Preacher: Jo J. Belser
Location: Church of the Resurrection
Text: 2 Samuel 11:26-12:13a
Day: 11 Pentecost (Proper 13), Year B
“Code Red!”
Do you remember the 1992 movie, “A Few Good Men?” Tom Cruise, the young whippersnapper Navy lawyer was goading Jack Nicholson, the crusty old Marine Corps Colonel, who was under oath. “Did you order the Code Red?” demanded Cruise over and over. Finally, the Colonel couldn’t stand his authority being challenged any more. “You can’t handle the truth!” the Colonel roared. And then, “You’re [darned tooting] I ordered the Code Red.”
Silence in the courtroom! Someone read the Colonel his rights. He did wrong (Code Red!) and would have to suffer the consequences.
Today’s Old Testament lesson brought this movie scene to mind. Because King David couldn’t handle the truth. The “thing” that he had done displeased the Lord. By my count, David broke at least three of the Ten Commandments: adultery, dishonesty, murder. Even a whippersnapper of a lawyer could probably identify more sins here than three We heard all about David and Bathsheba last week, not to mention Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah the Hittite, whose life David had arranged to end. Talk about Code Red!
Today, though, the prophet Nathan makes a return appearance. Two weeks ago, our lesson was about God taking Nathan to task for agreeing with King David about building God a house—a church—without consulting God to see what God wanted. Today, Nathan seems to have learned about being God’s prophet. He got David to condemn the great wrongdoing that David had done before revealing that David was the wrong-doer. Sometimes, our Code Reds need excavating, we have buried them so deep.
“But I married the woman,” David might have said. Did he ask God, or even Bathsheba, what THEY wanted him to do? “And wouldn’t Uriah have died in battle anyway?” David might have said. David couldn’t handle the truth, so he had buried his ugly truth deep within him.
And the truth was this: God had given David EVERYTHING he needed. And, Nathan told David that God had said, “If that had been too little I would have doubled ALL that I have given [David].” But David took what wasn’t his.
David was so convicted by the truth that Nathan revealed to him, so convicted by Nathan’s intervention, he repented. And that is where our first lesson ends. As we will learn in future weeks, in future lessons, there were consequences to David for his misdeeds, for his Code Red. But this is enough to know today: “We can repent and return to the Lord, no matter how great the evil we have done. And God WILL forgive us. And we will live.
Our Psalm today (to touch on it) is David’s prayer of repentance to the Lord. In it we heard in it all that is required to ask God for forgiveness: First, lay our ugly sinful truth before God. Second, don’t try to justify our sins or shift blame to God or anyone else. (“It wasn’t Code RED, Your Honor; just Code PINK! Besides, the woman made me do it. Yes, that’s it, the DEVIL made me do it!” NONE OF THAT!) Finally, pray “Create in me a clean heart, and renew a right spirit within me.” And be genuinely sorry.
This right spirit is the bread of life, the very “food” for our soul that connects us to God through Christ Jesus, and in Christ’s name to each other. We ask for material things and God provides them, but God also provides LIFE and the sustenance for living.
What truth is buried deep within you today? Can you handle your truth? Can your truth stand the light of day? Prophetic confrontation? If not, ask Jesus to cleanse your heart and fill you with the bread of life. Eternity awaits. If your heart is already clean, share your right-spirit and the bread of life with the world.
Today is a new day for us all:
- For Church of the Resurrection, this is the first Sunday our 8 am congregation is away from our church building in our great leap of faith toward creating 113 units of affordable housing for our City’s West End. God has given us all we need: a house in which to worship him, a place for us to continue our feeding missions, and office space. And if that isn’t enough, we need only to ask for more.
- For seminarians beginning a new venture in faith here on the Holy Hill, remember always that God gives us every single thing needed to do what God asks us to do.
- For each of you, no matter where your spiritual home is, thank you for joining us here today to encourage us in this new venture. God’s truth is this: We are deeply connected to each other because we are each missionary outposts of the same Lord, the same baptism. May God bless you and your ministry as you abide in the Truth.
