Neil Young is a musician and songwriter whose music ranges from rock to folk to old-style country.He is one of those people (like Bob Dylan) who other musicians look up to, but hasn’t had or sought the commercial success that others have.They do their work— their art, and if people like it and buy it, fine.If not…it won’t ruin their day.
In the early 70's Neil, who was pretty much unheard of in the main stream of pop music, had a hit song called “Heart of Gold.”This song launched him into the public eye.Reading his personal notes about that song I found, “This song put me in the middle of the road.Traveling there soon became a bore, so I headed for the ditch.A rough ride, but I saw some interesting people there.”Neil wasn’t going to be categorized or confined by the middle of the road.
I love the way in which he decided to be true to himself and maintain his center by heading for the ditch— away from the lime-light.Perhaps that is similar to the experience of Jesus, who headed for his own ditch or Abush@ as our translation has it for today.The Gospel text read today is from a translation created in Australia by a church down under that wanted to set the scriptures into their own unique linguistic and cultural context.So we have that great line, “so he slipped off and went bush by himself.”[1]Going “bush” means to head for the ditch or the hills or wilderness to be alone or at least away from it all.
Neil Young headed for the ditch and Jesus went bush in order to maintain their center amidst the craziness that threatened to spin them apart.What was that craziness for Jesus?Well, the people on the hillside were fed plenty with scarcity and knew they had a good thing doing, and pondered how wonderful it would be to have this guy as King.That was a temptation that Jesus faced earlier in his ministry and turned it down then too.Going into politics is not how one is Messiah in God’s design. To look further at what this craziness is for us as human beings, we look at King David in our first lesson today.
First of all, we must pay attention to the detail mentioned in the first verse: when Kings normally go to battle, King David for some reason stayed home.In the past he was the valiant underdog, always risking everything for God’s cause.
In Hannah’s Song in the Hebrew Scriptures (and its later recapitulation in Mary’s Magnificat) we see that God has a heart for the underdog.God has a categorical preference and concern for the poor and lowly.In those songs and elsewhere, God is depicted as lifting up the lowly...and bringing down the mighty and proud.
David was the scrawny youngest shepherd boy of Jesse— yet picked by the Prophet for anointing.He was the youth who took on the Giant Goliath— and was victorious.He was the frightened servant of a deranged and mentally tormented King Saul— who soothed his fears and anxieties with songs.He was the leader of Israel’s out-numbered armies— that ultimately won victories.
Yet when he gave up that cause... that sense of risking all for the cause of God as he saw it, then things got crazy and started spinning.He stayed home.He was no longer the leader of a cause, but the protector of an empire…thus a target for God’s work of bringing “down the mighty and proud.”
He stayed home.And without his focus — his sense of call, a mid-life crisis emerges as he lusts after another man’s wife, seduces (or more accurately, rapes) her, he manipulates some cover-up attempts, and is finally guilty of murdering her husband, who was nothing but loyal to the cause he neglected.Craziness— as one sin, one secret, one lie led to another... snowballing until it ended not only in the death of Uriah but also the child born to Bathsheba.
It is a sad and classic tale of sin and the abuse of power.This story is not about sex.It is about the abuse of power.And so we finally get to the topic for today— sin and power.
Frederick Buechner says that
“the power of sin is centrifugal.When at work in human life, it tends to push everything out toward the periphery.Bits and pieces go flying off until only the core is left.Eventually bits and pieces of the core itself go flying off until in the end nothing at all is left.“The wages of sin is death” is Saint Paul’s way of saying the same thing… sin is whatever you do, or fail to do, that pushes [others] away, that widens the gap between you and them and also the gaps within your self.”
The scandals involving clergy of recent years point to the fact that how we use power is problematic, and it shows the blindness we all have as humans that often finds expression in our destructive, sinful actions.When we reflect on Kings, Presidents, and politicians we recall vividly many stories of how power has corrupted the focus and thinking of some...leading them to believe they are above the law.Unfortunately there is no lack of illustrative material for these instances, and we’ve heard of a recent example from a “family values” politician in South Carolina who went into that crazy— spinning place…you know, the blindness that makes us all hypocrites to some degree or another.
Yet power and its corrosive effects are not limited to priests, ministers, therapists, Presidents or Kings.Power is a part of every human relationship— even within marriages and families.How each one of us maintains our center, and avoids the evils of abusive power is of critical importance to our souls and our life together.
One of the most offensive abuses of power I feel is the use of religion as a control.We immediately think of the oppressive Taliban system as it sought to control the whole society— its thinking and behavior.The medieval Church held that kind of grasp over people also. Yet, we use religion as a control in more subtle and seemingly harmless ways, especially with our children.We paint a picture for them of an angry God who is the cosmic morality cop waiting to pounce upon them for “sins”.When we do that we are not interested in their spiritual development or the truth, but in controlling our children’s behavior; “if they don=t listen to us,” we think to ourselves, “perhaps we can scare them into behaving through guilt and fear of a God who always watches, waiting to punish.”Talk about taking the Lord=s name in vain!(which is to use God’s name for an unholy purpose).When we find ourselves doing down this road we need to head for the ditch.
This song by Shirley Erena Murry counters the picture of God as an angry judge, and instead points to a God who weeps over our destructive, selfish bumbling, and perhaps that will be one way we will avoid the trespass of using God for our own agenda.
My reading of Jesus is that he came to set people free from religion as control.He broke the rules that others used to control— he healed on the Sabbath, he touched the leapers, he forgave sins.He respected and loved even those who walked away from what he offered... he didn’t try to manipulate them, control them, or use them in his own scheme.One definition of lust (and we can think of King David in this regard), is the use of another person for one’s own pleasure or agenda— it is using another as an object.Jesus’ manner with others was the opposite.
Jesus’ use of power reveals that power, like money, is neither good or bad in itself— but has the potential for both.Jesus shows us that power that is rightly exercised is used for the benefit of others— healing, protecting, loving them into further spiritual growth.We use our power to protect our children from harm.We use the power of the state to protect citizens through laws, enforcement, and justice systems.A healthy use of power always respects and loves the other— especially the children we have power over.Many times parents disrespect their children in disciplining them— intimidation, belittling, unreasonable punishments or not giving rationale... the classic “because I said so” is really an abuse of power.We can discipline our children with power appropriately— with love, with respect... for their benefit of safe boundaries, for the purpose of their growth.
So what can we learn about using power appropriately?How can we avoid the spinning craziness?King David could have stopped this train-wreck at a number of points.
1.Let us simply be aware of the dangers of power in all our relationships.“Absolute power corrupts absolutely” is the saying that warns us of this.We don’t have to be a hypnotist or President to have power and be caught up in the dark side of it.Self-awareness, prayer, meditation and reflection will alert us to those subtle ways we might be manipulating others for our agenda.King David did not use his afternoon nap time to ponder his health it seems.
2.When Jesus taught us “Forgive us our trespasses...” he was alerting us to sin’s characteristic of trespassing; going beyond where we belong.If we are alert to the ways in which we trespass upon others in terms of power... we are less likely to make it a habit.King David did not take time to consider at each step in his downward spiral, how he was trespassing, much less confessing or repenting of it.
3.Let us remember Jesus and Neil Young who went bushC headed for the ditch; there are times for us to turn down power and offers of power when it isn’t our discerned calling.Jesus removed his name from the ticketC he went apart for prayer and self-reflection.King David did not use his afternoon nap-time to pray about heading back to his duty as the leader of God’s cause.
4.Finally, let us remember David’s first sin in this story.He went from being the leader of a cause, to a protector of an empire.He stayed home.When we go from a responsiveness to God’s call on our lives to a place where we need to protect what we have (as individuals, as spouses, as families, as Churches and nations… egos, positions, privileges…), then we are in trouble.
Let us remember Jesus, who used a different kind of power; a power that not only reveals God’s love in miracles, but most clearly in surrendering…in suffering and dying.That kind of power is hard to understand.It is counterintuitive, paradoxical.It is “left handed” power; an in-direct, persuasive power that does not coerce or trespass, but in the end is our only hope.
It is a power that is willing to die, so that we might live in a new kind of life…His life.It is the power of Jesus on the cross, saying to those about the pull the switch, “Forgive them God.”It is the only kind of power that can bring the Kingdom of God and keep us true to ourselves at the last.
