“The Innocent Pay the Price”

II Samuel 11-12 Selected

August 2, 2009 + Ninth Sunday after Pentecost

Pilgrim Congregational United Church of Christ

400 Glenwood Drive

Chattanooga, Tennessee 37404

Rev. David Brown

“Coincidence is God’s sense of humor.” I forget who said that first but I wish I had! For the past several months we have had a spate of news reports telling us about the extra-marital affairs of various politicians and today, lo and behold, our Old Testament lesson from the lectionary is the story of David and Bathsheba’s adulterous affair. Though the world of the first millennium B.C.E. was very different than our world today, there are some lessons to be learned that are timeless.

Let me begin by giving you the “Cliff Notes” summary of the life of David. David was a man of many talents, someone today we would call a renaissance man. He was brave in all types of situations. He was a skilled leader of armies. He was a master politician. He also had incredible ability as a poet and musician. Some of the greatest Psalms in the Bible are traditionally believed to have been written by him, including the beloved 23^rd Psalm. He was a man of enormous charisma, admired by men and adored by women. If our name is part of our destiny, then David’s name says it all. In Hebrew David means “Beloved.” His name is ambiguous enough to suggest that not only is David beloved of God, he is also beloved of men and even more fatefully beloved of women.

David’s story begins when he is plucked from obscurity by Samuel, the last judge of Israel, to take the place of King Saul. To add to his other gifts, the Bible describes David as a ruddy, handsome fellow with beautiful eyes. I think this is scripture’s way of telling us he had bedroom eyes! After David is anointed King-to-be by Samuel he quickly comes to the attention of King Saul. The Bible suggests two possible reasons for this. The first is his killing of the giant Philistine, Goliath, who had terrorized the Hebrew army. The second explanation is that David was able to sooth Saul’s deep depression by his playing and singing. In any case, David rose high in Saul’s favor and eventually became a close friend of Saul’s son Jonathan and the husband of Saul’s daughter Michal. However, David’s military successes and growing popularity among the people made Saul deeply jealous. After Saul tried to kill him, David fled into the wilderness and became the leader of an outlaw band that raided along the border of Israel and Philistia.

When Saul and Jonathan were both killed in battle, David was quickly acclaimed King of Israel. In a relatively few years he was able to defeat the countries around Israel and put Israel on the political map of the world for the first time. No other leader in Israel’s history was able to accomplish so much. Along the way, he acquired several wives, some of whom already had husbands.

When we see him in today’s scripture story David is enjoying the good life in his palace at Jerusalem. By all rights, David shouldn’t have been there. In the telling words of the Bible: “In the spring of the year, the time when kings go forth to war, David sent Joab with his officers and all Israel with him (out to war) but David remained at Jerusalem.” David had reached that point in his life when other men would fight his battles.

Late one afternoon, David was walking on the roof of his palace and saw on a roof beneath him a beautiful woman bathing. David’s roving eye was instantly attracted to her. He made inquiries and found that she was Bathsheba, the wife of one of David’s officers, Uriah the Hittite. David sent for her and she came to the palace and their affair began. Scripture is ambiguous enough to suggest that Bathsheba may have arranged for David to see her at her bath. Her later history would certainly show her to be a woman determined to get her own way. But, after all, it was David’s responsibility. One of Rembrandt’s great pictures shows Bathsheba at the moment she receives David’s invitation. She looks troubled and uncertain. However it may have happened, powerful men will have their way.

All too soon Bathsheba becomes pregnant and David tries to find a way to cover up their adulterous affair. (That sounds modern enough, doesn’t it?) David orders the unsuspecting Uriah home from the front and tries every way he can think of to get Uriah to go home and sleep with his wife so that Bathsheba can claim the child is his. But brave, loyal, foolish Uriah will have none of it. He refuses to enjoy the pleasures of home while his soldiers are still in the field. Exasperated David orders Uriah back to the army with a message for Joab: “Arrange for this man to be killed in battle as soon as possible.” Like all powerful politicians David has men to do his dirty work for him and Joab did as he was told.

When news of Uriah’s death in battle reaches Jerusalem, David marries Bathsheba as soon as decently possible. They both assume that all their troubles are behind them. In due time Bathsheba bears David a son. But as powerful leaders seem never to learn, there is no privacy for the powerful. People in the palace knew what had happened and soon all Jerusalem was gossiping about it and the gossip came to the ears of Nathan the Prophet. In one of the greatest scenes in all the Bible, Nathan tricks David into condemning himself with a story of how a wealthy man had taken the only ewe from his poor neighbor. Incensed, David declares the man who did it deserves to die. Nathan thunders at David, “Lo ha-ish,” “You’re the man!” To his credit, David is suitably sorry for what he has done. The Psalm we read responsively earlier in our service (Psalm 51) is traditionally thought to have been David’s prayer to God for mercy after his confrontation with Nathan. Nathan takes David at his word, but prophesies David will have serious marital and family discord for the rest of his life and this is exactly what happened. Nathan also says that David and Bathsheba’s son would die and this also occurred. Both Uriah and the unnamed child are the innocent victims of David’s misplaced passion.

But whether 1000 years before Christ or in this year of our Lord 2009 the innocent still continue to pay the price, don’t they? Though the public misdeeds of politicians catch the headlines with all the shame and embarrassment for their spouses and their families, the pain is no less great for those of us out of the spot light. When a spouse or partner violates that special trust between two people there is deep hurt and the hurt spreads to so many others: children, family members, friends, co-workers and the list goes on and on. If this story and this sermon have any point, it is simply this: think of the consequences your actions will have on others before you act on impulsive feelings. As my Dad used to say, “All a poor man has is his reputation.” And a poor woman, too.

What has all this to do with communion? Again, simply this: We are invited to come to communion as those who are sincerely sorry for the ways in which we have hurt others and determined with God’s help to live better lives in the future. In that spirit let us come to the table.

*cf. E. J. Dionne, Jr., “Rediscovering the True Calling,” Chattanooga Times Free Press, 4/12/09, p. F4.

**quoted by M. Cathleen Kaveny, “Prophetic Discourse in the Public Square,” 2008 Santa Clara Lecture, p. 24.