Sermon for
Lent 4/Laetare (March 22, 2020)
“In Time of
Pestilence” (2 Samuel 24:15-25)
Today was supposed to be “Laetare”
Sunday. “Laetare” means “rejoice” and
comes from the first words of the Introit assigned for the Fourth Sunday in
Lent: “Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all you who love her.” Some congregations break out their
rose-colored paraments and vestments, if they have them, to signify that there
is joy even in the midst of Lent … because we know the end of the story. Jesus rose from the dead! But for our world at present, there’s not a
lot of rejoicing going on, that’s for sure.
And the Introit also has these words: “I was glad when they said to me,
‘Let us go to the house of the Lord!’”
That would normally be true for us.
Instead, we are sad that we cannot be together here. We are sad because a spreading disease has
wreaked havoc across the globe and has reached our shores. It’s keeping us in our homes. It’s keeping us apart from each other as a
congregation, although thankfully we have this method of worshipping together
until we are instructed that it’s acceptable to gather together again in larger
groups.
So we are not using the propers for
the Fourth Sunday in Lent, but we are using the propers given us for “In Time
of Pestilence.” Pestilence. That word alone might cause you to shudder. A pestilence is a fatal epidemic
disease. To be honest, this current one
seems to fit the bill, mainly for older folks, but for a growing number of younger
ones, too.
Today’s reading from 2 Samuel 24
describes a pestilence that fell on the people of Israel. The very first verse states, “So the Lord
sent a pestilence on Israel.” We don’t
know exactly what it was, but we know it was deadly.
What prompted this “pestilence” on Israel? We learn earlier in the chapter that David
had ordered a census of his kingdom. It
was probably for the purpose of army recruitment, since verse 9 of chapter 24 indicates
that the count was made of “valiant men who drew the sword.” David later regretted his decision. He even confesses that he had sinned. In verse 10, he says, “I have sinned greatly
in what I have done. But now, O Lord,
please take away the iniquity of your servant, for I have done very foolishly”
(24:10).
We have censuses today. What’s wrong with having a census? We have one every ten years in our
nation. 2020 is a census year. You’ve probably already gotten something in
the mail about it. There’s nothing
inherently sinful about counting your citizens.
The Scriptures don’t tell us why David’s census was a sin, but the
implication is that David was motivated by pride and self-reliance. He wanted to see how great his kingdom
was. He wanted to see how many eligible
fighting men he had for his army. He was
not motivated by trust in the Lord but rather was relying on himself and the
strength of his army.
The word of the Lord came through the prophet Gad
to David. David was given three options
as the consequence for his sinful action.
One, three years of famine. Two,
three months of being on the run from his enemies. Or three, three days of pestilence in his
land. David chose the three days of
pestilence. He said, “I am in great
distress. Let us fall into the hand of the Lord, for his mercy is great; but
let me not fall into the hand of men.”
And that’s where our text picks up.
What stopped this pestilence? It was the Lord who did so. He stopped the angel of the Lord at the
threshing floor of a man named Araunah, located up the hill from where the city
of David was. But David also pleaded to
the Lord and took the blame. He asked
that the Lord’s hand would be against him and his family. David was willing to sacrifice himself to
stop this devastation among his people. But
that was not God’s plan. The prophet Gad
instructed David to build an altar on Araunah’s threshing floor and offer
sacrifices there. David did so. The Lord accepted David’s sacrifices and prayers
of intercession on behalf of his kingdom, and the plague was stopped.
What can we learn about this current pestilence
among us? I’m not an infectious disease
specialist, so I can’t tell you how serious this all is, other than to listen to
the experts, keep washing your hands, cover your cough, and maintain social
distance. I’m not an economist, so I
can’t tell you what kind of lasting effects this will have on our nation’s
economy and to the world’s economy. I’m
a pastor, so the only sure thing I can give to you is what God’s Word says.
One thing we can learn, certainly, is about the
fragility of this present life. We see
how fast disease can spread around the world.
We see how fast a tiny, microscopic, virtually invisible enemy can bring
things to a crashing halt. How do you
battle it? Where is it? What do we do? We attempt to hide behind closed doors. We attempt to throw money at it. We attempt to wash it off. And yet still we are anxious. We don’t know where this is all leading us. But isn’t that always the case, virus or no
virus? None of us knows what is going to
happen to us day by day, moment by moment.
The apostle James has written,
“Come now, you who say,
‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there
and trade and make a profit’ – yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring.
What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then
vanishes. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do
this or that.’ As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is
evil” (James 4:13-16).
So perhaps another thing we can learn in all this
is that our confidence has been misdirected.
We cannot place our trust in our money, our savings accounts, or in the
stock market. We can never be certain
that our jobs will always be around for us.
We can never count on the fact that our grocery shelves will always be
full … at least not the shelves of toilet paper and hand sanitizer.
The only sure and certain thing we can count on is
the Lord’s care and concern for us. We
can count on this because of the sacrifice of God’s one and only Son. The threshing floor of Araunah eventually
became the location of where the temple was built by David’s son Solomon. There, the people followed God’s instructions
to offer sacrifices to atone for the sins of the people, sins which bring
death, both physical death and eternal death … eternal separation between God
and his creation. Hundreds of thousands
of bloody sacrifices were made there over the centuries. But the author of Hebrews points out that “it
is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” (Hebrews
10:4). Only the blood of God’s Son can
do so. All those sacrifices in the
temple pointed to the ultimate sacrifice of our Savior Jesus. David wanted to step in and take the
punishment for his sin of pride and self-reliance, to stop the pestilence that
God sent among the people. The Son of
God was willing to step into our flesh and sacrifice himself to stop the
devastation of sin among us and the death which sin brings. Jesus took the punishment that we all
deserve, so that now, by faith in him and in his death on the cross, we have
forgiveness for all our misdirected trust, and we have a life that will never
end because of Jesus who is the resurrection and the life.
This is where we place our trust, not only in
uncertain times, but all the time.
The Lord is our confidence. Proverbs 3:26 says, “Do not fear sudden
danger or the ruin that overtakes the wicked, for the Lord will be your
confidence and will keep your foot from the snare.”
He is strong when we are weak. Psalm 73:26 says, “My flesh and my heart may
fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”
He is our peace when we are anxious. In John 14:27 Jesus says, “Peace I leave with
you; my peace I give to you. Not as the
world gives do I give to you. Let not
your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”
He is our rock when our foundations crumble. Psalm 18:2 says, “The Lord is my rock and my
fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge.”
He is our health and wholeness even when our
bodies are ill and broken. Jesus healed the
broken bodies of many during his earthly ministry. He is still the great healer as he works
through the means he has given us … doctors, medicine, nurses, hospitals, and
all other health care workers. We are
thankful for them. We pray for them. We pray for all those making great sacrifices
on our behalf. And as the Body of Christ
and members of God’s royal priesthood, our response to the free gift of the
grace of God in Christ for us is to intercede for our nation and our world, to
pray for and to serve our neighbors in their time of need.
INI
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