The New Testament tells us of 3 men
named James. Our St. James is the
son of Zebedee, brother of John, one of the first four whom Jesus called to be
apostles, with Peter and John a witness to the Transfiguration,
martyred by King Herod Agrippa about 10 years after the
Resurrection. (Acts 12). He is said to have preached in Spain, and his
tomb at Santiago has received pilgrims for the last 1200 years.
He inspired the Christian reconquest of Spain and Portugal. Portuguese
missionaries in the 15th century brought his story to the Christian
kingdom of Kongo in modern Angola. His symbol is the scallop shell. We name
churches after him because he was one of the first apostles, first evangelists,
first martyrs, and we look for his spiritual aid in the ministries to which we
are called.
David’s
son and successor Solomon was a son of Bathsheba, and the story tells how God
can redeem human sin. It is also a story of David’s lust, adultery, and murder,
and of the righteous behavior of Uriah, a foreign mercenary soldier
and an honorable man, betrayed and killed, a martyr to David’s desire to
cover-up his misconduct. The story might come from a blog or this year’s
newspaper. Among other things it is a
reminder of the power of temptation. David yielded; by the presence and power
of Christ dwelling, as today’s epistle says, in our hearts by faith, we receive
divine power to resist temptation.
David had a wife, Saul’s daughter
Machal, from whom he was estranged. In Hebron he had sons by six different women.
We’ll hear about their conflicts next month.
Judging the past by our moral
standards doesn’t work, but you’d think David would had enough. But he didn’t.
He took Bathsheba, and when her husband Uriah refused to condone David’s
adultery, David had him killed. Joab was David’s nephew, his older sister’s
son, the leader of David’s troops, and his accomplice in murder. As we will
hear next week, their child died, and Solomon was then born. When Solomon
became king he had Joab executed.
Our gospel readings in the
next 4 weeks are from St. John chapter 6, the feeding of the 5000 and the
meaning of that miracle. The feeding is reported in all 4 gospels. St. John’s
version most clearly recalls the miracle of God’s feeding the people of Israel
in the desert after the Exodus with manna. The people go across the sea; the
Passover is at hand. The leftovers fill 12 baskets – one for each of the tribes
of Israel.
“When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take
him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.” After
the Exodus feeding with manna Moses withdrew to Mount Sinai where he received
the Law. David had fought to be king; Jesus withdraws.
For almost
600 years the Jewish people had been ruled by foreign kings – Babylonian,
Persian, Alexander and his Egyptian and Syrian successors, then after 80 years
of freedom under the Maccabees, by Rome The desire for freedom under a Jewish
anointed king was strong. St. Luke tells us that even after the Resurrection as
they went with Jesus to the Mount of Olives for the Ascension the disciples asked,
“Will you now, (finally) restore the kingdom to Israel?” Jesus’ last words to
them and to us were these, “It is not for you to know the times
or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon
you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and
to the ends of the earth.” When he had said this,
as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their
sight.”
Ten days after the Ascension, in the
upper room, the Holy Spirit did come down on the apostles, giving the church
the gifts of power and truth, power and truth to be witnesses to Jesus “in
Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” – even to
us today in this congregation and city.
As the epistle reminds us, we are
given “power
through his Spirit that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith, as we are
being rooted and grounded in love. . . . that we may have the power to
comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and
depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that we may
be filled with all the fullness of God.” With St. James and all the saints we
join in the prayer, “Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to
accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory
in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”
