Choose Better Verbs

Choose Better Verbs

A Sermon on 2 Samuel 11:1-15

By Griff Martin

For the Beloveds of First Austin: a baptist community of faith

On The Tenth Sunday Following Pentecost

July 29 2018

Incarnate and Resurrected God, we ask that you once again take the Word and transform it into a living and breathing new reality we can all together experience. Be present here in this space and in these words God for if you are present here then nothing else will matter, but if you are not present here then nothing else will matter. In the name of the Creator, the Christ and the Comforter.  Amen.

It’s not an easy text to study in the middle of summer, when we should be sitting poolside with several fans on us and a cold drink in hand and not a thought in the world, let’s be honest it seems that it is almost too hot to even think right now because 110 is too hot for brain work, especially abut this text. And trust me this is not an easy text to meditate on while you are spending the week at kid’s camp and your main concern is making sure that everyone brushed their teeth at least once the whole week, you don’t want that task and trying to find Gospel in this awful text.

And this is not a text that reads easily in the light of the Me Too movement- we saw that this Advent when we approached this text on Christmas Eve morning, in fact it demands a whole new reading and cast a whole new light on David, a man after God’s own heart. This Scripture comes alive in a way that should keep us awake at night.

However this is a story we need to spend some time with- if for nothing else looking at the more difficult text in our book helps us look at some of the more difficult situations in our world. It’s hard to focus on the problems of our world when we have not adequately studied the problems in our own history and family. If we can’t stand up for Bathsheba and name this text for what it is, then we won’t be able to name the same problem in our world today.

So to that end, let us dive into this difficult and demanding yet vital text.

The story could be rather simple: “David sinned and used his power to assault Bathsheba, she became pregnant and then David killed her husband Uriah.” Because that is the gist of the story, it can be summarized in one sentence if we want it to be, however that is not the story we get. Instead we get a lot of details, as if the author is telling us you need to know the whole story because there are lessons in it for you to learn.

This story does speak to us and it does so using it’s verbs. So let’s remind ourselves of all Anna Carter Florence taught us and let’s talk about verbs once again. You know a rule of great writing is not to use thought verbs or summary verbs. For example if you are writing a story, don’t start off with “Sarah hated John.” Instead start off like this: “During morning attendance, right after the teacher called John’s name, Sarah would mutter jerk under her breath right before John said present.”

You want to know more about that story than Sarah hated John. Good writing uses verbs that show, not verbs that tell. Which might be why in this particular text, the author does not simply summarize things: David sinned. This is a text full of showing verbs, verbs that show us something, verbs that show us these are verbs we should avoid.

So this morning I want us to look at David’s verbs and then ask what better verbs could David have used?

Verse one, our first two verbs: “In the spring of the year, the time when kings go off to battle. David sent Joab with his officers and all Israel with him… But David remained at Jerusalem.

David sent and remained.

These first verbs are huge clues to us and they tell us something most important in the story: David is not where David needs to be. The verse tells us that this was spring and spring was fighting season, a different kind of March Madness, where everyone gathered to battle.

But this spring David did not go. He sent his troops, but he remained in Jerusalem. David is somewhere he is not supposed to be. And this seems to be where sin always begins, when we are in the wrong place. Sin begins when we go somewhere we know we should not go.

Sin begins in those moments you glance around to see if anyone you know is looking, the minute you go to your internet browser and erase your history so no one will know what you just viewed, the moment you begin to ignore the always telling voice of conscious and morals in your soul, the moment that gossip moves from the tip of your tongue and is now midair.

Sin always begins by being in the wrong place- physically at times but always at the wrong place in your soul. One of the wisest things I was taught in high school was when a mentor told me Griff you know who you truly are by paying attention to what you do when no one else is watching. David gets to a place where no one else can watch and that is a dangerous place, when no one can watch and no one can warn you or speak truth to you.

So what better verbs do we have? David’s verbs here should have been David went with this troops to battle that spring. If David had been where David needed to be, then David does not get into the trouble David gets into. If David had been where David was supposed to be, it’s a different story.

And in the words of Anna Carter Florence, choosing a better verb would have made for a better story.

Verse two: “It happened late one afternoon, when David rose from his couch and was walking about the roof of the king’s house, David saw from the roof a woman bathing, the woman was beautiful.”

David is out walking around his rooftop after a mid afternoon nap, I mean he has a lot of free time on his hands since he is not where he is supposed to be and he really has nothing to do. And as he is taking his afternoon stroll, he looks over to a neighbor’s roof where a woman is bathing.

Or the verb from our text, David saw.

Which is not always a bad verb, it’s just that the rest of the verse implies David did more than just see, David stared. David looked long enough to know that this woman was a beautiful woman. The verb does not imply an accidental glimpse, but more of a peeping Tom. David did not glance over, David did not accidentally see. David saw and David liked what he saw. David lusted. David desired…. Bad verbs, bad for the one using them and bad for the object of those verbs.

Now what verb could we have given David here, what if we added a verb, what if this verse changed from David saw and discovered a beautiful woman bathing” we changed it to “David saw and looked away.” If David had immediately known, what you are looking at is not yours to look at.

If we had those verbs, it’s a non-story. But that’s not David’s story, again David goes with the wrong verb.

David has let power go to his head and David does not understand what is truly his (verbs can do this… it’s why watching our verbs matters), David’s verbs show us that David now thinks that everything is his, he starts to take verbs that were never meant for him. Which is exactly what Samuel warned the people about, when we have leaders who have absolute power, absolute power goes to their heads and they begin to take what is not theirs to take.

Verse three: “David sent someone to inquire about the woman. It was reported, ‘This is Bathsheba, wife of Uriah the Hittite.”

First verb there is sent. Sent is one of those verbs that is not always wrong, Jesus sent the 12 out several times in the Gospels. But sent is always dangerous verb if it is used wrongly, especially when others are sent out to do the work you don’t want to do or know you should not do.

This is one of those verbs we use often today. I bet there is not a person in this congregation who has not in the past year said this, “I wish I had not sent that email” or “how can I unsend that text.”

David sent someone to do his dirty work. David sent someone to inquire, there is our next verb to inquire. David wants to know more, he is wading deeper into waters that he should not be wading into. Yes he wants to know who this woman is, but more than that he wants to know if he can get away with it.

That first glance and look has now become a physical inquiry, David is dancing with danger and there is no one to stop him at this point. Those who should be closest to him are away at war, David has no accountability.

This inquire verb is really dangerous, especially when we start searching out the answer for the question, can I get away with it. Because if that is the question, the answer is always no, you might get away with it but you will always hold it in your soul and that is a terrible way to live because you know the truth is eventually going to come out.

Could David have chosen some better verbs? Absolutely. There are no opposite verbs here, but the story could have been this: After thinking about the woman David decided to release that thought and let it go. David could stop himself.

But he misses that chance, he sends and inquires. He finds out that this is Uriah’s wife and Uriah is at war, so there is nothing to stop him.

Verse four: “So David sent messengers to get her, and she came to him, and he lay with her.”

First verb is that horrible sent verb. It’s really the verb of this story, before the story ends it will be used 5 more times.

However the worst verb is the second one, David sent someone to get her. To get her. Anytime someone else is the object of the verb get, things don’t look good and something is not right. “Go get her.” David has forgotten the humanity of another and David thinks that another human being is his to get. Some of you in this space this morning have been the object of that verb and for that I am really so very sorry, you deserved and deserve better.

And we have now reached the point of no return, there are no better verbs here and there are not better verbs for the rest of the story. And there are not better verbs because there should not be verbs here, David has traveled far into a place he does not belong.

And the verbs we do have are really horrible verbs…. He lay with her, He made him (Uriah) drunk, He commanded that Uriah be struck down and die.

You see once David violates Bathsheba, she becomes pregnant, David tries his hardest to fix that by bringing Uriah home and getting him good and drunk so that he will go be with his wife, but Uriah sleeps outside his home because his troops are not sleeping in their beds tonight, so neither is his, and so David solves everything by having Uriah killed.

It’s amazing how quick we go from being in the wrong place to verbs of destruction like adultery, abuse and murder. Suddenly the wrong verbs are destroying a family and a king.

And maybe that’s why we get all the verbs in this story, to show us how quickly sin takes over our lives. Sin is not a seed that grows slowly, sin is more like a morning glory vine, which you plant and within what seems like seconds, the vine has taken over your entire flower bed and is completely out of control, what was once an object of beauty is now an incredible mess.

You see David had other options. David could have been in the right place and avoided all this. David could have looked away. David could have let it go. David could have walked away.

All those verbs would have led to better stories.

Choosing the right verbs for our stories is a really important decision. Right now our world is looking for folks who can choose better verbs because we have been choosing the wrongs verbs for too long.

So maybe this morning in this story, David is not the guy we need to look to for choosing better verbs. If we are going to look to someone to copy their verbs, keep going in the story until you come to the Gospels and there you find some verbs that are worth copying.

Jesus prayed.

Jesus gave.

Jesus sacrificed.

Jesus loved.

Jesus made disciples.

Jesus calmed.

Jesus called.

Jesus rose.

Jesus wept.

Jesus anoints.

Jesus cared.

Jesus forgave.

Jesus taught.

Jesus healed.

Jesus serves bread and wine.

Those are the verbs worth following- and actually maybe that is the first verb we should choose, follow. It seems to me that the more we chose that verb, that less we will be choosing the wrong verbs.

May we be people that use the right verbs, verbs that show and tell the Truth we find in the Gospel story, the truth our world so badly needs.

Amen and Amen.

*artwork: David and Bathsheba, by Marc Chagall, masterworksfineart.com/artists/marc-chagall