[Mcgregorpage] McGregorPage 515, Pentecost 9, August, 6, 2006

[rmcgregoralbq at aol.com]

PENTECOST  9 -  (August 6, 2006)

2 Samuel 11:26 -- 12:13a
Psalm 51:1-12
Ephesians 4:1-16
John 6:24-35



David was hungry.  For what?  Had he not enough wives to lie with, as 
God complained.  David, the reflective man with a reverence for God, 
was caught off guard by his hunger, a hunger that comes not from 
deprivation but from abundance, the hunger that abundance feeds.  It is 
the elusive hope that one day we might be satisfied, complete and 
victorious.

I had lived many years before it dawned on me that I could possess very 
little.  I did not possess my wife or my children.  I didn’t possess my 
career.  It belonged to the church.  Things that were legally in my 
name could be legally in another name with a single turn of events.  
Even the food that I got inside myself would not stay or sustain me 
long.  If I were ever to be satisfied, complete and victorious, it 
would not come to me through anything I could possess or convince 
myself I did possess.

David was hungry.  Then he was angry.  Then he was crushed.  I wonder 
how much of our anger is really anger at ourselves.  We objectify it 
and say, “the man who has done this deserves to die.”  (2 Samuel 12:5) 
All the time some part of us knows that we have done it or thought 
about doing it or done something like it differing only in degree.  
“Feel-Good Church” doesn’t deal with this -- too negative.  You don’t 
treat the religion consumer the way Nathan treated David.  But, what if 
people are really seeking forgiveness for their sin?  Are we to imply 
that they can be saved through yet another possession?

David’s sin hits him with its full force, but it doesn’t hit in the 
back.  Nathan did what a priest should do, “David, turn!”  The first 
child of that union would die; the second would ruin the kingdom and 
divide the tribes of Israel forever.  God heard his confession and 
forgave him, but the deed was done.  The forgiveness of God does not 
remove the effect of our sin on others.  The amazing grace is that it 
removes the enmity between God and us.  That will be enough for David 
and for us.

If we are not hungry for a world we control, we are hungry for a world 
not controlled by our sin, but neither hunger shall be satisfied.  
There is only one bread from heaven, and no one can have it; that is, 
no one can possess it.  Except for the Sabbath, Manna could not be 
kept, only eaten as it was given.  Likewise the bread of heaven, the 
righteousness of Jesus, can only be ours as we receive it hour by hour, 
day by day.  “But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every 
way into him who is the head, into Christ...”  (Ephesians 4:15) “We 
must grow up...” Paul says with urgency and hope in his voice.  Grow up 
from what?  The life of hunger that Paul goes on to describe.

Create in me a clean heart, O God, that I may not hunger for that which 
does not satisfy.  My hunger is the iniquity of the world, I will 
starve if you do not cleanse me.  “Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread 
of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes 
in me will never be thirsty.’" (John 6:35)


May these thoughts strengthen you.

An Open Letter to Fellow Pastors
>From Roland McGregor, United Methodist Pastor
 (an e-mail service)

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      --Copyright 2006, Roland McGregor, all rights reserved—
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