Playing with Fire
Gettysburg Presbyterian Church
2 Samuel 11: 1-15
July 24, 2011
Rev. Lou Nyiri

We continue in our Summer Sermon Series on King David.
Today’s topic centers on David and Bathsheba and the assigned text was to come from 2 Samuel 11.
Listen now to God’s word to us, this day.
[Read 2 Samuel 11:1-15]

July 15th – 2011 – Midnight – where were you?
Were you home in bed, asleep?
Were you awake, in front of the television, suffering from insomnia?
Were you in front of the computer, playing a video game, updating your facebook status or replying to emails you missed?
Or, were you one of the people in the over 3,800 theaters in the US, and worldwide, who shattering previous records for midnight releases, attended the showing of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – part 2.

Here’s the text I received from my 15-year old nephew, “Just got out of the movie!  It was awesome!!! J - at 3:40 AM.
Now, I don’t want to ruin it for anyone, but they do use magic in this one.
And No, I haven’t seen the movie yet.  In fact, I haven’t even seen Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – part 1 yet.  So, I am not a good one to talk about the movie with.”

That being said, I have seen the previous Harry Potter movies, and in particular, I am reminded today of a scene from one of the previous movies, between Harry and Dumbledore, a major protagonist in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series and the headmaster of the wizarding school Hogwarts,

There’s a fascinating device stored at Hogwarts School called the Mirror of Erised.  Erised is “Desire” spelled backwards, and when Harry stumbles upon it, he peers in and sees himself standing with his parents, who died when he was an infant.  He returns to the mirror again and again, spending longer and longer in front of it, gazing at the family he never knew.

Dumbledore offers Harry a warning about the mirror’s power:
“He cautions Harry not to “waste away” in front of the mirror as so many others have, driven mad by their desires.”

There is nothing wrong with Harry wanting to see his parents again.  And not every desire of our heart is evil!  But Dumbledore’s warning is a lot like the Apostle Paul’s warning as well.  When we let our own desires hold us “captive,” until that is all we can see, then that which separates us from each other AND from our God, namely, sin has gained a foothold in our lives and, to quote another New Testament writer, “we are strangers to the truth” (1 John 1:9).

And when that happens, we are treading a thin or maybe it’s more of a blurred line between being tempted and giving in to our temptations.

It’s as the old saying goes, “We are playing with fire.”

And when we lose sight of the correct, honorable, holy, God-pleasing choice over the wrong, dishonoring, unholy, ungodly choice – when we lose sight of where one ends and the other begins – we are more prone to making the choice in favor of that which is enjoyable in a fleeting sense over that which is pleasing and lasting.

No one understood this more than King David.

He makes choices that lead to unhealthy outcomes.  He engages in a cover up that begins a sequence of family history and secrets which follow future generations.
I’ve read the following with regard to family secrets, “Any topic that a family member thinks may cause anxiety may become a family secret.  Family members often see keeping the secrets as important to keeping the family working, but over time the secrets can increase the anxiety in the family.”

Secrets and Cover-ups…Half-truths and lies suffocate and hold us down.
Truth, on the other hand, lifts up and resuscitates…Truth frees and releases us from captivity.
How did Jesus put it? – “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32).

David stood on that roof top, which very easily could have been his Mirror of Erised, and he gave in to his desire.
Let’s not forget the background story:
Way back in 1 Samuel 8:20, the elders of Israel demanded a king who would “go out before us and fight our battles.” – Where is David when the military personnel are on the front lines fighting for the kingdom? – He’s back in comforts of his palace while the men fight in Rabbah.
The prophet Samuel, himself, in 1 Samuel 8:11-18 warned them of the dangers from kings who “take” from the people for their own interests. – What does David do when he sees across the rooftops? – He summons his servants to get Bathsheba whom the text says “came to him”… it must be understood here that our New Revised Standard Version inaccurately implies consent on the part of Bathsheba.  The more accurate translation would be that he “took.”  As king, David holds a position of power which gives him an advantage:  he therefore “takes.”  In that day, the king sends for a subject and the subject has no option but to obey.  It is a coercive, self-indulgent use of power to satisfy only David’s desire.

He has no desire for an ongoing relationship or marriage.
It is Bathsheba’s three words – which happen to be her only words in this whole saga – that capture his attention a second time, “I am pregnant.”
Then David launches into the cover up – get Uriah back from the front to spend time with his wife and then maybe everyone will think the child is his.
When that doesn’t go according to plan then plan B happens have the husband killed in battle and marry Bathsheba.

David thought his power gave him control.
He quickly found out there was a lot he couldn’t control.
He couldn’t control the human life cycle.
He couldn’t control Uriah’s principles.
He couldn’t control himself when he gives in to his desire.

And David gave in to his desire.
“Death,” it has been said, “is the grandchild of desire.”

And if it can happen to David, then it can happen to us. 
David’s story can very easily become our story.
Hopefully it is not on such a grandiose scale as adultery and murder.
David’s story is the story of a fallen hero. 
He has not fallen in battle – he has fallen in moral character.
I’m not likening the following to the gravity of adultery and murder, though something I once heard has caused me to think more thoughtfully about what I say, “How many people have we murdered with our words around an afternoon meal?”
I’ve also heard it said – and I’ve shared it often with others – we all – ALL of us are one choice away from becoming the topic of conversation around the office water cooler OR becoming front page, above the fold headline news.

So, how do we make good, God-Honoring choices in the midst of life’s crucible?
When we are playing with fire, how do we avoid getting burned?
Well, what puts out fire? – Water, of course.
What’s made of water? – Ice.
What’s made of ice? – An iceberg.

An iceberg is one of nature’s most beautiful and dangerous phenomena.
What we see of these masses of broken-off glaciers is beautiful.
What we see in the photos of icebergs is in reality only one-eighth to one-tenth of the iceberg – hence the saying, “the tip of the iceberg” – the rest is hidden below the surface of the water.
What we don’t see is where the danger lurks.

Think about the British steamer, the Titanic, considered by experts to be unsinkable.
Yet, one of the largest sea disasters in history occurred when the Titanic struck the hidden part of an iceberg on its maiden voyage during the night of April 14, 1912.
1,500 people perished as the submerged part of an ice mountain ripped open a three-hundred-foot long gash in the hull of what was then the greatest ocean liner in the world.

Like an iceberg, the beautiful part of our lives is the one-eighth or one-tenth of the iceberg showing above the water. 
This is what has been called “The Visible You.”
This is the “best foot” each of us puts forth – the part which we allow people see.
This is life lived on what others would call “the cliché level” – news, sports, weather.

What’s below the surface though is where we live our real lives – often hidden from view – and almost never do we share this part of our lives with others.
This is what has been called “The Real You.”
This is where we lead what some have called “the unexamined life” – secret thought life, our ambitions and motives, our relationships (with God and those closest to us), the formation of our moral and ethical behaviors, the real motivation behind our purposes/priorities/goals.
This submerged part is where we wrestle with gut-wrenching issues in the key areas of our lives.
Every day, we need someone who can help us navigate around the submerged dangers of an unexamined life.

This type of view has been called “The Accountability Iceberg.”
What this means is that each of us would benefit from having one or two – trusted, honest, faithful people in our lives who will agree to walk alongside us during life’s journey.
We’re not looking for people who will give us the words we want to hear.
We’re looking for people who will ask us questions we need to answer or haven’t thought of asking ourselves.
We’re looking for qualified people to whom we will entrust ourselves, so that we might be regularly answerable for each of the key areas of our lives – and in so doing, become empowered to make those God-honoring choices.

We’re looking for someone who will hold us accountable in our key relationships and areas of life:
Relationship with God
Relationship with our family
spouse or significant other
children
siblings
Use of money & time
Our moral and ethical behaviors
Areas of personal struggle…
And in this 21st century of Skype and unlimited calling plans, this person doesn’t have to live in the same town.

It’s not about being beat up by someone else – because we’re all pretty good at doing that to ourselves – it’s about engaging with someone who can speak the truth to us in love.
What we’re looking for is someone we trust – and someone we entrust – to meet regularly with us, to pray regularly for us and to help us see our weak spots; help us identify our blind spots; help us avoid the pitfalls we really struggle with so that we might avoid unnecessary pain – NOT so much for our sakes, rather for the sake of those we might injure due to our actions or inactions.

This past Thursday, maybe you read about it or maybe you got up to watch as the Shuttle Atlantis returned from its space mission.  When Atlantis touched down it marked the end of the 30 year NASA shuttle space program.
Bill Nelson, a Congressman from Florida, flew on the Columbia space shuttle mission – the mission just prior to the ill-fated Challenger disaster which occurred in the mid-80s.
In his book, Mission, he describes his space experiences.
He explains how maintaining a proper orbit is a delicate affair.
There is no resistance in space and a person could literally turn the huge orbiter over by their self.
In order to maintain a proper orbit, the on-board computers constantly make course and altitude corrections.
Small rockets fire to make these adjustments.  Larger jets burn to make major changes.

If these rockets don’t fire, or if they overcompensate, the space vehicle can veer off its orbit and go tumbling off into space toward the outer edges of the universe.
If we desire to keep our lives on a proper orbit – in proper alignment with the will of our God – then we too need to constantly make “course and altitude corrections.”
The person we choose and the questions they regularly ask us about how we are living our lives in those key areas act as those rockets on the space shuttle which help us to make the course corrections needed to maintain our orbit – our proper alignment with God’s will.
If we don’t correct our course, the risk is that we will give in to our desires and make impulsive choices, choices which spin us wildly out of control toward the outer edge.

I wonder what kind of change could happen if we began to examine our unexamined lives – if we began to investigate that submerged part of our icebergs – if we chose to not “waste away” in front of our Mirror of Esired, driven mad by our desires…

I wonder how Bathsheba and Uriah’s lives might have turned out had David had someone like this he could have turned to before making his decision on that rooftop.
I wonder if David had had someone like this he might have avoided seeing people as commodities to be used to fulfill his own desires…
Quite possibly their lives might not have spun so wildly out of control.

I wonder how our lives might turn out were we to find someone with whom we might entrust ourselves to become regularly answerable for each of the key areas of our lives…
 
I wonder if in so doing, our lives would begin to gain more control and that we might become more empowered to make God-honoring choices.

I wonder…what do we see when we look into our Mirror of Erised?

Let us pray:
Lord, our prayer is simple this morning, Help us…
Help us to become who it is you need us to become…
Amen.

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