Readings: Psalm 89:20-37, Ephesians 3:14-21, Mark 6:30-34, 53-56, 2 Samuel 11:1-15
Preached at Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church, NY, July 28 2024
David in the Bible is usually remembered for three things. Firstly, that he slaughtered Goliath. Secondly, that he was the King of Israel out of whose royal line came the Messiah, and thirdly, that he had an adulteress relationship with Bathsheba. It is the third of those things that our Bible reading this morning focused upon.
It’s a story though that isn’t really about adultery, but about the abuse of power. It’s about how any of us, even the seemingly most godly and blessed, can still be driven by dark thoughts and deceptive hearts. It’s a story about sin and the consequences of trying to cover up our deeds rather than turn to God in repentance.
Think of it firstly as a story about 'The Abuse of Power.'
It has been said that power corrupts, and that absolute power corrupts absolutely. David has reached a position in life where he feels as though he can do whatever he pleases. For sure he has battled strong and hard to get to this place, and there is some justification to notion that it was time that he kicked back for a while and enjoyed the fruits of his labors.
But there seems to be more than that going on in this story. For one thing the text tells us that it was the time of year when he should have been out on the battlefield with his troops, but that he had stayed home. And it’s not as if he is staying home because of any political crisis on the home front that needed his undivided attention. He simply isn’t fulfilling his responsibilities in the way he was expected to.
For another thing he very much appears to have taken on a casual attitude to his life. The scripture tells us that he doesn’t get up off his couch until late afternoon and that when he does the only task he has in mind is wandering around the rooftop to pass away the time. You’ve heard the saying maybe that ‘The Devil makes work for idle hands to do’?
Why did David stay at home when the other kings went out to battle? Was he feeling old? Tired? Worn out? Used up? No longer a fighter but a lover? What did David see in Bathsheba? Another chance to be young? Another opportunity for conquest? Someone he had to have at any cost? There’s a movie called ‘Moonstruck’, in which Olympia Dukakis’s character wonders why men have affairs. Her conclusion? “Because they fear death.” Is that what’s going on here?
It’s the absolute power that David has that leads him to his doom. He sees Bathsheba. He sees that she is beautiful. He knows she belongs to somebody else, but his desire is greater than his convictions. So, he takes her.
In the story we are never told that Bathsheba was a willing accomplice in the affair. Just that David took her. It really was an act of abuse. What the King wanted the King took. He wanted Bathsheba and as far as we know Bathsheba had no choice but to go to him.
So, she is taken to him. And next thing we hear of her is that there is a baby on the way. The story functions as a warning against the abuse of power. It also warns us that; even the most godly can by driven by deceptive hearts.
David was a great fighter when it came to the battles outside of himself. He was brave, courageous, fearless, and heroic. Yes, he took down giants. But there was one sleeping giant that got the better of him. The deceptiveness of his own heart. It was one thing to fight the battles outside of himself. It was another to deal with the battle that lay within him self.
When he was younger, he had everything to fight for. He was idealistic, faithful, and full of ambition. But now he seems to have struck some sort of mid-life crisis. His ideals have been circumnavigated. He’s going through religious motions, but his heart is somewhere else. His commitment to God seems to have taken a recess.
One of the doctrines of the Reformed tradition is the notion of Total Depravity. You could describe it in this way. That as we go through our lives, no matter how much we have been influenced by God, no matter how far down the spiritual road we may have traveled, there always remains the inclination for us to go our own way, rather than to seek God’s will.
If I could formulate a doctrine on the nature of man, I personally would suggest not ‘Total depravity’ but ‘Total stupidity.’ I’ve lost count of the number of times I have been in a situation where I’ve just thought, ‘This is so stupid’, where I have thought, ‘How can people be so blind to consequences?’
Sad to say I’ve all too often had to complain to myself, “How could I have been so stupid? How was it I couldn’t have avoided that? How come I never saw that one coming? How did I miss that?” The doctrine of total stupidity.
In our youth, before we even know what stupid means, we start doing stupid things. We grow up and do stupid things. As we get older, under the guise of maturity we become accomplished in stupid ways and conclude that it’s just the way we are. And so it goes on. The doctrine of total stupidity... you heard it here first.
David does something stupid. He betrays not only his personal integrity, but all that he stood for, his God, his people, his faith. And the frightening thing is, that as he goes through the whole process, he seems totally unaware of the wrongness of his actions, and that stupidity grows and becomes intensified until he’s left in a corner from which there is no escape.
Which brings us to another aspect of this account. It’s a story about sin and the consequences of trying to cover up our deeds rather than turn to God in repentance.
Instead of confessing to his infidelity with Bathsheba, he instead puts himself heart and soul into a cover-up. There was a baby on the way. ‘O.K. Let’s think. I know, I’ll get Uriah, her husband back from the battle, he’ll go home, sleep with his wife and everybody will think it’s his baby. Nobody but Bathsheba will know, and it’s more than her life is worth to convince anybody otherwise.’
So, Uriah is brought back from the battle. But he is not so easily dealt with. He is a man of commitment and loyalty. He knew he should be out with the troops. He doesn’t want to be disloyal to his king or his fellows out in the battlefield. So, no, he won’t go home to Bathsheba. Not till the battles over.
David even sends him presents and gets him drunk to try and convince him to go home to Bathsheba, but the man’s loyalty to David won’t let up. So, David does the unthinkable. He sends him back to the front line with a letter that was Uriah's death warrant. David’s deception leads to Uriah's death.
Joab, the commander, puts Uriah in the line of fire, and Uriah, along with some others lose their lives. All because of David’s inability to conquer the deceptiveness of his own heart. The consequence of trying to cover up his sin leads to death, to murder and to chaos. And for a while David thinks he had got way with it.
We have not got time right now to go into the whole story of what followed, but briefly it can be put like this. David is confronted by the prophet Nathan who tells him a parable about injustice. The King is outraged… until he realizes the parable is about him. Only then is he moved to repentance and confession of his deeds.
His sin has terrible consequences. There are a number of deaths in his family. Things do not go well. It’s a mess. When people of power make mistakes, there is always a mess. Private indiscretions can lead to consequences never dreamed of. Who would have thought that David’s sleepy afternoon walk could have led to rape and murder?
Let’s not however leave the story there. Let’s not end today by thinking, “Well, that’s that. We mess up and we’re stupid. There’s no hope for us!”
Into the mess comes the Grace of God.
Out of the mess came redemption.
David turns to God in heart- rending repentance. And now it is God’s turn to do the unthinkable. God forgives David. Is that fair? A man in such a position as he was? A man who had been involved in such despicable actions? God forgives?
Scandalous, isn’t it? Such is the scandalous nature of the Grace of God. Think of it this way, “What one of us has never messed up things for ourselves and in the process messed up things for others? Who amongst us has never fallen victim to total stupidity?”
But does God stand off from afar and say, “That’s it you blew it. Game over. Go straight to Hell. Do not pass 'Go'. Do not collect two hundred dollars.” Instead, God calls to us from the Cross of Jesus Christ saying, “Forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.”
Jesus Christ came to the center of the stupidity and mess of our world. Were we thankful? No, just as Uriah’s loyalty led to his death, we betrayed the love of God and crucified His Son on the cruel cross of Calvary’s hill.
But again, God’s love broke through. An empty Tomb. A proclamation that Christ Risen. The growth of the church community in the power of the Holy Spirit. The message at the heart of it all, exactly the same. God can redeem. The mess of your lives is not the last word God has to say about your lives.
Believe that Jesus died on the Cross in order to redeem a life that is as full of stupid mistakes as ours is. Believe in the resurrection presence of Christ, that death nor hell can triumph over such love. Believe in the presence of the Holy Spirit to convict, to renew, to empower, to lift us out of the wreckage and set our lives on a new course.
Believe it or walk away from it and trust the integrity of your own heart to get you through. See yourself in God’s eyes or do what is right in your own eyes. But bear in mind the lessons of David’s fall from grace.
Thinking we are all-powerful can lead to deadly actions. That no matter how much integrity we think we may have, or how virtuous our actions can be most of the time, the heart is a deceptive sleeping giant that can make fools of us when we least expect it.
Finally, don’t let sin have the final word. Seek grace and forgiveness and renewal. Without God we are stuck with the mess and stupidity of our own lives. Whilst that mess and that stupidity always have consequences, it is out of the mess that God brings hope.
From out of David’s actions, God worked to bring about a Messiah for all the world. Solomon was the son of Bathsheba who became David’s successor to the throne of Israel. There is a sense of irony that Solomon, a child conceived by David’s act of stupidity, became known as one who possessed great wisdom.
There is hope for us! The Wisdom of God is greater than our stupidity. The grace of God is greater than our sin. The love of God is greater than the mess of our lives.
Believe it.
Live it.
Thank God.
AMEN.
The Reverend Adrian J. Pratt B.D.
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