Power With the Knife Down: The Responsibility in the Room

The unused chair at the head is still pulled back. Last month this church printed we will not repay evil on the elder packet after a named hunt this table already finished explaining. One hallway said they should pay. The room received that sentence as if it were the only public news the people who still sit here are allowed to keep.

A man two chairs down signed the last vote that printed the restraint line on the packet. He also signed the first one that left the named work under a they-should-pay file. He has a sentence about honesty. He has not asked who still holds the room.

This is a sermon about the responsibility already in the room. If you preach it as a map of anyone's private resentment or unfinished personnel file, you will lie. If you preach it as David in En Gedi, a real king in a real cave, a cut robe, a checked company, and a God who will judge between them, you give this church a God who does not need a shortcut that looks like providence.

Text

Hear the cave as Holy Scripture tells it, from the World English Bible: "When Saul had returned from following the Philistines, he was told, “Behold, David is in the wilderness of En Gedi.” Then Saul took three thousand chosen men out of all Israel, and went to seek David and his men on the rocks of the wild goats. He came to the sheep pens by the way, where there was a cave; and Saul went in to relieve himself. Now David and his men were staying in the innermost parts of the cave.

David’s men said to him, “Behold, the day of which Yahweh said to you, ‘Behold, I will deliver your enemy into your hand, and you shall do to him as it shall seem good to you.’” Then David arose and cut off the skirt of Saul’s robe secretly. Afterward, David’s heart struck him because he had cut off Saul’s skirt.