OT – 2nd Samuel 9:1-13
NT – Matthew 5 verses 11-16
Sermon: No dead dogs to God
‘I feel like a dog!’
So someone said ‘How long have you felt like that?’
The answer was ‘Since I was a puppy!’.
I know things are bad for many people.
None of us and economists
but we are all familiar now with words like, recession, economic depression, structural unemployment, deficit,
and the role that the Treasury, the Bank of England,
the International Monetary Fund play in our lives,
and although we have pounds in our pockets or purses,
we have been told that the future of the Euro is as important to us
and it is to the Greeks, the Portuguese and the Irish.
We know things are bad,
and that it is nearly 50 years since Harold MacMillan who,
when Prime Minister, said “We have never had it so good”,
but in spite of the bad news that is going around
and many British service men and women have been killed and injured
in Northern Ireland, Iraq and Afghanistan.
for the most part, we have seen half a century of peace and prosperity.
Most of us have colour TV, videos, DVDs, cars, dishwashers, microwave ovens.
fridge-freezers, double glazing, central heating, tumble dryers,
and, of course, the internet.
There is a minimum wage,
and pensions mean retired people can have a decent standard of living.
Most of us have decent homes to live in,
and many people take foreign holidays, some even more than one per year.
Children dress in designer gear and have expensive toys and mobile phones
There are very few “old bangers” on the roads
and many houses have conservatories and extensions.
There is nothing wrong with ‘Things’,
but are people happy?
How many happy smiling faces do you see in the shops and the streets?
Proverbs 15:13 says
"When people are happy, they smile;
but when they are sad, they look depressed".
Why do so many young people brought up in a land free from rationing and war
need to take drugs or drink in order to find happiness?
Why is the abortion rate in this country, the highest in Europe?
Why is our teenage pregnancy rate the highest in the world?
Why is Scotland the heart attack centre of the world?
Why do so many young people aged about 25-30 commit suicide?
Obviously material prosperity does not guarantee happiness.
According to a recent survey of religious belief and practice,
only 7% of the population of the UK will be in a church this morning.
An article in the Daily Telegraph published around Christmas
says according to new research for a Poll commissioned by Reader's Digest
only 64% believe in God,
only 58% believe in an after-life ,
and only 46% of adults questioned knew why Christians celebrated Easter;
.
Many people still like to call themselves "Christian"
especially when going into hospital
or planning for a relative's funeral,
but it seems that the majority of people have turned away
from "organised religion" and regular church-going,
but people need to hear the Good News
as much today as at any time in the past,
because it is relevant for all times,
times of peace and plenty as well as times of war and hardship.
As a school teacher I come across many children who have “low self esteem”.
Many were told by their parents that they were “accidents”,
and they were not joking, and the kids hurt from the rejection
and this is why many become bullies and discipline problems
and end up on drugs or in jail.
I have taken some Tuesday evening services in Bowhouse Prison,
and from talking to some of the men either on remand
or serving sentences,
it is obvious that some have had a raw deal from childhood,
which is why they feel bitter, and do anti-social things.
Unhappiness and low self-esteem can be seen in today's OT reading.
The incidents described there happened over 3000 years ago
but I believe the message the reading contains is relevant for many people today.
It contains a lovely example of how the life and circumstances and prospects
of an unhappy, rejected person,
can be changed, turned upside down, for the better.
Mephibosheth was the son of Jonathan, the grandson of Saul.
David had been friendly with Jonathan, but Saul had hated David,
because of David’s popularity with the people.
The more God blessed David and helped him in his battles against the Philistines
the more Saul despised him.
David had not wanted to fight Saul, because he knew that after Samuel's death,
Saul had become "God's anointed";
but because of the king's madness and jealousy,
he was forced to defend himself against him,
and when Saul died, David became the king of Israel.
Imagine that your grandfather had been a hated dictator,
such as like Saddam Hussain of Iraq, or Robert Mugabe of Rhodesia/Zimbabwe,
and everyone knows that you are his heir.
How would you feel? Probably vulnerable / rejected.
Imagine being a cripple, a physically handicapped person,
living in a day of soldiers and warriors, heroes and macho-men.
How would you feel? Probably embarrassed / 2nd class.
Imagine being a disabled person, living in a time when people thought sickness and weakness punishments sent by God for your or your parents' sin.
How would you feel? Probably spiritually troubled, afraid of death / judgement.
How did Mephibosheth feel? To use his own words: "Like a dead dog!"
Imagine messengers coming to your house, saying:
"The king wants to see you";
the king being the man your grandfather wanted to kill;
the king being a man with the power of life and death.
No Court of Human Rights to appeal to.
No Sunday Post Raw Deal to write to.
No BBC TV Watchdog Programme to email.
How would you feel? Probably terrified / expecting death within the hour.
But David was not just an ordinary king.
He was a holy king, a godly king.
David appreciated how God had turned him
from being an insignificant member of an insignificant tribe,
into one of the most famous people in Israel's history.
God had turned him from a shepherd boy into the ruler of a nation.
So when peace had been established, and David was secure on the throne,
he set about doing what is described in 2nd Samuel 8:15
as “right and just”,
because God had been more than right and just with him.
And one thing that he considered “right and just”
was to help his friend Jonathan’s son, Mephibosheth.
The cripple and outcast, with such a very poor opinion of himself
that he even described himself as “a dead dog”.
In those days, Mephibosheth would have been seen as a potential enemy,
a potential rallying point for other people who opposed David;
someone who David should have killed just to "protect his back".
But to everyone's amazement, David took this cripple, this outcast,
this “dead dog”, into his own house, and sat him down
and fed him at his own table,
not just to keep an eye on him,
but to treat him as if he was his own son and a prince.
The GOOD NEWS is that we are sinners,
maybe not “bad” compared to others,
but we all fall short of Gods moral standards,
but instead of treating us as spiritual outcasts, "dead dogs",
He treats us even better than David treated Mephibosheth,
with love and grace; "Amazing Grace" to use John Newton's words.
The GOOD NEWS is that the Bible is not just a book
about people living in the past,
and relevant only to ancient tribes and ancient situations.
The GOOD NEWS is that God’s love is for people living here in X
and for people living now in 20XX.
The God who saved sinners in the past, still wants to save people today.
The God who blessed people in the past, still wants to bless people today.
The grace that can turn “a dead dog” into “a prince at the king’s table”;
is still available today,
and can turn the wickedest and most miserable sinner in X
into a beautiful Christian.
I hope no one here feels like a "dead dog", like Mephibosheth;
because whatever the world thinks of you, and whatever you think of yourself,
God loves you and sent His only begotten Son to die for you
so that you can spend eternity with Him,
and know His peace and presence NOW.
I hope everyone here appreciates what God did for us on the first Good Friday
through the atoning death of His only-begotten Son Jesus Christ,
and I hope we all appreciate for what He does for us every day
through the work of the Holy Spirit.
God can help you to carry your burden,
no matter how heavy it is to bear
and whether the burden is physical, mental, emotional,
social, financial or spiritual.
So the first message is that if anyone came here today
feeling like a dead dog,
God wants you to leave as a prince or princess.
The second message is that there are many problems around,
and maybe some gathered here have more than their fair share of them;
so many people who feel their sin, their behaviour, their actions
have been so bad that God could never forgive them;
life is all bad; you feel like ‘a dead dog’
listen -
David received God's love and passed it on to Mephibosheth,
turning a dead dog into a prince,
turning a reject into a guest at his table.
The Gospel message is that Jesus is God's channel for His grace to pass to us,
and He wants us to pass God's grace on
to anyone we know is feeling like "a dead dog" today.
God wants us to be "Davids".
In closing, I pray that no one will leave this place
feeling like Mephibosheth did at the start of today's Bible reading,
a "dead dog", a reject,
but that we'll all leave with the assurance
that through the precious blood of Jesus,
and the power of the resurrection,
in God's sight we are princes and princesses and guests at His table,
and that as far as possible,
with the love, grace and power of the Holy Spirit
working inside us,
we will bring the grace and peace of God into someone else's life.
In Jesus' name.
Amen
