2 Samuel 11:26-12:13; Ephesians 4:1-16.

Some time ago while I was wasting time on the internet, (which I always hate doing in hindsight but every time get stuck doing in the present), I came across a meme. If you know what a meme is you know that that is a dangerous thing to come across, because there is no such thing as “a meme”. No, there is only ever “a string of memes that began in one place and ended six hours later with no idea of how we got here and I was supposed to be in bed four hours ago and who ate all these Tim Tams?” Anyway, this one meme I had seen before, it was a photograph of a satnav for a car, and the wording read “I have just purchased the latest U2 Edition Satnav: but it’s rubbish because the streets have no name and I still haven’t found what I’m looking for”. And as I say, I had seen this meme before, so there was no need for things to escalate like they did. But they did escalate, and there was a suspicious lack of Tim Tams, a surprising number of empty coffee cups, and a debilitating lack of sleep at half past one AM because someone, who I am sure had a specific vendetta against me and my need for slumber, had commented on the meme, “oh really? Well I must have the Bonnie Tyler Edition Satnav because every now and then it falls apart”.

These twin topics are going to me my theme for August:

Every now and then it falls apart;
There was no need for things to escalate like they did;

and the reluctant hero ingredient of our story is David.

Following last week’s story of the rape of Bathsheba and the murder of her husband Uriah, we read today in 2 Samuel 11:26 that she mourned for him. In fact she made lamentation for him, so I’m suggesting there was wailing and weeping and a lot of casting herself about the room and throwing her arms in despair. It isn’t clear from the scriptures whether Bathsheba was ever made aware of how Uriah died, other than that he fell in battle at Rabbah. An army wife always knows that this is a possible outcome so it was an easy story for her to believe that he’d been killed fighting the Ammonites, (after all it’s the truth). But did she ever know David’s part in it; did she even suspect that David had had her man assassinated to cover up the rape? From last week’s story of Uriah sleeping at the palace Bathsheba may not have known that Uriah had ever come home; it’s not as if she went looking for him among the servants at the palace gate to invite him home for a bit of “rec-leave”.

In his salacious actions with Bathsheba and homicidal actions with Uriah, David has destroyed a family. In my typically sarcastic way I’m going to suggest that David has also destroyed Bathsheba’s family, because surely David’s major act of domestic desecration and destruction is at home. By murdering a woman’s husband to mask his rape of the wife, David sets in train a series of disasters that will cost him many sons (not just the infant who dies in 2 Samuel 12:18). It will also cost him his good name and reputation, and it will cost him some of the intimacy he had with The LORD, and it will very nearly cost him his kingdom. In other words, by David’s own action all that was good for him falls apart, and there was no need for things to escalate like they did. And isn’t that just the story of sin for us all, and the kick in the faith that comes when we avert our eyes from God in a sliding-doors moment?

Well, yes it is the story of sin for us all, and the kick in the faith, but what is significant for today’s story is that this is the first time we see this in David. In 2 Samuel 11:27b we read but the thing that David had done displeased The LORD. Well derr, (everyone say “derr”), yes derr because God is not in favour of rape and murder, and it seems obvious to us that The LORD might actually find such a thing displeasing. But more than the whole rapey-killy story is the fact that this is David; David after God’s own heart, David who was the opposite of Saul in every conceivable way, David the king over the People of Israel in The Land of Israel and reigning from Jerusalem. This is David: up until this point he had been “the man”, but in 2 Samuel 12:7 that is exactly what Nathan calls him, and not in a good way. This pathetic excuse for a beard-wearer, who would rather stay at home and rape the wives of his own soldiers than go to war alongside (let alone ahead of) these same armies who fight and conquer in his name is “the man”. Meanwhile a soldier so faithful that he would rather sleep in a doorway amongst the servants than go home to the warm bed of his wife because his band of brothers, let alone the actual Ark of The Covenant, is on the field of battle, is not “the man” or even “a man”. He is a lamb. He is un-manned by his king in the rape of his wife. He is murdered out of existence by his king in that slime-sniffing crowny-headed “man’s” pathetic attempt to cover his own…well “feet” I think is the Biblical euphemism generally employed here.

Derr.

In 2 Samuel 12:11-12 we read what Nathan prophesies to David’s family and his reputation, and next week we’ll read some more of what that looked like. But, basically, from these verses until 1 Kings 3:4 which we will come to in a fortnight’s time the whole thing is made plain. When I say that Nathan prophesies these things I don’t just say that he predicted them, but that he announced them. This is not only what would happen, but why it would happen: your family will be destroyed for all the world to see David, because you destroyed one innocent family in secret. Like Samson who had been strong until he saw a woman, (2 Samuel 11:2 and Judges 14:1), so David will lose his unique access to the fully powerful arm of The LORD, because in his own strength he couldn’t even keep his trousers fastened. For the remainder of David’s life Israel and Judah will be deluged under death and destruction, and the deepest pools will be in the palace itself. Sigh, over the next twenty years or so everything will fall apart for David, even as there was never a need for things to escalate like they did.

The wholeness, fullness and transparency which were so patently lacking in David (in this episode at least) are great themes of Paul. In Ephesians 4:1 we read lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called. Now David had done so, very much so until this point, but then he momentarily lost his focus on God and was distracted by the hot babe in her warm bath, at which point he began to act more like Saul. Paul would not have had this specific story in mind, but somewhere in his head he had the train of thought which said don’t be distracted from what God has called you to do by what you want to do. Maybe Paul was thinking don’t “let your flesh lead your spirit”, which works across all discipleship but is also good in the specific moments where you find yourself on the roof of your palace. In all things act with humility, gentleness, patience, bearing with one another in love says Paul, and where have we heard a list like that before? (Seriously, where? Yes, fruit of the Spirit, the external evidence of internal godliness.) There is one calling in that there is One who calls, and that we are each called to unity (oneness) within the specific jobs to which we are all sent by the Spirit. So, whether you are an apostle, a pastor-teacher, an evangelist, or a prophet, (Ephesians 4:11); or a king, a soldier, or a wife, you are called to oneness with God and to each other in God who is Father of all (Ephesians 4:6). It is too far a stretch to suggest that Bathsheba was David’s sister-in-Christ; but she and he were each offspring of God The Father. You and I all are sisters- and brothers-in-Christ, daughters and sons of The Father, so it certainly is relevant for us, (if not more so), that we heed Paul’s advice to think of common purpose and common identity as our unifying foci.

Human life is tricky, and Paul reminds us in Ephesians 4:14 there are winds by which we might be blown about, not only winds of doctrine but also winds of temptation and distraction. Jesus is aware of this, and again Paul reminds us that this is true of Jesus because he descended so as to ascend. I suggest that Jesus did not only descend into Hell and the lowest parts of the earth to redeem “The Lost”, but also that he fully dived into the place of our depravity and the places we hide our lusts and mud, to know what it is that pulls us in so that he by grace might be the one to pull us out. David’s sin was stupid, but it was human and it certainly was not unique: David was distracted by lust, but he was saved by humility and gentleness because he did reach up when God reached down. The good news to us, the gospel is that through Jesus this path to restoration and unity is available to us all. David was reconciled to God, and to Bathsheba, and to the responsibilities of kingship because of the graciousness of God and the obedience of the prophet who spoke the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15); all of these storied spaces are open to us.

Next week we will hear how the story hadn’t quite nailed everything for David, and that he was still lax in fatherhood and in kingship to the detriment of his family and his kingdom.  However, even as there is more spiralling to go for the baffled king composing his hallelujahs there will be a bottoming out and his decline will not be eternal; there is grace for David and ultimately there is some sense of recovery. More of that next Sunday.

What we have today then are two different stories; how humankind can stuff everything up, and even the best of us can make the deepest mess is the first story. The second story is that God offers hope and clear instructions around attitudes and behaviours, thinking and doing, for unity evidenced in complete restoration of broken relationships. Paul writes in Ephesians 4:2-3 of humility which was seen by his generation as the characteristic of a slave, but also of gentleness and patience which were highly prized virtues of the noble class; which suggests to me that God is above human standards. We are not called by God to be doormats in our society, but neither are we called to be gentlefolk of the Georgian era; what we are called to is unity which only God can bring, and only amongst those who continue to heed God’s ongoing call. This is not about morality (although less immorality is a good thing), or piety (again don’t let me stop you from prayer and scripture) , so much as it is about shared attention. Let us each follow God attentively, and let us show respect and support to each other who also seeks God in this way.

What David did made a mess of Bathsheba’s life, and ultimately it brought the entire Kingdom of Israel to the brink. Let’s not do that to each other, nor to The Church.  By God and through Christ we are graced to lift each other up, this is what we should do for and be for each other.

Amen.