2 Samuel 11:26 – 12:13a
Psalm 51:1-12
Ephesians 4:1-16
“In a Good Way”
Our Scripture readings began this morning with a text from the 2nd Book of Samuel, continuing where we left off last Sunday in the story of King David. Just in case you missed last Sunday’s sermon, you should know that David used his position and power to satisfy his own cravings at the expense of others. He slept with another man’s wife, got her pregnant, tried to cover it up, and eventually resorted to having the husband killed in battle so that David could take her as his own wife, as we read this morning.
As is very often the case, a powerful man has gotten away with rape and murder. He’s used his privilege to get rid of the people who might complain, and he’s ready to go on with his life with a new wife and child as if that was normal. That is, until we get to the latter part of verse 11 where we read: “But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord.”
There’s no mention of Uriah’s family complaining about what King David did. And Bathsheba, who was the most deeply impacted, just mourned her husband for an appropriate length of time and then continued on with her new life. There were no protests from David’s soldiers or servants about his self-serving ways or corruption.
Everyone seemed to be willing to accept that this is the way that kings operate. They have the power to take what they want, do what they want, and live like they want, and there’s no use in complaining because that’s just the way the world works.
Except God did raise up a complaint. God was the one who had chosen, appointed, and supported David to become the king of Israel and Judah and to lead God’s own people in a good way. This was not the kind of king that God had intended David to become. David’s actions displeased the Lord.
I wonder if you’ve ever thought about the wrong things that you do in that way. Are you concerned about how God feels about your choices and actions? Or do you only feel that pang of guilt when you see how you have hurt other people?
You let our anger flare up and yell inappropriately at your kid. You see them cower and cry, and quickly realize you’ve made a terrible mistake.
Or you show special favour to someone you’re supervising at work because you really like them. But when complaints come in from the other employees that they are getting the worst shifts and being passed over for special projects, you can’t help but confront your bias and make some changes.
But what about the times when you do wrong things and no one notices, or no one says anything…
When your kid steals themselves against your anger, holding in their emotions and refusing to react to your cruelty.
When a timid employee accepts poor treatment because they don’t want to risk losing their job.
What about when you have a little too much to drink and drive home anyway? You don’t hit anyone, and there’s no road-side checkpoint to catch you out. But it was still wrong, wasn’t it?
Or what about the good intentions that you never put into action? The times you were going to call that lonely neighbour, or the help you were going to offer to someone who needed assistance, but you didn’t. You got too busy with your own priorities and never followed up to see what you could do.
Or what about the things you do or don’t do to care for the Earth that is our home? There probably isn’t someone specifically checking on you to see if you are recycling and composting and making the best choices you can for the protection and renewal of God’s good creation.
I expect that each of us could make our own list of the wrong things we continue to do and the good things we fail to do… including the things that no one else even knows about. That is, except for God.
Spiritual practices like our prayers of confession or the daily examen are intended to help us to identify our sins – not just the things we’ve been caught doing, but the stuff that we are seemingly getting away with as well. But sometimes I think we also need a little help from others to recognize the ways in which we need to change.
In our text this morning, God sends the prophet Nathan to King David to assist him in recognizing his sin. And sometimes we have people like that in our lives too – people who will call us out for our bad behaviour. And if we can avoid getting defensive and hear them out and consider their perspective, then perhaps God can use them to help us like Nathan helped David.
This Fall in our Book Club, someone suggested that we read a book titled, “White Women: Everything You Already Know About Your Own Racism and How to Do Better.” I’ve only read the preface so far, so I can’t comment on the book as a whole and whether it’s going to be helpful or not.
But I already know from reading the preface that if it’s going to be helpful at all, I’m going to need to stay humble and willing to listen. I’m going to need to stop myself from saying, “Yes, but…” and come up with reasons why it doesn’t apply to me. I know it’s going to be a hard read, but I’m going to do it with a determination to listen for the most important takeaways – How to do better.
The earliest pages of the book emphasized the authors’ conviction that all white women participate in racism, and that’s a hard thing to hear. It’s probably not dissimilar to how hard it must have been for King David to listen to Nathan’s little story about the rich man’s poor treatment of the poor man, and then to be told “You are the man!”
But the other thing I’m going to be looking for in this book… And if I don’t find it, I’ll likely need to keep reading and looking for other guides towards becoming anti-racist… I’m going to be looking for how to do better.
I can’t change the colour of my skin or completely erase the privilege that comes with it in the society in which we live. But I want to know what can I change about the way I live, the way I speak, and the way I act in order to do better, in order to live in a good way with my neighbours of all cultures, colours, backgrounds, and experiences.
I’m going to keep reminding myself as I read… And I hope that others will do the same if you read this book or delve into the problem of racism… I’m going to keep reminding myself about the good news of God’s grace and love for us. Because judgement and acknowledgement of sin is not the end of the story.
If we kept reading just a little bit further in 2nd Samuel 12, we would read that after David’s confession of sin, Nathan immediately replies: “Now the Lord has put away your sin; you shall not die.” There were consequences for David’s bad behaviour which you can read about in the rest of the chapter, but God does not completely condemn or abandon his servant David.
David prayed in the psalm we read today, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit.” And in the story of David, God was indeed faithful, forgiving, and kept on calling the king back to a good and right path as the human leader of God’s people.
In the early church at Ephesus, much of the sinful behaviour and wrongdoing between the Christians surrounded their difficulties and conflicts related to diversity. In their case, the community had come to include both Jews and Gentiles, together with all of the cultural differences and historic conflicts associated with those groups of people.
The Apostle Paul, a Jewish Christian who felt the call of God to bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, wrote to the Ephesians to teach them how to do better at living together in the loving community that God intended for them. He called out their bad behaviour and begged them to change their ways.
Paul writes: “I beg you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 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.”
He reminds them that their differences and diversities are gifts from God, and that they all belong together in the one body of Christ that is the church. He invites them to live and minister together in a good way going forward, not giving up on them for their wrongdoing, but showing them how to grow together in love.
There’s a hopefulness in that, isn’t there? It suggests that no matter what mistakes we’ve made, or what wrong things we’ve done, or what oppressive systems we’ve participated in… we can change and grow in love. By God’s grace and with God’s help, we can learn to live together in a good way.