The Conundrum of David

Our passage today from Ephesians talks about God blessing us.  It is a
beautiful passage that evokes God's goodness and blessing to us.  And then,
our Hebrew Scripture talks about one of God's favorite people, King David.
The Hebrew Scriptures are filled with the blessings that God lavished on
David.  But then, we have this story.  David at the lowest point of his
life.  David at his most selfish, stubborn and self-centered power hungry
worst.  What do we do with these two very different versions of David-one
the blessed child of God and the other, the broken sinful despicable lustful
vengeful murderer?  What are we to do with this conundrum of David?

Will you pray with me?  "God of forgiveness, teach us to forgive.  God of
unconditional love, teach us to love unconditionally.  We are broken, human,
sinful and defiant, even when we do not want to be.  We are thankful that
your unconditional love is offered to us in grace.  Amen."

So it seems a man had two sons.  The older son was a die-hard pessimist.
The younger son had unbounded optimism.  So the man decided to teach his
sons that life required balance and integration.  For the pessimist son, the
man gave him the most beautiful horse he could find.  He was sure the son
would abandon his pessimism and embrace this gift.  When he brought the
horse to the boy, the boy looked crushed and hurt, and began to cry.  "What
have I done?" the man asked the pessimist.  The pessimist answered, "Now all
my free time will be spent taking care of this stupid horse.  I no longer
have any freedom!"  The man was amazed, and became even more determined to
help his other son gain balance and freedom from his optimism.  The man
decided the most dreadful thing he could do was to fill the boy's room with
fresh horse manure.  He brought the optimist son up to his room and opened
the door, and the hall was filled immediately with stench.  The young boy
squealed with delight and started digging with his bare hands into the
manure.  The man stopped him, and said, "What are you doing?"  The boy
answered breathlessly, "Well, with all this fresh manure around, there HAS
to be a horse in here somewhere!"

Our story about King David is one of the crudest tales in the Hebrew
scripture.  Our English translation has been softened considerably, but we
can still tell what is going on.  King David has become very comfortable in
his new life as king.  He has gathered extraordinary power.  But the details
of our passage begin to tell us something has gone terribly wrong.  Even
though God chose David to be King, David is beginning to think he deserves
being the King.  The Ammonites have attacked, and we note that the army of
Israel is in the field fighting, but David has stayed home.  In that day in
ancient Israel, Kings lead the nation into battle, so we know that something
is not quite right.  Then we find out that David lazily gets up from a late
afternoon nap and takes a stroll on the palace roof.  Now, all the men of
Jerusalem are in battle.  Only the women remain in town-that is all the
women, and David.  David spies a beautiful woman, and inquires who it is.
Now this is the wife of one of David's top 4 generals-he knows exactly who
it is.  David sends for her, and she must come before the King.  The verbs
here are far more powerful in the Hebrew than in our translation-David took
her with force.  This is not a gentle tryst, but a forceful overpowering.
And David, having satisfied his lust, sends her away.  David knew she would
say nothing because she would be the one who was punished for her
unfaithfulness-not David for raping her.  The story provides some very
interesting details-this unnamed woman, Bathsheba, was purifying herself
after her menstrual period during seven days of cleansing.  So not only did
David rape her, but he took her when she was unclean and impure by the
law-David defied God as well as disrespecting Uriah and Bathsheba.  Then the
story says when David was done that she sent her home.  David was done with
her, [wash hands] and the story was over!  Well, not quite.

Bathsheba became pregnant.  David couldn't control everything it seems.  In
panic, David moves from lust to more sins of lying and deceit and treachery.
This good man of God, this man after God's own heart, this man of God who
abandoned his army and his responsibility before God and Israel and raped a
friend's wife, this man now slides further into treachery.  David brings
Uriah home from battle to get Uriah to cover up David's sin, but Uriah
honorably will not see his wife because the army is in the field and at war.
Uriah does not think it right to take advantage of his good fortune and turn
his back on his fellow soldiers-and this when David won't even go to battle.
David is surrounded by good honorable men even as his morals and honor are
completely corrupt.  And when Uriah won't see his wife, David is now forced
to murder Uriah to get him out of the way.  David spirals into a deep pit of
sin and broken humanity.

And yet.  And yet, God still loves David.  Nathan, the prophet of God,
scolds David because everybody figures out what happened.  But Nathan does
not turn his back on David.  Nathan works with David to help him recover
from his incredible fall.  And even though the tumult in David's family will
be permanent, God still keeps the promise to bring the royal line of Israel
from David.  God does not abandon David, even though in human terms his
pride, adultery, deceit and murder seem unforgivable.  The people of Israel
do not abandon David, even though they figured out what happened.  Slowly,
David turned around, David changed his mind, confessed his evil ways, and
returned to God.  Slowly David rebuilds trust with his community.  Maybe it
is precisely David's ability to return to God even after this huge failure
that endeared David to God so deeply.

What does this story tell us about God's relationship with humanity?  David
was a man of God's own heart, and yet he failed hugely, he failed humanly,
he failed with no humility.  But God still treated David in grace, and David
repented-he recovered to love and serve God again.  David sinned deeply and
profoundly and horribly, he failed at being a king, a friend, a lover, a
husband, a citizen, and yet, through grace and loving community, David
recovered.  God's grace and love are bigger than our failures.  God's love
is bigger than our most despicable sins.  God's love is stronger than our
fears or our sins.  No matter what obstacle is placed between us and God,
God unconditionally loves us.

It is that simple.  God unconditionally loves us.  If God loved David
through this entire murderous mess, then God can love little ol' you and me,
too.  And if God loves us when we are at our very worst, than we can relax
and love one another, leaving judgment and anger and hate behind.  We all
have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, Paul said.  We are all
deeply flawed like David.  And God forgives us and loves us anyway. 

God is just like that optimistic son who dived into the manure of our life,
screaming, "With all this manure here, there has to be a wonderful human
being in here somewhere."  God knows our failings and our faults and our
horrible manure secrets-just as God knew David's deep flaws-and God loves us
anyway.  God loves us with a "Who cares if you are covered in manure?" love
and grace.

So, has someone made you really, really angry-pushed all of your buttons and
taken advantage of you and disrespected you and treated you terribly?  Has
someone sinned against you, and you know you have every right to be angry
and frustrated and hurt and disdainful?  Well, first, God loves this person
with a deep and unconditional love-no matter what you think of them.  And in
your anger and judgment and hurt, God has already forgiven them, and now you
are left stewing over past details that are already forgiven by God.  You
alone are hurtful and vengeful now.

But our story gives us a beautiful example.  Think for a moment about
Bathsheba.  David raped her, sent her home, and killed her husband.  How do
you think Bathsheba felt about David?  But we know that Bathsheba reconciled
with David somehow.  Eventually, she fell in love with David, so somewhere
Bathsheba must have forgiven David and moved on.  I imagine she went to the
Prophet Nathan and said, "Help me get over my anger and hate."  And I
imagine Nathan reassuring her that God was not happy with David, but that
God had forgiven David, and she needed to do the same.  "Forgive and move
on," said Nathan.  Bathsheba is the real heroine here!

Forgiveness is not easy.  But every time I am furious with another for
making me angry or dishonoring me or hurting me, I remember this story of
David and Bathsheba.  Nathan had to forgive David to work with him.
Bathsheba had to forgive David to live with him.  And, perhaps most
difficult of all, David had to forgive himself for the rash brutal lust that
tore his life apart.  Only by forgiving himself could David grow into the
dream that God had for him to be the best King for Israel.  This rape-cover
up-murder was such a huge mess on so many levels that forgiveness was the
only way forward.  But God also knows about all of our failures.  And God
forgives us, too.  Now, if we could just learn to forgive others and forgive
ourselves in the same way.

What do you refuse to forgive yourself for?  Some unkind word or flash of
anger?  Have you ever gone so far as to rape someone?  David did, and God
still loved David.  Have you ever murdered someone to cover up infidelity?
David did, and God still loved David.  God's unconditional love is based on
God's character-not ours.  We can do nothing to lose God's love.  Now God's
love does not give us permission to do whatever we want and then just
say-"No problem. God still loves me."  God is not a scapegoat.  Heaven on
earth will only come when we are at peace with God and not lying to God
about our motives.  God knows our hearts, and we will only have the peace
that surpasses knowledge from our passage in Ephesians when we are square
with God, and love God with all of our hearts and all of our minds and all
of our souls, and love one another as ourselves.  All growth and happiness
leading to heaven on earth starts and ends with love.  And if you cannot
love and forgive, then you have blocked the kingdom of heaven from your
life.  No forgiveness and no love means no life.

So, no matter who you are, no matter what horrible thing you have done, no
matter who you have hurt or sinned against, you are welcomed here, because
we know that God still loves you.  Here, we are a community like that around
the prophet Nathan.  We will continue to work together in spite of the fact
that we are all sinful and hurtful sometimes.  And together, together, we
will love each other into heaven on earth. 

David was a man after God's own heart, but a man who also deeply hurt many
around him and murdered to try and get away with it.  What on earth do we do
with this conundrum of David? 

We forgive him, just as God forgave him.  Even though his sins were horrific
and violent and tasteless, we forgive him.  As we forgive those who trespass
and sin against us.  And as we forgive ourselves.  And then, we move on in
unconditional love, just like God always does.  Amen.