A Message from Pastor Kaji

I learned so much from you all last Sunday in service! Our education session on election values was fascinating and inspiring. Thank you to everyone who attended and offered your faithful witness.

This coming Sunday, I promise that this text assigned by the lectionary actually is a coincidence. But, as we head towards one of the most consequential moments of our democracy, it is interesting to see the story of someone who is often called the world‘s greatest king. The whole concept of a Messiah is essentially the reincarnation of David’s kingship. 

David was a complex character, and the story in this passage brings out his very worst. And this would be a good time to offer a content warning, because the story described here involves sexual assault from that very king. “ The greatest.” The passage for today is quite long, but I would encourage you to read it in two ways. One, from David’s perspective and the other, from the woman, Bathsheba’s view.

I cannot read about Bathsheba without consulting Dr. Gafney’s Womanist Midrash on her. I will share more of her thoughts on Sunday. But as you prepare for the day, I encourage you to read this,from her lectionary commentary:

“David’s violation of Bathsheba’s body is treated as a violation of her husband’s rights to and over her body and as an offense against God. She is not treated as a victim or survivor. The extolling of her beauty has been weaponized—she (and other women) tempt men with their beauty by existing and conforming to some aesthetic standard. The construction of David’s sin as adultery projects blame onto Bathsheba that neither the text nor Nathan assert on God’s behalf. Indeed, Bathsheba is not charged with or punished for adultery; no sin is ascribed to her in the text. Rooftops often formed an extra room in Israelite households; Bathsheba’s bathing there is also not critiqued in the text as it is in subsequent interpretation. The initial mention of her bathing in verse 2 did not mention “impurity,” often read as menstruation, though that term is not used. She purifies herself from her impurity, “defilement” here, in verse 4 after David rapes her; that is a second cleansing. David’s decision to gift (or pay) Uriah for a harm that he may not yet know he has suffered conjures men who after a sexual assault offer their victim money or something valuable for silence or just out of guilt.” (P 576)

Dr. Gafney expands on her thinking in this sermon posted on her blog. I encourage you to read that, as well, particularly when she discusses Jesus‘s kingship. It is all helpful background as we, as a nation, prepared to anoint our next leader.

Please join us in worship on Sunday. We will reflect on this and so much more. And, we will have the special treat of our volunteer choir leading us in worship! Many thanks to Charles Anthony Bryant for bringing our incredible singers together. I cannot wait to hear them. It will be great to be together.

Happy Halloween!

Pax Christi,
Pastor Kaji

SCRIPTURE
2 Samuel 11:2–15 (Year B, p. 299):
 
2 And it happened near the evening that David rose from his lying-place and went walking about on the roof of the palace and he saw a woman bathing from the roof; the woman was extraordinarily beautiful in appearance. 3 David sent someone to inquire about the woman. It was reported, “Is not this Bathsheba daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” 4 And David sent messengers and he took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. Then she purified herself after her defilement and she returned to her house. 5 The woman conceived, and she sent and had someone tell David, “I am pregnant.”
6 So David sent word to Joab, “Send me Uriah the Hittite,” and Joab sent Uriah to David. 7 When Uriah came to him, David asked after the status of Joab, and the status of the people, and the status of the war. 8 Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house, and wash your feet.” Uriah went out of the palace, and after him a gift from David. 9 Now Uriah slept at the entrance of the palace with all the slaves of his lord and did not go down to his house. 10 And they told David, “Uriah did not go down to his house.” So David said to Uriah, “Have you not come from a journey? Why did you not go down to your house?” 11 Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah dwell in temporary shelters and my lord Joab and the slaves of my lord are at the edge of the field, camping. Should I then go to my house, to eat and to drink, and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing.” 12 Then David said to Uriah, “Stay here this day also, and tomorrow I will send you.” So, Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next. 13 Then David called him to dine in his presence and he drank, and David got him drunk. Then in the evening he went out to lie on his couch with the slaves of his lord, yet he did not go down to his house.
14 And it was in the morning that David wrote a [message] scroll to Joab and sent it in the hand of Uriah. 15 Now in the scroll David wrote, “Set Uriah at the frontline of the most intense battle and pull back from behind him, so he will be struck down and die.”