Monday • 8/14/2023 
Monday of the Eleventh Week After Pentecost (Proper 14)  

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 89; 2 Samuel 13:23–39; Acts 20:17–38; Mark 9:42–50 

This morning’s Canticles are: following the OT reading, Canticle 9 (“The First Song of Isaiah,” Isaiah 12:2–6, BCP, p. 86); following the Epistle reading, Canticle 19 (“The Song of the Redeemed,” Revelation 15:3–4, BCP, p. 94) 

Welcome to Daily Office Devotions, where every Monday through Friday we explore that day’s Scripture readings, as given in the Book of Common Prayer. I’m Reggie Kidd. Thanks for joining me. This Monday in the Season After Pentecost our readings finds us in Proper 14 of Year 1 in the Daily Office Lectionary.  

During the next two weeks, 2 Samuel will describe the fulfillment of Nathan’s words to David: “the sword shall never depart from your house” (2 Samuel 12:10). Just as David had taken Bathsheba and murdered Uriah, so sexual violation and death are unleashed within his house.  

2 Samuel: when a spirit of rage and bitterness rules. Today’s reading follows the cringe-worthy account of the way Amnon, David’s firstborn son and the nation’s crown prince, craftily and deviously forces himself on his half-sister Tamar. Horribly, and entirely too predictably, no sooner are his lust and will to power violently satisfied than his emotions flip: “Then Amnon was seized with a very great loathing for her; his loathing was even greater than the lust he had felt for her” (2 Samuel 13:15). Unwilling to marry her (as called for by Exodus 22:16 and Deuteronomy 22:28–29), he commands his servant: “Rid me of this woman. … Throw her out and bolt the door behind her!” (2 Samuel 13:17 NJB)). He won’t even say her name. First, he robs her of her innocence, then of her identity.  

Though David is furious with Amnon, and though he knows it is his job as king to “administer justice and equity to all his people” (see 2 Samuel 8:15). David does nothing to address the wrong done to Tamar: “When King David heard of all these things, he became very angry, but he would not punish his son Amnon, because he loved him, for he was his firstborn” (2 Samuel 13:21). There’s no mention of love for his daughter; his sin of omission is shameful. And for two years, Absalom, who is Tamar’s full brother, silently nurses his rage against Amnon for violating his sister and leaving her desolate and shamed. His subsequent actions betray fury against his father as well.  

In today’s account, we see the beginning of Absalom’s foolhardy, faithless, and ultimately fateful design to right the wrong done to his sister and then to displace his father as king. 

Amnon, like his father David, has taken a woman he has no right to. Absalom (like his father David, who orchestrated Uriah’s death) orchestrates Amnon’s murder. He lures him to a party and has his men assassinate him. Absalom then goes into self-exile for three years in Geshur, home of his maternal grandfather Talmai. David is grieved. He’s lost his firstborn, and the kingdom has lost its heir apparent. But again, David does nothing. He eventually accepts Absalom back into Jerusalem (though he will keep him at arm’s length). “And the heart of the king went out, yearning for Absalom; for he was now consoled over the death of Amnon” (2 Samuel 13:39).  

Acts: when the Spirit of God comes. What a different spirit courses through Paul’s address to the Ephesian elders! Genuine love and affection have united the apostle and this group of people among whom he has lived. He has made it clear that his message of “repentance toward God and  faith in our Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 20:21) is about God’s free and abundant grace. He has supported himself with his own hands while he has proclaimed God’s kingdom. He has sought to model Jesus’s own teaching (and because it is a saying that doesn’t appear in any of the gospels, it is especially to be prized): “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35).  

The ongoing saga of David’s dynasty shows how God’s redemptive power and Kingdom purposes work their way into human history through utterly fallen and altogether sin-wracked people. If our Sunday school heroes like David had not been so whitewashed for us through the years, perhaps we would be more patient with the frailty, flaws, foolishness, and failures in figures of more recent history. God’s Redeemer doesn’t come for people who don’t need redemption.  

At the same time, it is good to be reminded that God’s Redeemer has indeed come for people in need of redemption. God has purchased his church with the blood of his own dear Son (Acts 20:28), and has opened to us the door of repentance and faith. The church is the place where Jesus’s presence, by the Holy Spirit, makes people new. He transforms takers into givers, and he makes those who have been shamed or aggrieved into those who know themselves to be beloved and reconciled.  

Collect for Proper 14: Grant to us, Lord, we pray, the spirit to think and do always those things that are right, that we, who cannot exist without you, may by you be enabled to live according to your will; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. 

Be blessed this day,  

Reggie Kidd+