Friday, 7 May, 2004

Sermons and Prayers of Walter Brueggemann in “Inscribing the Text” will be the focus of this series of devotions.



A second familiar case of speaking-truth-to-power is Nathan addressing David (2 Samuel 12). This is worth the read.

…David arrives in power after a long winning streak. He is king in Hebron for seven year, then promoted to Jerusalem, where he is settled, safe, prosperous…bored. He is so bored that he seeks diversion and spots it in Bathsheba. She, like everyone before her, does not resist him; the rest…is history… Cover-up. Murder.

Enter Nathan, the prophet on the payroll of the king; enter truth!... The prophet Nathan wisely resorts to a figure of speech, a parable. He employs an artistic euphemism to soften the truth, hoping to divert the king’s attention until the connection is made… Now it is up to the truth-teller to close the deal by unmasking the king. It takes only two words: attah ha’ish (You are the man!) Just two words, but what courage to say them!



In a day when evil is put “out there” as in “one of them,” it is easy to begin to feel as though we are better or even, shall we say righteous before God where others….are not. We must remember that “not one is good”…no not one…not even my side of the story. But truth-tellers help to bring us all to a place in which we are able to look in the mirror and take off the mask behind which we have been trying to live. It is not wrong to have a “dark side” to be evil even when we want to be good. It is real. We can ignore it or deny it as much as we would like…but look around…it is there, and it isn’t only in “them.” Truth-telling brings all of us into the light and there we must begin to live again, by grace…the way we have been invited to live all along by our God.



Connection: Imagine how hard it must have been for Nathan to speak up before David. I can’t. But I can imagine what it may be like to be called to truth-tell within this day. That’s not ever easy…and sometimes there is nothing but silence. I think that is real for many of us.



O God, lift up our voices in praise of your Gracious Reign and in that praise let our hearts rise up to embrace the loving truthfulness we see within the faithful stories of the saints before us. Amen.