The Prophetic Voice of Truth.
Psalm 51; 2 Samuel 11: 26 – 12: 13a; John 6: 24 – 35a
What is the work we should be doing?
“Nobody in Australia much likes whistleblowers, particularly in an organisation like the police or the government.” This statement is attributed to the former NSW Police Commissioner Tony Lauer in the 1990s, and largely summed up the official government and police attitudes towards whistleblowers during that period. Fast forward to 2012 and a survey by Griffith University found that while 80 per cent of Australian employees feel personally obliged to blow the whistle on wrongdoing in their organisations, only 49 per cent felt their managers would be serious about protecting them – and only 33 per cent of federal public servants felt likewise.
We may be more comfortable about whistleblowing but that does not make it easier. There is a cost to pointing out something that is wrong. The cost begins with the personal turmoil it takes to speak out and confront, but that is nothing compared to losing your job, rejection, jail and outright persecution that may follow. At the social level if we speak the truth we run up against our culture of niceness. So we remain quiet and hide behind the notion of not wanting to upset people.
I belonged to the Christian Institute in South Africa. It was founded in 1963 by a number of concerned Church leaders. Two principal leaders were the Reverends Beyers Naudé and John de Gruchy. In my time in the 70s Beyers Naudé was the Director and Theo Kotze his deputy. Theo was a Methodist Minister and he asked me to help him build bridges and awareness in the provincial city where I ministered, Kimberley, South Africa. That I did. I learnt a lot and I saw some wonderful examples of the breaking down of racial barriers in churches. The whites, blacks and so-called-coloured people all had their own churches. But some of us got together. Our youth group met regularly with the ‘coloured’ church’s youth.
Today I want to focus on the role of the prophetic voice that speaks the truth. Theo told me how he had received threatening phone calls and on one occasion he arrived home to find that bullets had been sprayed across the front of the house. No one had been home at the time. Was it coincidental or planned that no one was home at the time? He took it to be the latter. He took it to be deliberately done to intimidate. We migrated to Sydney arriving January 1977. That year the Christian Institute was banned. Beyers Naudé was put under house arrest and Theo Kotze was smuggled out of the country to continue the work overseas.
Pointing out the wrong to anyone is not easy. In some instances when the wrong is deliberately undertaken to serve the interests of a few, those in power will do their utmost to silence voices that speak against the wrongdoing. It is not surprising that some have suffered much for speaking out. The powerful will always work to silence the prophetic voice unless there is a higher voice that the powerful acknowledge. It is interesting to note that the peace marchers under Martin Luther King’s leadership were largely successful because the American Constitution recognised their rights and Federal officers protected them.
With all this in mind let us turn to the text and the story of King David, Bathsheba, Uriah her husband and Nathan the prophet. King David’s actions of stealing Uriah’s wife and then having Uriah killed in battle were not surprising for a king to do in those times. What’s more surprising is the back-story. The main player there is Nathan. Bathsheba is the victim as is Uriah.
Let us remind ourselves. Nathan enters the story and tells King David that it is a good thing to build the temple; he returns the next day to advise David that God does not want him to build the temple [2 Sam 7]. It would have been a hard task to tell the big boss that he got it wrong. But David listens. David listens to the voice of God spoken by the prophet. Then the next disaster happens. It is hard to know why this story emerges in the text. Is it because Bathsheba is the mother of Solomon? That might be the case but it is not a story that pleases our senses. It is not a story that honours the great King David. It is only a story that honours the prophetic voice of truth. The prophet comes to David and cleverly tells him the story of the rich man taking a poor man’s only lamb. David is angry, and rightly so, for anyone with any sense of justice would be angry. We are told that David “reigned over all Israel; and David administered justice and equity to all his people” [2 Sam 8:15]. For all David’s faults, his ruthless military and political strategy, he was a just king and sensitive to God.
Nathan’s story trapped the king. King David asked, ‘Who is this unjust rich man?’ Nathan points the finger at David and says, “You are the man!” [2 Sam 12:7] Nathan reminds him of God’s blessing, which in turn reminds David that he has been greedy, devious and unjust. There was no need to take another woman. He has plenty. He has no reason to take another man’s wife. That is against the Law of God. The culture of the time speaks of a man being wronged not a woman being abused. But the point of the story is prophetic truth telling.
Let us return to Nathan. He has been faithful and he has been bold in confronting David with the truth of God. There have been monarchs before and after who would have turned on the prophet and persecuted him. For example, John the Baptist got a rum deal from King Herod for criticising Herod for marrying his brother’s wife.
Carl Gustav Jung, known for his analytical psychology, said; “Our world is so exceedingly rich in delusions that a truth is priceless.” John Baillie, theologian wrote; “ The New Testament does not say, ‘you shall know the rules, and by them you shall be bound,’ but, ‘you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” As Christians we cannot escape the significance that truth is life-giving. Jesus said, ‘I am the way, the truth and the life’ [Jn 14: 6]. To have justice in the world we first need to have truth.
This Nathan speaks the truth, and it is to David’s credit that he responds positively. All this happens within the cultural context of the times, which is vastly different from our Western culture today. Nevertheless the principles remain. Truth must prevail for justice to be done, and truth needs to be spoken by faithful, authentic and humble people of God. God is truth and God’s followers are truth-speakers. We can never be excused from that.
How does this work out in our lives?
Firstly, let us be aware that we need to speak the truth wisely. When Nathan confronted David in the first instance he merely related what God had said about the Ark of the Covenant and Temple. In the second, the more personal and offensive instance of Bathsheba and Uriah, Nathan first tells a story. He cleverly lays a foundation for the king to recognise a general truth. I recall speaking to a young politician who wanted some advice. The Premier at the time wanted to change the laws relating to homosexuals to ensure justice for them. This young man from the bush hated homosexuality. We spoke awhile. He listened to my counsel that homosexuals should receive equity. This was not about same gender marriage. He was not convinced. Then I asked. ‘What would you do if one of your boys told you they were homosexual? Would you reject them?’ He paused for a moment and said, ‘No.’ When I brought the truth of the matter to his personal experience, he changed his thinking.
Secondly, we need to speak bravely. I recall my wife returning from work one day quite upset about some injustice taking place at school. What could be done about it? We pondered that together and determined that the better way forward was to speak to one of council members, whom we knew. But it was not an easy exercise. In this instance straight forward confrontation would have been too risky. A direct confrontation with the perpetrator would probably result in the matter being hidden. The action we took led to the injustice being averted.
Thirdly, we need to speak the truth kindly. The manner in which we bring to the front of stage a difficult truth is all important. To speak the truth to someone is not a licence to be impolite or insensitive. It is a call to do so in love. That means we need to establish a relationship and to be clear about what we are saying. And we should be conscious of the effect on the person’s feelings. Confrontation done in love requires us to be sensitive, wise with our words and humble in our attitude. Sensitivity and wise words may come more naturally when we approach the matter with humility. The humility that recognises that we too speak untruth at times and we are not perfect.
Fourthly truth is confrontational. To speak the truth we need to confront. Unfortunately we tend to see confrontation as a conflict, but in counselling it is used to bring someone face to face with the reality of their situation. The very nature of truth confronts who we really are and what we stand for. I have found many an instance where to name the truth with wisdom, courage and kindness has proved to be helpful.
This sermon has been about a king who had absolute power on earth, but nevertheless acknowledged the power of God over his flawed life; and, it is a story about a man who only had his faith in God, but boldly confronted the king with God’s truth.
The people asked Jesus, ‘What is the work of God we should do? Jesus replied that we should follow the True One and live authentic, faithful and humble truth-telling lives [Jn 6: 28,29].
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Peter C Whitaker, Leighmoor UC: 05/08/2018
/ www.leighmoorunitingchurch.org
