A Look Back: The Early Jewish Monarchy

The sermon series on the early Jewish monarchy has come to an end -- perhaps none too soon for some of you. (Along those lines, you should know that Roger C. has again this week poked fun at the sermon series in his blog, Dispatches from No. 3 Equity Court.) So this seems like an appropriate time to look back at the series.

But I'll be honest -- not much in the way of overarching reflection is coming to me. For the first time in months, I'm not preparing a sermon about ancient Israel. This doesn't excite me or sadden me; it simply is.

Occasionally I have practical goals for sermons. Sometimes I focus on stewardship or leadership, for example. But usually I simply try to approach the Bible honestly and openly. I feel that there are things to be said, lessons to be taught, and applications to be made from almost every verse of scripture. So I open the Bible, pick a passage, and listen for God's word. Then I reflect and pray. And when Sunday morning comes around, I get up and talk. And I trust that we'll all learn a bit about God and ourselves in the sermon.

I'm not saying that I don't put effort into preaching; I am admitting that I'm a lot more flexible than most people would imagine, even though I try to preach in "sermon series." I do pick passages of scripture that I find to be related in certain ways for each series. But I know that there is a depth to each passage beyond those initial relationships to be explored, so I rarely have any preconfigured framework for specific sermons in a sermon series.

And there was no overarching framework for this series on the Jewish monarchy. I thought it would be 1) interesting, 2) thought-provoking, 3) theologically significant, and 4) contextually beneficial to study Saul and David (and Solomon, though you can see that I cut the series short before we really got to Solomon). Interesting because Biblical history (if you get beyond the "begats") is genuinely interesting; thought-provoking because the issues raised in these stories have important things to teach us about our own faith (individually and collectively) and the relationship of our faith to both the church and the wider culture; theologically significant because I think that too often Protestant preachers only preach out of the New Testament (some almost exclusively preach out of the four gospels), and I think that is both unwise and unsound; and contextually beneficial because these lessons from Saul and David play directly into the lessons about, and the teaching of, Jesus Christ. We will read the gospels better for our time spent reading 1 and 2 Samuel and 1 Kings. We will read the whole of the Bible better for our time spent reading 1 and 2 Samuel and 1 Kings.

Looking back, I count 16 sermons in this series. This is by far the longest series I've ever preached. Few pastors would attempt such a thing, both because of their own short attention span and because they fear that no congregation would let them. So I was in uncharted territory most of the summer -- especially given that I was creating the series month to month, as we went along.

For me, the series was about several things. I think it was about hopes and dreams -- the entire point of the monarchy is to make Israel and strong nation that can stand tall among the nations of the earth -- and about how those hopes and dreams were sometimes achieved, but sometimes out of reach. It was about fathers and sons, and the often complicated relationships between them. It was about the beginning of the many religious and political claims upon the city of Jerusalem, which greatly influences global politics today.

I still can't get over the almost blatant double standard for Saul and David. Looking back, I think I might have glossed over Saul's almost total descent into despair toward the ends of his reign (though that certainly came up in "All the King's Children" regarding his treatment of David). But otherwise, I think I portrayed both Saul and David fairly. And looking at it, it is clear that Saul is judged by a much harsher standard than David.

Looking back, I enjoyed preaching several of the sermons, though occasionally they gave me some restless Saturday nights. I was especially moved by "The Domestication of Transcendence: David Dreams of the Temple," the first sermon on the temple by the recognition that God allowed David's dream to become His own dream, on David's behalf. That is an amazing lesson and a glimpse into God's all-encompassing love for us (including for our hopes and dreams). And I enjoyed the David and Goliath sermon, as I know many of you did.

Perhaps you have other favorites or things that you'll take from this sermon series. If so, I hope you'll share them with each other and with me as time goes on. And feel free to share them here, in the comments section. And we can keep learning together.