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You Are the Man” a Sermon by the Rev

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You Are the Man” a Sermon by the Rev THE TRIALS OF THE KING “You Are the Man” A sermon by The Rev. Dr. Douglas E. Nagel Sunday, January 5, 2020 TEXT: 2 Samuel 12:1-15 But the thing that David had done displeased the LORD, and the LORD sent Nathan to David. He came to him, and said to him, ‘There were two men in a certain city, one rich and the other poor. 2The rich man had very many flocks and herds; 3but the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb, which he had bought. He brought it up, and it grew up with him and with his children; it used to eat of his meagre fare, and drink from his cup, and lie in his bosom, and it was like a daughter to him. 4Now there came a traveler to the rich man, and he was loath to take one of his own flock or herd to prepare for the wayfarer who had come to him, but he took the poor man’s lamb, and prepared that for the guest who had come to him.’ 5Then David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man. He said to Nathan, ‘As the LORD lives, the man who has done this deserves to die; 6he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.’ 7 Nathan said to David, ‘You are the man! Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: I anointed you king over Israel, and I rescued you from the hand of Saul; 8I gave you your master’s house, and your master’s wives into your 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. 9Why have you despised the word of the LORD, to do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. 10Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house, for you have despised me, and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife. 11Thus says the LORD: I will raise up trouble against you from within your own house; and I will take your wives before your eyes, and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this very sun. 12For you did it secretly; but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.’ 13David said to Nathan, ‘I have sinned against the LORD.’ Nathan said to David, ‘Now the LORD has put away your sin; you shall not die. 14Nevertheless, because by this deed you have utterly scorned the LORD, the child that is born to you shall die.’ 15Then Nathan went to his house. ******** It was a cold Sunday morning. I was commuting from Princeton Seminary to my field education internship at the Lutheran Church of the Reformation in West Long Branch, New Jersey. My focus was on the Sunday School lesson I would teach to the youth class in about 30 minutes. I entered the Freehold traffic circle, checked my rear-view and side mirrors, flipped the turn signal indicator lever, and moved from the inside lane to the outside lane, preparing to leave the circle. Suddenly, a loud crunching noise came from the right rear of my car as a violent impact rocked the car. I couldn’t believe it! I had just had my first car accident! Where had that car come from? I had checked my mirrors. He hadn’t been there ten seconds ago. Then I knew. The car that collided with me had been in my blind spot. The car was there. I just couldn’t see it. Most modern cars now have “blind spot indicators” to let the driver know the presence of a vehicle they cannot see. Wouldn’t it be great if our lives were equipped with “blind spot indicators,” as well? How many people have made wreck of their lives because they believed the lies they were willing to tell themselves? Unaware of their blind spots, they pressed on to disastrous results. King David certainly found himself in that category. We rarely crash and burn in one rash moment. Rather, it is the seemingly insignificant choices that create the slippery slope of disaster. Let’s look at King David’s story. It all begins innocently enough. It’s a warm day in Jerusalem in the spring of the year. The armies are at war. King David remains behind. It is late afternoon. David walks on the flat roof of his house. From this vantage point, he can see down into the courtyards of the other homes. As he walks, he sees movement. It is a woman sponge bathing in a courtyard below. She is beautiful! He must find out who she is. He must discover if she is married. He sends a servant to determine the identity of this woman. Now there is something curious here. David already has six wives. They have been his wives since he lived in Hebron before moving the capital to Jerusalem. His wives are Ahinoam, Abigail, Maacha, Haggith, Abital, and Eglah. You may add in Michal, daughter of Saul, as well. However, Michal died giving birth. But wait, there’s more. David also has at least ten concubines. We know this from 2 Samuel 20:3 where it is written, “And David came to his house at Jerusalem; and the king took the ten women his concubines, whom he had left to keep the house, and put them in ward, and fed them, but went not in to them. So, they were shut up to the day of their death, living in widowhood.” You would think that with all these relationships, David could walked away from Bathsheba. He cannot. The servant returns. “She is Bathsheba daughter of Eliam and wife of Uriah the Hittite.” “Bring her,” David says. Earlier I mentioned the lies we tell ourselves. Those lies are often the justification for our behavior. We are willing to live in a world of cognitive dissonance where our actions are not in keeping with what we think of ourselves. Had you asked King David, “Is adultery wrong?” he likely would have answered with an emphatic, “Yes!” Instead, David thinks, “What is the harm? Nothing will happen. I just want to get to know one of my subjects better.” The king and a beautiful woman together alone. What could possibly go wrong? And what about Bathsheba? Doesn’t she bear some responsibility for what happens? Don’t even go there. This is a relationship of unequal power. David is a man. Bathsheba is a woman. David is the king. Bathsheba is a subject. David has power. Bathsheba has none. David even commands Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah, on of his thirty-seven top warriors. This is a relationship of unequal power that has played itself out millions of times throughout the millennia. King David is about to break one of the commandments. You’re probably thinking, “You shall not commit adultery.” Or perhaps you are thinking of the tenth commandment, that one about coveting what is not yours. However, the commandment I am thinking of is the first commandment: “You shall have no other gods before me.” When David later repents, he writes a Psalm . Psalm 51. There is no mention of the sin that brought him to repentance. There is no mention of Bathsheba. David knows where this problem began. David addresses God, “For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. 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.” (Psalm 51:3-4) The first commandment that David breaks is the one forbidding idolatry. He begins with a false view of God. The act of adultery begins with an act of idolatry. David’s blind spot is revealed in this moment. He is at the top of his game. God has allowed him to achieve amazing success, bringing him from the pasture to the palace. He has united the twelve tribes of Israel. Why now? There is a wonderful quote attributed to journalist and author G.K. Chesterton. He writes, “The first effect of not believing in God is to believe in anything.” It is not that David has stopped believing in God. Rather, it is that David, in this instance, has set aside everything he knows of the God of Israel. He has substituted a lesser god [small “G”]. Just as in the Garden of Eden, all sin derives from failure to acknowledge God as God. David asks the question, “What do I want?” and never gets around to asking the question, “What does God want?” In this moment of decision, with Bathsheba standing before him, David has convinced himself that no one will know, even God. What was going through David’s mind? Perhaps these were some of the lies David was telling himself. This is just between us. One time won’t hurt. It’s not serious. It’s just a casual fling, a one-night stand. After all, I’m the king. Who’s to know? Scratch the surface a bit deeper. Bathsheba is married. Her husband is Uriah. Uriah is a Hittite. That means that he is not an Israelite. He is a foreigner.
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