"Who’s Your Nathan?" - Sermon for the Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Who’s Your Nathan?
Pentecost 19 – Narrative Lectionary 1
October 19, 2014
Grace, Mankato, MN
2 Samuel 12.1-9; Psalm 51.1-9

Hardly a day goes by without someone famous doing something really stupid or worse, even horrific by today’s standards. Just yesterday, we learned that Vice President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, was tossed from the Navy for using drugs. But, all you need to do is pick up a newspaper or watch the news to see other examples. For those people we don’t like or have no respect for, we might be secretly delighted at their great fall. However, the hardest ones are the people we deeply respect and admire so much that we feel betrayed by their actions. As I met with some colleagues this past week it seemed that each of us knew someone like this. And as the stories were told, I could hear the disbelief, disappointment and hurt in their voices. How could someone who is so good, with so many good gifts to share, do something like this, we asked?

Indeed, that’s the question that gets addressed in our focus scripture today from 2 Samuel 12. I think most of us know the story of David and Bathsheba, if not from the Bible then from real life. David replaces Saul as king, being declared as “one after God’s own heart.” He has everything going for him. Yet, he sees Bathsheba, Uriah’s wife, and decides he must have her. He does so and when she becomes pregnant David conspires to have Uriah killed. We don’t know if David thought he was above the law or that the law didn’t apply or that he simply didn’t care. Yet, the Lord God sees and cares.God sends Nathan the prophet to call David to account for what he does.

So, is David a good king gone bad or was God wrong about him in the first place, like God was about Saul? The fact is that we are all Davids of a sort, mixtures of good and bad, faithful and broken. This past summer we saw the move Maleficent, which is a retelling of Sleeping Beauty. The difference is that the story is told from the perspective of the so-called evil fairy, who is given the name Maleficent. The film actually dares you to decide whether Maleficent is good or evil and does it artfully. The film shows well is that we are all complex, fallible human beings with potential for both great good and great evil.

So, is that all there is to it, that we are destined to fight these great battles and ultimately lose? Fortunately, there is good news, and part of that good news comes in the form of Nathan. So often we can’t see how and where we are going wrong in our lives and we get off course. We need a Nathan in our lives to call us to account, to remind us of God’s purpose for us. A number of years ago I was asked to speak at a church event and in doing so told an inappropriate joke. I didn’t think it out of place until Karen, my Nathan, sat me down and explained it to me. After an initial reaction of defensiveness, I realized that she was right.

Now, I was cut to the heart and ashamed, but Karen did more than accuse me. She also pronounced forgiveness to me. That’s the bottom line to the lesson, that we all need Nathans in our lives to restore us to God and community. We can’t always see how we are veering from being the people God intended us to be. So we need the Nathans and Karens and others to tell us firmly and lovingly when we get off track. That’s the power of our community, to not only name to power that sin and brokenness have over us, but to proclaim that brokenness is not the last word. The cross of Jesus Christ leads to resurrection and new life. That new life is promised to us as well. Who’s the Nathan in your life? Where is it that God is working to restore you to community? “Create in us a clean heart, O God, and renew a right Spirit within us.” Amen.