Creekside Church Sermon of July 27, 1997 "Are You Surprised?" II Samuel 11:1-5	Rev. David Bibbee
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Dr. Edwards only had a vague remembrance of Albert. What he did remember was that "dear Albert" was Christmas and Easter variety Christian who led less than an exemplary life. Struggling to make conversation he responded to her announcement, "Albert died and went to Heaven? Well, I must say I'm sorry. " He could tell from her expression the response wasn't received well, so he tried again, "What I meant to say was þI'm glad!'" Her expression indicated the amendment hadn't helped much, so he made one last heroic attempt to salvage the situation: "What I really meant to say was, 'I'm surprised!'"

Some things do surprise us. But when it comes to revelations about the scandals of people in high places, we are no longer shocked or surprised. We almost expect it. Digging up the dirt on those in high profile positions has become a national obsession. Some think it began with Watergate, then Iran Contra, and now Whitewater. Politicians topple all the time in money and sex scandals. The Royal Family has even been rocked. But it's nothing new and it's not surprising. We can trace the problem at least as far back as the Royal Family of King David...yes, beloved shepherd boy, the Psalm-writing, God-fearing leader of Israel. King David's scandal was Bathsheba-gate.

The Bible tells it like it is, and attempts no cosmetic coverup-up. It was springtime. Battle season. David had sent his army and officers to fight the Ammonites while he remained home at the palace. Then one afternoon after taking a nap, while looking over the city from high atop his palace, David turned into Peeping Tom. He chanced upon a young woman bathing. Note the skill with which the text tells what happened. He saw her, sent for her, and he lay with her.

There is no mention of wrestling with the moral issues. No sharing with his small group. He didn't even take it to the Lord in prayer. He just did it. He was king, after all, and what kings want..."Besides, it was just a simple affair," we sometimes hear. "As long as no one knows, no one will be hurt." So naive. You see, the truth cannot be concealed. Moments of pleasure turn into torture.

With the only two words we hear Bathsheba speak, David's kingly, controlled world crumbles. "I'm pregnant." What now? In the world of political expedience, there is just one thing to do. As Will Rogers said, "When something happens connected with official life, it's just like a cold night...everyone tries to cover up." David's cover-up required getting Bathsheba's husband Uriah back home. Get them together. Then everyone would think it was his baby. Plan A.

David butters Uriah up. Gives him a present. Tells him to spend the night with his wife, what with all those nights sleeping on the hard ground after a hard day's fight. But Uriah didn't go to Bathsheba. He slept in the king's doorway. The next night David got him drunk. "Go to your wife." Plan B. But while David had sex with Uriah's wife, Uriah wouldn't. He refused to break the code which forbade men in battle from having intercourse with their wives. Now Plan C.

The next day Uriah carried a letter to the front line containing his own death sentence. David instructed Joab to put Uriah on the front line of the battle, draw back and leave him to die. Joab, who would never defy an executive order, did just that, and after giving Bathsheba ample time to grieve, David took her for his wife.

So the story goes. Lust. Adultery. Deceit. Murder. Sounds like a soap opera script. But this is David we're talking about, the man after God's own heart...remember? No tortured decision making. Just a cold, calculated cover-up. Are you surprised? The Bible isn't. That's why it shows the heroes of the faith not just in their best light. David was a man after God's own heart, but it also says that King David had done a thing which displeased the Lord...which is another way of saying the story isn't through yet.

The prophet Nathan paid David a visit. "I have a story for Your Highness. There was a rich man and a poor man. The rich guy had flocks galore. The poor guy had one little lamb. No lamb was ever loved as much. It was like a member of the family. One day the rich man had a visitor, and not wanting to take one of his lambs to feed his company, he took the poor man's lamb and made a rack of lamb dinner of it." David was livid. " The man deserves to die!" he roared. "He shall repay the poor man fourfold for his heartless act."

"Gotcha!" cried Nathan. "You are the one!" The Lord says, "I anointed you king, delivered you from Saul, gave you wives, gave you Israel and Judah, and if this wasn't enough, I would give you more. But you despised my word and have done what's evil."

My question to you is this. What had David done wrong? What was his sin? Back when the scandal involving the evangelists Jimmy Swaggert and Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker were uncovered, the media swarmed like flies around the issues of sex and money, largely because that's what grabs the public's attention. But the real sin went much deeper. Not many of the stories touched it, largely because it's our biggest sacred cow. The thing which becomes sin when it's turned inward and not toward the purposes for which it was given, is power.

To read David and Bathsheba as just another story of sexual sin, misses the bigger matter. The adultery was a sin, but not THE sin. It was the result of David's abuse of power. "Power goes to the head," we say. On the top, it's easy to lose touch with all that has come your way from God and others. The temptation is to think yourself independent; to begin believing that all you have accomplished is the result of your intelligence, ingenuity, and resourcefulness. You forget your dependence, and think more about what you can do with your freedom and the ability to control the outcomes to get what you want. By his actions, David left no doubt he was in charge. Thus began his descent down the slippery slope of sin.

I went to a seminar dealing with pastors who become sexually involved with parishioners. The presenter gave a profile of the men to whom this can happen. He is typically a strong pastor with a magnetic personality. He is driven to succeed. Type A all the way. He doesn't join with pastoral peers to share his pains and problems. No one to use as a sounding board. In short, he feels capable in every situation and is accountable to no one.

But none are as susceptible to sin those who think they aren't susceptible. None as prone to trouble as when alone in vulnerable circumstances. This is one reason why Billy Graham has maintained a much higher plain than other evangelists. In an interview with David Frost, he was asked if in his extensive travels over the world away from his wife for long periods of time, he was ever tempted. "Absolutely. That's why I never travel alone. I always surround myself with my associates and don't give opportunity a second look." The greatest evangelist of this century has remained a Christlike model of integrity because he knows his weakness, and he is dependent and accountable for the gifts and the power entrusted to him.

"Look at all I have given you. And I would have added more," God said. But David chose to be his own captain and wound up being seduced not by a bathing beauty but the power the world tells us we should have. And all are tempted. All have sinned. All have fallen short of the glory of God. No surprises when we hear the thud of another falling from a high place.

The world suckers us into believing that we know what's best for our lives. We get suckered, just like David, into thinking we can get more for ourselves than God can give us.

This is a sad story. But as long as God is involved in a story, it continues. Ours is a God of another chance. Christianity is a religion of a new start. When confronted with his sin, David could only say, "I have sinned against the Lord." And Nathan told David, "The Lord has put away your sin. You shall not die." Forgiveness wasn't cheap, mind you. His actions took a toll on his family. God's forgiveness couldn't cancel the cost, but it did insure that life would go on. God is so determined to have His way, and have His story told, that God works through our sin to pull it off.

Ted Peters recalls for us an incident that occurred when he was reference librarian at a large public library. He had a mutually admiring and respectful relationship with his supervisor. They worked together well. One Friday afternoon he was working on a complicated reference problem. The library would close soon and he would need every precious minute. Just then his supervisor asked him to accompany her for a conference. "Can it wait?" "No, it cannot." He was anxious and frustrated by the interruption. Taking liberties that might strain their relationship, he insisted that he keep to his project. She was equally insistent that he come with her, and she turned and walked away. As he followed, he nagged. Seeing it was getting nowhere, then he scolded. And when he followed her through the door he was greeted by the entire library staff gathered around a cake singing "Happy Birthday" to him.

He had insulted her, but she didn't retaliate. She was intent upon giving a gift. Noting the similarities to God's forgiveness, Peters says that it makes us aware of the lengths love goes to forgive, but it also shows how we insult God with our ingratitude and resisting of God's love. Sin is not the breaking of the law. It is a breaking of God's heart by our indifference and ingratitude, and we become more aware of the seriousness with which God takes the task of redeeming sinners. This is the surprise that is bigger than the scandal of our sin.

You need not hold a high position with great responsibilities to fall, nor commit adultery or murder. We fall by trusting our strength more than we should. We get seduced into believing that the best way is our way and that power is the best of all...and it is--if the power is to serve, the power of being accountable to others and bound with them in God.

Like David, we fall. And like David we can be forgiven. Like someone said, "In David, we have the world's greatest saint and the world's greatest sinner all rolled into one." And the mix is within us as well. A conversation between a wise old Quaker lady and some friends points us to this truth. After listening to the others roast a local official for his indiscretions, she cleared her throat, leaned to the center of the circle and said, "There is so much that is bad in the best of us, and so much that is good in the worst of us, that it doesn't behoove any of us, to talk about the rest of us."

David's sin was great, but God's forgiveness preserved a plan for his life that was much greater. Through him came an ancestral line that would lead to one named Jesus. Are you surprised? Then consider something even bigger. That same spiritual ancestry traces itself from Jesus straight to saints and forgiven sinners like us.

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