A Sermon based Upon 1 Kings 21: 1-21
By Rev. Charles J. Tomlin, D.Min.
Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership
Year C: Proper 6, 4th Sunday
After Pentecost, June 12th, 2016
“The
two scoundrels came in and sat opposite him; and the scoundrels brought a
charge against Naboth in the presence of the people…(1 Ki. 21:13 NRS)
The late Mya Angelo, who finished her
career teaching nearby at Wake Forest University, once wisely said, “Do the best you can until you know
better. Then, when you know better; do
better.”
Today’s text from 1st Kings,
chapter 21 is about people who should have known better. These tragic events take place during the
reign of King Ahab of Israel in the 9th century. It is the story of Naboth’s Vineyard. When reading this story from the New Revised
Version, the NIV, and other modern versions, you find one of 13 biblical
references to men who are called ‘scoundrels’
(1 Kings 21: 13). If you recall, the
priest Eli’s sons were also called ‘scoundrels’
(1 Sam. 2:12) and so were a few others (2 Chron. 13: 7).
Other translations use the word ‘worthless’ or ‘liar’ instead of scoundrel, but the King James used the untranslated
Hebrew phrase, “Ben Belial” or ‘sons of Belial’ or “Beliar”. Ben Belial was never fully defined in
the Bible but identified in the Dead Sea Scrolls as an angel of deceit, inspiring
sin in those who give in to Satan’s deceptive powers. Since
the meaning is so low down, newer versions have preferred to translate “Ben
Belial” as ‘scoundrel’ --someone who
is obviously ‘dishonest or unscrupulous
(Google). To clarify, a scoundrel simply
someone who ‘knows better’, but does
not ‘do better.’
It may seem rude to suggest that all of
us are ‘scoundrels’, but it fits ancient
and modern perceptions of the dark side of human nature from Moses to Alexander
Solzhenitsyn. From a communist concentration
camp, Solzhenitsyn wrote, “If only
it were all so simple! If only there
were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were
necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the
line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his
own heart?” (The Gulag Archipelago
1918-1956, quoted from Goodreads.com). If Solzhenitsyn is right, the two scoundrels in this
story ‘way back when’ still have
something to say to potential of a ‘scoundrel’ who could be lurking in any of
us. So, let’s hear again this most powerful
and tragic story of Naboth’s vineyard with great concern and extreme
caution.
GIVE
ME…
Strangely enough, the great evil that
took place in this story started with two simple words: “Give Me….”
Just focus on the implication of these two
words (21:2) spoken by a King who was already more privileged than most and
certainly already had enough. Yet when
King Ahab saw the choice plot of land belonging to Naboth, being accustomed to
having the best, he wanted that land too.
There was a problem. The land had been in Naboth’s family for
generations. Naboth was not willing to
sell, even for the right price. Unlike
King Ahab, money does not mean everything to Naboth. When
King Ahab has realized that Naboth will not budge or negotiate a price, the
King goes home depressed and
distraught. When his wife Jezebel
sees him, she discovers him pouting like a child. She can't stand seeing this weakness in her
husband. She wants him to have whatever he
wants. You could even say that she
thinks he is entitled to getting or having
everything he wants. He’s a King, for
goodness sakes; shouldn't whatever belongs to anyone in his kingdom really belong
to him. Isn’t this fair when you are the
King?
Of course, in a day when we all live
like Kings, having more than most Kings
of the world ever imagined and being citizens of the richest, wealthiest nation
on earth, we might feel a bit entitled too, might we not? Last year, a social researcher wrote about the
decline of parenting in America. On
national TV, he told about the changes he was observing around the dinner
tables of America. It used to be that
parents would insist that their child eat their vegetables or there would be absolutely
NO dessert. Now, he observes, it has
become the parent’s duty to grant the child’s wishes. Many parents today, he suggests, beg their
children to ‘please take a couple more bites of their veggies before they start
on their dessert.’ Now, it is children
who make the demands in the home, rather than the parents (http://www.leonardsax.com/books/the-collapse-of-parenting/).
When Ahab pouted over Naboth’s vineyard,
he didn't have good parenting either.
His Father Omri was known, not only for his lack of morals and parenting
skills. Ahab’s childhood had been so underwhelming we too might have felt
sorry for his pitiful behavior. What
makes him less embarrassing is what happens next.
GO TAKE…
When Jezebel finds the King depressed,
not eating, and whining about what he was unable to acquire, she is livid. ‘Do
you not govern in Israel? Are you not the King? She can't believe his unwillingness to get everything
he wanted and she can't stand having such a weak husband. She informed him that she will have to ‘wear
the pants’ in this family and she will get that vineyard from Naboth.
Unknown to her husband, Jezebel writes letters
to the city leaders in Naboth’s hometown, signing the King’s name, instructing
those leaders in exactly how they should frame Naboth. They will find two no-count scoundrels who
will falsely accused him of blasphemy and treason to get Naboth judged and executed. This is how she will try to justify her move
to get Naboth’s vineyard seized and confiscated. So, after
learning of Naboth’s execution, the very next words from Jezebel expresses a complete
disregard for what is right and just when she commands her husband, Ahab the
King, to ‘GO AND TAKE possession of the vineyard
of Naboth of Jezereel…for Naboth is dead’ (21:15).
“Go
and Take!” Doesn’t that sound
strangely familiar? During World War II,
one of Adolf Hitler’s closest advisors was Hermann Goering. Reichsmarshall
Goering was not only the head of the Luftwaffe, the German air force, but he
also played a major role in the Holocaust, where the Nazis imprisoned and put
to death more than six million Jews, Gypsies, and mentally disabled people in
the hopes of creating some kind of a master race, some kind of a racially pure
society.
After the war ended, and while he and
other Nazis were having their war crimes trials at Nuremberg, Goering sat down
for an interview. During the course of
that interview he made some rather chilling statements. Goering admitted that
when it comes to war, the common people never want to go to war: the people in
Russia don’t want to go to war, the people in England don’t want to go to war,
the people in the United States don’t want to go to war—even the common people
in Nazi Germany didn’t want to go to war.
But, Goering said, it’s not the people
who get to decide whether they go to war or not—it’s the leaders of the country
that determine that. According to
Goering, no matter whether you live in a country that’s ruled by a democracy, a
parliament, a fascist dictatorship, or a communist dictatorship, it’s always a
simple matter to drag the people into war. The people can always be brought to
do the bidding of the leaders, he said. It’s easy. All you have to do is tell
the people they are being attacked, and then denounce the pacifists. All you
have to do is denounce those people for their lack of patriotism and for
exposing the country to even greater danger. If you’re a leader and want to
push your country into war, Goering said, that’s all you need to do.
The worst times in human history are
often unleashed with these words: “Go take…!” Because what we can have in this world is
always ‘limited’, unless there is morality and law, and of course, spiritual
values that encourage responsible living according to these laws, society will
be constantly be threatened by the strongest or ‘fittest’ who threaten the lives
of the weak and most vulnerable. In Naboth’s story, both bad politics and bad
religion were used as grounds to murder Naboth and seize his Vineyard, rather
than to uphold justice and righteousness to respect rights of this ‘little man’. But why did Jezebel think she could get away
with it? Why did the citizens of Naboth’s
town go along with her scheme? Why were
‘scoundrels’ available who would
carry out her plan? The evil at the top
is only allowed to flourish when the good is also missing at the bottom. But who will stand up for the little man, the
weak, the most vulnerable and the suffering in this world? It is this constant question of social and
political justice that continues to fuel the need for good politics and healthy
religion.
Martin Niemoller was a German submarine
captain during the Great War of 1914-18. After being ordained a Lutheran
minister, Niemoller tried to live the quiet life of a parish pastor. But then
came the Barmen Declaration of 1938 which compelled a number of German
Christians to form the Confessing Church. Niemoller was later imprisoned in a
Nazi concentration camp, from which he wrote that famous statement:
When Hitler attacked the Jews, I was not
a Jew, therefore, I was not concerned. And when Hitler attacked the Catholics,
I was not a Catholic, and therefore, I was not concerned. And when Hitler
attacked the unions and the industrialists, I was not a member of the unions
and I was not concerned. When he attacked the homosexuals and lesbians, they
were on society’s margins, and I was not concerned. Then, Hitler attacked me
and the Protestant church—and there was nobody left to be concerned.
What’s your life worth anyway? What’s
mine worth? You go to a funeral and you hear all those wonderful testimonies
about a person’s life, and you remember how much gets left out, how much is
forgotten or "disremembered" on such an occasion. And you wonder,
"What will people say about me when I die? What will my life have amounted
to?" Or, even more compelling, what
will God think? Will I have to depend fully on mercy and little on justice when
I stand before my Creator, or will God will simply look at me and ask,
"Well?"?
Jesus did not conduct a life of hiding
on the sidelines. Jesus saw the constant
threats to the most vulnerable of his day; the outcasts, the sick, the women,
and even the cruel religious prejudice against ‘sinners’ and didn’t keep
contributing to the taking, but started a ministry of ‘giving’. Jesus also knew that a new way of looking at
politics or having religion at the top would have to be based on a new way of
looking at life at the bottom. “Don’t worry about your life, what you will eat,
drink, or what you will wear” (Matt. 6: 31). There would be no change in the corrupt ways
of the world at the top until there was also a change in how the common people
lived their lives too. The people at the top, with all their means,
wealth and power, seldom change unless they have too. Jesus knew this too, but he also knew that those
living at the bottom, when they had a true spiritual hunger for justice and righteousness,
could outnumber, outlive, and outsource the powers and authorities of darkness,
when they were determine to walk toward God’s true light.
I
HAVE FOUND YOU
When, in this story, it looked as if
Jezebel’s dastardly scheme was unseen, in the dark, without any negative
consequence, we finally come to the words a King Ahab, a Richard Nixon, or a Bill Clinton,
never wants to here, :“I have found you….” For just as abruptly as the prophet Elijah came
on the scene the first time, now this unwanted
prophet who stands for justice and righteousness returns. This time, however, the King recognizes him as
his own worst nightmare. “You have found me, O my enemy.” As the King acknowledges he has been caught, Elijah
affirms the inevitable and the obvious: “I
have found you.”
Now that Ahab's ‘sins have found him out’
the prophet hurls pronouncement after pronouncement of judgments and divine
retribution upon Jezebel, upon Ahab, and upon his royal dynasty and family. Why is all this judgment about to unfold: The prophet says: You have sold yourself" (1 Kings 21:20b)—that’s the most
damaging accusation of all, isn’t it? This is an accusation that still strikes at
our own twenty-first century hearts. We
talk a lot about the true self, coming to one’s self, finding one’s self. So to be accused of selling one’s self—that is
the sale we too have made many times. Whether it was for popularity when we were in
high school or college, for the love at whatever price of virtue or integrity
when we were in our twenties and thirties, for money and success any time it
was offered. We too stand before Elijah
or whatever prophet God calls before us, because we know that also, we are a
people who have, and are still capable of selling out our souls to ‘have’ or to
‘take’ more for ourselves.
But fortunately, this is not the final
word of the story, because in a surprising move, when confronted with his sin,
Ahab actually shows genuine sorrow and publicly repents. Even Elijah the prophet did not see that
coming. In response to Ahab’s sincerity of heart, Elijah
allows that the King will be spared of immediate retaliations, but his unrepentant
wife and his dynasty and legacy will not. However we take this, this very strange turn
of events points us to a God who remains merciful and gracious, even when we
are not. This does not mean God will rescind
his justice nor will he revoke all consequences of judgement upon sin, but God will
be forgiving and merciful to the sinner who genuinely repents and turns his
life toward God’s light of truth.
In one of Eugene O’Neill’s plays, The Great God Brown, there is a scene
toward the end in which a man is on his deathbed. He’s very frightened. At his
side is a woman who has become something of a mother-figure for him. She speaks
to him as if he were a child, "Go to sleep, Billy. It’s all right."
He replies, "Yes, mother." Then Billy starts to explain what he has
experienced, why he’s the person he is.
"It was dark, and I couldn’t see where I was going, and they all
picked on me."
The woman then says, "I know. But you’re tired now. Go to
sleep."
And he answers, "And when I wake up?"
She replies, "The sun will be rising."
Then Billy interrupts her with great seriousness: "To judge the
living and the dead." And adds in
great fear, "I don’t want justice. I want love.
The woman then replies quietly,
"There is only love." And as he dies, Billy begins to repeat the
words of the only prayer he knows, "Our Father, who art in
heaven...." (As quoted by Eugene Winkler at www.goodpreacher.com).
Neither these harsh consequences toward
Jezebel or Ahab’s dynasty, nor Ahab’s repentance will bring Naboth back to life
or fully compensate in this world for the damage that has been done. In a similar way, the justice of God seems
forever slow to be realized, but we must remember that according to Scripture,
this slackness or slowness is due to God’s desire for ‘no one to perish, but for all to come to repentance’. In this regard, even Elijah the prophet must
wait, just as Ahab does, allowing “God to be God” until the time when all God’s
judgments are complete as the truth becomes fully known.
Until that time in God’s future, and by
God’s grace, also in ours, we must continue to live, love, serve and hope that
the justice of God will continue to be colored by the love and mercy of this
God who gives everyone the opportunity to know and experience the life-changing
nature of ‘amazing’ grace. It is only ‘grace’
that can save us from being the people we are, which can also save us from
being the people we often aren’t. If you allow this God of ‘grace’ to find you,
then you too can make the truth your friend, rather than your worst enemy. Amen.
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