In 2 Samuel 12, on the heels of David’s acts of adultery and murder, the prophet Nathan tells King David a story of a rich man who steals from a poor man.
David angrily condemns the offender, until Nathan reveals, “You are the man!” God graciously opens David’s eyes to the truth through a story seemingly disconnected from his own.

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The Lake People lived by a splendid but haunting lake, so vast you couldn’t see to the other side. In the very middle was a misty island, large enough to catch the eye, but small enough that no one had bothered to visit it. It was rumored to be inhabited by Island People, who had once lived with the Lake People, but no one knew much about them.

The Lake People had abundant neatly-planted crops and wild-growing fruit trees, streams full of fish and sunny meadows. Why go elsewhere?

One day, a strange man came running into the Lake village square, disheveled and breathing hard. When the Lake People examined him closely, they saw his clothes were wet. Had he been swimming?

He breathlessly began: “I’ve come with terrible news from the Island! A shift deep underground is causing it to sink down into the Lake and we will all soon perish—”

Someone interrupted: “Oh, it can’t be that bad. Surely you’ve imagined it. We would all know if something that serious were happening right under our noses.”

The Island man answered, “I’m telling you, I’ve experienced it myself. Our children are waist deep in water, and our young men are fighting back the small sharks coming into our village.”

A woman chuckled: “Sharks? On land? That can’t be. Sharks don’t do that.”

The Island man looked at her. “But right now, in our flooded village, they do.”

An elder of the Lake People spoke up: “Then what are you doing here instead of helping your people? How’d you get here?”

The Island man took a deep breath. “I swam across the Lake from the Island. It took me nearly all day, and I also had to fight off the sharks. I am so exhausted I can barely stand, but I came because we knew you would want to help.”

The Lake People eyed one another. “What does this have to do with us?”

The Island man continued: “We are brothers from long ago and we want to work side by side. The Islanders will all drown if we don’t find boats to get off the Island.”

A burly Lake man in the back said in alarm, “You want to take our boats?”

The Island man replied, “No, of course not! But we need help—we have no boats. We left them here many years ago when we went to live on the Island.”

A shrewd Lake businessman questioned, “Why did you leave them? That wasn’t very forward-thinking.”

The Island man explained, “We built the boats with our own hands. But we were made to leave this shore and live on the Island, without the boats.”

Someone said, “The boats were made with our raw materials, and I don’t recall anyone made you leave.”

The Island man replied quietly, “Not with force, no. But with threats, if we built our homes next to yours.”

An elderly Lake woman frowned, “Are you accusing us of doing something to cause this? As if we can move the very earth to swallow up your Island? I’ve never threatened anyone in my life, and I never would. Why don’t you just build more boats?”

The Island man sighed. “We have no good trees on our Island, nor tools to shape wood, nor metals to make tools, nor mines to extract metal. And anytime an Island person has come to these shores in hopes of bringing back resources for the Island, he has never returned.”

The Lake woman sniffed, “Well, if you keep complaining, of course you won’t have any of those things. It takes hard work to build up that kind of industry. And those men who came here were all caught doing suspicious things, so we put them away. We can’t very well have potential delinquents running around our town.”

The Island man calmed himself. “We work very hard. But surely you can see our present situation is influenced by the past between our peoples?”

The Lake Mayor spoke up for the first time: “That’s all water under the bridge, if you’ll excuse the pun! We’re past that! This is a new age and there won’t be any more of that past unpleasant stuff.”

The Island man replied, “I do hope for a new beginning, but we are still on the verge of sinking, without boats and without a way to cross the Lake.”

“I still don’t see how this pertains to us,” said a Lake Councilman.

“It pertains to all of us if one child drowns, on the Island or by the Lake shore.” The Island man shook his head. “Don’t you see? Your shore will be next to collapse. This underground rumbling will not stop at our Island. We will all drown if we don’t work together to find a new home!”

He turned away from the village square and prepared to run on, determined to aid his Island.

A group of Lake People who had listened quietly as he told his story hurried to him and exchanged quick words. A few minutes later, carrying as many boats as they could haul on their shoulders, they ran with the Island man into the green woods toward the Lake shore.

The rest of the Lake People raised their eyebrows and whistled softy.

“He was mighty angry.”

“I don’t think what he said can be right.”

“It’s not like we did anything wrong!”

“Oh, it’ll all blow over soon and we can get back to normal life.”

The remaining Lake People went to bed and slept soundly, without another thought of the Island.

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My beloved family in Christ, the opportunity is ours to truly hear our black brothers and sisters , to recognize the realities of racial injustice, and to partner together in loving humility. What’s happening in black communities, and to black lives is vital to the life of the whole Body, whether you’re White, Asian, or Hispanic.

We can care about and participate in holy action concerning: police abuse (the “sharks”); the stumbling blocks before young black men and women; the exhaustion of swimming against the culture’s inherent barriers; the lack and need caused by the fruits of people’s labors being commandeered; the accusations and defensiveness routinely leveled at people; the systemic problems that arise when economics force people to live in concentrated pockets of poverty; the blame placed on people for laziness despite the injustice influencing everything; the incarceration of so many young black men; the counter-productive ideology of “color-blindness.”

Let us not forget our brotherhood, we Island People and Lake People, we black and white Christians, we Christians of all colors and ethnicities. Let us listen carefully, and carry the boats to the flood together.