Living in the Spirit
June 29, 2021
Scripture Reading: 2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27
Saul and Jonathan, beloved and lovely!
In life and in death they were not divided;
they were swifter than eagles,
they were stronger than lions.
O daughters of Israel, weep over Saul,
who clothed you with crimson, in luxury,
who put ornaments of gold on your apparel.
How the mighty have fallen
in the midst of the battle!
Jonathan lies slain upon your high places.
I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan;
greatly beloved were you to me;
your love to me was wonderful,
passing the love of women.
How the mighty have fallen,
and the weapons of war perished!
The world has had too much death over the past year, and still, more to come. Our enemy is not a mighty military but a tenacious, tiny virus that will not give up easily morphing from one attack scheme to another. Well-trained armies envy such tenacity and cunning. We in the USA are particularly shattered by COVIDs strength unaccustomed to having the highest death rates among the nations from a virus. We have lost our sense of self as a nation if, indeed, countries can have a self.
David watched Saul fail in leadership, sometimes from afar, running from Saul’s anger. I sense that David knew he would outlast Saul. His relationship with Saul was tenuously tied to Saul’s mood and what David could do for Saul. Jonathan, however, was a dear and precious friend of long-standing. Saul and Jonathan’s deaths marked a new beginning for Israel with the eventual reign of its greatest King, David. He was a mighty warrior, a keen politician, a musician, a writer, and all too human.
Our battle with COVID is not over, but I pray we learn the proper lessons from it. First, we must address our weaknesses and learn from our mistakes. To do that, we must face who we have become as a nation, as a world, and decide how we want to remold ourselves toward doing what is right and just. The last sentence of David’s poem quoted above gives us a good hint of the direction we must take. The weapons of war and the lust for power that engages them do not work.
Prayer: Lord, forgive us when we depend on the weapons of the world to protect us. Help us follow your model of love and caring for others. Amen.