Scripture: 1 Kings 1: 1-37

Sermon: Facing Death, Living Life

Preached: Woodlawn CRC August 27, am

Rev. Mike Abma

1 Kings 1: 1-37

King David was old and advanced in years; and although they covered him with clothes, he could not get warm. ²So his servants said to him, ‘Let a young virgin be sought for my lord the king, and let her wait on the king, and be his attendant; let her lie in your bosom, so that my lord the king may be warm.’ ³So they searched for a beautiful girl throughout all the territory of Israel, and found Abishag the Shunammite, and brought her to the king. ⁴The girl was very beautiful. She became the king’s attendant and served him, but the king did not know her sexually.

5 Now Adonijah son of Haggith exalted himself, saying, ‘I will be king’; he prepared for himself chariots and horsemen, and fifty men to run before him. ⁶His father had never at any time displeased him by asking, ‘Why have you done that?’ He was also a very handsome man, and he was born next after Absalom. ⁷He conferred with Joab son of Zeruiah and with the priest Abiathar, and they supported Adonijah. ⁸But the priest Zadok, and Benaiah son of Jehoiada, and the prophet Nathan, and Shimei, and Rei, and David’s own warriors did not side with Adonijah.

9 Adonijah sacrificed sheep, oxen, and fatted cattle by the stone Zoheleth, which is beside En-rogel, and he invited all his brothers, the king’s sons, and all the royal officials of Judah, ¹⁰but he did not invite the prophet Nathan or Benaiah or the warriors or his brother Solomon.

11 Then Nathan said to Bathsheba, Solomon’s mother, ‘Have you not heard that Adonijah son of Haggith has become king and our lord David does not know it? ¹²Now therefore come, let me give you advice, so that you may save your own life and the life of your son Solomon. ¹³Go in at once to King David, and say to him, “Did you not, my lord the king, swear to your servant, saying: Your son Solomon shall succeed me as king, and he shall sit on my throne? Why then is Adonijah king?” ¹⁴Then while you are still there speaking with the king, I will come in after you and confirm your words.’

15 So Bathsheba went to the king in his room. The king was very old; Abishag the Shunammite was attending the king. ¹⁶Bathsheba bowed and did obeisance to the king, and the king said, ‘What do you wish?’ ¹⁷She said to him, ‘My lord, you swore to your servant by the Lord your God, saying: Your son Solomon shall succeed me as king, and he shall sit on my throne. ¹⁸But now suddenly Adonijah has become king, though you, my lord the king, do not know it. ¹⁹He has sacrificed oxen, fatted cattle, and sheep in abundance, and has invited all the children of the king, the priest Abiathar, and Joab the commander of the army; but your servant Solomon he has not invited. ²⁰But you, my lord the king—the eyes of all Israel are on you to tell them who shall sit on the throne of my lord the king after him. ²¹Otherwise it will come to pass, when my lord the king sleeps with his ancestors, that my son Solomon and I will be counted offenders.’

22 While she was still speaking with the king, the prophet Nathan came in. ²³The king was told, ‘Here is the prophet Nathan.’ When he came in before the king, he did obeisance to the king, with his face to the ground.²⁴Nathan said, ‘My lord the king, have you said, “Adonijah shall succeed me as king, and he shall sit on my throne”? ²⁵For today he has gone down and has sacrificed oxen, fatted cattle, and sheep in abundance, and has invited all the king’s children, Joab the commander of the army, and the priest Abiathar, who are now eating and drinking before him, and saying, “Long live King Adonijah!” ²⁶But he did not invite me, your servant, and the priest Zadok, and Benaiah son of Jehoiada, and your servant Solomon. ²⁷Has this thing been brought about by my lord the king and you have not let your servants know who should sit on the throne of my lord the king after him?’

28 King David answered, ‘Summon Bathsheba to me.’

So she came into the king’s presence, and stood before the king. ²⁹The king swore, saying, ‘As the Lord lives, who has saved my life from every adversity, ³⁰as I swore to you by the Lord, the God of Israel, “Your son Solomon shall succeed me as king, and he shall sit on my throne in my place”, so will I do this day.’ ³¹Then Bathsheba bowed with her face to the ground, and did obeisance to the king, and said, ‘May my lord King David live for ever!’

32 King David said, ‘Summon to me the priest Zadok, the prophet Nathan, and Benaiah son of Jehoiada.’ When they came before the king,³³the king said to them, ‘Take with you the servants of your lord, and have my son Solomon ride on my own mule, and bring him down to Gihon. ³⁴There let the priest Zadok and the prophet Nathan anoint him king over Israel; then blow the trumpet, and say, “Long live King Solomon!” ³⁵You shall go up following him. Let him enter and sit on my throne; he shall be king in my place; for I have appointed him to be ruler over Israel and over Judah.’ ³⁶Benaiah son of Jehoiada answered the king, ‘Amen! May the Lord, the God of my lord the king, so ordain. ³⁷As the Lord has been with my lord the king, so may he be with Solomon, and make his throne greater than the throne of my lord King David.’

This is the Word of the Lord

Thanks be to God

INTRODUCTION — GROWING OLDER

Talk to people in their 40’s and 50’s and you will probably find many of them struggling on two fronts:

* on the one hand, they are working hard to get their children through high

school or college.

* on the other hand, they are often also trying to help aging parents cope

with life:

trying to find a lawn care service in the summer,

a snow removal service in the winter,;

and if the health of one of the parents is quickly deteriorating,

trying to find a good nursing care facility.

People have labeled this the “Sandwich Generation.” And often caring for aging parents becomes a bigger concern than supporting maturing children.

Of course, this reality isn’t only tough on the Sandwich Generation. It is also difficult for the aging parents. It seems as if every person over 65 lives with the weight of the cliché I don’t want to be a burden to my children.

Humor is one way we all try diffuse some of the difficulties.

Bumper stickers abound

I’M SPENDING my children’s inheritance.

AVENGE YOURSELF live long enough to be a problem to your children

OVER 50: been there, done that, can’t remember.

Of course, the humor hides within it is some truth. People are living longer. Much of what people have saved over a lifetime is quickly eaten away in their retirement.

We often all live with the illusion that we will all be happy and healthy and mentally competent until the day we suddenly drop dead.

But that is the exception, not the rule. The vast majority of people slowly slip towards death one small step at a time.

Throughout history, the church has always tried to defend the elderly against the resentment of the young.

Where cultures naturally tend to idolize fitness and youth and beauty,

the church has always insisted that old age is a very valuable.

It is time graciously given to prepare for death.

The medieval poet Dante, describes this stage of life as the time we must quietly and peacefully slip the boat of our lives into the safety of a harbor after its long journey.

But this is easier said than done.

How do we slip into that final harbor without feeling like a burden?

How do we care for those near the end of their long journey without making them feel like a burden?

These are questions every age and every culture has faced.

AN AGING KING DAVID

King David himself faced these challenges.

We meet him here at the beginning of 1 Kings as an old man.

The vigor and vitality of the ruddy shepherd king is gone.

It is now a challenge for him simply to keep warm.

David fades from view with a wimper rather than a bang.

For such a great king it is remarkable that the Bible records no long laments, no long eulogies, no national days of mourning over his death. In fact, even before he actually passes away, David is treated in a number of less than dignified ways. Eugene Peterson describes these “less-than-dignified” ways as the following:

* His servants treat him as something of a problem to be solved;

* His son, Adonijah treats David’s growing frailty as an opportunity to be grasped;

* And even his wife Bathsheba seems to view David’s imminent death as primarily a call to set certain things right for her son.^[1]

1. Face Death as merely a Problem to be Solved

First there are the servants trying to keep David warm. Blankets do not work. They need a miracle cure. So a beautiful young woman is found. What better way to get the old king’s heart pumping, his blood circulating, his vigor returning?

What better way to get the king back to the way he was – lusty and full of life?

But the cure doesn’t work quite as planned.

Abishag does keep the king warm.

But her presence doesn’t turn the clock backwards.

The king is old and he is dying — something the court staff can neither remedy nor stop. That he is dying is something they must accept.

Marie de Henneville’s book, Intimate Death, has recently been translated from French into English. In its own way, her book is very moving. It is simply one story after another about people living on the brink of death. She writes that one of the most important but painful hurdles to overcome is simply accepting that someone you love is dying. She tells about a mother lying in a hospital bed talking with her daughter.

The mother says calmly but firmly, “I am dying.”

“No,” says the daughter, “You shouldn’t talk like that. Don’t say that.”

“But dear, I am dying” replies the mother.

“No you are not.” shouts the daughter, “You should be ashamed of yourself for saying that. I have a meeting with the doctor tomorrow and we’ll figure out what to do.”

For so many, the reality of death must be avoided, denied.

There must be a cure!

But when we only see death as a problem to be solved, disease as an affliction to be cured, we often forget to see the person as someone who needs to be cared for and loved, and accepted.

2. Face Death as an Opportunity to be Grasped

Not everyone sees the approach of death as a problem to be solved. Some see it as an opportunity to be grasped. Adonijah, the oldest living son of David, is just such on opportunist. He is tired of waiting for his dad to die. He wants to take over now.

And so he simply acts as if his father is already dead.

On his own he summons Joab the general and Abiathar the priest.

On his own he organizes a coronation party.

He refuses to be limited by his father’s tenuous hold on life.

His father is old and feeble;

He is strong and vibrant.

It is time to put the running of things into younger,more capable hands.

It is a new age. Time to let the new generation run things.

For some, like Adonijah, facing death is seen merely as a setting aside of the old, or an ignoring the old, in order to make way for the new.

3. Face Death in terms of Responsibilities to Fulfill

There is a third response to the aging David, and that is Bathsheba’s.

Bathsheba’s entrance into the story has some redeeming qualities. She and Nathan do the responsible thing. They make sure that the opportunistic Adonijah doesn’t get his way. They make sure Solomon succeeds as king. They jump into action in order to rouse the aging king into action. And David is roused enough to do a kingly thing. He proclaims Solomon as king.

Politically this seems all well and good.

The succession is clear. The nation stays united.

Solomon has his father’s blessing.

And yet …., on a more human level, there is something cold and even calculating about how Bathsheba and Nathan go about their business. Bathsheba’s attention seems more focussed on her son than her husband;

more focussed on Solomon’s ascent to the throne than on David’s descent to death.

4. Face Death as an Act of Love

So here we have a dying David:

surrounded by servants who see him as a problem to be solved,

by a son who sees his approaching death as an opportunity to be

grasped

and by a wife whose attention seems more focussed on her son than

on him

Oddly enough, the only person who exudes a sense of warmth and even seems to give some dignity to David’s declining years is Abishag.

Now I know you may snicker at this. Abishag has been the butt of many jokes. Few people can say her name without a wink and a nod and a comment like “wouldn’t the world be a happier place with a few more Abishag’s.”

But those kinds of comments do not really give Abishag her due.

We are told clearly that she does not have a sexual relationship with

the king.

What she has with the king is a caring relationship.

She is the one described as being constantly at David’s side caring for

him and attending to his needs.

When Bathsheba waltzes in to demand from the aging king that he

keep his promise to Solomon, who is at David’s side – Abishag.

There she sits, in the shadow of death, silently caring for the king.

No ambitions to fulfill.

No schemes to set in motion.

She is simply there at his side until his dying day.

CICELY SAUNDERS

In a way, the role of Abishag reminds me of the work of Cicely Saunders, the founder of the modern hospice movement. Cicely Saunders worked as a nurse in England in the 50’s but became appalled by how the medical establishment seemed to give up on patients if there was no clear cure. She went to medical school. Became a doctor. Founded the first hospice facility, St. Christophers, in 1967 London England. There, patients who were dying were attended to, cared for, and shown love to the very end.

The hospice movement has spread all over the world including Grand Rapids.

When I think of hospice care,

I think of creating an atmosphere that gives people permission to be a burden.

I think of what it means to be the church of Christ,:

a place where we aren’t only called to bear each others burdens,

but a place where we also have permission to be each others burdens.

There is a blessing involved in bearing burdens and in being a burden,

even when that means sitting with someone who is dying.

FACING DEATH

When I think back to the many bedsides I have sat beside, I can only think of it in terms of the blessings I have received:

* I think of a 17 year old boy who had an inoperable brain tumor. I visited him every other week for 18 months. With each visit he grew weaker and weaker. His questions of “Why is this happening to me? were unanswerable. But with only weeks left in his life, he stood in front of the church to confess the only answer he knew, “My only comfort in life and in death is that I belong to my faithful savior, Jesus Christ.”

* I think of the old dutch immigrant who had lived a hard life. Now the huge tumor in his abdomen is robbing him of even the simple pleasures of life — he can hardly eat a thing and he rarely gets more than an hour of sleep at a time. And yet, somehow, he is able to begin every morning with a prayer of thanks to God for the gift of that new day.

Facing death is never easy. It is never pretty.

Death has an ashen look, a putrid smell, a cold and waxy feel.

To sit in death’s shadow is to sit in a fearful and frightful place.

But it is often only in the shadow of death that the piercing light of the resurrection becomes real;

It is often only in watching someone we love descend painfully and slowly into death that our hearts truly ache and yearn for the vitality, the newness, the beauty and the radiance of the new creation;

It is often only when we sit in the presence of death, a presence that threatens to drain all joy and all light, that we realize we have within us another power, a stronger power,

the power of life, the power of love.

PRACTICE RESURRECTION

Wendell Berry has in one of his stirring poems the phrase “Practice Resurrection.”

By that he means that resurrection isn’t something we experience only after death.

Resurrection needs to be part of this life now.

In fact, resurrection needs to be how we live life.

It means living in such a way that we know deep down that life,

the life made available to us through Jesus Christ,

is always stronger than death.

Death will always be strong.

Death will always continue to be a dark and powerful mystery.

Death will always have the power to loom in like a thick fog

wrapping someone in its cold embrace;

But we are people of the resurrection.

So that no matter how thick the fog,

Our eyes are fixed on the risen Son,

Whose face burns away the fog of death;

Whose blood washes away the sting of death;

Whose name cancels the power of the grave.

In his name, through his blood, and by his resurrection,

We are able not only to face death,

but to live life,

both now and forevermore. Amen

Prayer:

Gracious God and Father,

Help us know and believe

Even when we are in the shadow of death,

That you are nearer than our hands, our feet;

Closer than our breathing.

When we are weary and burdened down with responsibilities,

Remind us that we belong to you,

That your yoke is easy, and your burden is light.

Holy Comforter, you are the resurrected life within us.

May we shine, always and in all circumstances

With this radiant truth: Jesus lives and so do we.

Amen.

1. See, Eugene Peterson, Leap Over a Wall, chapter 20. ↑