Today’s
Scripture Reading (March 5, 2019): 1 Samuel 19
Australian politician Les Coleman
argued that “a bridge has no allegiance to either side.” A bridge does not
think that one side is better than the other and the bridge itself does not
care which way you move on it. We make up the one-way
signs and insist, on some bridges, that it can only carry passengers in
one direction. But those are our rules; the bridge does not care. During wartime, a bridge is either the ally or the
enemy depending on the circumstances of the battle. If one army needs to cross
the bridge to get to the other side, it becomes an ally; but for the soldiers who want
to stop the crossing, the bridge is the enemy.
I agree with Coleman; the bridge
has no allegiances. But I also know that we are not bridges. We have allegiances, even if they are minor. I was
taken aback in February 2019 when Donald Trump Jr. talked about “loser
teachers” who taught “socialism” in school from the very early days. I have
never heard a “loser teacher” teach socialism, but the comment actually says more about Donald Trump Jr. and
his allegiances than it does about the “loser teacher.” I am not a socialist,
but the kind of socialism that Donald is speaking about is not the kind of
socialism that ruled in Eastern Europe and Asia in the form of Communism
earlier in the Twentieth Century. North American socialism says that, as a
society, every person should have access to basic health care and education. If
the “loser teachers” are teaching anything, it is that it is not just the rich
that deserve to be cured of their
diseases and it is not just the rich that have the right to be educated to the
best of their abilities so that they can make a difference in our society. We
would pay the price if the next Albert Einstein or Stephen Hawking were sidelined because of their inability to
get the education that would allow them to make the advances that might allow
us as a society to overcome climate change or cure cancer. Does that mean that
healthcare and education should be free? That is a question that is open to
debate, but the debate will never get started if we start off talking about
“loser teachers.”
We are human, and we have
allegiances. And, sometimes, our allegiances
exist in conflict with each other. Politically, I often find that this is the
case. I like different things about different people, or I like the policies of one party, but the
personality of another, and I am forced to make a hard choice.
Jonathan had allegiances. He was
not a bridge. And at this moment, his allegiances conflicted.
First, Saul was his dad. The fifth commandment, which says that we are to honor
our father and mother, is tested when we know that our parents are doing wrong
things. But dad’s error did not erase Jonathan’s allegiance to family. However,
Jonathan was also allied to David. He liked David’s thinking and his commitment
to God. David had become a friend worthy of Jonathan’s allegiance. And beyond
Jonathan’s friendship with David, there was also David’s value to the nation.
It seemed that recently every time Israel needed a hero, David stepped up. It
wasn’t just that Jonathan valued David, the country
required David to fight off the enemies
that surrounded Israel. And Saul, who Jonathan called father, needed David.
Jonathan probably wished that he
was a bridge. But he wasn’t. Jonathan was
going to have to choose among all of his
allegiances. And he chose David. But it was not just Jonathan picking a friend over his father. It was
Jonathan selecting a friend, who he knew
his father needed, even if his father could not come to that realization.
Jonathan’s allegiance to his Dad, and the nation
meant that David, his friend, had to be saved.
Tomorrow’s
Scripture Reading: 1 Samuel 20
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