There may be some questions as to why we need such a sermon with such a topic. My answer
is this: since our children and we are bombarded with sexual issues on television, in magazines
and in newspapers, in conversations with co-workers at the office and classmates at school, since
everyone in our culture seems to have something to say about sexuality, it would be wrong for
the Church to remain silent. So here we are - Managing Sexual Energy.
Sermon topics are, alas, usually rather "ho hum," drawing little or no anticipatory comment.
No so, today. One member said that it must be time for the "annual summer sermon on sex."
Another said that his problem was not so much managing sexual energy as suffering from the
lack thereof, the topic of this week's Sally Forth cartoon in the Sun. (In this connection I
recommend the book by Anne Mayer, How To Stay Lovers While Raising Your Children - A
Burned-Out Parents' Guide to Sex [Los Angeles: Price Stern Sloan, 1990]). Still another asked
if I would use the new rear projection screen to show slides. "No," I said, "but I may call for
volunteers!"
"'nuff said!" The person with the sexual energy is David. He managed it badly, with tragic
consequences. First, let's take a fresh look at the story of David and Bathsheba, and then finish
up with some thoughts on proper management of sexual energy.
DAVID AND BATHSHEBA
In this section of the sermon I am following the work of Walter Brueggemann in his wonderful
commentary of I and II Samuel. (Walter Brueggemann, First and Second Samuel [Louisville:
John Knox Press] 1990, pp. 271-279)
The adultery, lying and murder in this story mark a turning point in David's life and in the
history of Israel. Innocence was lost and never retrieved. Nothing would ever be the same
again. In this tale, there are also deep psychological needs and a ruthless abuse of political
power. We are dealing with life's big ticket items: sex and power; desire and death.
Brueggemann says that this story "is more than we want to know about David and more than
we can bear to understand about ourselves." (Op. cit., p. 272)
Israel had wanted a king to go before and fight battles (I Samuel 8: 20), and David had been
such a champion from his opening bout against Goliath (I Samuel 17) and on into his service
under Saul when he slew his ten thousands (I Samuel 18: 7). But by now David has stoppedbeing a chieftain and become a bit of a couch potato. He sees a woman, a woman with no
name, just a beautiful body.
Male interpreters who are unsympathetic with Bathsheba point out that given the topography of
the City of David, and given the location of the palace at the top of the hill overlooking the rest
of the city, David could not help but see Bathsheba, a fact she surely would have known.
Others rightly point out that even if she was in the wrong to bathe in such a highly visible spot,
David did not have to look or to follow up on his looking.
When he learns her name, he discovers that it is dangerously hyphenated: "Bathsheba-daughter
of Eliam, wife of Uriah the Hittite." Her identity is defined by the men she belongs to. (Recall
that the language of old wedding ceremonies reflects this notion that the father and the husband
"own" the female as property to be transferred from one male to another. "Who giveth this
woman to be married to this man?" "I do," says Dad, handing her over to the groom.
(Nowadays most couples prefer this script: "On behalf of the two families who presents this
man and this woman to be married?" to which the father of the bride answers, "On behalf of
their parents I do.") Back to Bathsheba, who is about to belong to another man.
The story is told with brutal economy in the action verbs, rushing as fast as David's passion:
he sent; he took; he lay. (v. 4) The woman finally gets some verbs: she returned; she
conceived.
Notice that there is no conversation, no caring, no affection, no love, just lust. David does not
call her by name; if David speaks to her at all, it is not recorded. Then comes the verb which
is dynamite: "I am pregnant." No demand, no threat, just "I am pregnant."
David again acts swiftly, decisively. He brings Uriah back and sends him home to sleep with
his wife, a cover up with nothing too destructive, except that it backfires because Uriah is more
moral than David. The "foreigner" is more moral than the son of the Torah; he won't enjoy
the comforts of home while his fellow soldiers are at risk and in the field. He is more moral
than David!
David sends a gift home with Uriah in order to spy and learn what did and did not go on. What
did Uriah think when it became evident that the king knew what did and did not happen? And
why was the king so interested? We can only speculate. Perhaps Uriah suspected what was up
and therefore was willing to drown his sorrows in drink when David invited him to spend time
with him, an apparent act of friendship.
David sends Uriah back to war, carrying his own death warrant in a letter to Joab, the hatchet
man who puts the king ahead of scruples. It works; Uriah is killed; the messengers bring the
report to David.
The story goes on until Nathan the prophet convicts David of his sin through the powerful
parable he tells in II Samuel 12. His act of repentance takes the form of the prayer we readearlier, Psalm 51.
MAKING SENSE OF SEX
In much of what follows I am drawing on the fine chapter on David and Bathsheba in Brian
Harbour's book, Famous Couples of the Bible. (Brian L. Harbour, Famous Couples of the Bible[Nashville: Broadman Press] 1979, pp. 101-108)
The Bible says that David "was ruddy, and had beautiful eyes, and was handsome (I Sam. 16:
12). It says that Bathsheba was "very beautiful" (II Samuel 11: 2). A handsome man and
beautiful woman come together on a foundation of no more than attraction and power, lust, and
sexual energy out of control. Lust is defined as "the unrestrained and unethical expression of
the sexual impulse." (Solomon Schimmel, The Seven Deadly Sins: Jewish, Christian, and
Classical Reflections on Human Nature [New York: The Free Press] 1992, p. 111)
Over the centuries the Christian Church has sent out confused signals about sex. Some Church
fathers, influenced by the teachings of (some but not all) Greek thinkers, held that the body and
any sexual use of it would be considered evil. Martin Luther found the complexity of sex very
puzzling: "Had God consulted me in the matter, I should have advised him to continue the
generation of the species by fashioning the human beings out of clay as Adam was made."
Victorian prudery made sex a taboo subject. Pregnancy, if even mentioned, was called "an
interesting condition," as in "Mrs. Smith is in an interesting condition!" Life's sexual
dimension was put under the three "D's" - duty, dull and dirty.
This is all wrong because the Bible has a very positive view of sex.
(1) Sex is God's idea.
Genesis 1: 27 says God created us male and female, told us to be fruitful and multiply. Did
you ever notice that God called many of his creations "good," but when he formed us male and
female as sexual beings, he declared his work to be very good? (Genesis 1: 31)
God did not say it is all very good except the sexual part. It was very good. All this was
before the business with the forbidden fruit, what is called "the fall of man." Sex was there
from the beginning, a gift from God, not a sin, not a curse.
(2) Sex is good in its proper arena, which is in a committed, life long relationship, in marriage.
Jesus in Matthew 19: 5, drawing on Genesis 2: 24, says, "For this cause a man shall leave his
father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh."
In 1 Corinthians 7: 2-5 Paul mentions the importance of marriage partners fulfilling each other's
sexual needs. The purpose of two people coming together is unity of body and spirit, delightin one another, intimate communication, and provision for new life.
(3) Sex is God's good idea in the arena of committed, life long relationships, marriage, but it
should not be abused. It for the right time, in the right place, between the right people, one of
life's most productive forces when not misused. With David and Bathsheba, sex was at the
wrong time, in the wrong place, with the wrong person, and for the wrong reason.
CONSEQUENCES
Mismanagement of sexual energy has its consequences.
II Samuel 11 ends with the terse comment: "The thing that David had done displeased the Lord."
(v. 27) The act would haunt David. I Kings 15: 5 sums up his reign with these words: "David
did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, and turned not aside from anything that he
commanded him all the days of his life, save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite."
(Interesting....no mention of Bathsheba. She will get due honor in the genealogy of Jesus in
Matthew 1: 6 although not by name; she is still "the wife of Uriah.")
Uriah was killed; the baby died. There were other losses. Did you notice in the Responsive
Reading that terribly poignant prayer to restore the joy of salvation? David had lost "the joy
of his salvation" (Psalm 51: 12). David had to face continual warfare - the sword never
departed from his house (II Samuel 12: 10); enemies rose up in his own household; Absalom
his beloved son revolted; his son Amnon raped his half-sister Tamar (II Samuel 13). It all goes
back to the mismanagement of his God-given sexual energy.
There are always consequences for such abuse of our sexuality. They may not be as public and
as widespread as David's, but the consequences are there.
(1) Domination
Sex outside marriage or abusive sex within marriage cause sex to dominate one's consciousness
and relationships. It becomes the central factor, literally a consuming passion.
(2) Superficiality
"Casual sex" is a contradiction in terms. Sex is meant for depth relationships, not passing,
superficial encounters. The problem with sex before marriage and outside marriage is not that
too much is given. No, the problem is that too little is given. The possibility of deep, constant
intimacy is just not there.
A bored, shallow person is highly susceptible to lust. So called "casual sex" is so shallow that
it can easily turn to hate. II Samuel 13: 15 reports that after raping Tamar, Amnon "was filled
with hatred; his hatred was stronger than the love he had felt."(3) National consequences
No two people can abuse their sexuality in isolation. There are inevitable consequences for
other persons - spouses, children, those who would have thought better. Remember the old
hymn, "I would be true, for there are those who trust me; I would be true, for there are those
who care." (The Baptist Hymnal, edited by Walter Hines Sims [Nashville: Convention Press]
1956, Howard A. Walters, "I Would Be True," No. 315)
The historian Arnold Toynbee wrote that "No nation has ever survived that failed to discipline
itself sexually." That wise Frenchman who studied the United States in our early days, Alex
de Toqueville, wrote, "America is great because America is good. If America ceases to be
good, America will cease to be great."
I am not saying we should behave sexually just to be patriotic! I am saying that our sexual
behavior has implications beyond our own lives, implications for our larger society.
CONCLUSION
Proper dealing with occasional inappropriate sexual longings and lustful thoughts is a matter of
lifelong Christian development and discipleship. Love meets needs; lust begins in emptiness and
ends in emptiness. A few years ago in an Alban Institute publication there was a fine article
with this message: when we begin to long for someone or something we cannot and should not
possess, we should identify the longing and "inhabit the longing," that is invite God's Spirit to
come in, indwell, fill and replace the longing. This is the expulsive power of a higher affection,
the ability of a higher thought to dispel a lower one.
I close with Paul's call to the Philippians for a love of discipleship and development, not only
in sexual areas but in every aspect of our God given humanity.
"I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those
of us who are mature be thus minded." Amen. (Philippians 3: 14-15a)
