Sermon for January 11th, 2026

2 Samuel 12:15b-23 (OT p.285)

The Lord struck the child whom Uriah’s wife bore to David, and it became very ill. 16 David therefore pleaded with God for the child; David fasted and went in and lay all night on the ground. 17 The elders of his house stood beside him urging him to rise from the ground, but he would not, nor did he eat food with them. 18 On the seventh day the child died. And the servants of David were afraid to tell him that the child was dead, for they said, “While the child was still alive, we spoke to him, and he did not listen to us; how then can we tell him the child is dead? He may do himself some harm.” 19 But when David saw that his servants were whispering together, he perceived that the child was dead, and David said to his servants, “Is the child dead?” They said, “He is dead.”

20 Then David rose from the ground, washed, anointed himself, and changed his clothes. He went into the house of the Lord and worshiped; he then went to his own house, and when he asked, they set food before him, and he ate. 21 Then his servants said to him, “What is this thing that you have done? You fasted and wept for the child while it was alive, but when the child died, you rose and ate food.” 22 He said, “While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept, for I said, ‘Who knows? The Lord may be gracious to me, and the child may live.’ 23 But now he is dead; why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me.”

Faith & Film XIV: Hamnet

• Film Clip #1: Trailer

Three-Minute Film Summary

Hamnet is an historical drama based on Maggie O’Farrell’s novel of the same name. The film is set in late-16th-century England and tells a fictionalized account of a real historical event: the death of William Shakespeare’s eleven-year-old son Hamnet, and how his family journeys through love and grief and ultimately redemption.

The story centers not only on Shakespeare himself, but very much on his wife, Agnes who is portrayed as a deeply intuitive woman, skilled in herbal medicine, attuned to the rhythms of the natural world, and rumored to be the daughter of a forest-witch. She meets and marries young William--at the time a Latin tutor--and together they have three children: an older daughter, Susanna, followed by twins, Hamnet and Judith.

As the family grows, William’s talents as a writer begin to draw him away from home. He spends long stretches of time in London, working in the theater, while Agnes manages the household and the children on her own. In a season of sickness and plague, their daughter Judith becomes dangerously ill. Hamnet, her twin, stays close to her, caring for her and trying to protect her. Hamnet becomes ill, while Judith recovers. Hamnet dies at the age of eleven.

The remainder of the film follows the family as they grieve, as Agnes and William's relationship becomes strained, and as both try to make sense of things in their own separate ways. Eventually, Agnes goes to London to see William's new play, a tragedy called "Hamlet." She is at first angry, thinking her son's name is being profaned. But as William's love and grief become clear through the scenes of the play, and as she watches the audience embrace (and grieve) her son, she finds peace and joy to let go.

He Will Not Return to Me

This is a beautiful but difficult film, and it deals with one of the most profound and difficult kinds of grief--the loss of a child. Our scripture passage from 2nd Samuel tells a similar story: How King David pleads with God to save the life of his child with Bathsheba, how the child dies, and how David in time resigns himself to the idea that while his child can no longer come to him, someday he will go to his child. What makes this kind of loss so poignant--in the Bible, in fiction, and in reality--is that it seems to go against the natural order of things. We expect to outlive our children, not the other way around. But David acknowledges that the power over life and death belongs solely to God. We cannot always understand it, or God's timing, but we can learn in time to accept it, and to appreciate what precious time we are given. In the film, Shakespeare's mother (who has lost three of her own children) comments on this:

• Film Clip #2: Given and Taken

She's quoting indirectly from Job 1:21 - "The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord." Both David's story and the Book of Job remind us that grief and loss, while devastating and unexplainable, go hand in hand with life. Others have walked that difficult path before us, and so we do not walk alone.

Theme 2

• Film Clip #3:

• Film Clip #4:

Theme 3

• Film Clip #5:

• Film Clip #6:

Theme 4

• I stand at the door and knock (death's door... life's door)
• Through a glass darkly (predictions and understanding)
• Reversal
• Christ type