A Seat at the Table

Transcript

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[0:00] reading our sermon text is from 2 Samuel 9, verses 1 through 13. And this is the sixth and final week of our book study. So this has gone really well. I think I'm not going to give a chapter-by-chapter recap, but here's a general recap of how far we've come. We've been looking at that there are the disability community faces unsolicited prayer and unscientific remedies. Our authors made a distinction between cure and healing. She's mentioned how we can help the disabled by advocating for justice and baking their needs into the foundation of the church. We can avoid ableist language and we can change how we see and think about the disabled. So that's sort of a very Cliff Notes version up to this point. Now I'll talk about our reading a little bit.

[0:52] And there's a story about as Victoria said, David looking for one of Saul's heirs or descendants that he could yet show some mercy to. And in the end, they found Mephibosheth, which is like one of the hardest words in the Bible. So there will be no quiz, but it's a toughie. And it's actually not that hard, but it just looks imposing when you see it on a piece of paper. You'll see it up there in just a second, Mephibosheth, but there it is.

[1:26] Now, in that time, when you had a situation like David and Saul, where the king, the next king wasn't the descendant of the original king, which David was not, the new king, if they wanted to stay king would have to find all the relatives, especially the descendants of the previous king and kill them. Doesn't that sound nice? Because otherwise they could make trouble for the new king. And so it turns out there was one one that was left that hadn't been killed, Mephibosheth, but he also wasn't a threat. And we'll see why. Okay, so you'll see why he was not a threat. And there's something about Mephibosheth that gets repeated over and over again, and I'm not sure exactly why, but I have some theories, so we'll get into that. Let's go to our reading.

[2:13] It's 2 Samuel 9, 1-13. 1 Samuel 9, 1-13, 1 day David asked, is anyone in Saul's family still alive? Anyone to whom I can show kindness for Jonathan's sake? He summoned a man named Ziba who had been one of Saul's servants. Are you Ziba? The king asked. Yes, sir, I am, Ziba replied. The king then asked him, is anyone still alive from Saul's family? If so, I want to show God's kindness to them. Ziba replied, yes. Yes, one of Jonathan's sons is still alive. He is crippled in both feet. Where is he? The king asked. In Lo-debar. That means no pasture. It's not a great place to live. In Lo-debar, Ziba told him, at the home of Machir, son of Ammuel. So David sent for him and brought him from Machir's home. His name was Mephibosheth. He was Jonathan's son and Saul's grandson. When he came to David, he bowed down low to the ground in deep respect.

[3:16] David said, greetings, Mephibosheth. Have you noticed the dialogue is kind of like, they're telling us everything here. That's fine. Mephibosheth replied, I am your servant. Don't be afraid, David said. I intend to show kindness to you because of my promise to your father, Jonathan. I will give you all the property that once belonged to your grandfather, Saul, and you will eat here with me at the king's table.

[3:40] Mephibosheth bowed respectfully and exclaimed, who is your servant that you have chosen to be? You should show such kindness to a dead dog like me. Then the king summoned Saul's servant, Ziba, and said, I have given your master's grandson everything that belonged to Saul and his family. You and your sons and servants are to farm the land for him to produce food for your master's household. But Mephibosheth, your master's grandson, will eat here at my table. Ziba had 15 sons and 20 servants. Ziba replied, yes, my Lord, the king, I am your servant. And I will do all that you have commanded. And from that time on, Mephibosheth ate regularly at David's table like one of the king's own sons.

[4:25] Mephibosheth had a young son named Micah. From then on, all the members of Ziba's household were Mephibosheth's servants. And Mephibosheth, who was crippled in both feet, lived in Jerusalem and ate regularly at the king's table. Let's pray.

[4:40] Father, thank you for this word. And we ask that you would add your blessing. Blessing to it in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, let's start by looking at the text because I think, like we said all along, even though we're reading through a book, we're going to look at all the texts that our author points us to. And our author does mention this text, and we'll get into what she says about it. But I want to tell you a little history of my own. This is how I came to know the Bible. And hopefully you've done this for your kids, or if you're a child, you have one, is I had a picture Bible. A lot of illustrated that the words were not the Bible words, they were sort of sanitized for kids. They were sweet. Just not a lot of the bad stories.

[5:18] There was no story about Sodom and Gomorrah in that children's Bible. It just wasn't there. But other stories were there and nice ones. So I like to read it. The pictures were good. Tablets didn't exist. If I had a tablet, I would have never read this thing. I cannot believe the tablets. If I had that as a kid, I would have been like, this is crazy. Anyways, there are all these great pictures of it. And the pictures were really misleading, right? Right. And the Bible was always like a pasture, like this green pasture with these perfectly round sculpted trees and bushes and little red berries on them. It was like, wow, this is a really cool place. And King David was this sort of happy person who was carrying a harp around, right? And he's kind of like a street musician going around the capitals of Europe going, do, do, do, do, do. And he's collecting a little bit of money. He just seemed like a happy guy. But the reality, so this did not prepare me for reality because I want to show the contrast. The reality is really different. Okay. A lot of that country is desert. If you've been there, a lot of it, some of it's nice, but a lot of it's desert and dry and rocky. The sheep are stupid. Like there's nothing great about the sheep.

[6:23] They're not happy. I mean, they might be happy, but they're not that smart. And David was kind of cold blooded and malevolent. And he was a terrible person at times. Okay. At other times he was a great guy.

[6:37] So you may remember that at one point David wanted to build a temple for the Jews. And David said, I want to build this temple for you so that you're not in this tent moving around. And God said, you can't build it for me because you've got too much blood on your hands. Only your son Solomon can do that for me. And Solomon did, but David was not allowed to build the temple because he had too much blood on his hands. So like I said, one thing about kingdoms and rival kings back then, and it's true for dictatorships now, so you can kind of, this hasn't really changed is if a rival king takes over as David did from Saul, then they have to eradicate. The whole family of the deposed king, because any one of those descendants of that other king has a possible claim to the throne and they could raise the rabble and find all the people who don't like David, maybe people who are mad at David, other people who were part of Saul's Royal sort of court at one point and kind of had some loyalty to him. He could raise them up into an army and they could start a civil war. And then that would threaten the new king. So. Okay.

[7:42] Okay. So why did this apply to David and Saul? Well, this is tough because David and Saul's son, Jonathan, were like brothers. So does David kill Saul? No, David doesn't kill Saul. Saul and, I mean, sorry, David doesn't kill Saul, nor does he kill Jonathan. Okay. So Saul and three of his sons, Jonathan, Abinadab, Malkishua, and Jonathan were killed in battle, in battling the Philistines. The Philistines took their bodies away. Then one of Saul's sons who survived that was named Ish-bosheth. This is like the cavalcade of crazy names in the Bible today. So we have Abinadab, Malkishua, Ish-bosheth, and Mephibosheth, similar names, right? So one of Saul's sons named Ish-bosheth actually did rival David for the crown. And he was set up as the king of the Northern Kingdom for two years. And there were some skirmishes between the North and South during that time. So everything that David did was a rival to David. And what David was fearing had actually already come true. Ish-bosheth was a rival to David. And if Ish-bosheth had gathered a big enough army, he would have marched on Jerusalem and evicted David from it and re-established the dynasty of Saul. Okay.

[8:54] Now, usually David gets other people to do his killing for him. You'll notice, like with Uriah the Hittite and others. But Ish-bosheth, a little history here, just I'm telling you this because this is in contrast to that Bible I read when I was a kid. Ish-bosheth was... I'm glad the kids are out, but the high schoolers, you can hear this, okay? Ish-bosheth was betrayed by two of his own military officers and they brought his head to David. Has anyone heard this story before? I know you've read it, but you're like, wow, these are the things you want to forget. They brought him a head. They brought David a head. I don't know if it was in a bucket or a satchel or I don't know, end of a stick.

[9:36] And how did David thank them? He's like, how dare you? How dare you? How dare you do that to Saul's son? And he had those two guys killed right on the spot. This is David. This is the world back then, okay? And then later on in Samuel, 2 Samuel, I promise this is the end of it, okay? David rounded up the remaining two sons of Saul that Saul had with a different wife, along with five of Saul's grandsons, so seven in all. And he handed them over to a tribe called the Gibeonites and they murdered those people. But David was complicit in that. Right?

[10:27] Right? Right? to Bar, which was kind of further away, it was kind of way away from everything, so that he couldn't raise any suspicion that he was trying to get an army because he lived in a pretty deserted area. And so he might have always been wondering, when are some soldiers going to come to my house, which of course they did eventually, but for a different reason, when are some soldiers going to come to my house and put an end to me because I'm a threat to David? And have you noticed that the text is at pains to tell us over and over again that he was disabled at least three times, like by the way he had, he was lame in both his feet is what it says the Bible says, or that he was paralyzed in his feet. And he had been dropped as a child. He had been dropped. I dropped somebody once, my prom date in high school, I think I told this story. That was a big mistake. It was bad. The night was chilly from that, it was in Tucson, but the night was chilly from that point on. I shouldn't have picked her, I mean, we, anyways.

[11:38] We thought it was funny. We thought it was funny until I fell down and she fell down too, of course, but she didn't break her any legs. She was mad. Anyways, different story. So Mephibosheth, his caretaker when he was a little boy, picked him up and ran with him because there was a fighting nearby and she tripped and fell and he fell and broke both his legs and never was able to really walk again, it seems. And so, if you kind of read between the lines in the Bible, and this is the important part, this is what's related to the disability, is that since he was lame in both legs, he really wasn't a threat to David. Do you get that? They keep mentioning that. He was lame in both legs. He wasn't really a threat to David. Why? He couldn't lead an army, but also because the attitudes about disability back then were even worse than they are now. So anybody who might've followed him would have said, well, yeah, he's the grandson of Saul, but lame in both legs. He's either sinned really badly or his parents sinned, not Jonathan, but Saul definitely did. And so there was really no expectation at the time that a disabled person could be a leader of anything. And so there's that ableism was really present even back then.

[12:59] And so our author tells us a lot about how some Christians associate her disability with evil, or with judgment, or with the power of God. And so, we're going to read a little bit about that. So, we're going to read a little bit about that. So, we're going to read a little bit about that. Or with something wrong she did, or that her parents did. And this, even Christians today are kind of still saying stupid things like that to her. And the funny thing is that Mephibosheth absolutely did nothing wrong himself. He was dropped by somebody else. His disability is absolutely the result of another person's carelessness, or at least an attempt to save him while he was little. So I have to believe that attitudes like this probably were worse than they are now. So the disabled grandson of King Saul, King Saul, the son of Saul, was a little boy. He was a little boy. He was a little boy. He was a little boy. He would never really inspire loyalty or admiration from anybody, which is sad, right? But it's kind of good news for him because it saved his life. This is a complex story. It's going to have some twists and turns in it because if he had been able-bodied, even if he was Jonathan's son, it's possible David would have had to dispose of him somehow. So this is the

[14:01] complexity of who David is. We have a really, sometimes I think Christianity talks about about David in overly rosy terms, and that's a mistake because David is a complex character, right? This is the same person who committed adultery, and then he committed murder to cover up the adultery, but it all came to light, right? But he's the same person who wrote the Psalms, right? He's the one that the Bible calls a man after God's own heart. And he does something really grace-filled, but it's kind of calculated and cynical too, because Mephibosheth isn't really a threat to him. He makes room at the table for Mephibosheth, and that's kind of where our author is going in these final chapters here, is that at least if you set aside all the complexity of who David is, which you shouldn't do all the time, but in this case, it's okay to, he makes room at his table for Mephibosheth who's disabled, and he brings him back into the family really, and it's out of a promise really that he may to Mephibosheth's father. So it's sort of this covenant faithfulness that David is modeling. And so there's this provision, there's this grace, there's, it's not exactly forgiveness, but it's protection from harm that Mephibosheth thought was going to happen. So there's these

[15:20] messianic overtones to what David is doing with Mephibosheth. And David is kind of like an early type of the Messiah, but you have to kind of set aside all of his flaws, but yet he's the anointed one. He's one of the best kings that Israel ever had, which isn't really saying a lot. And he kind of unified the country and he brought them to kind of a great level. And he worshiped God. He wanted to live in God's house. He wanted to, you know, even our first Psalm that we had from the call to worship was from David.

[15:57] So Mephibosheth is like an enemy, welcome to the table. Remember Psalm, the 23rd Psalm, you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You wonder if David wrote this or he's living out his own Psalm right now, or he's kind of written, wrote it for Mephibosheth. Mephibosheth is like, how am I going to, you know, what is he thinking? Right? So for all he knows, he's been brought to Jerusalem so that David can kill him. So you notice the first thing that one of the, one of the first things, that David says to Mephibosheth is don't be afraid. Why? Because you probably thought you were brought here for a different reason, but I'm going to tell you that I'm going to give you mercy instead. And I'm going to ask Nathan to show, this is, this is really interesting. This isn't, this is from the, this is called the Morgan picture Bible. It was illuminated in the 13th century, but the detail is amazing. We're going to zoom in on a piece next, next. And there are inscriptions. Oh, there it is. There are inscriptions all around this in Persian and in Latin and in Hebrew and in Greek. So this Bible was used for all sorts of things. So let's go back. The first one on the left side, that's David. I'm going to put in the

[17:21] mic here so people can hear me. That's David telling Ziba, go bring Mephibosheth. Okay. There's only one person. I think Ziba must be the guy in green because he's the only one who shows up on the other side. As far as I can tell. And the guy in green is there without his cloak on and they're, oh no, the other guy's there too. He's just not wearing his, they take their cloaks off. Now I see it now. I see it. But there's Mephibosheth who's kneeling in front of David, but zoom in now. We'll zoom in. And this is amazing because this is the 12th century, 1200s. Look at Mephibosheth's face. He's kind of like, am I about to die? Like his face is kind of like a little distrustful. Like what's going to happen? And David, I don't know what David is doing. He's like, well, I don't know. I think that one was maybe drawn wrong, but he's like, what does, somebody captioned this for me. What is David thinking? He's like, I don't know. Do I really have to shake your hand? I don't know what he's thinking. I don't, I don't know what it is. But here David is extending this hand of welcome and grace to Mephibosheth. Okay. But isn't that neat? And there's, there are, there's another painting I'm told of. I haven't been able to find it. I haven't been able to find it. I haven't been able to find it.

[18:33] I've seen a sculpture that's similar to this, where David and Mephibosheth are sitting at the table, but what's on the table? Bread and the cup. And some people, especially in the middle ages, thought that this story is pointing forward to the last supper and to Holy Communion. And that's this place where Jesus takes the place of David and Mephibosheth is either the disciples or maybe even Judas. Like I've, I've seen this before. I've seen this before. I've seen this before. I've seen this before. I've seen this before. welcomed my enemy to the table and I'm gonna offer him grace. I'm gonna extend him this mercy. He does, he doesn't deserve to die, but he's, he's in a class of people that is gonna be killed if they're not careful. But I'm gonna welcome them in. I'm gonna protect them. And so there's this sense that, that David, again, is like a, is a type or a foreshadowing of Jesus and this, oh, it's gone now. But anyways, this, there's no table in that one. That's the problem with it. But at the table that they're at, this table that Mephibosheth eats at for the rest of his life in in the king's presence, is like he's receiving grace at the table of communion, of the Holy Communion. So we're almost done. Oh, we're doing fine here. All right. So just remember that David

[19:46] is nowhere as good as Jesus, but in many cases, David points forward to Jesus, right? And Jesus is all the things that David could never be because of David's sin, and much more. So Jesus is much more than Jesus. So that's where it's good to end with that story, but I want to talk about the book, and just briefly, because the last two chapters are great. And I think just to wrap it all up, we have an image of the disabled being at the table, right? It's a position of care. It's a position of equality. This is important. When you have table fellowship with somebody, you're their equal. This is important. So they're equals. It's not a charity case, right? And it's a position of acceptance. And that's really what the book is about, is to make a place at the table for the disabled, and you don't, which means you don't insult them or talk over them, but you advocate for them in the church and in the public sphere. So there's disability justice yet to be done in our world that we can be part of. And you build their presence into the church from the foundation. You start from the bottom, and that's hard at the church that's already built, but we can un-foundation the bathrooms and re-foundation them as disabled spaces.

[20:57] And the front door's too, so that's hopefully what will happen. We'll get there. And then there's a few other just, you know, words of wisdom from the author. Don't let our anxiety get us to act weird with disabled people and lose track of our boundaries with them, right? And to find out that scripture has a place of honor for the disabled. Some places, no, but many places, yes. We think about Jacob, who became Israel, and he wore his disability really as his new identity. His name was changed. And then learn that many of the disabled consider themselves to be completely whole in relationship to God and have just as much to contribute as anyone else. And so we do them a disservice if we assume that they have less to contribute or that they need fixing in some way that we think we can fix them, right?

[21:49] So there are some strong things in this book. You know, I think it's okay to look at other sources and to be critical of any book we read together. So if you didn't like the book, that's, I mean, that's okay. This is good to have a critical view of any book. But for me, what I'll tell you about the book is I kept saying, well, I didn't know this. I didn't know this. This is good to know. This is really helpful.

[22:11] And it wasn't all new knowledge for me, right? The theological insights, I think, were really well thought through. So there were some, it's not just facts about disability and policy and things like that. There are some really good theological insights about disability that I had never considered. And I thought were well-crafted theological arguments. I really thought so, okay?

[22:36] And so that, and actually a well-considered theological argument is going to speak to me even more than a few facts, I think. So, but speaking of theologies, we have to, can't go out without the top 10 list. Those are, she has some good theologies about disability, but she has top 10 disability theologies.

[22:57] Wait. I'm on the wrong page here. There it is. Yes. Page 172. I had put my bookmark on the wrong page. Top 10 disability theologies. And these are the top 10 worst ones, okay? Like, so these are funny, but they also make you cry. I think I cried more than I laughed. But here we go. Number 10.

[23:24] Folks shared these with me unsolicited. There we go. Again, unsolicited theologies that people thought they had to share with her. Number 10. Jesus wants to see you running. So like what, if you're not running, what are you doing if you're not running? It means you're failing somehow. Okay. Number nine. If you just believed, God would heal you. Okay. I think she does believe though. All right. Number eight. What sin in your life is preventing you from getting up and walking? Ouch. That's about the worst one yet. Let's see if we can find anything worse than that. All right. Number seven. Adam and Eve weren't disabled. So that's not God's plan for humanity.

[23:59] This is a bad theology. Number six. You need to hope for more from life than disability. I think she does. Like these are people don't even know her, right? They should read the book. All right. Number five. There are no wheelchairs in heaven.

[24:16] She thinks there are. That's a thinker. There might be. If Jacob is leaning on his staff in heaven, will some people be sitting in their wheelchairs now? I don't know. Do you want to hear the joke about hell again? No. Okay. That was fun. All right. Number four. Everything happens for a reason. Don't ever say that to anyone. Don't just banish that phrase from your everything happens for a reason. It's not true. Some things just happen. It's terrible. Number three. Jesus didn't die for you to be in a wheelchair. True. But that's beside the point. Okay. Number two. God doesn't give us more than we can handle. Also, please don't say that to anyone. That's kind of a misquoting of a verse in the Bible. So you must be able to handle this. And number one. God doesn't see you as disabled. Terrible. Because God does see her as disabled. Because God sees her. And she's disabled. Ergo, God sees her as disabled. Right? Okay. Well, anyways, that was the top ten list. Nobody laughed, which is kind of my point. Like, those were terrible.

[25:22] They were, like, barely funny. They're only funny because somebody stupid said them. All right. So, I want to just... Oh, this is the last sentence of my whole prayer. We're done. I feel like we've been enriched by this book. I think it will change how we do church. And for that, I want to thank the author, Amy Kenney. Maybe she'll listen to this someday. And I want to thank God that he raised up a powerful prophet like her. Let's pray.

[25:51] Father, thank you again for your word. And also for this prophetic word that you have put into our hearts and lives. And I pray that we will act in the way your Spirit blows and directs us to do. And we ask it in Jesus' name.