Canceled: Called to Accountability

Intro/Scripture

Collaboration with my friend, pastor Adam Mustoe. He leads a congregation in the suburbs of Kansas City. He and I worked on this series together…which is first of all just fun for me. But this is also a topic, cancel culture, that is nuanced, difficult, and layered so I appreciated a conversation partner. Adam and I will be hosting a live podcast on Tuesday nights at 7pm on our facebook page where people from both of our congregations can join and ask questions or just listen to a lively conversation. We will have other pastors join us as well.

2 Samuel 12:1–13 NIV

The Lord sent Nathan to David. When he came to him, he said, “There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him. “Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him.” David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, “As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this must die! He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.” Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. I gave your master’s house to you, and your master’s wives into your arms. I gave you all Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more. Why did you despise the word of the Lord by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.’ “This is what the Lord says: ‘Out of your own household I am going to bring calamity on you. Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to one who is close to you, and he will sleep with your wives in broad daylight. You did it in secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all Israel.’ ” Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” Nathan replied, “The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die.

Pray.

This is an ancient piece of pottery. In Greek the word was “ostraca.” Shards of broken pots were in plentiful supply. This is where we get the word “ostracized.” Annually the citizens of Athens would be able to vote on one citizen to ban from the city for 10 years. They would vote by writing a name on the ostracon. Whoever got the most votes with a minimum of 6,000 would have to leave the city in a matter of days. They’d been ostracized.

Centuries later another method of public humiliation was invented: the pillory. Described this way by Nathanial Hawthorn in the Scarlett Letter: “An instrument of discipline, so fashioned as to confine the human head in its tight grasp, and thus hold it up to public gaze. The very ideal of ignominy was embodied and made manifest in this contrivance of wood and iron. There can be no outrage, methinks…more flagrant than to forbid the culprit to hide his face for shame.” This punishment by public shame was outlawed in the United States in the late 19th century.

Fast forward to the 21st century. We have new methods but the ostracism and shaming remains. This is Jonah Lerher. He was an up-and-coming author and journalist. In this third published book “Imagine: the science of creativity” it was discovered that he fabricated quotes and eventually lead to the discovery of plagiarism in his other works. His publisher recalled two of his books. He lost his job at The New Yorker. After a time he emerged to offer an apology speech at a conference in Miami. As he did he shared the stage with a live twitter feed of reactions, in real time. To give you an idea of how it went Buzzfeed recapped the scene with the headline: “The final humiliation of Jonah Lerher.” The Athenians ostracized. The colonists pilloried. In our culture, you get cancelled.

Cancel culture can be a lot of things. At it’s best it can be a movement of activism to boycott someone or something that has caused harm… at it’s worst it can be a sport of defamation and attempt at social control for the sake of notoriety, a platform, or just more likes on Twitter:

Rosane Barr

Collin Kapernick

Ellen Degenres faced a little bit of this for being homies with George W. Bush

J.K. Rowling

Dr. Suess

Mr. Potato Head

Character assassination of “Karens” everywhere

People that just cant help but sharing their scathing review of a restaurant on their facebook page.

Where is the line between accountability/justice/progress and just canceling people?

In specific, what is a Christian to do in the midst of this culture? How do we engage or why should we not? Where is the line that is faithful or helpful?

How do we come back from failure? What happens when we mess up?

Cancel Culture: Differentiated from consequences in two ways:

When used as a form of social control and/or...

When accompanied as a sense of glee or entertainment

One liner: Christians shouldn’t see shame as a sport

Still, today, we have to talk accountability. It might feel like an odd place to begin but it is appropriate....

We often want accountability for others but amnesty for ourselves

David’s Twitter Trending Travesty

So David is so lucky twitter did not exist. That brother stepped in it. This is a presidential scandal of the ages. David sends his troops off to war and stays behind in a semi empty quarters. One day in his boredom he spots a woman that catches his eye. The wandering eye is not fatal, but the action upon it delivers a death blow. He has Bathsheba brought over and takes advantage of this woman. If it is consensual, he has abused his power and betrayed one of his best and most loyal fighters as well as harming Bathsheba’s place in a messed up patriarchy. If it is worse than that then he has inflicted human harm of the worst kind.

This is the king, the man after God’s own heart. The one chosen by God to lead God’s people. Spared from enemies by God.

What is fascinating about this story that God has given us is that before Nathan is sent to confront him, we get a front row seat to see the familiar sin spiral that we can relate to.

David’s boredom, isolation, and lapse in discipline sets the scene

Let me project into the story for just a minute, for a teaching opportunity. I would imagine being King is stressful. I would imagine being at war and being a king is very stressful. The combination of Stress and isolation in your life is a feeding ground for evil.

Then he begins to cover. Bathsheba’s husband is away at war and when he can not trick him into thinking the child in womb is his, he arranges for his death.

God intervenes

Not Cancellation—> Confrontation

God sends the prophet Nathan to confront David. Nathan uses a parable that tells of betrayal and theft from the powerful. David burns with anger against the oppressor in the story, ignorant to the fact that it describes him. He invokes OT law and swears towards this hypothetical man’s death.

David’s own Torah-violating behavior had not robbed him of his commitment to impose the requirements of the Torah on others!

Bergen, R. D. (1996). 1, 2 Samuel (Vol. 7, p. 370). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.

Sometimes we become nastier with religion and morality and ethics about the very thing that binds us. Accepting accountability is about allowing Jesus to have his rightful place to rule and reign in your heart. And in this stage God reveals those places that you may have not yet yielded unto him.

When Nathan confirms that David is in fact this very person, David has a choice....

Will he accept accountability? Will he continue running from his faults and the God he can never outrun?

Houston Zoo in the first grade

2 Samuel 12:13 NIV

Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” Nathan replied, “The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die.

David makes the decision to own it. Confession, though painful, is the first step of healing.

Now...

What would have happened if this got posted to social media? What would have happened if TMZ was there? What would have happened to David, Bathsheba, the child that was in the womb? The kingdom?

Hard to say, but some observations

Observations:

Ordained by God: this accountability is ordained by God (Nathan is sent). The Christian accountability is always in hopes of restoration. Even in pursuit of justice, it is not a sport of just canceling people. Think about the very word in our series, cancelled. This is not the work we are called to as Christians. Image of God theology

Accountability and proximity are closely related (Nathan is a friend, and he is the one that goes. He had skin in the game and was trusted by God. On the internet or from a far, the accountability that gives redemption as shot does not come from the anonymous person on the internet....and this should be our hope.

We want accountability for others but amnesty for ourselves

This is not just for public cancellation of celebrities, or politicians, or even predators and bad people…but the question I have before become righteous watchmen on the wall to share what is true and good in the world from our vantage point…do we have the humility and passion for righteousness in our lives? As a young parent, I see this often and in my own life....I am quick to point a finger and go geez, “did you see that. Did you see how they disciplined or yelled or did you see how their kid was acting.” When that is my first move it is like i forgot when two days ago my kids reduced me to tears because I couldnt get them to brush their teeth without world war 3.

Sin can have narcissistic symptoms in the soul.

Finally, when accountability comes our way… can we take a step towards healing?

2 Samuel 12:13 NIV

Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” Nathan replied, “The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die.

When it comes to offering accountability to strangers, how much of this cancel culture is shining light on other’s sin to deflect from our own? I wonder if what our world needs is not more people signing up to be Nathan, but maybe some that would weep and lament David’s downfall.

Cancel culture should not be the Christian’s sport. And hopefully we are quick to accept accountability instead of being so eager to offer it.