his mind (Mark 3:21).”

But the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel; they said, "No! but we are determined to have a king over us, so that we also may be like other nations, and that our king may govern us and go out before us and fight our battles (1 Sam 8:19-20)."

In musician Sufjan Steven’s new album, Carrie and Lowell, the listener sees the grief process of the artist in the loss of his mother, a complex experience as she had mental health and addiction problems. Therefore he could not grieve for a normal mother-son relationship, but for one that never was quite what he would have wished for. In the song, “I Should Have Known Better,” he says:

I should have known better
Nothing can be changed
The past is still the past
The bridge to nowhere
I should have wrote a letter
Explaining what I feel, that empty feeling.[1]

Stevens is a man of faith, but he is expressing what many of us feel during loss-that we need to have acceptance, that there are some things that cannot be changed, and that there are some things we need to heal in our own hearts. Sometimes this healing comes through forgiveness. The truth is that our relationships with our families are often complicated.

In today’s scripture, it becomes very clear that Jesus’ relationship with his family was filled with tensions. In this gospel reading, his family accuses him of being insane because his ministry does not follow the script. They seemingly add to the chorus of the scribes, who later attribute his good works to none other than the devil. Then they try to control him, hanging out outside and getting others to go and use societal pressure to get him back in line. All this holds echoes of “do you honor your mother and father?” And he isn’t having it, because he is about God’s work, not using God’s word to control. He is not about to be called out of his Name, not even by his biological family. He owes that too much to his spiritual family, which is all of us, all of his followers.

And just as Jesus had a complex relationship with his family, the 1^st Samuel reading points up the complexity of our human relationship with God and with government. God has sent the people judges, but the people want a king, so that they can be like everyone else. Samuel is a bit offended, like “what I am I, chopped liver?” since the people seem to be rejecting his mode of leadership. But God says, no, it is I who should be offended because the people are forgetting they only have one King, and that is me. An earthly king will misuse power, says Samuel, but God is merciful. And God is so patient with us that God allows the people to go for what they want, even though God knows it may not turn out so well for them. And looking at the biblical history, it mostly isn’t such a good deal for the people to have kings.

So we have our human inclinations—we tend to hold up and build up both kings or governments and families, and these are good for our wellbeing at some level. But I think today’s scriptures assert that it is not that Kings or Governments or Families are bad-but that they need to not be the most important thing in our lives. God needs to take that top position, even over family or love of country. Because if we place either government (whether it be monarchy or democracy), or family in the role of the King of our Hearts, we are idolizing that thing.

God is always the one on the throne. Here is an example: One commentator mentioned how the Code of Hammurabi, written on a stele, is traditionally understood as the giving of the law by the god Shamash to a king named Hammurabi, who ruled an amazing 42 years from about 1792 BCE to 1750 BCE. The commentator noted that in the famous image, there is a figure on a throne and a standing figure, and many people wrongly assume that Hammurabi is the king on the throne, receiving the scepter from the god Shamash. But in fact, it is the opposite. The god Shamash is enthroned, and the king is standing, receiving the scepter from him.[2]

Although this is a depiction from another faith and culture, it points out a truth to which we can relate: God is always the one really on the throne.

If we forget that, and place some other king on the throne of our hearts, we might find ourselves blind to a wrong, calling it right, or if God does a new thing, we might call wrong what is actually deeply good and right. All this to keep up the wrong King on the pedestal.

Case in point: Jesus’ healing ministry being called devil-work. This statement from the Jerusalem elite is so off-base that you know that the scribes have to have been so invested in their way of government and religion that they could not even see pure good when it was in front of them. This often comes down to control. Notice that Samuel states that kings will grab all the best things for themselves, and notice how Jesus’ family is trying control him. If he had listened to them, where would we be?
Many have worried and pondered this statement about the “unpardonable sin” of blaspheming against the Holy Spirit. Through all I have read it strikes me that we need to be careful to love God above any institution or otherwise we might be blind to God’s good work in the world. If we call what is good bad, we cannot be open to the workings of the Spirit. We do not have eyes to see or ears to hear. But the good news is that we can always turn back and renew our focus on God.

None but Jesus is the King of our Hearts, and if we keep that in focus, we remember what matters: relationship with God in daily prayer and communal worship, and love of each other, even and especially when we have been hurt or when we have hurt each other.

Because God is faithful, and we can be faith-full too.
So we do not lose heart, as the apostle says, because:

“The LORD will make good his purpose for me; *
O LORD, your love endures for ever;
do not abandon the works of your hands (Ps. 138:9).”

At the end of the song I began with, Sufjan Stevens describes seeing his mother’s semblance in the face of his niece, and how that fills him with hope. He says:

Don’t back down, concentrate on seeing
The breakers in the bar, the neighbor’s greeting
My brother had a daughter
The beauty that she brings, illumination.[3]

May we see glimpses of hope where we might have felt pain. May we trust in God’s goodness first even as we navigate the complicated relationships we have with family and leaders. May we always know deep in our hearts that God does not abandon the work of God’s hands.

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[1] http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/sufjanstevens/shouldhaveknownbetter.html.

[2] Roger Nam, “Commentary on 1: Samuel 8:4-11 [12-15] 16-20 [11:14-15], for June 7, 2015 https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=2472. With adjustments from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_of_Hammurabi.

[3] http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/sufjanstevens/shouldhaveknownbetter.html.