I want to read you a sad story - a tragic story of treachery and folly.  A story that works on me to say “That idiot.”  And then again to be remorseful that he wouldn’t do any better.  A story that makes me uncomfortable in the way he pushes me to look into the shadowy corners of my own life.  Listen to this story of a good and great man who had risen to great heights only to have his personal appetite get the best of him and others.

This story may serve as a mirror for us.  But before I ask you to decide how this fits you, I first ask you to look closely at what this story is about.  We have here the clash between public triumph and personal pathos.  I expect most of us know the story of David, the bright shepherd boy who became the hero by killing the giant and then through his loyal service to King Saul became king of Israel.  Under his leadership Israel reaches new heights of power.  King David was known to be a good and powerful and faithful man who loved the Lord and served the Lord admirably.

And then this happened.

David saw something he wanted and he came to the conclusion that he could have it purely because he wanted it.  He was smart enough to figure out he could get it. Bold enough to try it.  Powerful enough to succeed in getting what he wanted.

For a moment of time he placed himself within a box, insulated from all else except what he wanted.  He set out to get it and he got it.  He saw the beautiful woman; he had her.  She became pregnant.  He was afraid of the scandal.  He devised a way to dupe her husband into supposedly being responsible for the pregnancy.  No one would ever have to know the truth except the woman and him.

Here is where David’s desire and power coalesce to cause him to think he is beyond reproach.  Uriah the husband acts out of high honor and loyalty and honors his oath of no sex while his unit is in battle.  He refuses to execute his part in David’s plan.  David is not thwarted.  He is smart enough to have plan B.

Plan B has Uriah being killed in battle.  David’s right hand man, Joab, is loyal to a fault to his master and executes the plot and Uriah is killed in battle.  People in power need their underlings to do their dirty work.  Joab was that for King David.  Joab did what the big man wanted and cleared the way for the big man to have what he wanted when he wanted it and without any repercussions-supposedly.

We have here a sordid tale of too much power coupled with too little self-doubt.  What this text faces us with is the hard question of human desire and power.  Here we have a raw exposure to that tendency that is too frequently present-the tendency for one to think we are beyond accountability because we have the power to pull off what it takes for us to have what we want whether its right or not.  Most of us possess pretty good capacity to rationalize our actions.

Let’s stop right here, press the “pause button” on David’s drama and put ourselves in this saga.  Let’s check our attitude.  Be careful that we aren’t too judgmental toward David and missing the questions this story is putting to us.  How do we convince ourselves that a particular course of action or non-action is okay when it appears we can keep it all to ourselves and our fellow conspirators?  I remind you we started at the first of this sermon by suggesting that this passage could be a mirror for us.  We are putting the various images within that mirror in place.  One of those images is one who is doing some honest work of genuine self-examination in order to root out the double standards in our lives.

So we are in his drama also though David is the central character in this abominable drama of adultery, lying, murder, and deceitfulness.

It’s right here in The Bible, the Word of God.  One of the things that draw me to the Bible as being authentic is that episodes in the lives of the biblical characters such as this one are in here.  The Bible does not cover up the disgusting, repulsive behavior of its characters.

What’s going on with David, do you think?  Is he morally numbed so that he cannot discern between good and evil?  Is that his problem?  Or is he incredibly cynical so that he no longer cares to notice what he can discern?

Does he not know the difference between good and evil?  Or does he simply not care whether or not he follows what he knows to be the good?

Because of David’s high position and that this story comes just after a time of splendid public triumph he reminds me of Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton.  Both were men of extraordinary brilliance and yet both came to ruin while in the White House.  Nixon because of his desire to control everything; Clinton because of his appetite.  Nixon had accomplished much, for example opening the door to China.  Clinton likewise had presided over an administration that had accomplished much on behalf of people of this country and the world.

But both had the power to get what they wanted and thought they could get it without consequences.  You know the rest of the story.

But let’s return to the story of the morning from God’s word.  We leave the Old Testament lesson and I have this jumble of emotions.  I’m repulsed.  I’m angry about the way the victims are treated.  I’m self-reflective because this text has pushed me to look at a part of my life that I’d rather avoid.  As for my attitude toward David, I’m ready to throw the bum out.

There is another word to be said though and that is why we have two lessons from God’s word.  The writer of the Ephesians says the last word is always God’s and God’s grace is unsearchable-beyond our wildest imaginations.

God was not finished with David.  Keep reading Samuel and you’ll discover how God redeemed him through the honest confrontation of Nathan.  God took the rubbish with which David presented him and made it into a life that served God well.

That is the good news of the way God works.  According to Ephesians the fullness of God is God’s love as demonstrated in Christ.  That love is absolutely immeasurable, beyond any imaginings says the writer of Ephesians.

This is a word to us.  Wherever you are along that continuum of keeping your desire in line with what you know to be your moral and faithful standards. You could very well be well disciplined and have your life satisfactorily lined up with what you know to be right and godly.  Or perhaps you have moved toward those of us who have become rather deft at rationalizing our sins of omission and sins of commission.  We need help.

That help is present in the grace of God.  My working definition of grace is “the gift from God that enables one to live into terror without becoming embittered.”

Of course, it does more than that but for me that is the starting point.  Once I move beyond the embittering fear of whatever it is that is terrorizing me I discover myself growing in other ways as well.  God’s grace moves us to new insights about ourselves and new energies to obey those insights.

Let’s stop right here and pay attention to one huge point about the power and grace of God that is beyond our wildest imaginations.  Let’s be clear about how this power is exercised.  Christ is our model.  Christ exercises his power through suffering love not through mastery.

To say and act upon grace being the last word is not to say those who follow grace will wind up as winners in the eyes of the world.  More than likely it will be just the opposite.

 I learned a lot about grace from a group of street people that I had in a Bible study group for a long period of time in Corpus Christie.  When we lived there I was not with a local church.  I was on Presbytery staff and was usually free on Sunday mornings.  The Presbytery ran a soup kitchen downtown and there wasn’t anything going on there Sunday mornings so we opened up a Bible study.  We put a sign in the window, put a coffee pot on, and opened the door at 10 o’clock; we didn’t know if anyone would be interested or if anyone would come or not.  I had a group of about 8 to 15 men that would show up on Sunday morning and drink coffee with me and get inside the Word.  They taught me a lot and one day I was pontificating about how grace was always there and how light penetrates darkness.  And even if we think the door is shut there’s always a crack that lets a shaft of light in.  There was this elderly gentleman sitting at the corner of the table. He had several days’ growth of beard; he took a drag on his cigarette, and blew the smoke up toward the ceiling and said, “Yeah, preacher, but wait a minute.  Even when the door’s locked, there’s always light through the keyhole.”  You kind of knew where he’d been before he got on the streets.

 Yes, even when the door is locked there’s light in the keyhole.  Grace that causes us to live into terror.  Where that’s taking political realities is in the country of South Africa today.  For the last ten years that country has responded to the coming out of that horrific sin of apartheid that was visited upon it.  And when the leaders of that country made the decision that instead of bringing the leaders and perpetrators of that crime of apartheid to reattributed justice, they rather were going to take the path of restorative justice and they created the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.  Instead of bringing the perpetrators to trial, this commission started a process of bringing the victims and perpetrators together and then they facilitated that conversation between the two of them where the victim told in graphic and vivid detail the horror they had been through.  At the end of which they looked at their perpetrator and said, “I forgive you.”  And everybody in the room had to deal with that, and then they were released, not back to prison but to their own lives.

As Archbishop Tutu writes in his book there is no future without forgiveness.  God must have a sense of humor to use little old South Africa to demonstrate to the world that forgiveness is the way to community.  The way to reconciliation is the love and forgiveness of restorative justice-not the revenge of retributive justice.

So here we are back to us.  Is David morally numb and can’t tell the difference between good and evil or is he so cynical that he doesn’t care to obey what he knows?

I suggest we answer that in answering that question we examine our own lives.  Remember that the last word is GRACE.

The working definition of grace is:  The gift from God that enables one to live into terror even when that terror is the truth about our own lives.

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

© 2003 Rev. Angus W. MacGregor

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