Today, on November 29th, just days after that annual Thanksgiving Parade when we hear his nostalgic voice on television screens in living rooms across America, the news breaks that he has too fallen.
“How do you reconcile your love for someone with the revelation that they have behaved badly? I don’t know the answer to that,” Guthrie said at the start of Wednesday’s “Today” broadcast. “But I do know that this reckoning, that so many organizations have been going through, is important, it’s long overdue and it must result in workplaces where all women — all people — feel safe and respected.“
Lauer. Spacey. Rose. Weinstein. O’Reilly. CEOs. Producers. Senators. Presidents. Pastors. Priests. The high rise towers above our American landscape are falling. What shall we see once the dust rises? Who were the casualties? Who will be the next towers to fall? From our favorite tv shows? From our halls of political power? From our beloved college football teams? From our churches and cathedrals? I am of the opinion that #metoo movement has its source in the Holy Spirit, and it should at least be the prayer of all of us that this exposure will be used by the Holy Spirit to lead men to an atmosphere of repentance, penance, reconciliation, and healing for our nation, workplaces, universities, places of worship and especially our families.
Is this not the spiritual cry and hymn of 2017?
“I hope you’re somewhere prayin’, prayin’
I hope your soul is changin’, changin’
I hope you find your peace
Falling on your knees, prayin’.”
Here the pop singer Kesha changes her tone and becomes the Prophet of 2017. But not just the prophet. Also the victim. She is both Nathan and Bathsheba giving us prophetic utterance and song of lament. (If you know who Kesha is but not the Prophet Nathan and Queen Bathsheba, find a Bible and turn to 2 Samuel chapters 11 & 12 . If you know Nathaniel and Bathsheba and not Kesha, go to Youthtube and listen to her song ‘Praying’ as she describes the spiritual and sexual torment she endured under her former music producer.)
If you read beyond chapters 11 & 12 of 2 Samuel, you will find that there is no recorded lament of Bathsheba. The focus is on King David and his repentance. Despite the heading, there is no #metoo tweet from this mother of King Solomon and great ancestor of the Lord Jesus. No, there is only silence. However, we can be thankful that Kesha along with all of the women of 2017 who authentically and courageously tell their story with a #metoo at the end are becoming the voice of Bathsheba 3,000 years later.
When men in great power desire a woman, they know their power silences that woman to scream for help. Bathsheba had a husband and home. King David, that man who was reported as being ‘a man after God’s own heart,’ turned dark for an evening and silenced Bathsheba with his power and in an intense moment of lust.
2 One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, 3 and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, “She is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” 4 Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. (Now she was purifying herself from her monthly uncleanness.) Then she went back home. 5 The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, “I am pregnant.”
This hidden darkness in King David grew to the point that he had to use his power to have Bathsheba’s husband murdered in order to hide this sinful night of sexual assault. He quickly wed her and she gave birth to the future King Solomon. And Bathsheba again stands in silence. Assaulted and husband murdered by the man she now was likely pressured to marry, because who says ‘no’ to the King? Who says ‘no’ to a CEO? Who says ‘no’ to a famous fill in the blank?
May all women who have been victims find their courage to be the voice for the silent Bathsheba. May all men who have assaulted or not asked permission be on their knees like King David with their crowns cast aside and replaced with ashes. Is this not the point of the coming Advent season in our churches? To lay our crowns on the ground in repentance as we prepare for the coming of the true King of the world? The King who fashioned sexuality to be a means of holiness? The King who made our bodies to reflect His own loving Image?
May we all be given this courage and this grace.
Or as Kesha sings, “May we all fall on our knees, prayin’”
King David Laments
Psalm 51
Prayer for Cleansing and Pardon
To the leader. A Psalm of David, when the prophet Nathan
came to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.
1 Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
Barrel Aged Faith 