Power With the Knife Down: What This Changes Between Us

The foyer still has two versions of the same peace. Last month this church said we will not repay evil after a named wound went public between two households. One person received that sentence as cover. The chairs around them received a quieter version by Tuesday.

A neighbor two seats over is deciding whether this church can sit together without keeping an unofficial blade between them, or whether one they-should-pay sentence writes the public life the rest of you have to live under.

This is a sermon about what 1 Samuel 24 changes between you. If you preach it as a map of anyone's private resentment or hallway temperament, you will lie. If you preach it as David in the wilderness of 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. You also take away the cheap community move that treats a borrowed payback as the peace the rest of the room already has to keep.

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.