Way back when Saul was chasing David and David asked the
question, "Against whom has the king of Israel come out? Who are you
pursuing? A dead dog? A flea?" Now,
Saul's grandson, Jonathan's son who was made lame as his nurse was fleeing
David's army, asks David, “What is your servant, that you should show regard
for a dead dog such as I?” in response to David's kindness towards him. The attitude of David and Saul towards
potential claimants to the throne couldn't be much different could it? Saul wanted to kill David but David had a covenant
with Jonathan to bless his family and David was faithful to the covenant. Mephibosheth was always to eat at David's
table, as one of his own family, just as the covenant between David and
Jonathan implied. It required a great
deal of trust on both sides and no one would suggest that David had a motive
like keeping your enemies close.
Mephibosheth's handicap more or less precluded his being king and it
intensifies the kindness of David that he did all for a cripple.
How could you deny yourself and take up your cross
today? Jesus says that the only way to
save our lives is to lose them and to confess Him. How much of what I do is designed to protect
my life, my reputation? We live in a
culture that is losing touch with the Gospel, a culture that often says that we
have an invisible buddy in the sky and which has lost its sense of need for
God. It becomes more difficult to stand
for Jesus in the face of angry and bitter people who believe they have the
"facts" on their side. We need
to live counter-cultural lives filled with the Holy Spirit, evidencing the
fruits of the Spirit, in order to restore the culture's sense of need. If they don't see us as different, at peace,
knowing joy in all circumstances, denying self in service to God and others,
they will never see the reality of Jesus, it will all just be God-talk. Jesus lived in order to reveal it was more
than talk.
In our tradition we baptize infants therefore they are
baptized into the baptism of John, they are incapable of knowing about the Holy
Spirit. Our response to that is that we
have a service of confirmation in which the bishop prays over the person that
they receive the Holy Spirit. That sound
like the pattern Paul sees here in Ephesus.
These people are disciples but he sees a lack in them and asks about the
Holy Spirit to which they reply that they have not heard about such a
thing. Anglicans aren't the only ones
who baptize those who don't know about the Holy Spirit. Most churches don't have a class that teaches
about all things prior to baptism, we just baptize according to a statement of
faith, I believe Jesus died for my sins, rose from the dead and now sits at the
right hand of the Father where He intercedes for my forgiveness. Most people don't know the Holy Spirit at
baptism, we need a second baptism as we grow in knowledge, a baptism not of
water but of fire. Have you asked God
for that baptism? We need more who
acknowledge the need and ask Him to supply the lack. The world needs people who will, like David
here, set themselves and their fears aside and reach out to others, who will
deny themselves because they trust that God cares for them.
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