Ninth Sunday after Pentecost
July 26, 2015, 2 Samuel 11:1-15
The tale of King David, Bathsheba and Uriah the Hittite is the stuff soap opera is made of. A powerful man behaves as powerful men always do in soap opera. He sees what he wants. It’s not a choice for him. He follows his desire. She has no choice but to fulfill his desire.
Actions have consequences. But the powerful man can handle anything. Enter the unfailingly loyal, no doubt loving, but wronged husband. His commander tells him to go home. Love and nature will cover the crime.
The faithful man chooses duty over desire. We may think him a fool for passing up a chance to go home early to his beautiful wife. But soap opera heroes and villains stay true to their natures. The good man does the noble thing. The bad man exploits the good and gets his way.
Next Sunday, David will face judgment for his deeds and hear a prophecy of endless strife in his household. He will confess his sin. The son born to Bathsheba will die. (In soap opera and ancient story, mothers always suffer.)
But this is the Bible. David’s still a hero. He and Bathsheba will have another son, who will survive all the strife around him. Solomon will be a better king than his father ever was, though not a better father.
Can we find anything to preach in this story? We could read it as a fable. The moral? You may have what you need to get what you want, but God will get you in the end! But in life, as in soap opera, it’s never as clear-cut as that. This is the Bible. David’s
still a hero.
There’s an old saying. “Man proposes, God disposes.” The mystic Thomas à Kempis may have said it first. Plan what you will, but God’s will will be done. It’s never as clear-cut as that. It helps to believe God can pull some good purpose out of the worst messes we make. It leaves us asking why God would allow us to cause people we love such pain when we are at fault. Does God allow us freedom to abuse others so we’ll realize we need to repent?
According to the theology Samuel and David represent, David is God’s man no matter what he does. God will bless him. God will punish him. David is still God’s choice for king and founder of a dynasty. David has freedom in his relationship with God. God’s will is always done, not always with David’s full cooperation. Lesser beings get hurt along the way.
This is the Bible. But this isn’t the whole Bible. David is God’s covenant partner, but not God’s only partner. This is one of the best-known Old Testament stories. But it’s not the whole Old Testament story. It does, however, reflect a theme that runs throughout Old Testament: I am God. You are not. Trust me.
God is holy. We may aspire to holiness, but we’ll never attain it this side of heaven. Anything good we do in God’s name is God’s, not ours. If we have power to do good, we also have the capacity to use that power for our own satisfaction. That’s the truth, but we’re not condemned forever by it.
The heroes of our faith are all flawed. They have more than feet of clay. But we know what God can do with clay. David died a tragic figure, grieving his sins and the blood he shed. The kingdom he united barely survived his son’s reign.
The church has always been at its worst when it has adopted Samuel and David’s theology. The church has always been most faithful when it has remembered that power—its own or anyone else’s—isn’t God.
