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THE SIN OF A LIFETIME
2 Samuel 11:1-12:1a
Dr. Karl Menninger, in his groundbreaking book Whatever Became of Sin? Includes this true account:
On a sunny day in September, 1972, a stern-faced plainly dressed man could be seen standing still on a street corner in the busy Chicago Loop. As pedestrians hurried by on their way to lunch or business, he would solemnly lift his right arm, and pointing to the person nearest him, loudly intone the single word: “GUILTY!” Then without any changes of expression, he would resume his stiff stance for a few moments before repeating the gesture. Then, again, the inexorable raising of his arm, the pointing, and the solemn pronouncing of the one word, “GUILTY!” …. One man turning to another [who Menninger said was his informant] exclaimed: “But how did he know?” No doubt many others had similar thoughts. “How did he know indeed?”
[Bantam Books, 1973, p. 1,2]
Fast forward to 2021. Whatever became of sin, and the acknowledgement of sins? We are in a time when acts of infidelity are denied and then litigated. We are in a time when senses of right and wrong seem old-fashioned as politicians and other people in communities are playing loosely with moral laws and stomping on standards of courteous or redemptive living. One of our sister churches instituted a “40 Days of Kindness” initiative, instructing members to show kindness toward others. In other years, such a step might not have been needed, but this year it could be revolutionary. We are leaning more and more heavily on our court systems to decide verdicts on issues. Years ago, most disagreements could be figured out with the help of a pastor, a counselor, or a sheriff, but today the Supreme Court docket is more full than ever. Even Hollywood dramas may seem tame compared to the real stories of real people these days. And so, we get numb to wrongdoing. It’s just another day in America. The stories in the Bible that used to cause outrage when compared with current situations and stories barely hold sway. But today, I hope we can turn down the static and turn away from our televisions or computers or phones that show powerful men and women in compromising situations. Those should not be the norm, though they are. We click our tongues or shake our heads and move on to the next story. We have a malaise of morality. One of the tools that move human beings back onto the path of faithful living is shame, something the fewer people feel. Professor and author Brene Brown describes shame in almost all of her addresses or books. Listen to one thing she wrote: “Shame is that warm feeling that washes over us, making us feel small, flawed, and never good enough.” Shame is not useful if it just makes us feel like not enough. But shame is useful if it guides us to face our sins and own our flaws. It can be the nudge that moves us toward wholeness again.
The tale you are about to hear is almost ripped from our headlines: a political man of power had a chance view of a stunningly beautiful woman. He desired her, though she was married to one of the most faithful men in his kingdom. But he had power; delicious power; so as king, he decided to take her for himself. He was her ruler, so she feels powerless to resist. By his act, she conceived a child. He tried to get the woman’s husband, Uriah, who was out at the battlefront protecting the kingdom, to return to spend the night with his own wife. But the husband was too loyal a soldier to the king to do so. So the king sends him back to the front so he will be killed in battle. That king is David—not the young shepherd boy, but the great, grown, powerful political man. The woman is the beautiful Bathsheba, wife to Uriah. A prophet named Nathan learns of the king’s behavior and points it out to him like the man on the Chicago street did to others, raising his arm and shouting “GUILTY!” Like Jiminy Cricket, who was appointed by the Blue Fairy to serve as Pinocchio’s official conscience in that Walt Disney cartoon, he tried to teach Pinocchio to never tell a lie with his warning “And always let your conscience by your guide!” When Pinocchio does lie in the story, his nose grows long to display his infraction to everyone. But alas, there are fewer signs of lying with real humans, others than blushing, shouting, or denials. Nathan the prophet called on King David to find his conscience again. Finally, perhaps out of shame for his actions, David fell to his knees in repentance with words captured in Psalm 51 that we will examine next week. This week “The Sin of a Lifetime;” next week, “The Confession of a Lifetime.” David learns lessons that some in our day have yet to learn: there are always consequences for sins. Children lose respect for you as do family members and colleagues. The ladder of advancement once being climbed may reach an impenetrable ceiling. In David’s case, not only does he not get to build the Temple of the Lord, (his son Solomon got to instead,) the son he had with Bathsheba in his lusty infidelity dies. God’s standard is for our consciences to move us toward honesty; that our honesty move us toward repentance; and that repentance reconcile us to relationships that we have burned. This huge story in chapters 11 & 12 of Second Samuel is a very long portion of the Bible to be read in a church service, so we included the highlights—or maybe the lowlights—for you. Professor Walter Brueggemann is a major Bible teacher and theologian. He has even spent a couple of days in Daytona Beach teaching pastors. Listen to his comment on this passage:
We are now at the pivotal point in the …plot of the books of Samuel. We are also invited into the presence of delicate subtle art. We are at the threshold of deep, aching psychology, and at the same time we are about to witness a most ruthless political performance. In this narrative we are in the presence of greatness. For David and for Israel, we are at a point of no return. Innocence is never to be retrieved. From now on the life of David is marked, and all Israel must live with that mark. We pause before this artistic rendering, because this text, like none other we have considered, has the power and the subtlety to address us. [It calls us to face the questions] of human desire and human power—desire with all its delight, power with all its potential for death. [INTERPRETATION: First and Second Samuel, Louisville: John Knox Press, 1990. P.271-272]
This is one of the most shocking stories in the Bible, but does it still have power compared to the headlines of our days? Has the human race left its grounding in the Bible behind, or do we just consider the virtues of moral living on Sunday mornings? Are we still “One nation under God?” This is one of the biggest downfall stories in the Bible, a guide for living with the voice of Nathan as our conscience. It is not a relic to be left in the past, but a living Word from which we plumb the lines of our own lives. The sordid consequences of King David’s actions led to unspeakable acts by one of David’s sons—Amnon—had forced relations with his sister Tamar, and because that happened, his brother Absalom plotted to and succeeding in killing his brother Amnon. All of that is in the Bible! But there are corrections there too. Such activities could not stand in the sight of God nor the faithful community, nor should the sordid actions of others today stand in the sight of God or of others. Can outrage give voice to our consciences? Can corrections rise from our souls? And if we do identify sin in our own soul, the step that David learned—the corrective is repentance. Let Christians—guided by the Bible—lead people in our nation away from just legal procedures to honest acknowledgment of sins. Reformers cried out that “God alone to be Lord of the Conscience.” May it be so in 2021 as it was in 1517 and beyond. Thanks be God for prophets and reformers who still sought to lead others away from sin and back to God.
Let us pray: O God: though we may try to hide our sins, to you we live in glass houses. Nothing is hidden from you. When we are exhausted from trying to hide our sins, invite us to come back to you, to bow down and to admit them. Perhaps we need to sit in the statements of our sins for a while. Then, when we are ready to be reconciled, lead us to do so with others, and with you. Though Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Jeffrey A. Sumner October 31, 2021