2 Samuel 11:1-17, 26-27; Psalm 51

(Played Suburu “In the Doghouse” commercial)

Jimmy Carter started out as a peanut farmer who served two terms in the Georgia state senate and one term as governor.  Then he surprised many Americans by being elected President in 1976, defeating the incumbent Gerald Ford.  During his term as President, Carter created two new cabinet-level departments, the Department of Energy and the Department of Education; he established a national energy policy; he brought together the Israeli and Palestinian leaders to agree to the Camp David Accords; and he confronted the issues of high inflation, high unemployment, and slow economic growth.  Since leaving the White House in 1981, Jimmy Carter has led an active life, establishing the Carter Center to promote democracy, mediate and prevent conflict, monitor elections in other countries, and work to promote global health; serving as an official and unofficial mediator in various world situations; and contributing to the expansion of Habitat for Humanity, occasionally working on the houses himself, alongside his wife.  In 2002, Jimmy Carter received the Nobel Peace Prize for his work “to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development” through the Carter Center.

And yet, when many people hear the name “Jimmy Carter,” the first thing they think of is an interview Carter did with Robert Scheer of Playboy magazine.  It was during the 1976 presidential campaign, and appeared in the November issue, which hit newsstands a couple of weeks before the election.  In the interview, Carter told Scheer, “I’ve looked on a lot of women with lust.  I’ve committed adultery in my heart many times.”  To date, Carter is the only American president to have been interviewed by Playboy.  Perhaps because of the public reaction to the interview.  For some, it was a joke.  What kind of confession was that?  Was that the worst thing he could admit to?  After all, it wasn’t as if he had committed actual adultery, or acted on the lust that he felt.  For other people, it was a stunning admission, a confession, if you will.  Carter was and is a Southern Baptist, after all!  Everyone knows that Baptists don’t commit lust!  Let alone adultery!

In my opinion, Carter’s remarks were an honest admission of the struggle that every person experiences because of the natural human desires that we have.  I don’t know anyone who can say that they have never looked on someone with lust.  Maybe it’s the second glance at the woman in the bikini on the beach, or at the muscular guy lifting weights at the gym.  Or maybe it’s more deliberate, like looking at the Playboy magazine with the interview of a presidential candidate.  Maybe it’s checking out the lifeguard at the pool or poring over the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.  The opportunities for lust are abundant, especially in a culture where all modesty about our bodies and human sexuality has been lost.  I never thought I would see a host of the Academy Awards appear on stage in his underwear, but that’s what we were treated to the year Neal Patrick Harris hosted.  And some of those gowns that are worn to the Awards leave nothing to the imagination.

But lust is not a minor infraction.  It is a deadly sin.  Because it can have deadly results.  It is not a game.  It can be serious business, a matter of life and death.

Maybe you remember the 1987 film, Fatal Attraction, starring Michael Douglas, Glenn Close and Anne Archer.  It was the story of a married man who had a weekend affair with a woman who refused to allow it to end, leading to emotional blackmail, stalking, and obsession.  Michael Douglas played Dan Gallagher, a successful and happily married man.  While his wife and daughter were away for the weekend, he had a passionate affair with Alex, played by Glenn Close.  Dan assumed that it was just a weekend fling, but Alex clearly wanted more.  There was much manipulation, violent confrontations, stalking, the death of a family pet, kidnapping, and attempted murder.  All because of lust acted out in adultery.

Of course, this story is nothing new.  Just open up your Bibles to the book of 2 Samuel and you can find virtually the same thing.  The story of David and Bathsheba.  It is like a biblical soap opera along the lines of As the World Turns or Dallas.  Let’s take a look at it.

The story starts with the line, “In the spring, when kings go off to war …”  But David was not off at war.  Instead, he had sent his armies out to fight while he stayed home.  Maybe if he hadn’t shirked his duty, he never would have gotten into this mess.  But he decided to remain in Jerusalem, and hence the story begins.

David got up one night from his bed, restless and unable to sleep.  Perhaps he was thinking about his armies out there doing battle without him.  He was pacing back and forth on the roof of the palace, kind of like a patio, when he caught sight of a woman taking a bath.  The polite thing would have been to look away, to walk in the other direction.  But David didn’t do that.  Instead, he watched, and he saw that this woman was very beautiful.  And the seed of lust started to grow.  David sent one of his aides to find out who this woman was, and the answer came back that she was Bathsheba, the wife of one of David’s soldiers.

Knowing that she was married, knowing that she was not available to him, David wanted her anyway. And what the king wanted, the king could have.  So he sent his messengers to get her and bring her back to the palace.  I wonder what Bathsheba thought about it all.  I wonder if she even had a choice, if she could have said no.  We can only guess that she was basically forced into having sex with the king.  And then she was sent home.  And David assumed that that was the end of it.  He had seen something he liked, he had demanded it, and he had gotten his satisfaction.

But that wasn’t the end of it.  Lust often leads to complications we don’t plan for.  And this complication was pregnancy.  Bathsheba was with child, and David was clearly the father, since Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah, was away fighting in the wars.  So David had a problem.  And he thought he knew how to solve it.  He sent for Uriah to come home.  It was simple.  Uriah would come home, he would sleep with his wife, and everyone would assume her baby was his.  But it didn’t exactly turn out that way.  Because Uriah didn’t come home and sleep with his wife.  He slept on the palace porch with the servants.  When David asked him about it the next day, Uriah told him that it wasn’t right for him to go home and sleep in his bed with his wife when the rest of the soldiers were sleeping on the ground near the battlefield.  David was clearly unprepared for a man who had such a sense of honor.  But he made a second attempt.  He invited Uriah into the palace and got him drunk and sent him home.  But again, Uriah slept right outside the palace doors with the servants.

David must have been absolutely frustrated.  Because of his own indiscretion and dishonorable behavior, he now had to deal with this honorable man who had complete self-control and self-discipline.  David wrote to his commander and sent the letter with Uriah.  He never knew that he was carrying his own death warrant.  David told his commander to put Uriah in the fiercest part of the battle, and then pull back the troops, leaving Uriah exposed and facing certain death.  And the plan was put into place.  And Uriah was killed in action.  Problem solved.  Bathsheba mourned for her husband according to the requirements of Jewish law and custom, and then she was moved into David’s palace, where she became his wife and had his child, a son.  And the story ends with the ominous words, “But what David had done was evil in the Lord’s eyes.”

It was evil, and because God is just, something had to be done about it.  So the prophet Nathan was sent to confront David with the truth about the consequences of what he had done.  Trouble was coming to the household of the king.  His wives would be taken away from him and given to other men, right before his eyes.  And the child conceived in David’s act of adultery would die.  It was harsh punishment, and David begged God to spare the boy.  But nothing could be done for his illness.  And he died.

Most of the time, lust does not lead to death.  But it does lead to other devastating consequences.  Ruined relationships.  Addictions to internet pornography.  Extramarital affairs.  Sex with prostitutes.  Families torn apart.  Hearts closed to God.  Even the loss of a job.  In his book, Strength for the Broken Places, Jim Harnish says,

I was finishing the first draft of this book when the newspapers and television stations reported that a pastor I know was taking a leave of absence from ministry because of his addiction to internet pornography … I have known the guy since he was a kid.  I had watched from a distance as he gave leadership to a rapidly growing congregation.  I knew that he is a very good guy, a good husband and father, and a good pastor with a Christ-centered heart and a genuine commitment to ministry.  I knew that if it could happen to him, it could happen to any of us.

In his book, Sinning Like a Christian, Will Willimon writes about a young seminary student who came to see him when he was Dean of the Chapel at Duke Divinity School.  This young man confessed to him that he was guilty of downloading pornography from the internet.  Willimon writes,

At first I was easy with his sin.  I reminded him that he was, after all, twenty-three, that God had made people his age for marriage.  However, in order to be in graduate school, he had deferred matrimony and was living a lonely, monkish existence, so his desire was quite understandable.  While pornography was not a good thing, I could understand how a young man might be attracted to pornography due to his unfulfilled desires.

‘But I really want to do better,’ he protested.  ‘I think that God cares about my thoughts and my actions.  I’m really trying to follow Jesus and I don’t want any part of my life to be isolated from discipleship.’  I was wrong; he was right.  We are called not only to name and to confess our sin but to be free of our sin.  By the grace of God we can get better.  The Christian faith claims not only that we can be honest about our Lust but also that we can be free of our Lust.

So how do we get free of our lust?  Jim Harnish offers these solutions.  First, get honest.  Tell the truth about your lust, at least to yourself.  When we confess this sin, we acknowledge our need for the grace of God.  Second, get forgiven.  Receive the forgiveness that God offers.  God’s grace is available for everyone, for every sin.  Just accept it.  Third, get help.  If lust has led you into some kind of sexual addiction, you will never get free of it by yourself.  You need a trained therapist or counselor, or maybe a 12-step program.  Don’t try to do this on your own.  Fourth, get smart.  Don’t put yourself in situations that you know will foster that lust in your heart.  Martin Luther supposedly said that you can’t keep the birds of temptation from flying over your head, but you don’t need to help them build a nest in your hair.  And fifth, get healed.  You can learn to love and be loved in the way God intended.  Giving in to lust is not the way to be in loving, healthy relationships.

So how did the story of David end?  Well, David knew that Nathan was right in what he said.  And he knew he needed to get right with God again.  So he wrote what we now know as Psalm 51.  Listen to these words from a penitent heart:

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your faithful love!  Wipe away my wrongdoings according to your great compassion!  Wash me completely clean of my guilt; purify me from my sin!  Because I know my wrongdoings, my sin is always right in front of me.  I’ve sinned against you – you alone.  I’ve committed evil in your sight.  Purify me … and I will be clean; wash me and I will be whiter than snow.  Let me hear joy and celebration again … wipe away all my guilty deeds!  Create a clean heart for me, God; put a new, faithful spirit deep inside me!  Return the joy of your salvation to me and sustain in me a willing spirit.

David was still “a man after God’s own heart.”  God’s grace was big enough to bring forgiveness to David and to help him create a better life for himself and his family.  David comforted his wife, Bathsheba, and she gave birth to another son.  His name was Solomon.  And God loved Solomon, and sent word that they should call him Jedidiah, which means “loved by the Lord.”

The good news is that God’s grace is big enough to cover any sin that you or I could have committed, even the deadly sin of lust.  If we go to God, confess our sin, and promise to live a new life, God will forgive us.  And we can go on to live without that burden on our hearts.  That is how we defeat the deadly sin of lust.