Our old testament lesson comes at the end of the story of David and Bathsheba. Bathsheba is the wife of Uriah, one of Kind David's generals who is fighting the Ammonites. David commands Bathsheba to sleep with him, and she becomes pregnant. Her husband Uriah, home on leave, refuses any kind of conjugal visit with his wife out of loyalty to his soldiers. So David covers his sin of adultery by sending Uriah to the battle front, where he is killed.
Listen for the word of God as it is found in 2 Samuel 11:26-12:13a.
And Uriah's wife heard that her husband Uriah was dead and she lamented her husband. When the mourning period had passed, David sent and gathered her into his house and took her for a wife, and she bore him a son, and the thing which David had done was evil in the eyes of The Lord.
And The Lord sent Nathan to David and he went to him, saying to him,
“Two men were in a certain town, one rich, the other poor. For the rich one, there were very many flocks and herds. And for the poor one, nothing at all, except one small ewe-lamb which he had bought and raised. She grew up with him and with his children together; from his bread crumbs she ate and from his cup she drank and in his bosom she lay down and she was like a daughter to him.
And a traveler came to the rich man and he didn't have the heart to take [one] from his [own] flocks, but he took the ewe-lamb of the poor man and prepared her for the man who had come to him.”
Then David burned with great anger against the man and said to Nathan, “As The Lord lives, the man who has done this is the son of death. He shall restore ewe-lambs four times because of this thing which he has done, and for his lack of heart.”
Nathan said to David, “You are the man! Thus says The Lord, God of Israel, 'I anointed you king over Israel and I rescued you from the hand of Saul. I gave you your lord's house and your lord's wives into you bosom, and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah, and if that had been too little, I would have added as much more.
Why have you despised the word of The Lord, to do what is evil in his sight? Uriah the Hittite you have murdered with the sword and his wife you took for your wife and you killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. Therefore, the sword will never turn away from your house as a consequence, because you despised me and took Uriah's wife for your wife.'
Thus says The Lord, ‘See, I will raise evil from your house against you and I will take your wives before your eyes and I will give them to your associate, and he will sleep with your wives before this very sun. For you did in secret, but I will do this thing in front of all Israel, and in front of the sun.'”
And David said to Nathan, “I sinned against The Lord.”
And Nathan said to David, “Now The Lord has passed over your sin, you will not die.”
This ends our reading of God's word from the book of Second Samuel. Psalm 51 is our unison reading. It describes David's remorse when the prophet Nathan came to him after he had gone into Bathsheba. The words apply to any of us feeling guilty for a sin we committed knowingly and intentionally, wondering how God could ever forgive us. Listen for the word of God as we read Psalm 51 together.
1 To the leader. A Psalm of David, when the prophet Nathan came to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba. Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are justified in your sentence and blameless when you pass judgment.
5 Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me.
6 You desire truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.
7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have crushed rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit.
This ends our reading of the psalm.
The psalmist made a sacrifice to God, a burnt offering of goat or lamb on an altar in the temple. As the meat was cooked, the sin was destroyed and forgiveness was available. But when the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 ce, the covenant people had to learn a new way to be faithful to God. For the Jews who became Christians, that way was Christ. They shared that way with the gentiles, and it wasn't always easy to bring these two groups together into one people of faith.
Paul writes about becoming one people in his letter to the church in Ephesus. He encourages them and reminds them of the importance of what they do. Listen for the word of God as it is found in Ephesians 4:1-16.
1 I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.
7 But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ's gift.
8 Therefore it is said, "When he ascended on high he made captivity itself a captive; he gave gifts to his people." 9 (When it says, "He ascended," what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth? 10 He who descended is the same one who ascended far above all the heavens, so that he might fill all things.)
The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, or building up the body of Christ, 13 until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ.
14 We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people's trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming.
15 But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body's growth in building itself up in love.
Anthem “For the Moments I Feel Faint”
A few years ago, writer Ann Lamott instructed graduating seminarians “‘No' is a complete sentence. Believe me, we do not need hassled, bitter ministers. We don't want you to talk the talk about this being the day the Lord hath made and that we should rejoice and savor its beauty and poignancy when secretly you're tearing around like a white rabbit; we need you to walk the walk. And we need you to walk a little more slowly.” 1
That's good advice for any Christian. Sometimes we focus on completing a task rather than being part of the body of Christ.
Walking slowly lets us do some humble self-examination which is important for those of us living in the body of Christ. It lets us know what is really going on inside us, and lets us be more honest with those around us. We can't be completely repentant and make real apologies without understanding what happened and what part we played in it. The psalm we read today is about repentance. David listened to Nathan, and repented, but only after he had tried to cover up his sins and failed.
Last week I quoted from lawyer, mediator, and Methodist Lee Borden. He described our natural and very human reaction to making mistakes. Here's how it goes:
It didn't happen.
When the truth comes out,
If it happened, it's not a problem.
And when the whole truth comes out
If it happened and it's a problem, I didn't do it.
And when the evidence is clear
If it happened and it's a problem and I did it, it's not as bad as it looks.
And when the victims come forward
If it happened and it's a problem and I did it and it's bad, what else do you expect from me when I'm so overworked, underpaid, and underappreciated?
Because really we want to believe the best of ourselves.
I'll do anything to avoid admitting that I made a mistake and that I am responsible for the harm I've caused others. 2
That's pretty much what David did. He had wives and concubines, but they weren't enough. He had to indulge his whim, even if it meant adultery. He tried to contain the problem, even if it meant deception. And the more he tried to contain it, the worse the situation got. His deeds had consequences for his wives, his children, and their children.
But God sent Nathan to tell David “You are the man.” Even though David was God's chosen king, he wasn't given a free pass on adultery and murder. Nathan had to bring him up short. Sometimes we have to tell hard truths to people, and make judgments about what's appropriate and what isn't.
The remarkable thing about the story in second Samuel is that David was willing to listen to Nathan, and he repented.
For most of us, it doesn't happen that fast.
In Lee Borden's essay called “I've Screwed Up. Now what?” he says “ Nothing relieves the pain caused by a mistake quite so effectively as a genuine and unconditional apology. There is simply no way to state strongly enough what a difference it can make in relationships…. “The problem with most apologies is they're too often cheap, premature, and incomplete.” 3
His example is ‘I'm sorry if I hurt you.'
In other words, ‘I'm sorry you are so thin-skinned and hypersensitive.'
Another one is ‘ Whatever it was that I did, I apologize.'
In other words, “I'm not going to take the trouble to examine my behavior and learn what I have to stop doing so I won't hurt you anymore.”
He says
“ I need to understand first, then apologize. I know how this works. But it's devilishly difficult to do. Among other things, it may mean that I have to slow down before apologizing, to make sure I really understand what has happened and what part I played in it.
I need to talk to everybody involved. It's not enough that I apologize to the person I insulted. I need to apologize as well to the persons who heard what I said, even if they heard it from someone else.
I need to be specific. Now that I've taken the time to understand what I did, I know what caused me to behave the way I did, and I know how the things I said and did hurt other people.
I need to describe that so it's clear that I understand my mistake. I need to apologize unambiguously. I need to say I'm sorry, and I need to be careful not to qualify it at all.
I need to describe how my mistake has affected me. Once I understand what I did, I probably know what the consequences are likely to be for me. I may realize, for example, that someone I care about deeply has trouble trusting me now. If so, I need to describe that as part of my apology. I need to describe the steps I'm taking to avoid similar mistakes in the future.” 4
So in order to repent, and to apologize, we have to understand. I think that's what Paul meant when he advised that we live with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
But that love doesn't let us off the hook when it comes to holding on to God's truth. Nathan knew he had God on his side; he was unafraid to confront the king. But for the rest of us, we are intimidated sometimes with the task of telling a hard truth.
I talked with a Japanese man who has been a Presbyterian pastor for decades. He told me how his cultural upbringing made him think first about giving offense to people and then about witnessing to the prophetic truth of the gospel. He is working to change that, but it's hard. He was at General Assembly, and he spoke his heart at the microphone about racism and prejudice. It was the first time he had done anything like that.
I've talked to other people who are afraid of doing what they know is right. They fear the complaints of their neighbors and acquaintances, and so they stay silent. There is risk in speaking the truth.
But as we are part of the body of Christ, we are called to speak the truth. There may be times when we are called to confront someone in power.
There may be times when we are called to hear someone confront us with truth.
But most of the time, we are called to speak the truth in love, with the humility, gentleness and patience Paul wrote of. We have to do that knowing that people will disagree with us, and maybe even shun and snub us. What keeps us going?
Ally and Luke sang of the help Jesus brings. Jesus had to put up with a lot of ignorance and trickery and deceit. He knew what the true task was – to love God with his whole heart and mind and soul. In our reading from Ephesians, when Paul interrupts himself and talks about Jesus ascending and descending, he is reminding people that Jesus was actually physically on earth as a human being. Jesus was one of us humans. He listened to people, and he forgave them their sins. He makes it possible for us to forgive others and be forgiven. He teaches us and strengthens us. He is the head of the body of Christ, and so is our savior, our guide, and our teacher. We can rely on what he teaches us and where he leads us. He will help us walk slowly so we can pay attention to what is important. Amen.
1Context, June 1, 2002, p. 2, quoting from February 2002 Perspectives.
2www.divorceinfo.com/screwedup.htm , Lee Borden has given permission to freely quote him, as long as they don't sell the information
3www.divorceinfo.com/screwedup.htm
4www.divorceinfo.com/screwedup.htm |
First Presbyterian Church