From the stem of Jesse came a baby known as Jesus. Halleluiah. Christmas has come and gone new years is just around the corner - we are in between.
A time of reflection, a time when new promises are made, new dreams given review.
We are looking at where we have come from. We stand in this day on top of a mountain and can look back over the route that we have taken to arrive here and wonder.
I am not sure about you but if anyone had asked me at this moment last year if this is where I would be today. If someone had handed me a list of 3 cities to guess and Chattanooga had been on it I may have even wondered - is that city real or is that just a made up name from a song I once sang in the car with my parents as we traveled on long vacation trips.
From the stem of Jesse came a baby known as Jesus. Today I find myself thinking of the stem of Jesse - a man named David.
Perhaps because of the choir’s offering, but also because David is an enigma. Handsome king David in biblical tales from Chronicles and Kings is an amazing and complex person.
The youngest of Jesse's sons he was chosen by Samuel to be part of Kind Saul's entourage.
He was everything we seem to like and hate in a leader. He was charismatic,he was brave (fighting the behemoth Goliath with only a sling shot), he was creative being the author of the book of psalms, he was a thoughtful and even doting father.
But David was complicated as well. He was passionate and he took what he wanted - even if that was the wife of one of his generals. He was clever (when he knew that Bathsheba was pregnant from their joining he demanded that Uriah come back and sleep with his wife - when he refused clever and diabolical David ordered his soldiers to leave him alone in battle ensuring his death.
David is complicated.
I wonder if he started that year thinking about where he might end up. I wonder if he would have imagined the betrayal that he would experience - the deepest betrayal we can experience - knowing that we have fallen short of our own expectations of ourselves.
But David is complicated and an amazing leader - partly because in the face of this betrayal - he does something amazing. He does not cry out that he had every right to do what he did - as beloved of Gd - as passionate charismatic - as king. Instead he accepts his fate (which is harsh) and he goes out to comfort his new wife.
David is complicated. and David is living into one of the most beautiful of Jewish principles. The person (man) who is sinless can never be as righteous as the person who has sinned and turned back from sin.
In this case let us take the ancient understanding of sin as meaning "to miss the mark" it is originally derived from an archery term. David missed the mark - his prophet, Nathan, has confirmed what he already suspected.
Perhaps intoxicated by power, he reached beyond what he should to forbidden fruit. He then tried to correct it - and then again and then. Finally he stopped and stood and simply accepted his fault.
Halleluiah. David stopped - instead of pointing fingers or making excuses or changing his laws to meet his own whims - he accepted that he was wrong and began the long trek toward a different kind of wholeness.
Wholeness - once we realize that we are not perfect - that we will never be perfect - that we are far from being able to expect perfection. The world we live within is complicated.
Many world religions take our human imperfectibility on in different ways. Some say it is out of our woundedness - out of our lack - out of our perfect imperfections that some of our most beautiful and profound realizations, insights and evolutions can be born.
For the Buddhist we see this depicted in the symbol of the lotus flower. It is beautiful, pure white and fragrant, and only grows out of the richest of soil - some might call it s**t at the bottom of the pond. Its growth only comes from a letting go of what was, what is decaying on the bottom, to create what will be next.
For the Taoists it is the depiction of Yin and Yang. Not as dualistic as it first appears but instead a reminder that yang outward energy always has a piece coming back yin that movement inward to a more passive state always has within it a way back out to balance.
For the Hindu this understanding might be held in the image of the goddess Kali - nothing is created without first the destruction - nothing is destroyed without the presence of possibilities within creation.
For some Christians - the further stem of Jesse - sin or missing the mark can be complicated further by the concept of an external incomplete grace. This grace is only granted to those who accept an image of a God who bargains and grants pardons.
But grace that comes as a result of our woundedness is the one that we learn from our universalist heritage. Universalism means that all are beloved of God and will return to that from which we came – and it demands that I participate in creating a community and society where we are all beloved of Gd.
ALL of us.
All of us beloved does not mean that I can act any way I want. It means that if I love myself I will create a world for myself – and others - that is safe and probably even generous. Being loved without reservation allows me to live into that love and not act from fear or power over others.
If we wish to live into this love we recognize that we are all responsible for this world and all who live within it. If gd loves everyone who should I not love?
Now back to David for a moment – pure love does not equal approval. Indeed the UU peacemaking groups would have us recognize that love must be strong enough to stand up to tyrannical or abysmal behavior. Our universalist heritage teaches that it is our responsibility to foster a community and society that promotes goodness and mercy for everyone. Love is complicated - just like life.
We are bound by our nature to "sin” - to fall short. It is not those actions alone that form us however.
Ultimately when I take responsibility for my actions I am formed by those results as well. When David stood with Nathan and wondered at what he brought upon his house, his response was to be contrite and to begin the long arduous process of providing comfort to those he had hurt most deeply. His life was still complicated but out of this moment of reflection and evolution came the next great leader – his son, Solomon, who would lead his people with such an even hand that I can still remember hearing the stories of his great wisdom as child. Halleluiah
Today as I stand looking back over this year. I can see places where I was less than I wished to be. I can see places where I brought more love than I got back and I can see places where mercy followed me relentlessly.
Today I look back and find those things that I might do differently. And I turn to this next year knowing that I may be made better by my reflection. It is not grace that I seek - I believe grace in love is here for all of us - instead what I seek is redemption. The redemption that comes from knowing I can be imperfect today just as I have been and still be called to be in this world with a fierce and mighty love. Love that says no .. and yes. Love that works for justice and is self reflective. Love that is deeply imbued in all of us and love demands that we live within it now.
