What most people in our society mean by "success" is having enough money and power to enjoy life. David was a great success. He had risen from being the youngest son, and therefore the one who would inherit the least, to be king of Israel, with life and death power, and more wealth than anyone in the land.

However, as David learned the hard way, danger comes with success. The more we are able to have whatever we want, the more we are able to do whatever we want the greater the tendency, the temptation to make self-centered enjoyment our goal in life. And the more we indulge in self-gratification, the more insensitive we are to others.

David was a great success, and in the enjoyment of his success, be became insensitive and self-indulgent. The result was a tragedy with painful consequences.

In case it has been a while since you read his story, allow me to refresh your memory.^[1] One time when the army of Israel was engaged in battle and David had remained behind in Jerusalem, he saw Bathsheba, the beautiful wife of Uriah, an officer in the army of Israel, and he wanted her. So, being the king, he had her brought to him, and the result of their afternoon together was she became pregnant. When she told King David she was carrying his child, he had her husband sent home on leave. Obviously, David was hoping Uriah and Bathsheba would sleep together so that Uriah and the general public would believe Bathsheba was carrying Uriah's child in her womb.

But, Uriah had an high sense of duty as a soldier, and he refused to enjoy the pleasure of his wife while his fellow soldiers were in the field, enduring hardship and danger. So, David sent Uriah back to the war carrying a letter to his commanding officer. Uriah did not know it, but this letter contained his death sentence. "Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, then draw back from him, so that he may be struck down and die."^[2] The commander did as King David ordered. Not long after Uriah was killed, David sent for Bathsheba and married her.

Then, the prophet Nathan, came to see the king and told him the story about a rich man who had great herds of cattle and sheep but who slaughtered the only sheep a poor man owned in order to feed some a guest. King David was outraged by this story of blatant injustice. At that point, the prophet Nathan declared: "You are the man-you whom God has made king and given all that you have. You have violated the commandments of God. You have coveted your neighbor's wife, Bathsheba; and committed adultery with her. Then, you murdered her husband by having him killed and took her as your wife."

All David had been given was for the sake of serving God's purposes. God made him king, but David forgot that all he had was a gift from God. And it had not been given for his selfish enjoyment, but rather to be used for God's purposes.

David had not suddenly become evil, one day saying, "I am no longer going to serve God; I am going to serve only myself." What happened to him is what happens to us. He forgot who he was and why he was. Bit by bit, he gradually shifted his focus from what God wanted, to his own desires. Finally, David reached the point where-almost without realizing it-he was using his power to serve himself with little thought of God or sensitivity to the worth and needs of others.

It was then, he saw the beautiful Bathsheba. He wanted her, and so used the power he had to have her. His self-centered focus in living led him to adultery and then to commit murder trying to cover the scandal of his adultery.

David's story is, to some extent, our story. It reveals how sin gains control in our lives. We forget we are children of God. We forget that all we have is ultimately a gift from God. We forget that our purpose in living is not to serve ourselves but to serve God. We drift from being focused on God to living our lives focused on ourselves, and focused on ourselves, we become insensitive to others. We then begin to treat them as objects to be used as we want. This is what David did to Bathsheba. Or, we treat them as bothersome problems to be gotten rid of. This is what David did to Uriah.

When we live self-centered lives, we become insensitive to the needs, worth and dignity of others. "Doing our own thing," "taking care of ourselves," "doing what we can to enjoy life," we move through our days failing to notice the worth and needs of others. The truth of the matter is that more often than not, when the worth and especially needs of others are called to our attention, we resent it. The result is our living contributes less and less to what is good and more and more to what makes life worse.

For example, none of us think of ourselves as racists, and certainly none of us intend to behave as racists. Without realizing it, we who live in our comfortable white West Austin ghetto are simply trying to enjoy life. We are all too much of the time so self-centered in our living we are insensitive to people in East Austin. Trying to enjoy ourselves we become insensitive to the problems, needs and potential of others, especially those who appear to be different from us. The result is that all too often what we say and do, or what is more often the case, what we fail to say and do, causes pain in their lives. It is not that we have decided to be mean and cruel. We are simply focused on trying to enjoy our lives as much as possible. Without even realizing it, the way we see others gradually becomes the way David saw Bathsheba and Uriah-as objects to be used for our pleasure or problems to be gotten rid of.

One of the more remarkable parts of the story of David is that when Nathan confronted him, David did not deny his sin, nor did he seek refuge in alibis. "I have sinned against the Lord," he confessed.

At this point, the story of David is not a reflection of the way most of us respond
when we are confronted with our sin. More often than not, what I do is offer alibis and try to rationalize or explain away my behavior so that I can at least convince myself it was not sin. A mistake, maybe. Bad judgment, maybe. But out and out, sinful behavior against the will of God? It was all a misunderstanding-right?

But this is not what David said. He faced his sin and admitted it before God and everyone who was in that room. Then, Nathan told him, God forgave him. Regardless of what our drifting away from God has led us to do or fail to do, reconciliation with God is possible. The Gospel truth is that God's mercy is so amazing, we often have great trouble believing it.

David was forgiven. He accepted the amazing gift of forgiveness, but none of that exempted David from the consequences of his sinful behavior. Because of his self-centeredness and arrogance, because of the way he had lived, his family life was from that time on in turmoil, even violent turmoil. And forgiveness does not exempt us from the consequences of our past.

But being reconciled to God does make a difference. In being reconciled to God, we are able to live through the consequences of our sin in ways that are expressions of faith. For example, God's forgiveness did not exempt Charles Colson from the consequences of his behavior that caused him to serve time in prison. However, his healed relationship with God enabled him to live through the consequences of his crime as a servant of God, and that led to his developinga significant ministry to persons in prison.

It is another dimension of the grace of God. When we embrace the forgiveness of God, even as we suffer the consequences of past sin, God can and will make use of us for the purposes of God.

The story of David, is like a mirror that reflects truth about our lives. Like David, we too have been given much by God. Like David, we too drift away from being focused on God and become focused on ourselves and our self-centered enjoyment of life.

Like David, we too become insensitive and in our insensitivity abuse our gifts and use and misuse others. And like David, even though God forgives us and we accept that forgiveness, we too cannot escape the consequences of our past behavior.

The challenge this story presents is the challenge of admitting our sin when we are confronted by the unpleasant truth about the sin in our lives. And being aware of our sin, can we accept God's forgiveness? And accepting God's forgiveness, are we willing to change our values and our way of living so that as we live through the consequences of our sin, we live as faithful servants of God?

God, help each of us learn what we need to learn from the story about David. Amen.

Pastoral Prayer:
God, we are grateful for this nation and for the ideals on which it is founded and toward which it strives. Forgive us for failing to live up to the ideals of liberty and justice for all.
We pray for the leaders of this nation-those who have power because of the votes they have received and those who have power because of the money they control. God, help them to be Your servants. Enable them to resist the temptation to use their power for selfish purposes. Help them to use their power to serve the best interest of all citizens. Keep them ever aware of the needs of those with little money and no political power. Give them the courage to use their power to do what is best in Your sight rather than always doing only what is expedient for their careers.
And what we pray for them, we pray for ourselves. Enable us to be Your servants. Save us from the temptation of making our choices out of selfishness. Protect us from the soul killing viruses of greed, prejudice, cynicism or bitterness. Give us a vision of hope that is larger than our personal desires, a vision of hope that includes those on the edges of society. Help us to do what is best rather than merely what serves our own limited self interest.
In the name of the one who revealed the way, the truth and the life, we pray. Amen.

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