Being the Palace Pastor can be hazardous to your health . . . unless!
Unless you always tell the Palace leadership what it wants to hear.
Unless you use your position to prop up Palace propaganda.
Unless you twist your theology to justify Palace polices.
But the last thing you don't want to do is speak truth to the Palace leadership. That would get you kicked out of the Palace with orders never to return, and you worked so hard all your life to get into that Palace among the powers that be, so be careful what you say.
Right?
Actually there’s an old Bible story (2 Samuel) of a Palace Pastor (actually prophet) whom I think is one of the bravest souls in the Bible, a real hero because he spoke truth to power and in those days one could get separated from one’s head for being so outspoken.
There was a king named David whose own moral compass was pointing in the wrong direction. He was a womanizer and a murderer. He was once a boy wonder, a prodigy with tremendous potential for leadership who rose to the heights of power and wealth. But as often occurs when people become infatuated with power and wealth they see themselves as being above the truth (and the law).
As it turns out David had an eye for the wife of one of his military officers, a man named Uriah. David had an affair with Uriah’s wife while the officer was deployed (fighting he King’s war).
Well Uriah’s wife gets pregnant. So what does David do? He brings Uriah home on some R & R hoping he would sleep with his wife and the pregnancy could be therefore blamed on him. David then would be off the hook.
Wouldn't you know it, Uriah doesn’t cooperate.
So David has Uriah killed in battle (he has him whacked) to cover his own mess. Now he is guilty of not only adultery but also murder, two really big sins in the list of Ten.
In steps the Palace Pastor from First Church Jerusalem.
His name is Nathan and he is going to teach us a classic lesson in the art of subversion. This man is perhaps one of the most courageous characters in the Bible, a man of tremendous character and integrity. He looked the king square in the eye and spoke truth to him in the form of a subversive parable:
A wealthy man had many flocks and herds he tells the king. There also was a very poor man who had one ewe lamb that he had raised from birth. The ewe lamb was like the family pet who played with the poor man’s children and even slept with the poor man. The ewe lamb was like a daughter to the poor man.
The wealthy man took this poor man’s only ewe lamb in order to feed an unexpected guest. When the king heard this he was outraged. He wanted to kill the rich man. How could he do such a thing the king thundered! Now this is the part of the story in which Nathan took a huge risk. He spoke truth to the king:
“You are that man!”
You are that man! David wasn’t use to this kind of talk. People in the Palace were always telling him what a great man he was and how privileged they were just to work for him. Folks constantly heaped praises upon David just to keep their jobs. Everyone knew that to speak truth to the king could lead to dismissal or even death even though they knew he had some serious character flaws.
But Nathan, the Palace Pastor, threw all caution to the wind and with great courage and integrity told David what he needed to hear, not what he wanted to hear. As it turns out for Nathan’s sake, and for David’s as well, the king’s heart was pricked and he confronted his own sin.
I am sure Nathan breathed a great sigh of relief. I would have. I would also hope that I would have had the courage to speak truth to power, face to face like Nathan did. It’s not so easy to do. The stakes can be extremely high. The costs can be devastating, even deadly.
But the joy of knowing you were a vessel of truth under the most dangerously extreme circumstances can be forever gratifying.
What do you think?
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