Speaking the Truth in Love

“Speaking the Truth in Love”

2 Samuel 11:26-13a     Ephesians 4:25-5:2

Sermon by John M. Best to the Pine Island Presbyterian Church

Sunday, August 19, 2018

There is a backstory to this Hebrew Scripture text. Earlier in chapter 11 we’re told that in the spring of the year when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab and his officers and all Israel, all the available men to battle the Ammonites. They besieged the city Rabbah. David, the great warrior remained home in Jerusalem. One afternoon when he was walking about on the roof patio of the King’s house, he noticed a woman bathing on her patio. She was very beautiful.  David sent a servant to inquire about the woman. It was reported ‘This is Bathsheba daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite.’ He sent messengers to get her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. She returned to her house. She conceived; and she sent and told David, ‘I am pregnant.’

        

Then there unfolds the soap opera of David’s foiled attempts to cover up his crime. He calls her husband Uriah back from the front, so he can join Bathsheba in their marital bed. Let him think that he is the father of the child. Uriah returns, but refuses to visit his wife in solidarity with all his buddies at the front. So David tells him to stay a bit and invites him to dinner the next day, when he gets Uriah liquored up, hoping that will loosen up is inhibitions and libido, weaken his principles. But Uriah still does not go down to his house, but goes and sleeps with David’s servants. So David instructs Joab, the commander of the troops to launch an attack on the besieged city and to have Uriah lead the charge. Then call for a retreat, leaving Uriah exposed.  It was done.  Uriah, a pawn of the king, was killed in battle as expected. When Joab sent word of the deed, David replied by messenger, “Do not let this matter trouble you Joab, for the sword devours now one and now another.” When the wife of Uriah heard her husband was dead, she grieved for him. When the mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife, and bore him a son.  (2 Samuel 11:1-25)

       

How/Why did this scandalous story ever get included in Holy Scripture.  A "Me, Too!" story in scripture! David was one of the celebrated beloved figures of the Old Testament, up there with Abraham, Moses, Elijah. The editors of the Books of Kings and Chronicles evaluated every king at the end of his reign as to whether he was a good one or not, whether he loved the Lord and obeyed the Law. David was presented as spiritually minded, one who loved the Lord, who gave us the Psalms, Israel’s hymnal,       

But what David had done was wrong!  He violated every commandment on the second tablet of the law.  Remembered for honoring the first five relating to God. Here he violated every commandment on the second tablet, those having to do with getting along with the neighbors, which relate to my sermon last week “Building up the body," and working as a team, getting along in the community of this planet, this nation, this church, this congregation.

Moses, who formed a people out of slaves, came down the mountain carrying two stone tablets, with ten commandments. The first five have to do with our relationship with God, and our parents.  The last five, six through ten, have to do with the basic principles of civility.

            You shall not murder…..he had his army commander see that Uriah was killed.

            You shall not commit adultery….whoops.

            You shall not steal…Scripture calls Bathsheba by her name only once,

                     Every other time in this story, the narrator refers to her as the wife of Uriah.

                     As was the case in those days, she belonged to Uriah.

            You shall not bear false witness…the scripture is silent on this, but you can

                     Guess that any word of scandal would have been “fake news!”

            You shall not covet your neighbor’s house, you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife or slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything else that belongs to your neighbor.” (Exodus 20:13-17)

David hit the ball out of the park violating all 5, which displeased the Lord, who sent Nathan to speak truth to David.  To speak truth to power, the king, the man. To speak truth to power in love. Jesus learned a thing or two from Nathan, who spoke the truth by telling a story, using a parable, which David was able to hear, and say, “Hey, that’s wrong!  String’em up!” “Yes David, and YOU are that man!”

What a jerk!  We can so easily sit here and say.  But we white Americans, and I am one of us, have a cruel history, too! Our blessings have come at the expense of others.  In the 1500’s the pope endorsed and declared a Doctrine of Discovery stating that any lands discovered, if they were not possessed by Christians, could be taken for the glory of God. This let to our American policy: Manifest Destiny, claiming the divine right to conquer the west and subjugate the Native peoples.  The 222^nd General Assembly of the PC(USA) repudiated this doctrine, calling the church to confess that sin, and repent. The 223^rd GA called for study materials for the church.       

            America was built on the genocide of the Native peoples as they lost their land.

            America was built on the backs of black slaves.

            America was built on the backs of indentured servants.

            America was built on the backs immigrants who built our railroads, dug our tunnels, and subways, and today tend to our aging parents, pick our crops, slaughter our chickens, hogs, and cattle, the back breaking, smelling, dangerous jobs few want to do.

      

And God is not pleased!  And we’ve had messengers like Nathan speak to us. James Baldwin, theologian James Cone, Hip Hop artists, Rev. William Barber, leader of Moral Mondays in North Carolina, the elders gathered at Standing Rock, Debbie Irving, author, of Waking Up White and Finding Myself in the Story of Race. Not that we personally decided, but we benefited, and are privileged by the white, protestant, dominate culture. Did you know that the GI Bill after WW2 only benefited white veterans, not veterans of color?

It boggles the imagination that the redactors of scripture included David’s foibles in scripture, but David confessed, and repented. We have Psalm 51 because of it. David was not perfect, nor are we, but if we confess our sins, God is merciful, God is also just.

Paul or his disciple who gave us in the letter to the Ephesians, instructing us on how live and work together to become the blessed community, to usher in the reign of God, providing some basic principles of Christian communal living.

“Speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ…So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another. Be angry but do not sin, (or in other words don’t kill anyone). Thieves must give up stealing, (or other words do not steal). Let no evil talk come out of your mouths but only what is useful for building up. Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another.” (Ephesians 4:15, 25-32)                 

None the less, civil discourse has sunk so low today. Before I sat down to write this sermon, I read our local newspaper.   There were several disheartening articles. One entitled “They Hid It All,” reported how the Roman Catholic Church leaders over many years hid the behavior of over 100 priests in Pennsylvania who abused children.  (“They hid it all,” Kalamazoo Gazette,Thursday, August 16, 2018, p. A12)

           
Another was MLive Media Group’s Editorial, “A free press guards your freedoms.” They joined newspapers across the country to address attacks against a free & independent press. The president has launched a public campaign to discredit the entire institution of journalism: “The cries of “fake news’ about any less-than flattering story, calling journalists “enemies of the people” who are “very sick & dangerous.”  The article points out that “he is not even subtle about his motives.  “You know why I do it? He reportedly told CBS journalist Leslie Stahl about his ‘fake news’ rhetoric.  “I do it to discredit you all and demean you all so when you write negative stories about me, no one will believe you." (“A free press guards your freedoms,” 8/16/2018 Kal. Gazette, p.10).  Their job is to discover and tell the truth, to speak truth to power.

Then this week Omarose Manigault Newman, former White House staff person, hit the talk show circuit as her tell all book of her experience on the campaign and in White House goes on sale. Conservative columnist, Cal Thomas, challenges her credibility, naming her Anita Hill, Act 2. Only, evidently, she has recorded tapes, which we can expect to be released one at a time over the next weeks and months.

This is the world in which we have degenerated, from which you try to escape when coming to church!   BUT we need to speak the truth to power in love.  We need to ground ourselves in the basic principles of human society, principles that go back 4000 years.  The Ten Commandments are the bedrock of communal life.  Nathan’s challenging of David is a Biblical example of speaking truth to power.

            
David’s crime was an abuse of his power, of his position, of his attempts to cover his shame. He confessed his sin, his story was told, he remained a beloved figure. How could he do that?  David knew the steadfast love of God.  How can we do that?  We know the Lord.  And the fragrance from knowing his loving forgiveness spreads in every place we go.  We do not belittle others so we can look bigger and better.  Rather “be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us, and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”  (Ephesians 5:1-2). And so we can out of gratitude for God has already done for us in Jesus Christ.

Affirmation of Faith:         The Larger Catechism Q&As 143-144, Book of Confessions 7.253-4

Q. 143. Which is the Ninth Commandment?

A.  The Ninth Commandment is, “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.”

Q. 144.  What are the duties required in the Ninth Commandment?

A.  The duties required in the Ninth Commandment are: the preserving and promoting of truth between persons, and the good name of our neighbor, as well as our own; appearing and standing for the truth; and from the heart sincerely, freely, clearly, and fully, speaking the truth, and only the truth, in matters of judgment and justice, and in all other things whatsoever; a charitable esteem of our neighbors, loving, desiring, and rejoicing in their good name; sorrowing for, and covering of their infirmities; freely acknowledging of their gifts and graces, defending their innocence; a ready receiving of good report, and unwillingness to admit of an evil report concerning them; discouraging talebearers, flatterers, and slanderers; love and care of our own good name, and defending it when need required; keeping of lawful promises; studying and practicing of whatsoever things are true, honest, lovely, and of good report.”

Scripture quotations are from the NRSV, and author's adaptation