Called to Confession - Proper 12

After Pentecost  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented   •  35:33
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Called to Confession

Called to Confession

I’m a nerd.
I’m not sure if it is a nerd.
I’m just a super anxious person.
Although I’m actually quite mellow.
I just hate doing the wrong thing.
Maybe because I’m a ‘laatlammetjie’.
My brother and sister are 7 years older than me.
And they were naughty.
We laugh now - but my mom sometimes gets a tear in her eyes when she talks about their teenage years.
Both of them were ‘sent off’ to boarding school before I was in high school :)
Some illustrations of my ‘nerdiness’.
TAXES
Today is the first year in I don’t know how many that I have had to submit my tax documents for a ‘random audit’.
Being a nerd, I do not cheat on my taxes.
So I submit my documents every year.
I pay a small fee for a website thing called TaxTim that helps me to make sense of things. Cos I can never tell if I owe them money or they owe me.
(Sorry - I’m sure the logo is causing you anxiety - let me find another one.)
No, not that one.
Just hang on a minute.
OK - you came to church to get a break from all that - sorry - lets find something relaxing.
Ok - thats better.
Just breathe.
Oh no - some of you are afraid of dogs.
But most of us might choose the dogs over the other anxiety provoking images I just showed you :)
The good news - is this year I didn’t have to submit documents for a random audit.
Because although I am meticulous - I am paranoid.
I think to myself - is it really random?
And then the wonderful people at SARS seem to be taking an awful long time to look at my stuff - last year it took as long as possible.
And I wondered every night - is this the night the cops will come.
Should I phone a lawyer.
Did I make a mistake.
And then finally - all is OK.
I get my refund and buy myself a tank of diesel with it.
My wife is more of a nerd than me.
OK - I know its not funny.
Sorry - lets fix it
Ugh - oops.
Here you go. Don’t worry, it won’t give you allergies.
My wife got an auto-assessment and owes them R15. She’s a school teacher - she works for the government. Goodness knows how they get that right.
But I’m such a nerd that I’m now worrying that I’m not doing my job -
I’m not a stand up comedian - I’m a minister.
I must preach.
And confession is serious business.

Called to Confession

I’m a little over analytical.
If someone gets upset with me - I worry about it a lot.
I’ve learnt to get over myself.
Or I’m learning.
I realise that I am not hear to be loved. Or even liked. I must just love you and love God and thats that.
But this David oke.
2 Samuel 11:1 (NRSV)
1 …But David remained at Jerusalem.
He sent his soldiers off to battle. Like so many powerful rulers. while he chilled at the castle.
And spied on his soldier’s wives.
2 Samuel 11:2 NRSV
2 It happened, late one afternoon, when David rose from his couch and was walking about on the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; the woman was very beautiful.
What a creep.
He’s about 50 years old.
I’m pretty sure he isn’t as handsome as michelangelo imagined.
He was chilling on his couch in the late afternoon - instead of out doing soldier things.
I bet he is a bit like me - only missing out on all the exercise I get when I go looking for snacks.
So David - might have changed a bit by the time he was 50.
Probably a bit more realistic.
Like a Methodist Minister who has been fed at every house he visits.
When I visit you maybe you should just put out some carrot sticks.
Anyways.
We need to get that out of our head - and fast.
Just setting the scene.
Creepy David checking out his soldiers wives from the top of the castle.
Last picture - Gregory Peck and Susan Hayward…
David and Bathsheba.
What drives me crazy about the Hollywood version of the story is that it just makes it not what it is.
In the Bible it is not a romance novel with Bathsheba swooning and seducing the innocent and handsome Holy King.
Look at Susan Hayward there with all the dancing girls in the background.
Poor innocent David has no choice.
What a load of rubbish.
He’s a lazy King enjoying being a lazy King.
2 Samuel 11:4 (NRSV)
4 So David sent messengers to get her, and she came to him, and he lay with her…
This is no romantic story and the reason we’ve presented it often in history - in preaching - as a romantic story - we’ve neglected the Harvey Weinstein side of things here.
Because we have failed to CONFESS.

Called to Confession

For years and years in preaching and in fantasy even though God condemns David - even though this transgression might even be counted as the root cause of the ongoing calamity that is Palestine today - David gets off the hook.
Even the 45th president of the US is compared to poor David seduced by Stormy Daniels.
And the fact that Christians all around the world think that number 45 is OK and some sort of Christian hero indicates our total lack of ability to be condemned in our hearts for our sin.

I am not such a nerd…

Just like you - I have a selectively developed conscience.
I can judge creepy David for his adultery.
Because its not really something I’m in to - I have enough problems.
But maybe I pay the people who work for me less than a living wage - and in this cold weather I can lounge on my couch in my house with a dog to keep me warm.
A dog who eats better than some humans.
And I am sure you could help me come up with a bunch of examples of my own ‘sins’.
Maybe my ‘conscience’ is shaped by my eagerness to please everyone around me.
And not shaped by what God wants from me.
So its just my own ego.

Called to Confession

Thats why we need to confess. And we need to be reminded to confess. We’re all a bit like David.
We just sin differently.
That doesn’t make us worse - or better than David.
It just means we need help.
And so from Sunday to Sunday I will sometimes pray the prayer from the prayer book:
Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you no secrets are hidden. Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you, and worthily magnify your holy name, through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Its just a simple prayer.
For a clear conscience.
Then later we will have the prayer of confession - something like this one:
Merciful God,
we confess that we have not loved you with our whole heart.
We have failed to be an obedient church. We have not done your will, we have broken your law, we have rebelled against your love, we have not loved our neighbors, and we have not heard the cry of the needy.
Forgive us, we pray. Free us for joyful obedience, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
(All pray in silence.)
Leader to people:
Hear the good news:
Christ died for us while we were yet sinners; that proves God’s love toward us.
In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven!
People to leader:
In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven!
Leader and people:
Glory to God. Amen.
Psalm 32:5 NRSV
5 Then I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not hide my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and you forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah

Called to Confession

2 Samuel 11:14–15 NRSV
14 In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by the hand of Uriah. 15 In the letter he wrote, “Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him, so that he may be struck down and die.”
The Call to confession…
2 Samuel 11:26–12:1 NRSV
26 When the wife of Uriah heard that her husband was dead, she made lamentation for him. 27 When the mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife, and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord, 1 and the Lord sent Nathan to David. He came to him, and said to him, “There were two men in a certain city, the one rich and the other poor.
God’s Grace
2 Samuel 12:13 NRSV
13 David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” Nathan said to David, “Now the Lord has put away your sin; you shall not die.
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