A promise is a promise … and in spite of all that David was and was not, in spite of some significant instances where he fell far short of his best … in this moment he rose to the occasion and remembered the promise he had made to his friend. David is now king, the days of having to hide from Saul are long gone … he has it made … he can do whatever he wants. He's in the place of the elected politician – does he remember all of the campaign promises?

This promise he remembers … a promise made to his best friend Jonathan, that no matter what, he would take care of any of Jonathan's family that remained. So, after the transition team gets him settled and David gets the kingdom going to his likes, he starts searching for any remnant of Jonathan's family. A servant of Saul is questioned and says there is a son of Jonathan's living in a place called Lo-Debar … a name that literally translated means a place without pasture. No name is mentioned at this point, but the servant Ziba cautions David that the son is crippled, having been dropped by his nurse while fleeing for their lives. In the culture of the time it would be understandable for David to "forget" he learned of this son … and the servant gives him ample space to do so. The son is un-named and in a nowhere town … he is crippled, and again, in David's culture the handicapped have no place. But David persists and sends for the man … we learn his name is Mephibosheth, meaning possibly "big shame." Mephibosheth comes before the King probably expecting this is the end. Once and for all, David is going to rid himself of the Saul dynasty. Instead David does the unexpected and restores Mephibosheth's family lands and seats him at the King's dining table, remembering the covenant he had made with Jonathan.

The cynics will tell us that David was only being politically expedient, making sure that his "enemies" were where he could see them. But I prefer the take our children learned this week in Vacation Bible School … that this is an extraordinary act of kindness. David went far beyond what would have been required by political motivation. He included Mephibosheth at the king's table – meaning he was included and considered an equal … for to eat at one's table in David's day was to see another as an equal. So we will look at it today as profound kindness on David's part. Even though later in the story of David and Mephibosheth there will be a falling away and betrayal by both of them, we have for this moment a shining example of kindness and hospitality to live by.

It is of course an echo of God's love and kindness towards us. David's treatment of Mephibosheth had nothing to do with his place or status, it was the result of a promise made and a promise kept. God's promise of love towards us is such – a covenant – an agreement made that is so strong it has binding force. God's loving covenant with us weaves through our human history and is quite thankfully independent of human behavior. And so it weaves through the falling away of Adam and Eve and all of the other foibles of humanity. It comes to a shining fruition in the faithful living and dying of Jesus the Christ.

A promise, a covenant made … called to be kind. It is not always simple or easy. God knows that … just take a look around at our own behavior. Again, as I said, even this shining moment in the story of David and Mephibosheth is later marred with brokenness and betrayal. Yet still we are called as we follow in the name and example of Jesus Christ and his faithful living out of God's covenant of love. Jesus' kindness towards and inclusion of others is to be our way of living. Not only when it is about people we like and who are like us … .it is about the un-likeable and about those who are very different than we are. As it was with Mephibosheth it is about people without place and status in society.

We need to take seriously that the covenants we make and the kindnesses we extend are not options to be exercised when it is easy or when the feelings are there. The covenant is something bigger than we are, something that we stand in the midst of … it is not optional. Max Lucado tells of the example of his mother, an example that showed him what it was like to extend the kindness and loyalty David gave to Mephibosheth: "My mother illustrated covenant love with my father. I remember watching her care for him in his final months. ALS had sucked life from every muscle in his body. She did for him what mothers do for infants. She bathed, fed, and dressed him. She placed a hospital bed in the den of our house and made him her mission. If she complained, I never heard it. If she frowned, I never saw it. What I heard and saw was a covenant keeper. "This is what love does," her actions announced as she powdered his body, shaved his face, and washed his sheets. She modeled the power of a promise kept." (link)

As our VBS kids learned, we are called to have the Be-Attitude of kindness. We are set to a world of Mephibosheths … people who are living in places with no pasture, with big shame. Go find them … "be-kind" … to live as the covenant people God intends us to be in the living and example of Jesus Christ.

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