Last Sunday when we left our hero, the great king David, he had ordered the murder of one of his soldiers and impregnated the now departed man’s wife. The great king was not looking so great. As we pick up the story today we learn that God is not all that happy with the leader he chose and favored.
The job of a prophet is to speak for God, so we are introduced to a new character in the drama, Nathan, prophet of God. It’s up to Nathan to step up and tell the king the bad news, that God is displeased with his behavior, but before doing so he wisely realizes that this will require a certain delicacy. David is a powerful man who seems to have lost his conscience lately by the murder of Uriah and the rape of Bathsheba. Nathan could easily find himself in a very difficult position if he isn’t careful. He must speak the truth to David, but he needs to do so in a way that David will hear it, recognize for himself the evil he has done, and make the appropriate response: repentance. Not only is this is a tall order but Nathan’s life is at stake as well.
· Now Nathan could have just walked up to David and blurted out the obvious, “David, you are a murderer and a rapist and you need to repent,” which probably would have resulted in his swift execution. He prudently chose another path – he told a story. The story was about a rich man and a poor man and how, out of his greed, the rich man stole the one lamb the poor man possessed and served it as dinner to his guests This atrocity occurred while the rich man possessed whole herds of sheep himself. Under a monarch the king executes all branches of government, which means in addition to making the laws, David also operated the judicial system and served as judge. Enraged by the rich man’s evil actions, David vows that the rich man will pay for this crime four times over. “Who is the culprit?” he implores Nathan. “Give me his name so I can punish him to the fullest extent of the law.” And I suspect after a deep gulp, Nathan summoned all his courage and told David, “The man is you.”
Fortunately for Nathan, David heard the truth in the story and he repented. David turns out to be a great king after all. This episode is an example of what we call “speaking truth to power.” Everyone carries around their own sense of truth. Just because two people see and hear the same event doesn’t mean they will interpret what happened in the same way. The result is: disagreement, conflict, lack of understanding, and in some cases it may even lead to attacks or outright warfare. One person says, “We should tax the wealthy at a higher rate because they have more money,” while another person says, “we should lower taxes for the rich so their businesses can create more jobs and pay workers higher wages which will bump them to a higher tax bracket and the government can pay its bills.” Which of those is true? In a way, they both are, but not everyone agrees which course should be followed.
I chose that example because it is fairly benign and serves as an illustration. Other examples hold greater risk, especially when speaking truth threatens the power of the powerful. In my experience, powerful people like their power and they want to keep it. They usually don’t appreciate hearing that their power is causing abuses or evil. Yet, this is the job of prophets – ancient and modern. Now unless God appears in front of us and tells us exactly what to say and tells us to whom we must say it, (something, by the way, that has never happened to me) we need to approach the role of prophet with care and humility. We need to be aware that what we believe is “God’s honest truth” might actually be nothing more than our personal opinion. There’s nothing wrong with having an opinion and sharing that with people in power, we just need to see it for what it is. We should never claim to be speaking for God when actually speaking for ourselves.
But whether it is our opinion, or God’s truth, we need to be as wise as Nathan and figure out how to speak to power. Our godly task is not just to say what is true, but to express it in a manner that will be heard and not rejected outright, but also accepted and followed with an appropriate response. That will take some thought, imagination and creativity. Sometimes it also takes luck.
As you know I travel to Albany on occasion to speak to our elected officials and share my opinions with them. I try to form my opinions after study and prayer. I once went to Albany with New York State Pride in hopes of adding “sexual orientation” to the list of conditions that carry additional punishment when a crime is committed. These are called “hate crimes” because a person is attacked, not for what they have done, but simply being who they are. Also on the list are: race, gender, country of origin, religion, etc. My senator at the time was not in favor of adding this item to the list. His argument was this: a crime is a crime is a crime and crimes have punishments. We don’t need to complicate the law by saying that when certain people are attacked the perpetrator receives extra punishments.
When I arrived for my appointment the senator was not available so I met with one of his staff, a woman. This happens all the time and I was used to it. I voiced my opinion and she recited the senator’s position. On the drive up the Thruway to Albany I noticed a sign that read: “speeding fines doubled in work zones.” I decided to share that with her, making the point that the State of New York already adds extra punishment to crimes when the individuals are especially vulnerable. Highway workers are especially vulnerable to speeding traffic so the law tries to protect them by deterring speeders. I told her that people who are gay or who have some of the stereotypical mannerisms associated with being gay are especially vulnerable to attack so the law should try to protect them by adding punishments when they are attacked. I didn’t know that the woman’s husband was a highway worker, but the Senator voted in favor of the law that year and it passed. They say you can either be “good” or “lucky.” I don’t know hope good I was in that interview, but I definitely got lucky and it was for a good cause.
Finally, one of the reasons we need to gather the courage and speak truth to power is that the truth is salvation. David heard the truth in Nathan’s story and he repented. If Nathan had not spoken up David may have continued to walk the path he was on. Unchanged, how many more women might he have taken? How many more crimes would he have tried to cover up? How many more innocent men would have met their death? We will never know because after Nathan told his story we never hear of David engaged in another crime. He recognized his sin and turned himself around. Truth can feel scorching and harsh, but is also cleansing, healing and it is salvation. It saved David and if we can hear it, it can save us too.
In God’s name. Amen.