David and Bathsheba

Sermon preached at Grace church, Arundel; 29th July 2018

Last year, as Ali and I were on our paddle journey from Buckhorn to Trenton, we felt a little as those disciples must have done, rowing hard against a heavy sea.  We had just come out from the shelter of some islands when we met a headwind and a rising sea.  It was no good, we were making no progress at all, the canoe was heavily laden and at risk of taking on water; we would just have to get off the water. 
And that’s when we met Ron and Cheryl who not only invited us to land on their beach but also offered us the use of their cabin for the night.  A little miracle.

But, a bit like the rising sea of our own story, and the disciple’s story, I have been fighting with this sermon for two weeks. 

So, to begin, I think these readings are about the nature of kingship.  Jesus, the leader with a heart for his people; the miracle of sharing - sharing such that that I don’t doubt we shall see mirrored at the pic-nic this afternoon, so many people fed from such an inauspicious beginning. 

“When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, ‘This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.’

 When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.”

Jesus the leader with a heart for his friends and followers, battling with a heavy sea, every nerve straining so that, when his familiar figure appears unexpectedly out of the spray and gloom, they can’t believe their eyes and are terrified.

“But he said to them, ‘It is I; do not be afraid.’ Then they wanted to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the land towards which they were going.”

But this beautiful, encouraging gospel isn’t all we have to hear today.  We are, in fact, faced with a very dark story indeed that not only asks questions about kingship but also asks questions about our ability to discern, accept and forgive error in our leaders.

If David was around today I have no doubt whatsoever that he would have been “outed” – quite rightly by present standards – as at the very least having exploited his position of power to pull Bathsheba to his bed.  Folks would have very properly highlighted his “sending” for her, and what’s more, drawn attention to his awful attempts to cover up his at least coercive lust for her.

Later, in a physical attempt to lie about his actions, he tries to persuade Uriah, her husband, to go to her bed so that it could seem that any child born might, by some slight chance, be his not David’s.

And worse, when that fails, David arranges to get Uriah killed.  If not by his own hand, David, this paragon of Jewish kingly history, is a murderer.

Of course, it is very true to say that this relationship – for David later takes the mourning Bathsheba as his wife - one of several it has to be said - that this relationship flourishes and that David holds her above all his other wives.  But then, maybe that has something to do with “she knows where the body’s buried”.

Commentaries around this issue range from the current “Hash MeToo” variety, properly calling out David’s appalling behaviour, even by the standards of what we know of bronze-age society, to the frankly anodyne.

Here’s one of the latter:

“Women had few rights in ancient times.

When King David summoned Bathsheba, she had no choice but to sleep with him. After David had her husband murdered, she had no choice when David took her for his wife.
Despite being mistreated, she learned to love David and saw a promising future for Solomon.
Often circumstances seem stacked against us, but if we keep our faith in God, we can find meaning in life.

God makes sense when nothing else does.”

I’m happy for Bathseba’s shade if she did in fact come to love David.  But I suspect that some at least of her happiness came in managing to promote the interests of her son, Solomon, above those of David’s other children.  We have wonderfully seen these powerful, protective “she-wolves” throughout history.  Hooray for Bathsheba.

“Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, for ever and ever.”

But what about the effect of David’s Kingship on the people around Bathsheba?  When she was “fetched” by the messengers, why did none of them have the courage to cry “what are we doing”?  And what was Joab thinking when he received and acted on that letter?
“In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by the hand of Uriah.  In the letter he wrote, ‘Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him, so that he may be struck down and die.’

What was Joab thinking?

Kings rule by consent, by force of arms sometimes but rarely if ever by force of their own arms.  They rely on their closest circle, and on the acquiescence of those whom they rule, to wield their power.

I think we have to be awake to the very real threats to free speech, even speech we don’t like, to the manipulation of opinion and to the re-writing of history alive in our world today.  And, unlike the messengers sent for Bathsheba and unlike Joab, we have to speak up.

One last thing. 

“God makes sense when nothing else does”

I really must challenge the wooliness hovering around statements like this.  It’s as if the author is saying, “There, there, God can make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear”.  Agreed, She can.  But it’s still a sow’s ear to begin with. 

We should not accept the sow’s ear in the first place.  What David did to Bathsheba might have been re-purposed by God in setting Solomon as the greatest of all the Jewish kings, but it was still the gross application of political and personal power.

Mother Theresa’s wonderful ministry in Calcutta arose from the dreadful reality of the slums there.  A wonderful woman, an example to many.  But a dozen Mother Theresa’s wouldn’t justify the existence of the slums.

Jesus challenged corrupt and poisoning authority, called it out.  “You brood of vipers!  Who told you to flee from the wrath that is to come?”  He made radical change, befriended those who had no friends, no hope; partied with those shut out by society, brought together tribes at loggerheads with each other.  And, rather than setting a man in a place to be killed, hung there himself.

So, what have we said?

I have tried to show the kind of leadership that we have a right to expect, and our obligation to call out any lower standard.  I have tried to show that God works despite evil in the world and not with it. 

I hope that I have shown that Jesus, in his unassuming, caring actions which relate to individuals and not to states, is the perfect King.

 

 Readings

2 Sam 11:1–15;

David Commits Adultery with Bathsheba

In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab with his officers and all Israel with him; they ravaged the Ammonites, and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.

 It happened, late one afternoon, when David rose from his couch and was walking about on the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; the woman was very beautiful. David sent someone to inquire about the woman. It was reported, ‘This is Bathsheba daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite.’ So David sent messengers to fetch her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. (Now she was purifying herself after her period.) Then she returned to her house. The woman conceived; and she sent and told David, ‘I am pregnant.’

 So David sent word to Joab, ‘Send me Uriah the Hittite.’ And Joab sent Uriah to David. When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab and the people fared, and how the war was going. Then David said to Uriah, ‘Go down to your house, and wash your feet.’ Uriah went out of the king’s house, and there followed him a present from the king. But Uriah slept at the entrance of the king’s house with all the servants of his lord, and did not go down to his house. When they told David, ‘Uriah did not go down to his house’, David said to Uriah, ‘You have just come from a journey. Why did you not go down to your house?’ Uriah said to David, ‘The ark and Israel and Judah remain in booths; and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field; shall I then go to my house, to eat and to drink, and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do such a thing.’ Then David said to Uriah, ‘Remain here today also, and tomorrow I will send you back.’ So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day. On the next day, David invited him to eat and drink in his presence and made him drunk; and in the evening he went out to lie on his couch with the servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house.

David Has Uriah Killed

 In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by the hand of Uriah. In the letter he wrote, ‘Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him, so that he may be struck down and die.’

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Psalm 14

Denunciation of Godlessness

To the leader. Of David.
Fools say in their hearts, ‘There is no God.’
   They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds;
   there is no one who does good.

The Lord looks down from heaven on humankind
   to see if there are any who are wise,
   who seek after God.

They have all gone astray, they are all alike perverse;
   there is no one who does good,
   no, not one.

Have they no knowledge, all the evildoers
   who eat up my people as they eat bread,
   and do not call upon the Lord?

There they shall be in great terror,
   for God is with the company of the righteous.
You would confound the plans of the poor,
   but the Lord is their refuge.

O that deliverance for Israel would come from Zion!
   When the Lord restores the fortunes of his people,
   Jacob will rejoice; Israel will be glad.

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Eph 3:14–21;

Prayer for the Readers

 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

 Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, for ever and ever. Amen.

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Jn 6:1–21.

Feeding the Five Thousand

After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias.  A large crowd kept following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near. When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming towards him, Jesus said to Philip, ‘Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?’ He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. Philip answered him, ‘Six months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.’ One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, ‘There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?’ Jesus said, ‘Make the people sit down.’ Now there was a great deal of grass in the place; so they sat down, about five thousand in all. Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted. When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, ‘Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.’ So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets. When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, ‘This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.’

 When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

Jesus Walks on the Water

 When evening came, his disciples went down to the lake, got into a boat, and started across the lake to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. The lake became rough because a strong wind was blowing. When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the lake and coming near the boat, and they were terrified. But he said to them, ‘It is I; do not be afraid.’ Then they wanted to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the land towards which they were going.