Humble Pie

8-5-18 (Proper 13/Ordinary 18 B Semi-Continuous)

2 Samuel 11:26-12:13a; Ephesians 4:1-16

Humble Pie

Living in Missouri these five years, we’ve picked up a few sayings and turns of phrase that aren’t as commonly used on the East Coast.  “Y’all” has slowly but surely come to replace our more familiar Pittsburgh “Yinz.”  “Supper” is more often what we have in the evening now instead of “dinner,” though the rules on those terms are still a bit elusive.  We’ve finally started putting our groceries in “sacks” instead of bags, for the most part, and while we haven’t gotten around to calling it such for ourselves, we’ve finally gotten fully used to other people calling a toilet “the stool.”

The passage today from 2nd Samuel, however, brings to mind another phrase entirely - and though it’s used somewhat on the East Coast and people are familiar with it, it has a much more pronounced place in the usages of the Midwest - you see, David got himself served a good old slice of ‘Umble Pie.  You can almost hear it, that deflated sense of ego, that crestfallen tone of voice.  As Nathan stands before the king, accusing him for what he well knows he is guilty of doing, David is left with no other response, no other comeback or defense, than to say “I have sinned against the Lord.”

I can’t imagine being in Nathan’s shoes in that moment - to be given the task from God of confronting your King, of catching him in his indiscretions and calling him to accountability… the same King that you’ve just seen send a man to his death in order to cover over his infidelity.  The King who could easily have you executed or disposed of in some other convenient way just for speaking up to him and telling him he’d done something wrong…  Did Nathan hesitate before the throne room door, ask God “Are you sure this is what I’m supposed to say?”  Did he rehearse the story before he went in, trying to find the method that would cause the least damage?  Did he pray for God to give the message to some other prophet, perhaps?  The text doesn’t tell us any of this - only that the Lord sent Nathan to David.  And Nathan went.  Nathan probably knew the danger that he was putting himself in, knew that this might be the last message that he would give, but he also knew that it was his role as prophet and his message, given to him by God.  It was his responsibility to fulfill his calling and to perform his duties, dangerous and unpleasant as they may have been.  Nathan is the example for us of what Paul means when he writes about “speaking the truth in love” in his letter to the Ephesians.

And perhaps it’s Nathan’s own bravery, his faithfulness to his prophetic role and willingness to speak truth to power, that causes David to immediately recognize how badly he’s messed up.  Nathan sets up the whole conversation quite tactfully - by approaching David with the hypothetical situation of the rich man, the poor man, and their respective herds, he keeps David from immediately being put on the defensive, and then when David pronounces judgment on the rich man, Nathan is able to hold David to those very words to pronounce God’s displeasure at what David has himself done.  David isn’t just handed a slice of ‘Umble Pie, he’s handed a fork to go right along with it, and he has no choice but to grimace, swallow his pride, and start chewing.

I think it’s important to at least take a second and to appreciate the fact that David immediately confesses his sins and humbles himself before God once Nathan points out his hypocrisy.  It’s a kind of attitude and integrity that we often find ourselves lacking in our own modern day society - it’s so easy to throw other people under the bus, to pass the buck and let the blame for our own shortcomings be shifted over to other people; it’s much, much harder to have the integrity and the character to admit your faults, to recognize when you’ve fallen short, to apologize and then seek to set things right from that point on.  And, even as we’ve seen in just the last few weeks, our culture doesn’t incentivize us to have that kind of integrity - we’ve seen people having their careers ended over foolish things they had said and apologized for years and years ago, even while watching others make outlandish statements in the here and now and refuse to back down, apologize, or otherwise recognize that they’ve overstepped their boundaries, and then not face any consequences for their statements.

These injustices and disparities can be daunting - they can easily make us want to just throw our hands up in helplessness and not know what else to do.  It’s a challenge to follow Paul’s encouragement to “bear with one another in love” when sometimes all we want to do is snipe at each other and talk about one another behind their backs.  And yet Paul tells us that it is only through that integrity, that willingness to share together in slices of ‘Umble Pie and to move forward with one another, that we are able to grow, to “build ourselves up in love.”  It is only through being courageous enough to speak that truth in love, to stand for that spirit of love and mutual forbearance, that we can fully live out the values of the Kingdom.

And so I have to wonder today - where are the places where we might be being called to be like Nathan, to take Paul’s encouragement to “speak the truth in love?”  Where are the places where, if the story were to be told to us, we’d hear those words spoken to us - “you are the man” and realize that we need to take another bite of the pie?  What are the systems of power to which we need to be speaking the truth, even as we recognize the ways in which we have benefitted from those systems and seek to repent and make amends?  As we come to this table together, may our prayer be that we find those places, that we listen to those stories, that we share together in humility, build one another up in love, and continue to strive together, both as individuals and as members of the body of Christ, to be that people of integrity.  To God be the Glory.  Amen.