Ordinary 18B (2 Samuel 11:26-12:13a)
In this week’s reading, Bathsheba, the woman David drew dripping out of her bath and into his story, is not named.
She woke me up at 2 a.m. First as a pain in my lower back. Then as a hunch, which led me stumbling through the dark to my desk. I flipped on the light and scanned through the verses, noting all the references to Bathsheba: the wife of Uriah (11:26), one little ewe lamb (12:3), his wife (12:9). Yes, I was right: in this week’s reading, Bathsheba, the woman David drew dripping out of her bath and into his story, is not named.
I’d been searching for a way into this text. I focused on Nathan’s skill in truth telling. When have I told the truth in a way that could be heard? When have I received truth well? Reading beyond the text, I questioned David’s confession. Does he really repent? Does he change anything after Nathan confronts him? And I commiserated with God’s frustration. Does God not warn the people about all a king will take from them, like a rich man taking a poor man’s lamb? But none of these themes had made me jump out of bed. I grabbed my pen and wrote furiously about Bathsheba, the woman who had awakened me from a deep sleep.
When morning arrived, my notes seemed chaotic and disjointed. Clearly, in the moonlit glow I had lost my mind; the text wasn’t really about Bathsheba. So I set it aside and moved on with my day.
