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[Music] Dirge for a Delinquent. Your message for the moment with Dr. Bruce W. Thielman. Let us give reverent attention to the reading of God's Word, as it is recorded in the second book of Samuel, the 18th chapter,

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reading selected verses from the chapter. I would point out that this episode occurs while the forces of David are preparing to do battle with the forces of Absalom, the son of David, who is in rebellion against his father and is seeking to take his father's throne.

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Then David mustered the men who were with him and set over them commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds. And David sent forth the army, one-third under the command of Joab, one-third under the command of Abishai, the son of Zariah, Joab's brother, and one-third under the command of Ittai, the Gittite.

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And the king said to the men, "I myself will also go out with you." But the men said, "You shall not go out, for if we flee, they will not care about us. If half of us die, they will not care about us. But you are worth ten thousand of us.

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Therefore it is better that you send us help from the city." The king said to them, "Whatever seems best to you, I will do." So the king stood at the side of the gate while all the army marched out by hundreds and by thousands. And the king ordered Joab and Abishai and Ittai,

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"Deal gently for my sake with the young man Absalom. And all the people heard when the king gave orders to all the commanders about Absalom." Now as the battle progressed, Absalom chanced to meet the servants of David. Absalom was riding upon his mule, and the mule went under the thick branches of a great oak,

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and his head caught fast in the oak, and he was left hanging between heaven and earth while the mule that was under him went on. And a certain man saw it and told Joab, "Behold, I saw Absalom hanging in an oak." Joab said to the man who told him, "What, you saw him?

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Why then did you not strike him there to the ground? I would have been glad to give you ten pieces of silver and a girdle." But the man said to Joab, "Even if I felt in my hand the weight of a thousand pieces of silver, I would not put forth my hand against the king's son.

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For in our hearing the king commanded you and Abishai and Ittai, 'For my sake protect the young man Absalom.' On the other hand, if I had dealt treacherously against his life, and there is nothing hidden from the king,

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then you yourself would have stood aloof from me." Joab said, "I will not waste time like this with you." And he took three darts in his hand and thrust them into the heart of Absalom while he was still alive in the oak.

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And ten young men, Joab's armor-bearers, surrounded Absalom and struck him and killed him. Now David was sitting between the two gates, and the watchman went up to the roof of the gate by the wall, and when he lifted up his eyes and looked, he saw a man running alone.

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And the watchman called out and told the king, and the king said, "If he is alone, there are tidings in his mouth." And he came apace and drew near. And the watchman saw another man running, and the watchman called to the gate and said,

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"See another man running alone." And the king said, "He also brings tidings." And the watchman said, "I think the running of the foremost is like the running of Ahimaz, the son of Zadok." And the king said, "He is a good man and comes with good tidings."

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Then Ahimaz cried out to the king, "All is well." And he bowed before the king with his face to the earth and said, "Blessed be the Lord your God, who has delivered up the men who raised their hand against my lord the king." And the king said, "Is it well with the young man Absalom?"

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And Ahimaz answered, "When Jehovah sent your servant, I saw a great tumult, but I do not know what it was." And the king said, "Turn aside and stand here." So he turned aside and stood still. And behold, a Cushite came.

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And the Cushite said, "Good tidings for my lord the king, for the Lord has delivered you this day from the power of all who rose up against you." And the king said to the Cushite, "Is it well with the young man Absalom?" And the Cushite answered, "May the enemies of my lord the king

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and all who rise up against you for evil be like that young man." And the king was deeply moved and went up to the chamber over the gate and wept. And as he went, he said, "Oh my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom, would I had died instead of you?

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Oh Absalom, my son, my son." And may God bless to us and to our understanding this reading from his word. Let us pray. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

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The center of any Middle Eastern city, the most important point in the city, is the gate. For it is at the gate that the wise men of the town gather to dispense justice and to handle all of the affairs of the society.

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I would ask you to come with me tonight to the gate of the ancient city of Mahanaim. Under ordinary circumstances, it would be crowded, a veritable whirlpool of the local population. But today, it is virtually abandoned.

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It is abandoned because the king is in the gate and all have withdrawn out of reverence and deference for him. David is there with only the royal guard about him. A civil war is being fought in a battle in the forest of Ephraim not too far away.

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David had wanted to go to participate in the battle, but his commanders had urged him to remain behind, and following their advice, he had done so. But as he sits alone in the gate,

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his thoughts drift across the miles to the forest of Ephraim and to the battle, and more specifically, to the commander of the forces that oppose him, Absalom, his own son, seeking to put him from his throne. Now one might think that as David thought of Absalom,

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that he might have meditated upon his boy's treachery. There's no question of the fact that Absalom's rebellion was premeditated and planned in the most careful way. He went about the country for some years before,

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disputing every judgment that his father made. Every person whom he found who disagreed with the king, he would say, "I am on your side and not on my father's side." He donned a kind of mock humility,

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not requiring others to bow to him, but instead greeting them, and always with a kiss and great enthusiasm, so that he manufactured a company of friends. And then he went to his father and asked if he could go to Hebron

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to participate in a religious festival, and David granted him permission to go, and when he got there, having already gathered his armies in that place, he had only to sound a trumpet, and immediately,

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the forces of rebellion were ready to follow him against David, the king. All of this might have been upon David's heart as he sat there in the gate, thoughts of revenge, thoughts of how he would punish this son,

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who was to king and country a traitor. But these thoughts were not David's thoughts. As a matter of fact, when he thinks of Absalom, he thinks of him with the greatest tenderness and concern.

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We know this because the last words that David addresses to his commanders before they go forth to the battle are these, "Deal gently for my sake with the young man Absalom." And at the end of the battle,

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when the runners come to give news of the conflict, David does not even pause to inquire whether the battle has been won or lost, whether the kingdom is his or now belongs to another. Only one question is upon his lips.

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He addresses it to both who come running, "Is it well with Absalom?" What we see sitting here in the gate is not a king angry with a subject, not a father angry with his son,

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but an old man, an old man whose heart is breaking because of his boy. And while it may seem to you impertinent, I want to intrude into the private thoughts of this old man for a moment or two tonight,

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for the sake of our own souls, and for the sake of our society as well. I would suggest to you, first of all, that as David thought of Absalom,

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he thought of what an awful example he had been to his son. You know, when we think of David, we usually think of him as a very good man, kind of starry-eyed youth,

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holding a harp in his hands with a halo over his head, and writing down words like, "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want, or purge me with hissophon, I shall be clean,

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wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." We think of him as a man who made one mistake with a girl named Bathsheba, and then got that straightened out with God and his people,

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and went on to lead Israel till there was liberty and justice for all. It's strange that we should think that way. Oh, when he was young, David was like that, a man after God's own heart.

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But as he grew older, the record is quite clear. His administration was a swamp of lust and desire. He gave himself to countless wives and concubines. His court was full of intrigue and deceit.

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It was blood splattered from the beginning to the end. It was pandemonium, and there was the smell of an awful sensuality across all of his reign. And it was in the midst of this kind of circumstance

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that Absalom grew, the third son of David's third wife. Is it any wonder that once Absalom, in speaking to another man named Ahithophel, said,

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"My father has poisoned me"? I think this is part of what David was thinking about. Perhaps the face of Bathsheba was before him for a moment, that beautiful girl who deliberately tempted her king,

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and then how he yielded to that temptation. And perhaps the strong, young countenance of Uriah, that soldier who loved only three - God, his king, and his wife.

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And David must have meditated upon how he stole that wife and then sent that soldier to die. And perhaps David thought too of Nathan, that strong and stony prophet

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who had come down out of the hills and stood before David and said, "Thou art the man." And then went on to make this prophecy,

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"The sword shall never depart from your house." I think David was thinking about that right now as the sword once again was shedding blood to the right and left in defense of the kingdom.

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I think this old king was overwhelmed in these moments with the thought of his own moral failure. St. Teresa, one of the great saints of the history of the Church, once wrote, "It helped me much

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that I never saw my mother or my father respect anything but goodness." Yes, that would be a blessing to any child. But Absalom didn't have that blessing.

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He grew up in a home like some homes that perhaps some of you know all too well. Homes where parents do not give themselves to goodness, but give themselves to evil.

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Homes where instead of love there is the vicious, where there is greed and pettiness, where children are moved about like pawns, where vengeance is carried out one upon another.

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Homes that are not healthy. Homes where poison is. During the Korean War, there was an American general by the name of William Dean

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captured by the North Koreans. They attempted to get everything they could from him. He resisted. After two years of imprisonment,

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they told him they were going to kill him and that he had just five minutes in which to write a farewell note to his family. He didn't know the whole thing was a ruse

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just designed to break him, so he sat down and he wrote the note. And some years later it became public. I shall never forget reading it,

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and I shall never forget especially one line in it. It's only nine lines long, but there is one short sentence in the midst of this farewell note

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of a father to his wife and to his son. And that single sentence is this. "Tell Bill that the word is integrity." The last word of a father to his son.

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The word is integrity. But alas, in some families, the last word is money or success or prestige or popularity or greed.

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And those words poison. It's very quiet in the gate. We can hear only the labored breathing of the old king.

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And I think one of the things he's meditating upon is that the word he offered to his son Absalom is not the word integrity. And another thought followed fast upon the first one.

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I think David was overwhelmed with a sense of grief because of the killing permissiveness which he had shown toward his children. Some years before, an awful incident of incest

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had occurred within the royal family. David's oldest son, Amnon, had raped his half-sister, Tamar. Now, Tamar was the full sister of Absalom.

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They were together the sons of the princess, the children of the princess, Malchah. So Absalom, seeing his own sister raped by his half-brother,

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waited to see what punishment David would visit upon this half-brother, Amnon. The law was very clear. The scriptures read, "Incest is a wicked thing,

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and he that does it shall be cut off in the sight of all the people, and he shall bear his iniquity." That was the law.

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And the king was sworn before God and the people to uphold the law. So Absalom waited to see the law executed against Amnon,

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this one who had so grievously sinned against his sister, against all the royal family, against God and the nation.

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But David... David never did a thing. David never punished Amnon. There is no word about it in the scriptures,

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but in the Septuagint we read, "Notwithstanding Amnon's sin, David did not trouble Amnon his son, because he loved him,

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and he was his firstborn." To David, you see, love meant permissiveness. Love meant letting him get away with anything. So for two years, Absalom waited.

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And when nothing happened, when no punishment was administered, after all that length of time, Absalom took justice into his own hands

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and with his friends murdered Amnon. And I think as David sat there in the gate, he remembered how his permissiveness had led to his one son being murdered

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and to his other son being a murderer. In those moments, I believe, this king's teeth were set on edge by the bitter fruit he was chewing.

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If you plant a fruit tree and do nothing to it, just let it grow as it will, do not prune it,

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do not pull it in the proper direction so that it grows straight and tall, do not feed it that which it needs to grow. It will grow in its own way,

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but its fruit will be bitter. If on the other hand, you plant that tree and you discipline it, you prune it, you bend it,

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not the way it wants to go, but the way that is best for it, you will produce from that tree good and sweet fruit.

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And David, permissive with his children, letting them do whatever they wanted to and calling it all love. Now taste it.

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Bitter, bitter fruit. I've scheduled this sermon three weeks in a row and I've not gotten around to preaching it

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until tonight. Because I've hesitated to say what I'm about to say, it's a mark of my trust

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that I say this to you so plainly. But the thing that troubles me the most about the generation of collegians that I have come to know,

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the thing that worries me and makes me most anxious about them is that they have received more than any generation that's ever lived.

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More and better food, more and better medicine, more and better education. They have received of an abundance

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beyond that known by any generation that has ever walked the face of the earth. And still this generation is known as an angry one.

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And some say young people are angry today because they look at the hypocrisy of older generations, and I don't believe that.

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Because older generations have always been hypocritical. There's nothing new or unusual in that. And some say it's because of the threat

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of the nuclear holocaust or the social problems which exist, environmental pollution, racial and the like.

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And while those things no doubt have serious impact upon the course of our days and the mood of every generation, they are not in and of themselves new.

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No. I believe that that which has made the younger generations so angry and sometimes so destructive and hostile

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is the simple fact that they have never been taught respect or responsible behavior. I believe that the greatest social disaster

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of this century is the belief that abundant love makes discipline unnecessary. And if you want me to prove that,

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I would point only to the low self-esteem which I find in so many collegians today. Some years ago a psychiatrist by the name of Seymour,

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who's on the staff at Stanford University, conducted an experiment with some animals. He had three groups. One group of animals he kept in

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the same environment all day, but then he would take them out of that environment for three minutes every day

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and put them in a very hostile environment where they faced all kinds of challenges and tests and electric shocks and loud noises and the like.

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The second group of animals, they were in the same environment for all day, but he would then take them out for just three minutes

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and put them into a different environment, but in that different environment there was just the difference. There were no tests, no challenges,

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no noise, no shocks. The third group of animals, he allowed to stay in their environment all day, not disturbing them in any way, shape, or form.

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He thought he would show by this test that those who lived in a settled and controlled atmosphere were more happy, more content, more secure.

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The results of the test shocked him, for they were exactly the opposite of what he had expected. In point of fact,

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those that had been subjected to loud noises and shocks and tests and challenges, in battling those challenges,

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in coming up against things that would not yield, they developed a resourcefulness, a courage, an inquisitiveness,

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a curiosity, a strength, which those who were always in the secure environment, always allowed to do what they wanted to do

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when they wanted to do it, they never had to be challenged. They never were tested. They never were called upon

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to build strength and resourcefulness. It was so obvious that even the animals kept in the cages in the laboratory,

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those always kept in the cages, would huddle against the back when anyone would knock near. And those who had known

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challenge and testing and rules and response, these always came to the front of the cage when someone came by to see what was up next.

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In the ones who were never tested, disciplined, there was weakness. And in those who had to respond

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to test and challenge and requirement and responsibility every day, there was strength.

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Think of it in terms of driving along a mountain road. If you're driving along a high, narrow mountain road

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and there's a big cliff on one side and an abrupt drop off on the other, if there is no rail along the side of that road,

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you will have a tendency to drive very close to that cliff beside you and to stay as far away from the edge as possible.

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But if there is a rail, chances are you will be a little more brave and move a little closer to the outside

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in order to see the splendor of the view below. When there is some control, when there is some discipline,

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when there is something that gives direction, we become in response to that more bold, more strong.

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You see, David deprived his children of that. And many parents deprive their children of that. There's never any rule. There's never any responsibility.

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There's never any demand. There's never any requirement. And as a result... Well, I sat in a fraternity meeting

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on another campus, and I heard the fraternity chaplain lead the devotions. And he built the devotions

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on a poem by Rudyard Kipling called "If". And most of you, I'm sure, are familiar with it.

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Each stanza begins, "If you keep your head, if you have a dream, if you'll make one heap

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of all your winnings and lose and never breathe a word about your loss." And then this concluding stanza,

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"If you can fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds' worth of distance run, yours is the earth and everything that's in it, and which is more,

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you'll be a man, my son." And he read the poem well and with power, and then he paused. And one of the fraternity brothers,

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sitting on the floor a few feet to his right, said, "But what if you can't?" "What if you can't?" And in talking with the brothers,

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I found out that he couldn't. He'd been so spoiled, so given everything he desired, so catered to in every moment of his life,

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that he had no strength. And I think as David thought about Absalom, he wondered if

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his love had been strong and demanding and commanding, the results would not have been different. And I think he had one other thought.

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I don't think he could meditate about Absalom without recognizing the awful ambition that was in Absalom. The word "Absalom" means "source of peace,"

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but Absalom never had any peace within. He was always seeking for more than he had. He was much gifted. He was taller than anyone else.

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He had no flaws in his body from head to foot. He had long hair, which was admired by many. He was the son of a king. He had great wealth and intelligence.

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He was personable and wise. He had all of these things, but it wasn't enough. Absalom wanted more.

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Absalom had an overwhelming ambition. As evidence for that, I advance the fact that while he was still a young man, he built a very prominent tomb,

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a great pillar out in the valley. And it was his dream that at the end of his life, he and his flawless body would be stretched out in the flawless robes of royalty,

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and covered over with the tears of thousands, who would say, "Here lies Absalom, the noblest of the sons of David." Please turn your cassette to the other side.

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But that's not the way the life of Absalom ended. Instead of beneath a pillar, he rested in a pit. And instead of his body being flawless,

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it was broken and gnashed. And instead of being covered with tears, he was covered with stones. And instead of the mournings of the multitudes,

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he was wept over only by his father. He was destroyed, you see, by his ambition. We need to think a minute about ambition.

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You know, people regularly accuse the Christian faith of two ideas with regard to ambition. And both of the ideas are wrong. There are some who say

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that the Christian church baptizes selfish ambition. That the Christian church somehow places a benediction on all those who will use all the drive and capacity they have to get everything they can out of life.

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Max Lerner has said that the goal of the average American is success, prestige, money, power, and worldly security. And there are some who argue that the church endorses the lifestyle of those

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who do everything they can, use every ounce of ingenuity which is theirs, in order to attain those goals. Success and prestige and money and power and worldly security.

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It should be obvious that the church does not do this. For if the church did this, it would be going against the example of its savior,

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who died at age 33, on a cross, not a success, without prestige,

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with no money, no power, and by this world's standards, no security. Then there are some, on the other hand, who say that the church is against ambition,

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that the church looks upon all ambition as selfishness, as a kind of immodesty of the mind, and so the church tries to repress ambition. And that's equally untrue.

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The church has always recognized the validity of proper ambition. A Christian likes to see a conductor on the podium who is in control of the orchestra, because he's advanced to the level of that control.

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A Christian chooses a dentist who is able to minister to him properly, and who excels others in the skill which is his. A Christian delights in seeing a short order cook,

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that no matter how much stress is about him, can remain calm and composed, and produce what he's supposed to produce, because he's mastered the skill which is his.

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Jesus never frowned upon ambition. When a mother came seeking places of prestige for her children, he did not rebuke her. Jesus said that in heaven, some would rule over ten cities,

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some would rule over five cities, suggesting that some, by the use of their talents, would climb higher than others. Jesus talked about a right hand and a left hand,

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the right hand being a place of greater honor than the left hand. Jesus never frowned upon ambition. The church never frowns upon ambition and enterprise. What the church has always said is this,

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"Be as ambitious as you will, but let your ambition be to serve others." Jesus Christ, our Lord, says, "Outdo one another."

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How? In showing love. "And let him who would be the greatest be the servant of all." We are to outstrip, to excel one another in our charity. John Wesley put it right.

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He said, "I work as hard as I can to get as much as I can to give as much as I can." Faith is not that which enables us to succeed on the world's terms. Faith is that which leads us to reject success on the world's terms and instead to succeed only in the service of others.

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What ambition does to you, you see, is determined by what ambition finds in you. If it finds in you selfishness, then the fruits of ambition will be bitter, and if it finds in you a desire to serve others,

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well then, then you are blessed and a blessing. And the tragedy was absolute, was that his ambition or leaked itself. He built for himself a pillar tomb out in a valley,

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and it was beautiful, so beautiful, that the rising sun gilded it with light, and the noonday sun stopped to look upon it, and the moon at night wrapped it round with a white mantle. But you see, in the end, it was a tomb without an occupant,

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and it was a pillar without a prince, and it was a monument without a man. Beware of the ambition which slays. If I may be very bold,

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some of you come to college with very great ideas and very ambitious goals, and sometimes in the pursuit of those goals, in the pursuit of those pillars that you wish to erect for yourselves, you come to despise that which is before you,

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to rebel against it like Absalom did, to rebel even against the traditions of the school to which you have come to learn. That is the course of folly. For a hundred years, wisdom has been accumulating in this place.

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Oh, I am not saying that you should follow it blindly, that every word that is uttered here is to be followed slavishly and without independence of thought. But don't you understand?

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You can make no significant investment in today or tomorrow if you don't use the capital of yesterday. It does you no good to know the last word on everything if you don't know the first word about anything.

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And if you're living in only the single dimension of the present, then your life is thin at the best. We're not perfect here. The generations that have gone before you in this place,

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well, they've made their mistakes too. But they haven't been ignorant. They know the difference between the pillar and the pits. So I would say to you, in their name,

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and in the words that perhaps David himself would have uttered to young Absalom, "Do not give yourself to selfish ambition and to arrogant ingratitude. Give yourself instead to that which is good." But a runner comes. It is Ahimaz.

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David goes to him. "How is it with the young man, Absalom?" Ahimaz answers, "I do not know. I saw a tumult, but I don't know what was happening.

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What happened was this. Absalom, in riding from the scene of the battle, got his long hair, of which he was so proud, fastened in the branches of a tree,

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and his mule went out from under him. And Joab coming upon him took three darts and plunged those darts into the heart of the boy. And then the armor bearers of Joab, ten of them,

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killed him and threw him in a pit and covered him over with stones." And now a Cushite comes, and David goes to the Cushite, and he says, "Is it well with the young man, Absalom?" And the Cushite answers,

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"May all the king's enemies be as he is." And the old king turns, and blinded by his tears, stumbles to the steps,

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and climbing, cries, "Oh, my son, Absalom, my son, my son, would I had died for you.

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Oh, Absalom, my son, my son." He wanted to take him in his arms. He wanted to forgive and to forget. As he picked him up when he'd fallen as a little boy

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and cried out for his daddy, so now the old monarch wanted to clutch him close. And he couldn't do it. And he cried out,

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"Would I had died for you." And that's the most pathetic of all cries. For you see, no man can die for another. No woman can die for another.

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No one can die for another. Only God could die for another. And as David thinks of the bad example he has been, and as David thinks of the killing permissiveness

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he splashed upon all of his son's life, and as David thinks of the awful ambition which grew in the boy, he longs to be able to atone for his boy's sins and for his own sins, and he cannot do it.

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For only God could stand in our place. Only God could take the cup and drink it. The gospel is, and I say this to every parent who will hear these words,

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who stands even now in the gate and waits to see how things will be with their son or daughter, and I say this to everyone who is a would-be parent, who looks forward to that day

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when they will know bone of their bone and flesh of their flesh, and when the fire of their love will produce the fruit of sons and daughters, and I say this to all children, to all children who are honest enough to realize

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that they have perhaps grown up in an atmosphere which has not been as healthy as it ought to have been, and who are honest enough to recognize within themselves the very ambition and conceit of which I have spoken,

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I say to all of these, "The world cries, 'Would I had died for thee!' And it is a foolish, fruitless cry. But hear another cry.

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Hear not the world's cry, but heaven's cry. Hear the gospel, God's cry. 'O my son, O my daughter, come to me, not because you are good,

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but because you are mine. O my son, O my daughter, I have died for thee, and I have redeemed thee

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with an everlasting love.'" Let us pray. O God, deal gently with all absolums. No matter who, no matter where, no matter when.

00:41:43.000 - 00:42:09.000

And bring them home to thine own waiting arms for their sake, for our sake, for the whole world's sake, and for the sake of Jesus,

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who loved them and gave himself for them. And the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you.

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The Lord lift up the light of his countenance upon you and give to you and to all those whom you love and to all those whom nobody loves his peace.

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Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen. [BLANK_AUDIO]