GOD IS READY

Merrill L. Woolnough*

St. Luke's Episcopal Church

Jamestown, NY 14701

August 3, 2003

Proper 13 B

Today we are thrust into the problem raised in last week's Old Testament reading: Uriah’s wife, Bathsheba, is pregnant as a consequence of David's adultery with her. Uriah is away at war. David seeks to cover his tracks, but Uriah remains faithful to his soldier's vow of celibacy for the duration of the fighting. When his maneuvering fails, David sends Uriah back to the front with a sealed letter instructing General Joab to position Uriah in the front lines so that he will die in battle. He is not the only soldier killed in this foolhardy action.

"But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord" (2 Samuel 11:27). What thing? What is it that displeases the Lord and prompts God to send Nathan to David?

Is the thing covetousness, sexual harassment, adultery, theft, deception or murder? Think of all the lives touched by David's misconduct: Bathsheba, army messengers, household servants, General Joab, Uriah and those who die with him, the unborn child who will also die. The list goes on and on. David is one man, one incident, one epicenter of wrongdoing and discord, one point from which waves of offense expand outward, overwhelming everyone they touch.

This is not simply a story about judgment, though God knows there is judgment, and indeed, terrible judgment in it. No, this is a story about how God intervenes to mend the relationship between God and David amidst the confusion and conflict. We are challenged to find it. And we find it in the naming of the thing that David did.

When Nathan comes to David, he tells him a parable, but David hears the story as the straightforward account of the injustice one of his subjects perpetrates on another. His assumption is that Nathan is seeking the king's judgment against the rich subject. Advocating for the helpless poor against the powerful rich is one of the king's responsibilities. The rich man's actions are so dreadful that David blurts out his irrevocable judgment before Nathan solicits any: "As the LORD lives, the man who has done this deserves to die; he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity" (2 Samuel 12:5-6).

David's judgment against the rich man is restitution and death. The rich man took from another because he had the power to take. He took from another what had not been given to him. The rich man showed no restraint, no compassion, no gratitude to God for the blessings of plentiful flocks and herds and for the peace between himself and the poor man. This is David's offense against God: no restraint, no compassion for his honorable soldier Uriah and Uriah's wife who loved him, and certainly no gratitude for all the blessings God has showered on David. "I anointed you, I rescued you, I gave you… I gave you… and I would have given twice as many more gifts if you had asked," God says (2 Samuel 12:7-8), "but all my gifts were not enough for you. You were not satisfied." God's gracious gifts are not enough. David takes Uriah's wife without pity, destroys Uriah without mercy. God's relationship with David is not enough. This is the greatest offense of all. This is the thing David has done. David does not act compassionately and peaceably toward others out of the compassionate and peaceable relationship God has made with him. This is the thing that displeases God, that shatters the relationship between God and David.

David's judgment of fourfold restitution for the life of Uriah stands: four of David’s sons’ lives for Uriah’s life. The books of Samuel and Kings record them. The unnamed child of this story dies after a seven-day illness. Absalom kills Amnon for Amon's rape of Absalom's sister Tamar. Absalom himself is killed for starting a coup d'etat against David. Adonijah is killed when he contests Solomon's accession to the throne after David's death. I'm not saying this makes these deaths any easier to understand. I'm simply saying that this is David's judgment.

The other half of David's judgment is against himself: "The man who has done this deserves to die" (2 Samuel 12:5). If we put any credence in the superscription that appears in some Bibles that Psalm 51 is a psalm composed by David "when the prophet Nathan came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba," then hear David's first words to God: "Have mercy on me, O God, according to your loving-kindness; in your great compassion blot out my offenses" (Psalm 51:1 BCP. David knows his attitude toward others and toward God merits death. Unless God forgets David's offenses, David will die.

God chooses to forget. David said to Nathan, "'I have sinned against the LORD.' Nathan said to David, 'Now the LORD has put away your sin; you shall not die'" (2 Samuel 12:13).

Just like God sent Nathan to David, so God sent Jesus to tell us God is ready to forget our offenses in order to repair our relationship with God so that we will not die, so that we may live in peace with God and with each other. Many people, (perhaps you are one of them), have trouble believing this. We, like the people in today's gospel, want to make this more complicated than it really is. We want miracles. We want to know what we must do to earn God's love. We want to know what freebies, like food, Jesus is going to give out to prove that God is telling the truth about putting the relationship back together again, to prove living at peace with God and each other is possible. Even our disbelief and ridicule cannot discourage God. Jesus dies on a cross. God raises him from the dead so that we may be sure that God wants this relationship with us. God wants to hold us close in the bonds of peace and life. We are no longer held fast by the bonds of offense and death.

It doesn't matter to God who we are and what we have done, or not done. Look at David. He shirks his duty to his troops. He lolls around all day until it is cool enough to go outside. He sees a woman who excites him and he sends for her. He lies. He murders. He exploits everyone around him. God forgets all of it! God approves none of it, but, for the sake of their relationship, God forgets all of it!

Now here is the astonishing thing: David's dialog with God goes on. During the unnamed child's illness, David pleads with God for the child's life. David fasts and prays without ceasing. When he learns of the child's death, David rises from the ground, washes, anoints himself, and changes his clothes. He goes into the house of the LORD, and worships; he then goes to his own house; and when he asks, his servants set food before him and he eats. David grieves and laments for the child while the child lives. Although the child dies, the relationship between God and David is not broken. It goes on in peace.

In the spring of the year, when kings go out to battle, David stayed in Jerusalem. Perhaps it was the end of summer when Uriah was killed. In late winter, or early spring the following year, the child was born. Nathan confronted David. Now it is again time for kings to go out to battle. David gathers additional troops and joins General Joab and the other soldiers at Rabbah, modern day Amon, the capital of Jordan. They capture the city and David adds the Ammonite territory to his growing kingdom. In time, Bathsheba and David are blessed by the birth of Solomon. David lives in peace as best he can given the judgment he spoke against himself. David and God live in a serene and harmonious relationship.

Like David, we, too, have have our own lives to live, both as members of a congregation and of the Church of Jesus Christ. I like the way the Revised English Bible puts Ephesians 4:3: "Spare no effort to make fast with bonds of peace the unity which the Spirit [of God] gives." After all, any relationship, to be worthwhile, requires effort.

David’s story is a story about David’s offense and God’s compassion; about their broken relationship that God puts back together, about how David goes on living despite shocking events and terrible losses. Friends, this is your story. If God can forget all of David’s offenses, God approving none of them, then God forgets all of your offenses, too. God does this for the sake of your relationship with God in Jesus. God does this for the life of peace God desires for all of you. Amen.

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*Guest preacher Merrill Woolnough is a seminary graduate seeking a call in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. She currently lives in Jamestown, NY.