First, I would like to wish you a happy Canada Day Holiday, or rather, to use the phrase that would have been familiar to Sir Wilfred Laurier when bring Saskatchewan to being a province, Happy Dominion Day. I am proud to be, by adoption and the calling of God, part of this great nation, one of a very few to achieve independence by peacefully.

“The very stone that the builders rejected has become the head of the corner.” This is what King David wrote in Psalm 118, and quoted by Isaiah, St. Paul , St. Peter and Jesus himself. Of course, this refers to trust in Jesus, and was very much in mind of the founders of this province. If this seems a shade fanciful, consider two mottos you may expect to see today, that of the University of Saskatchewan “Deo et Patria” (God and the land of my fathers) and that on the side of mountie cars “Dieu et mon droit” (God and my right) which comes from the days of the English bowmen. Both of these affirm that we do not trust to our own devices and efforts alone, nor do we “Let go and let God” but we seek to take our part in fulfilling God’s plan.

The motto chosen by the fathers of confederation came from Psalm 72v8, which was probably King David’s advice to his son. ”May he have dominion from sea to sea, and from the Great river to the ends of the earth.” And so we became a dominion, the first nation on earth to use that name, or more correctly His dominion. Promises both to respect cultural diversity and to promote true faith in Jesus were explicitly made in the coronation and reaffirmed twice a year. Our nation has been greatly blessed by God, and preserved both from external invaders and internal dissent.

So how do we react to the situation described by Don Harvey at the Saskatchewan Essentials conference. He was the Bishop of Eastern Newfoundland at the millennium and called to take part in a celebratiom of the millineum but forbidden to use the name of Jesus in the official celebration, what should we do. This was the situation of Israel under the latter days of Saul, where the nation of Israel founded and sustained by God found itself with an ungodly leader who consulted mediums and a people who did what was right in their own sight both sexually and economically.

David is known for three things: his battle with Goliath, being the great King that was the ideal Israel looked back to and was fulfilled in Jesus, and writing or at least collecting the psalms. However, what happens between killing Goliath and being undisputed King is very interesting indeed, almost reading like a novel. I commend to you reading I Samuel as if it were a novel in your days relaxing by the lake. For example, 1Samuel 27, the chapter immediately after this one, makes is the account of what happens when David takes Goliath’s sword back to his home town.

Today’s passage is easily summarised. David and his mate go to Saul’s hideout at night and nick his spear and waterjug, then shout out in the morning, someone’s been telling you porkies cos if I wanted you dun, you’d be daisy food right now.

There are, however, a number of themes here worth noticing before we come onto the gospel passage.

What did David do? In 1Samuel 26v 6, we are told that David took Abishai with him, we don’t know much about Abishai but we do know that he came from a violent family, that like David himself, he was a rather patronised, put down younger brother who wanted to prove himself. It is not a good idea to try and cope with our enemies on our own, and in whatever task we do, we should be trying to train up someone to continue and expand our work. Next, see that the Lord had sent a great sleep on King Saul and his army. Many of these were to prove to be true believers in the future and to be the core of David’s subsequent victories.

The people of God asleep when the true King comes is a very a strong theme of Tolkein and Cs Lewis, but it also reminds us of the garden of Gethsemane and the parable of the five wise virgins and the five foolish virgins. David shows respect for the title of the King even if the person is disreputable. Partly this is self interest, since David has already been anointed king and may depend on Abishai for his life in the future. It does, however, introduce us to the concepts which will be more fully explained in the New testament- Jesus respect for the High Priests in the temple and St. Paul’s respect for the Roman Emperors in Romans 13, even though both were actively trying to kill the Christians and were judged unworthy by secular commentators.

David removes the water jug and the spear. Now this is the second time that this has happened, and on the first time he merely removed the hem of Saul’s garment, that is his pride and dignity, but now he removes the means to sin and to survive in the desert, which are his water jar and the spear. This reminds us of the injunction in the Lord’s Prayer-lead us not into temptation and deliver us from evil. We are commanded to forgive those that sin against us, but we do no service to them or God or ourselves by enabling and providing the means to sin, and this applies whether the abusive situation is at home, or within the church or nation.

I have left until the very end to mention the gospel passage, in Luke 6 not because it is hard or because it is so central to the Christian message that even those who have a very superficial knowledge of Christianity already know this verse nor because Father David already preached on it last Sunday. Rather because the best way to interpret this is to see it in action, as we have in King David, Abishai and King Saul.

Now there are religions in this nation that teach that their followers are divided into a holy minority that live in peace and poverty with the hope of great rewards in the afterlife, and a worldly majority that have to live real lives, looking after children, earning money and fighting whatever battles personal and national that need fighting. Ours is not one of them.

Look behind me and you will see a wasted suffering servant, who even in his last day was ready to heal one of his enemies ears and to comfort those who suffered with him.

In summary, you will have enemies. These may be general, like those who policies impede the flow of food, physical or spiritual, to those who need it most at home or abroad, or like those who would hijack our national church to serve other teachings neither found in scripture or tradition, nor acceptable to the rest of the church worldwide, or they may be the professionals in your life or family members. In saying this, I am not praising or condemning any particular party or group.

Having identified your enemies, we will naturally tend either be angry and resentful and try to scheme against them, or we will try to pretend they don’t exist- the technical term for this is denial. Both of these reactions are wrong, harmful to our lives physical and spiritual, and condemned in this passage. Instead we are to pray for our enemies, that is talk to God about them.

Finally, we have to treat them as we would like to be treated ourselves. And God will work in the situation, although both slower and more powerfully than we would chose. He will either remove you from the situation, or remove your enemy , or change the situation. But remember, although God wants to make you prosperous (verse 38 just beyond the passage actually read) He is more interested in making you fit for heaven.