PROPERS: PROPER 13, YEAR B
TEXT: 2 SAMUEL 11:26 – 12:13a
PREACHED AT ST. PAUL’S CHAPEL, MAGNOLIA SPRINGS, ON SUNDAY, AUGUST 1, 2021.
ONE SENTENCE: Again and again throughout faith history, there are ample examples of God’s redemptive power.
The first lesson today is the second half of one of my favorite passages in the Old Testament. The first half was last week’s first lesson. It is the extraordinary story of David and Bathsheba.
Let me set the scene.
David is the powerful king of Israel. He is relaxing on the patio atop his palace. As he looks down on the surrounding houses, the open courtyards are easily visible to him. He sees a beautiful woman bathing in her courtyard, and he lusts for her.
He sends for her – the wife of a soldier in his army. Her name is Bathsheba, and her husband is Uriah the Hittite. She comes at the command of her king, and in the biblical euphemistic way of speaking, he lay with her.
A pregnancy results from the union – which poses a terrible problem for David. So, David plots.
Uriah, Bathsheba’s husband, is away with the troops – fighting the king’s wars. David sends for him, figuring that Uriah will come home at the king’s command, go to his house, have relations with his wife, and the scandal of the royally-induced pregnancy will go away.
However, David did not factor-in Uriah’s faithfulness. Uriah refuses to go to his house. “As long as the king’s armies are in battle, I will not do such a thing.” Uriah sleeps instead at the doorway to the king’s palace. So, David’s scheme fails.
David plots even further. He sends Uriah back to the front, with a sealed message to the commander, Joab. “Send Uriah into the forefront the fiercest battle and then withdraw from him, that he may be struck down and die.” That is precisely what happened, and David’s plot seemed to have succeeded.
David brought Bathsheba to his palace and took her for his wife.
But Nathan the prophet came to David and told him a fantastic tale of injustice. It seemed, according to Nathan, that a wealthy man with large flocks and herds, had a visitor come to his home. There was also a poor man in the same area who had a single ewe lamb that was a family pet. It ate the meager fare of the man’s table and slept at the man’s bosom at night.
The rich man did something dastardly, Nathan told David. Instead of taking a lamb from his own flocks, he slaughtered the poor man’s lamb and served it to his guest.
David was outraged! “As the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves to die!”
Nathan now had David completely ensnared. He looked at David and pointed his finger at him: “You are the man!” Nathan went on to pronounce God’s judgment on David. David confessed.
The child born to Bathsheba of that illicit relationship with David died.
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Another story.
John Newton was born in 1725 in England. His mother died when he was seven years old. He went to sea at age 11, accompanying his father, a ship’s captain, on six voyages. By the time he was 17, his father had retired, but he continued his seafaring life. He ultimately became a captain of his own ship and focused on the slave trade.
John Newton trafficked in human cargo for years – taking enslaved men and women from Africa to the United Kingdom. He was, in fact, enslaved himself at one time. But he spent his seafaring years in taking human beings into slavery and selling them on the open market.
It was a despicable way to live.
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Another story: There was a priest I knew who served a variety of churches. He was quite gifted.
He was married. Sadly, he developed an adulterous relationship with a woman in his parish. She, too, was married. And a child was born of that illicit relationship.
Add to the complexities of that situation the fact that the priest had become addicted to alcohol.
He was confronted about the situation and confessed. He was suspended from the priesthood, losing a means to earn a livelihood, and a chance to exercise a calling. Considering the situation and his active addiction, the chances of coming back were remote.
It was a sad story about a gifted priest.
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What became of David, the fallen king… and John Newton, the callous slave trader… and the addicted and adulterous priest?
David went on to rule Israel for 44 years. He was the greatest of all kings in the Old Testament and deeply revered in Jewish history.
The redemptive power of God moved in his life. He and Bathsheba gave birth to Solomon, the wisest of all kings… the king who built the first Temple in Jerusalem.
John Newton, the slave trader, experienced a conversion experience. Looking back on it in his later years, he saw it as gradual. He became an Anglican priest and, from his bitter experience, was a moving force for the abolition of the slave trade. He helped mold great leaders in that movement, such as William Wilberforce.
Late in his life, he published a collection of hymns he had written. Two of them we were to sing today – Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken and the much beloved, “Amazing Grace.”
“Amazing Grace! How Sweet the sound! That saved a wretch like me!”
The priest to whom I referred entered treatment for his alcoholism. From that experience grew the passion for promoting healing in others. He worked in recovery centers for several years, helping other broken souls find new life. He recognized the destructiveness of his previous life.
He was restored to the priesthood and now faithfully serves a congregation. He continues his leadership in the recovery movement. He blesses many with his gifts.
The point is this: There is no brokenness… no failure… no abyss so deep… that the redemptive power of God cannot overcome. We need only be willing vessels for his movement, for his redeeming, renewing power.
Men and women in the 12 Step Programs know this truth. New life can come from deep and profound brokenness. If we are willing. If we open ourselves to the redemptive power.
Again and again, we see this throughout faith history. God’s ability is to convert our losses… our mistakes… our failures into the life to which he calls us.
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