search
God’s Promises: This autumn, we’re learning alongside the youngest among us in Church School. We look at the early characters of the Hebrew scriptures and how God’s promises bring hope for the future, with guidelines on how to love God and love others in ways that bring life and hope to all.
King David looms large in Jewish history and in the overarching story of the Bible. I’ve often imagined him like our more charismatic presidents: FDR and Bill Clinton come to mind. Someone with a big personality, big passions and a big appetite, which included a big libido — a strong appetite for sex, aided by an ease with charming flirtation.
Famously, David saw a beautiful, married woman named Bathsheba bathing, lusted after her, summoned her, had sex with her, and she conceived a child (2 Samuel 11-12). We don’t know a lot more about the details of the sex than that. But we can conjecture. (Which is exactly what I plan to do on Sunday.)
What we do know is that David did a lot of conniving behind the scenes to cover up for getting a married woman pregnant. When his first plan didn’t work, he used his enormous power to send his loyal soldier, her husband Uriah, to the war front, putting him in greater harm, which ended in his death. David then married Bathsheba, she gave birth, the child tragically died after a week, and she eventually had a second child who became King Solomon.
The prophet Nathan cleverly confronted David about his sin, which forced him to do some self-examination…we hope. The beautiful Psalm 51 is considered the king’s prayerful confession.
On Sunday, I’m going to attempt to re-tell the story from Bathsheba’s perspective. In the wake of the #MeToo movement, post-modern feminism, Supreme Court confirmations amid sexual assault allegations and in light of the recent news stories about a rape case at Cornell University, how does God call us to look at this story?
And more importantly, where have we abused our power OR been abused ourselves and what role does confession, repentance and forgiveness play in all of that?
Please pray for me as I prepare for you! I look forward to being in worship with you and remembering who we are and to whom we belong. And remembering that there’s a wideness in God’s mercy.
In faith,
Kent
Image from johntsquires.com
