After seducing (or raping) Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, a solider in his army, King David discovers that he has fathered a child. He decides to try to make Uriah look like the father. When that doesn’t work, he arranges for Uriah to be killed in battle so that he can have Bathsheba. This was a low point in the moral demeanor of King David, who could be called the “comeback” king because he is remembered as the greatest king of Israel. Guilty of taking another man’s wife, who really cannot refuse the king, while her husband is off fighting in the king’s army, that was really bad. But then to arrange for the husband to be killed in battle to get rid of him so that he can have the wife, that is heinous. [See 2 Samuel 11-12]
We are told that King David is confronted with his moral turpitude by the prophet Nathan. I can’t imagine what a dreaded task that was for Nathan. But David admits his wrong doing and repents.
Tradition links David and his sins over Bathsheba with Psalm 51. The intense pleading for forgiveness and mercy in the wake of severe iniquity fits with the story of David and Bathsheba.
For most of us, the sins that we commit and for which we repent are not of the magnitude portrayed in the story of David. While we may be part of systems responsible for the life and death of others, not many of us are ever directly responsible for taking a life. While we may “lust in our hearts” like Jimmy Carter, only something like half of us will actually have extra marital affairs. [The statistics are vague and inconclusive. . .] But there is more to sin than murder and adultery and complicity in systems and institutions that perpetuate injustice and violence. There is more to sin than robbery and rape. There are the day to day betrayals of what is good and right and true, the hurtful, angry outbursts, the self centered choices, the apathy.
Maybe our worst sins are not so much the ones that we commit as the ones we don’t commit. Perhaps what is most offending to Divine Love is the good that we don’t do. Our lack of generosity. Our lack of compassion. Our lack of attention. Our lack of investment in working for justice and reconciliation. Our lack of commitment to peace-making. Our lack of service to others. In our reflection this Lenten season, maybe we should give some thought not to the bad things we have done but to the good things we have not done.
One thing is for sure. Our tradition tells us that God forgave David. He was freed of his iniquity. The presumption of Psalm 51 is that God forgives. So whatever we have or have not done, grace embraces us and there are new beginnings ahead.
Prayer
We go through life with all of its challenges and complexities seeking to do what is right and pleasing to God. Sometimes we hit the mark. Sometimes we do not. Our shortcomings can never exceed the scope of divine grace. May we accept the grace that is offered to us when we seek reconciliation and may we extend that same grace to others who have also missed the mark. Amen.
Lakewood United Church of Christ 