Absalom, Absalom! (8 of 10)
Series: Book of 2 Samuel
P.C. Edwards
2 Samuel 15:2-20:26
Introduction
What is our relationship to the past? How does it shape us, affect us, influence us? How does the past interact with our present and our future? These are the questions that William Faulkner’s 1936 novel Absalom, Absalom! asks. Taking its name from today’s story about Absalom’s rebellion against his father, King David, Faulkner’s novel explores what responsibility the modern man should feel for the sins and evils of the past. In the story’s characters we see that those who reject the past completely are destroyed; those who live only in the past become embittered and hateful; those who see the past only as a commentary of human fallibility become cynical and sardonic; and those who see in the events of the past a reflection of their own personal lives and desires, become suicidal. Ultimately, Faulkner does not offer a definite answer to man’s proper relationship with the past, but instead, he offers a thorough and devastating examination of various negative responses to the question.
Now why, though, the title Absalom, Absalom!, especially when no one in the book is named that? Well, many of the characters are based on the characters of 2 Samuel 13-20: Amnon, Tamar, Absalom, and David. You see the story of Absalom and David is very much a story of how the past shapes the present, as we see how both of these men’s choices and sins in the past seem to determine their futures.
But whereas Faulkner declined to offer an answer to the question he raises, our passage today does. We see two things. First, we can learn from our past, seeing our failures and shortcomings as lessons for our future. Second, in seeing our collective and personal fallibility in the past, we can see the need for a saviour to rescue us from repeating the sins of the past. And it’s this second point particularly that I believe our passage this morning teaches us. The characters of D ...
Series: Book of 2 Samuel
P.C. Edwards
2 Samuel 15:2-20:26
Introduction
What is our relationship to the past? How does it shape us, affect us, influence us? How does the past interact with our present and our future? These are the questions that William Faulkner’s 1936 novel Absalom, Absalom! asks. Taking its name from today’s story about Absalom’s rebellion against his father, King David, Faulkner’s novel explores what responsibility the modern man should feel for the sins and evils of the past. In the story’s characters we see that those who reject the past completely are destroyed; those who live only in the past become embittered and hateful; those who see the past only as a commentary of human fallibility become cynical and sardonic; and those who see in the events of the past a reflection of their own personal lives and desires, become suicidal. Ultimately, Faulkner does not offer a definite answer to man’s proper relationship with the past, but instead, he offers a thorough and devastating examination of various negative responses to the question.
Now why, though, the title Absalom, Absalom!, especially when no one in the book is named that? Well, many of the characters are based on the characters of 2 Samuel 13-20: Amnon, Tamar, Absalom, and David. You see the story of Absalom and David is very much a story of how the past shapes the present, as we see how both of these men’s choices and sins in the past seem to determine their futures.
But whereas Faulkner declined to offer an answer to the question he raises, our passage today does. We see two things. First, we can learn from our past, seeing our failures and shortcomings as lessons for our future. Second, in seeing our collective and personal fallibility in the past, we can see the need for a saviour to rescue us from repeating the sins of the past. And it’s this second point particularly that I believe our passage this morning teaches us. The characters of D ...
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