Jonadab said to the king, “See, the king’s sons have come; it has happened just as your servant said.” – 2 Samuel 13:30

Today’s Scripture Reading (March 27, 2016): 2 Samuel 13

In my free time, I am currently reading Indie author Brandt Legg’s “Cosega Sequence” trilogy. It is a book that is essentially about the demise of the Catholic Church and Christianity, and the death of modern culture as a result of Christianity’s death. It might seem like a strange read for a Christian pastor, but I am enjoying the read and Legg is a good storyteller. Essentially, the book is about a culture on earth that preceded the one that we are experiencing now – that life on earth did not start with Adam and Eve but long predated their existence. And when the main character finds an artifact that both tells of this ancient past and predicts the demise of the church in the not too distant future, well, everyone wants to get a hold of the artifact – and all for very different reasons. But one of the interesting features of the book is that people don’t seem to stay dead. I am not talking about the rise of the undead, it is just that many times as the reader believes that one of the characters has died, in reality, Legg is just exercising misdirection over his readers. Deaths several times in book are simply staged events while the character actually lives on. And the only stories of death that can be ultimately believed are the ones that the main character witnesses.

David had been told that one of his sons had killed the rest of his sons; that the sons of David were dead, but not only that, the only one who remained had disqualified himself from being the successor to the throne of Israel. It was a hurt that cut to the very core of David – as it would have any father. I am not sure what the reason for the rumor might have been. Maybe it was just someone telling a story that he really didn’t understand, maybe it was an effort to make the truth more palatable (you didn’t lose all your sons, David, you just lost one of them), or maybe this was just epic misdirection. But the relief that David experienced as he watched most of his sons come over the horizon must have been incredible.  In David’s mind, this might have been the end of his dynasty and legacy. But the rumor was simply untrue.

Brandt Legg’s idea regarding the demise of the church is not really a new thought. Many over the last two thousand years have predicted its death and many obituaries have been written either celebrating or mourning that event. Yet the church continues to live on. And there may have been no greater attempt to kill Christianity than the attempt to kill Christ. Yet, 1986 years ago today, Christ defeated death and rose again. And Christianity has fondly remembered that day ever since. This time is it was not a fiction author’s misdirection. It was the insistence of the God of this world that death would be defeated and that a new kind of church would be born.

This is Easter. And because of Easter … the story of that new kind of church continues. Today, may we be worthy successors of that story, and of that move of God.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 2 Samuel 14