The last few weeks with been reading
through parts of the old testament. Two weeks ago it we heard of God speaking
to the people of Israel through Moses, and handing down what have become known
as the 10 commandments. The people needed to learn a different way to the after
they came out of slavery in Egypt.
Then last week we heard from the
final speech of Joshua, by this time the people of Israel were in the new land,
the land that God had promised to Abraham.
And this morning here we are with
jump all the way up to second Samuel and Nathan confronting David. So what
happened in between?
After the book of Joshua comes the
book of Judges, where we hear stories of some faithful people but we also see how
flawed humanity can be at times. Until this point in time Israel had never had
a King. In chapter 8 of the first book of Samuel that people ask the Prophet
Samuel for a king. Last week when Joshua asks the people who they would follow,
he warned them that choosing God was not an easy road. The Prophet Samuel reminds
the people of what happens when you have a king :
“This
is how your king will treat you,” Samuel explained. “He will make soldiers of
your sons; some of them will serve in his war chariots, others in his
cavalry, and others will run before his chariots. 12 He will
make some of them officers in charge of a thousand men, and others in charge of
fifty men. Your sons will have to plough his fields, harvest his crops, and
make his weapons and the equipment for his chariots. 13 Your
daughters will have to make perfumes for him and work as his cooks and his
bakers. 14 He will take your best fields, vineyards, and olive
groves, and give them to his officials. 15 He will take a
tenth of your grain and of your grapes for his court officers and other
officials. 16 He will take your servants and your best cattle[a] and donkeys, and make them work for him. 17 He
will take a tenth of your flocks. And you yourselves will become his
slaves. [1 Samuel 8: 11-17]
but the
people did not take notice, they continued to demand a king and God appointed
Saul as King, which is whole other story. David is the second king of Israel.
Because
of David's actions prior to becoming king, his faithfulness to God, the killing
of Goliath, the people had high expectations that David would be a king after
God's own heart. But David was as human as any one of us.
A few
points to remember as you consider the passage we heard read this morning:
- it was usual during war time for the King to be with his troops, not comfortable at home.[i]
- While the nation was at war, troops did not engage in normal family activity, even when back in their home city. This was about being in solidarity with the rest of the troops.
- Uriah is named as a Hittite, one of the peoples whose land was colonised by the people of Israel.
- Bathsheba was considered property. Any crime was committed against her husband, the theft and misuse of his property, rather than a crime against Bathsheba.
The
story that preceded this passage; the
complex relationship between David, Bathsheba, and Uriah, could well be part of
the modern-day soap opera. Greed, power and lust. David, the one who was to be
the great king, is shown to be fallible and weak, and self-centred.
I
wonder where we see in our world today and misuse of power?
where
do we see in our world today poverty due to greed?
where
do we see in our world today lust that masquerades as love?
where
do we see relationships that are self-centred?
It was
rare for anyone to challenge the King. The King had absolute power, and as in
today's world there are many people who will praise, and do whatever is
necessary to keep the one in power satisfied and comfortable. And often we do
that to ourselves. It is easy to excuse our behaviour, to excuse our consumerism,
our avoidance of people who are different to us. It is easy to excuse our lack
of empathy for people in other countries, or whose lives are very different to
ours.
two
quotes [ on PPT slide]:
“it is
sinful to impoverish the powerless for the sake of your own greed.”
“People
of privilege tend to become accustomed to a world that conforms to their
desires.”[ii]
one
part of this passage that I find troubling, is that the child will die. David
is forgiven, but the child dies.
I don't
have any fancy way of making this seem any better than how it reads. Sometimes life
just isn't fair.
The other
thing to note is that sin has consequences, for us, and for others. The sin of
greed, of lust, of power all have consequences. Our desire for cheap goods and
services denies others a fair wage and working conditions. Our desire for the
latest gadgets uses the earth's resources. Our demands for choice, means
retailers attempt to have a wide variety of food available at all times,
leading to waste.
Jesus
wasn't the only one to use parable is, Nathan uses a parable, a story, to get
his point across. If he had confronted David about his behaviour, I suspect the
response would have been very different. Often we are moved by a story, or an
experience, more than by the harsh reality of the effect of our behaviour. We
all need Nathans in our life. We all need someone who will hold a mirror up to
us and show us what we are really like, to call out our bad behaviour.
Who
does God use to speak to you, to challenge the comments that put down another
person, another race, another religion?
Who does
God use to challenge your shopping choices, your lifestyle?
Who
does God use to challenge you?
Who
holds up a mirror to you?
We
all need people like Nathan in our lives.
And
like David we need to recognise our sin. Like David we need to say, and mean, “I
have sinned against the Lord".
We need
to acknowledge and confess our sin. God is always ready to forgive us, but we
need to do the hard work of confession, of seeing ourselves as we really are.
Seeing ourselves as broken people in a broken world. We need to do the hard
work of accepting that some of our choices have negative consequences for other
people.
Confession
is not the end, confession is the transition. Just as David could not undo murder,
betrayal, adultery; we cannot undo the consequences of sin. That is why I say
confession is a transition. It is not about us feeling better about ourselves,
but recognising our weakness, and our involvement in inequality and abuse in
the world. Confession signals a change in us, because in confession we not only
acknowledge our wrongdoing, but we commit to live as new people, God's people.
we will
now join in a prayer of confession based on psalm 51, there is a sung response.
http://re-worship.blogspot.ca/2012/02/litany-of-confession-psalm-51.html
I love your questions, very thought provoking. And the mirror image, too.
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