our second text for today my friends are sermonic text for today comes from
second Samuel Chapter nine the first 11 verses but of course before we read yes
Bible check Bible check wonderful wonderful wonderful we encourage you to
bring your Bibles when you come to the house of the Lord especially in this
form of corporate setting second Samuel Chapter nine please listen and read
along David asked is there anyone still left of the house of Saul to whom I can
show kindness for Jonathan's sake that it was a servant of Saul's household
names if but they called him to appear before David and the King said to him
are you zip your servants he replied the King asked is there no one still left of
the house of Saul to whom I can show God's kindness
Zipp answered the King there is still a son of Jonathan he is crippled in both
feet where is he the King asked Ziv answered he is at the house of
makeer son of a meal and lo debar so King David had him brought from lo debar
from the house of makeer son of a meal when Mephibosheth son of Jonathan the
son of Saul came to David he bowed down to pay him honor David said mephibosheth
your servant he replied don't be afraid David said to him for I will surely show
you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan I will restore to you all the
land that belonged to your grandfather saw
you will always eat at my table mephibosheth buy all down and said what
is your servants and you should notice a dead dog like me then the King summoned
zipler soft servant and said to him I've given your masters grandson everything
that belongs to Saul and his family you and your sons and your servants are to
form the land for him and bring in the crops so that your master's grandson may
be provided for and mephibosheth grandson of your master will always eat
at my table now zipa had 15 sons and 20 servants Vin's ever said to the king
your servant will do whatever my lord the King commands his servant to do so
I'm a fish at 8:00 at David's table like one of the king's sons friends this is
the word of the Lord let us pray what do we thank you today
for your blessings and all that you have done how you've been there for us
through it all and for this opportunity we say thank you now make me this allow
me to decrease so that you can increase and become more and fix us by clearing
our minds opening our hearts and unstopping our ears so we can hear from
you and upon hearing from you we want to leave this place better than the way we
arrived yes Lord we want to walk out of here better than the way we walked in in
Jesus name we pray amen if you would please turn to a neighbor to get them
good and repeat after me friend today's sermon is called a seat at the table
amen I had a glorious time last week as you know I was in Washington DC for the
festival of homiletics and many of you have had a chance to
singing all of the pictures that I've posted and videos I posted on social
media while I was there and since I've been home there were 1500 ministers 1500
ministers from all over this country and several places throughout the world from
all ways of life multiple races beautiful absolutely gorgeous know also
ministers at this conference in wheelchairs one of the venues that we
had was the National City Christian Church which has seemingly a million
steps in the front to get into and as we were making our way to this church and
we saw it from 14th Street minister in a wheelchair saw the stairs and said oh my
is that the only way in there was a minister president who had been to the
church before and she simply said no that's not the only way in there's
another way that has a ramp and there are elevators inside the church so that
you can get to every floor that the church has while she was talking to him
and explaining this to him I remembered our weekend of purpose that
we had last year when we brought Sarah Chung in and one of the things that one
of the exercises that Sarah Chang put us through during dinner on that Saturday
night was to teach us that where as all of us have some privilege in this
country some perhaps more than others but we all possess it especially because
we are in this country but there are groups she share shared
among us who have disabilities and how we have intentionally or unintentionally
excluded them from so much today is Trinity Sunday this is Memorial Day
weekend but this is also disability inclusion Sunday and today we need to
hear mephibosheth story Mephibosheth was Jonathan's son King Saul's grandson
and while the Israel was at war with the Philistines
he was taken as a baby to Jezreel for his safety he had a nurse who was taking
care of him while he was there when jonathan Mephibosheth father Jonathan
died at the hands of the Philistines and King Saul killed himself in order to not
be taken as a prisoner of war and Mount Gilboa this word made its way to Jezreel
that both Jonathan and King Saul were dead and panic set in but finish at this
time was nearly five years old and in a haste his nurse picked him up to flee
Jezreel and she dropped him some translations simply say that
mephibosheth failed but either way he lost the use of his feet and he was not
born with the disability but he became disabled and spent the rest of his life
with this disability well I would say understanding Mephibosheth learned to
excel and do more although having his disability he had a son son named Mike
and mephibosheth also had management skills for as we see
in our text for today he would be given his grandfather's estate and he would
have to manage that property and all that came with it in other words his
disability did not define him it was one thing that he couldn't do compared to
many other things that he could do but he didn't see himself this way for a
very long time what hurts me the most in this text is how afib reshef sees
himself after hearing the news that all of his grandfather's possessions would
be given to him he responds by saying this
what is your servant that you should notice a dead dog like me why would he
call himself a dead dog maybe it was because he heard so many other folks
calling him that maybe it was because of his grandfather and how unliked
he was among the children of Israel at this time he heard it so much he began
to believe it was true he began calling himself this those of us who believe
that we are typical folks can really make those with disabilities feel less
than that's horrible horrible one of the
things that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 did
was to prohibit discrimination against Americans with physical and mental
disabilities in the areas of employment transportation and public
commendations these acts were as inclusive as they could be at that
particular time we say some ugly things to those who are disabled we make plans
to better ourselves and this world that don't include them and then the
provisions that are made for them we abuse or destroy don't want anybody to
raise their hanging but here's a question how many times have you parked
in a space for those with disabilities I mean it's close to the front how many
times have you done this some months ago I was riding in a car with a friend of
mine whose mother is disabled and they have the license plates that would allow
them to park in spaces for those with disabilities and we were going to the
store and he pulled into a spot and he said ok parent let's go and I said wait
a minute why are you parking here he said it's ok I can park here I've got
the sticker I'm ok I said but your momma's not in the car it's just us your
mama's not here so he backed out and found another space parked there we went
to the store did what we needed to do and came back out and went back home
listen we and our selfish natures our insensitivity and lack of empathy
make us more disabled than they will ever be shouldn't be about 5 a man's
right there that's what it does mephibosheth called himself a dead dog
saw himself as a dead dog perhaps for all of his
life until someone proved him wrong one of the best sermons on love that I've
ever heard perhaps that you've ever heard as well
was preached by a bishop Michael Curry at the Royal Wedding a couple of
weekends ago and the text that Sheila read really is the answer for today a
new command Jesus says I give you love one another as I have loved you so you
must love one another and by this everyone will know that you are my
disciples if you love one another David ass is there anyone still left in
the house of Saul to whom I can show love show kindness for the sake of
Jonathan David didn't know that in lo debar there was a man who thought less
of himself who would be the recipient of the Kings kindness because the King
loved his father and David did love Jonathan yes he did earlier in this book
chapter Warren after David finds out that Jonathan is dead David says this I
grieve for you Jonathan my brother you were very dear to me your love for me
was wonderful more wonderful than that of women the love that David had for
Jonathan was transferred to Mephibosheth I don't have time to do it today I don't
have time to get into it today but something should be said about fathers
who are respected who are cherished who are loved and how that's a blessing
to their children but David does something more then make Mephibosheth
wealthy so he does that we see that in the text he does more than to make him a
wealthy man David makes him accepted
David makes him honored David tells him you will always eat at my table
oh hello somebody you will know why this is so special because we don't eat with
folks that we don't like so it's true how many of you all have gone to dinner
with your enemies lately anybody how many of you all have invited your haters
to lunch and you pay for it anyone know you want to know why we
don't do this why we don't eat with folks we don't like because at the table
we become comfortable our speech changes at the table we relax we let our guard
down we become cool and confidence and easygoing at the table we actually show
our real selves at the table food is disarming the conversation around it
disarming and folks we don't like we don't want them to see us like that we
don't want them to know us like that David tells Mephibosheth you will always
eat at my table there was a space reserved at the table for Mephibosheth
do you realize what that means at the Kings table that place was reserved for
his children possibly
predictor Terry's in mine arts those of nobility it's a place of honor a place
of acceptance a place that said you matter you mean something to me and I'm
going to make sure that you mean something to everyone else and this was
a place of honor that was given to my fellow chef
a man living with a disability all friends when I read this text when I
read this portion that David's system of fibber says I can't help but to think of
Jesus the King of Kings the Lord of lords who has a table you want to know
who's welcome at the Lord's table
everybody everybody is welcome at the Lord's table
those with Asperger's are welcome at the Lord's table those with autism are
welcome at the Lord's table paraplegics are welcome at the Lord's
table those with Down syndrome those were Tourette syndrome are welcome at
the Lord's table every race and every ethnicity is welcome at the Lord's table
those who can't see those who can't hear those who can't talk are welcome at the
Lord's table those who've been disabled by hate are welcome at the Lord's table
those who've been disabled by jealousy are welcomed at the Lord's table those
who've been disabled by racism by sexism by poverty by homophobia by inferior
schools by religion Oh welcome at the Lord's table and I've got good
news for you it's a big table there's plenty of room at the Lord's table for
all who have been created in the image of God for all and the Lord loves that
includes you that includes me that includes every body in Jesus name
hear this word today amen
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