delivered 26 July 2009
by Rev Dr John Evans
2 Samuel 11:1-15
Psalm 14
Ephesians 3:14-21
John 6:1-21
Today’s reading about David and Bathsheba, and her unfortunate husband Uriah, reads like yesterday’s headlines about football celebrities with no moral compass. Or indeed it is like anyone with enormous power and status who simply does what they like for their own enjoyment and pleasure. No one tells me what to do! Bullies. And while I am at it, it is not unlike corporations, institutions, countries or do I say empires, doing whatever they please.
David, Israel’s most lauded king, was a tragic and fatally flawed individual. Here sex and passion brought him down. And perhaps I do not need to rehearse the grimy story; it is just a predictable plot, except that David exercises some subtlety in getting rid of the awkward husband, Uriah. So it goes
King sees beautiful women
King wants her
King has her.
Woman falls pregnant, but husband is not around, he is fighting in the king’s own war.….PROBLEM
King endeavours to contrive a visit of husband to wife.
Husband, ever the honourable man, does not oblige.
Husband is then killed in battle.
Secret military intelligence however reveals that the husband was killed through the connivance of his own superiors, including the King.
Fortunately this story is to be continued, and in next week’s lectionary we have Nathan, the prophet, who boldly challenges power, and challenges David. However, in the meantime we are left with this story, which has such a contemporary, or is it timeless, ring to it – that we humans do indeed do act as if we have no one can tell us what to do, and there are no restraints on our behaviour. We live our lives as if there it is just all about me and there are no rules. We live as totally autonomous individuals.
The truth, however, must be otherwise. We do live in relationships – a complex web of relationships, and we are not totally autonomous and able to do just what we please. . . like some ancient despotic king. We have relationships with family, with other people, within our workplace, even on Facebook and Twitter, the wider community. We have relationships with our environment. We have a relationship with God.
But then it was Dostoevsky who said “Without God, everything is possible”. God is about life, God in Christ is about the fullness of life. And simply God’s very reality, sets limits to destructive possibilities. “Without God, everything is possible.”
In our contemporary times we often focus on the great intellectual tussle between religion and the secular world. Does God exist? Atheism is seen to be the opponent – and as I have acknowledged in my sermons, there has emerged in recent times a new more secularist voice, as people like Richard Dawkins, have railed against religious people of all persuasions. However, there is another dimension: the moral and ethical dimension, and not just the science and belief dimension. So our Psalm for today, Psalm 14, is not talking about the faith and science debate, rather the psalmist is talking about how we live our lives. The opening verse,
Fools say in their hearts, “There is no God.”
is not about intellectual matters. Rather it is about our behaviour, actions; a moral and ethical life. The first verse goes on
They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds;
There is no one who does any good.
In you head you might argue there is a God, or in faith you may believe there is a God. Your deeds and actions however, can tell otherwise. This psalm is about the actions like that of David with Bathsheba and Uriah. Again as Dostoevsky said “Without God, everything is possible.”
God the creator, the redeemer, the sustainer of life is about, yes our freedom, our autonomy, but it is freedom to live in community and in relationship with others. Very shortly stated this is what the law of Israel was about – those Ten Commandments. They were about our relationship with God and with others. And Jesus of course reduced the law to
Love the God with all your heart, with all your soul, mind and strength; and you shall love your neighbour as yourself.
Relationships. And having relationships implies there is right behaviour – which is all about morality and ethics. With regard to his relationships, King David failed on every count . . . although amazingly he is still there as a part of our story, and this incident is recorded in scripture. I guess it can show that even such a dreadful person can be redeemed, and can be a part of a larger narrative of hope and redemption. . . though this sounds like I am jumping ahead to next week and the prophet Nathan.
In the meantime we have a contemporary dilemma. . . and I would wish to thank Paul Madden for sharing with me material that comes from England about this year’s Reith Lectures with the BBC – the lectures on which the ABC’s Boyer Lectures are modeled. Commentators are asking about our society the question “where is the new vision to unite us?” It would seem our multicultural society is breaking down, the Global Financial Crisis ahs questioned our economic basis. What do we make of this rise of terrorism? Religion is on the nose. The US political philosopher, Michael Sandel, asked this question in this year’s lectures. Or another way of saying this is, are we all becoming like little King Davids and what can we do about it? What indeed binds us together? What is our shared story that determines our relationships and then our behaviour? Remember Margaret Thatcher. She said there was no such thing as society. In other words you are just all individuals who presumably can do what they like.
One commentator writes in this way
What we have is a cacophony of individual narratives, everyone wants to be the author of their own lives, no one wants to be relegated to a part in a bigger story; everyone wants to give their opinion, no one wants to listen. It is enchanting, but ultimately it’s disempowering because you need a collective, not individual narrative to achieve change …
And it is not just about change – the need for a shared story, is actually needed to live a civilized and humane life – together.
Sandel, in his Reith Lectures, called for a remoralisation of politics, of civic and public life. In large measure he was noting that what we have done over the last generation, the last 25 years, is left everything to the market – and not provided any accompanying moral compass or direction. Margaret Thatcher’s statement has perhaps come to pass. But as Sandel declared, following recent economic events “it’s the end of the era of market triumphalism”. Indeed as we have discovered to our great cost it has been a vacuous time of anything goes. No compass, or let alone restraint on personal behaviour or greed; and certainly no restraint or any sense of propriety for one empire to invade another country, and deal with people in such a way that torture is permitted, and basic human rights can be abrogated and thrown away.
Now the frightening thing is that also over the last 25 years, that within this moral and ethical vacuum, there has arisen religious fundamentalism. And from this vantage point we perhaps can understand why. Our Islamic friends, in looking at the moral emptiness of market capitalism have developed an aggressive and strident religious narrative which they see is needed to fill such a void. Meanwhile some of our Christian brothers and sisters, seeing an ever increasing moral laxness, usually just about sexual matters, have put forth their own version of an alternative narrative. Certainly within the United States they have successfully pursued that line within the political sphere. Both fundamentalisms were reacting to modernity or perhaps post modernity’s, moral emptiness.
You can understand why Sandel is being criticized for his suggestion that a religious narrative, even a Christian narrative, may be a part of the solution for our current situation. Religious narratives, unfortunately are on the nose, because they have come to imply extremism and stridency. Such religious narratives are not seen to be a part of the solution, rather they are seen to be the cause of the problem –and in response we move into even more reliance on the market and so called “value free” talk.
Look contradictions abound within this very brief and simple analysis, however, there are very difficult and dangerous realities which we face in response to behaviour not all that dissimilar to King David’s. And these realities are here in our community of Carlton. How can we as the this small congregation of Christian people, be engaged with all of this and contribute – for the sake of our community. The solution is not some imposed theocracy. . . which religious fundamentalists demand and through various terrifying means, seek to impose. Our response needs to be gentler, but still resolute and firm.
So I trust we believe we have a story of hope, and of life. We are a community which seeks to hear that story, and through our life together live out that story, and then open out that story and invite others to be a part of it. We want to show this story has integrity and is authentic. It is a part and parcel of our lives. We practice what we preach. Amazingly the story of God and Jesus is not as well known as it used to be – but at least we are today a little more humble, perhaps chastened and realistic as to how that story is relevant to people’s lives and our community. It simply calls us to be faithful, resilient and joyous bearers of that story within our lives . . . and do that for our own sakes, but also for the sake of our society and community.
I find this an exciting thing to be doing, and to be alive at this time. I hope you also find this as well.
