By the early 1500's the Roman Catholic Church was so entangled in the politics of Europe that it became caught up in the corruption and regional wars that were defining the continent. In an effort to retain it's grip on power, the Catholic Church found itself simultaneously backing several mercenary armies, and trying to build St. Peter's0 in Rome. As a result the church had become deeply in debt. The papacy and the church hierarchy became so deeply in debt that they initiated a number of policies to raise money in the eyes of the faithful. But, so many of the new policies they created didn't appear faithful to many of the believers and many of the priests. The church, in their eyes, appeared to lose it's spiritual legitimacy. After years like that this attempt to raise money using underhanded ways was the straw that broke the camel's back. And, initiated what we think of as the Protestant Reformation. Which really was sparked in a more visible way by Martin Luther over in Germany; but quickly throughout the 1500's people like Luther, and Zwingli, and Calvin, and Knox led large groups of people away from the Catholic Church and they began forming new denominations. Interestingly, the Protestant Reformation also sparked a Reformation within the Catholic Church. Producing a lot of positive changes within Roman Catholicism, but that's a story for another day. For the most part, the Protestant Reformation was marked by 5 statements that stood in opposition, in particular to the Papacy and the clergy, and Catholic doctrine. Because this war of words was waged in Latin they became known as the 5 Solas. There were 5 of them and sola means individual statement, so 5 Solas kind of sounds like an oxymoron, but that's what they were called - 5 Solas.

1) Sola Scriptura, or "God's Word alone," maintains that the
Bible is the highest source of authority in a Christian’s life, the
final court of appeal (though not the only authority: the Bible
itself mentions governmental and other authorities).

2) Sola fide, or “faith alone,” affirms that justification—being
made right with God—comes only through faith in Jesus.

3) Sola gratia, or “grace alone,” says sinners are saved as an
unearned gift of God’s grace, “not as a result of works, so that
no one may boast” (Eph 2:8–9).

4) Sola Christo (“solus Christus”), or “Christ alone,” emphasizes
the exclusivity of Jesus’ role in salvation: “No one comes to
the Father except through me” (John 14:6)

5) Sola Deo Gloria, or by the "glory of God alone." All glory is due to God alone. The Westminster Shorter Catechism states, “Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.” All of life is to be lived for the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31).

As I said before after all these many weeks of going through 1st and 2nd Samuel, we're kind of at the end segment. Even though the books are called 1st and 2nd Samuel, they're really the story of David as much of the story of anything. When last we talked last week Absalom had killed his brother Amnon, because Amnon had forced himself on his half sister, Absalom's full sister, Tamar. After three years of waiting and planning Absalom killed Amnon and then, before David could do anything about it, Absalom fled up to the northeast to a place called Geshur. Which was outside of the kingdom of Israel. And, there he lived in exile for four years. Now today, Absalom is back in Jerusalem and he aspires to usurp his father's position and become king himself.

Absalom was a tall and handsome man to start with, and he began to dress in a more formal manner to give the impression of himself as a person of great substance. As mentioned last week, Absalom was especially vain about his hair. He would only cut his hair once a year. When he would cut it they would say, 'Wow look at how much hair - it fills a bushel basket.' He was very vain about how long and full his hair grew and he saw it as a symbol of his virility and attractiveness. Absalom worked very hard at cultivating just the right appearance; just the right image. Everyone knew he had been living in exile up in Geshur and everyone was curious why. What had happened to cause that to happen. When they inquired Absalom had circulated the story that he had defended the honor of his little sister who had been grievously assaulted. And, with a few well placed comments here and there, Absalom caused people to see him as a champion of those who had been unjustly wronged and oppressed. Soon, he acquired a snazzy new chariot, and he employed 50 young men to run ahead of his chariot wherever he went. So, wherever he went he had this big entourage, and you couldn't help but notice him coming through. Soon he started going out to the city gates everyday, sitting there with the village elders, and he started intercepting people who were on their way to David...

About forty-five years ago I broke my leg rather badly. I had a really good doctor and he repaired it as best as it could be done, but he warned me, he said my leg would probably never function 100% as well as it used to. Since then, my leg has healed remarkably well, better than I had a right to expect. And, it has never got in the way of my ability to do the things I want to do, but that doesn't mean on a cold winter's morning, when I wake up, that I don't know exactly where I broke my leg. I can still do the good things I want to do with my leg, but I know it's there and it reminds me every day. Some things can be healed, or repaired, or forgiven, but it doesn't mean they never happened. And, it doesn't mean that some residual damage might not linger in our lives. When last we talked, David, the King had royally messed up. Get it? He was the King and he ROYALLY messed up? Okay, forget it. He had an affair with a woman named Bathsheba. The wife of a man named Uriah. One of David's most faithful men. And, to make matters worse, to cover his tracks, he had orchestrated events so that Uriah was killed. Nathan, God's prophet, confronted David. And, eventually David confessed, and eventually he repented, and he has been assured of God's forgiveness. But, our time together last week ended with a dire prophesy. Even as Nathan assured David of God's forgiveness, because of David's actions, Nathan also prophesied that lasting turmoil and pain was in the future for David, for his family, and for the entire kingdom because of his past failures. Today, we begin to see that damage emerge in the story. Immediately after Uriah's death and David's run-in with Nathan, David went to the woman Bathsheba and comforted her over the death of her husband. Which, I have a real problem trying to understand that, because he caused the death of her husband. How comforting her for that looks I have no idea. But, he comforted her and then took the pregnant Bathsheba, to be his wife. When she...

In last week's story we met a new character, his name was Nathan. The Bible describes Nathan as a prophet in Jerusalem. It's hard to describe exactly what that means in our culture. Israel had been a theocracy up until Saul became the first King of Israel. A theocracy is when a religious leader is also the leader of the nation. Modern theocracy's would be Saudi Arabia, where absolute monarch King Salman reigns in power. Another theocracy would be Iran, which is led by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. And, another theocracy would be The Vatican, which is a nation to itself. The Vatican is under the authority of Pope Francis. All three of those men act very differently, but each is a powerful leader of a theocracy. In a theocracy a religious leader is the paramount leader of the nation and has ultimate authority to impose and enforce laws. And, the laws are usually a mix between civil laws and religious laws. The ruler of a theocracy is to ensure than the nation follows the religion they advocate as much as the civil laws. I keep saying 'he' because I can't imagine, I can't think of, a modern theocracy (for that matter a historic theocracy) that was ever led by a woman.

Israel had been a theocracy, with no other political leadership, until Saul, and then after Saul, David, became King. When that happened they went from being a theocracy to being a monarchy. Religious leaders like Nathan, in a monarchy, still had a tremendous amount of influence, but they had no real authority. Nathan had no authority civilly according to the government in the land of Israel.

Now the King, in this case David, could cut him off at the knees if he felt it necessary. So Nathan's job is to influence the king to live, and act, and rule faithfully. But he has no power...no authority to do that. So, when Nathan wants to point out a major ethical moral lapse in David's life - he has to move very carefully. Which brings us to today's scripture reading...

David is King, and much to his credit, David realizes how incredibly blessed he has been. You know that's one of the problems of our world, we have all of these blessings, and so often we don't even recognize them for what they are. But, David recognized that he has been blessed. He has survived a civil war, he has consolidated the kingdom of Judah and Israel together into one kingdom in a new capital. He has built a huge house for himself to live comfortably, and he has brought the ark of God, the religious heart of the people of Israel, into a safe resting place within his city. After all of this he has the good sense to go to Nathan, the prophet of God in Israel and Jerusalem, and he asks Nathan how he might return his thanks to God for all the wonderful blessings he and the people of Israel have experienced. In particular he wants to know if he can build a house to house the ark of God safely in Jerusalem. Nathan saw no problem whatsoever with that, and tells David to go ahead and do what you want to do. That very night God appears to Nathan and he tells him something very different. That night God comes to Nathan and gave him a different set of orders for David. The next morning Nathan approaches David and shares that message. God said he didn't want to live in a house. The whole idea of keeping the ark in a tent, was that the people of Israel, when they moved out of captivity down in Egypt; as they had gone around the area for 40 years of wandering; as they now occupied the promised land and moved into Israel and warred against the various people who were living there; there's an image that God travels with the people. And this is very different that the image of gods from throughout the larger Mesopotamia area. Most of the concepts of foreign gods were that gods were limited to a particular geographical place...

Political maneuvering, and attempting to position oneself as the one who God endorses is as old as time. I remember way back when President Bill Clinton was the Democratic president of our nation. And, President Clinton had a reputation that wasn’t always a good reputation when it came to women. All the Republicans were up in arms rhetorically asking what good and faithful person would tolerate such an alley cat as president? At the time, in his defense, they would often compare President Clinton to King David. A charismatic leader who was also prone to what we might call “weaknesses of the flesh.” Now, we fast forward to our day and age. We have a religiously ultra conservative group advocating, what some would call, a serial womanizer as their chosen candidate for president saying that he is God’s great choice for America. With total amnesia regarding their protest about a previous president that had the similar problems. I’m not advocating for Democrat or Republican candidates, as much as lifting up our own incredible capacity for hypocrisy and self-deception. Regardless of one’s political leanings. Throughout time the faith and it’s influence on political rhetoric seems to be much more about expediency, than it is about a genuine desire to know and practice the values of God. David of the Old Testament…