“THE RE-INTEGRATION OF INTEGRITY”
II SAMUEL 11:26 – 12:13

26 When the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she lamented over her husband.
27 And when the mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord.
Nathan Rebukes David
12:1 And the Lord sent Nathan to David. He came to him and said to him, “There were two men in a certain city, the one rich and the other poor.
2 The rich man had very many flocks and herds,
3 but the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb, which he had bought. And he brought it up, and it grew up with him and with his children. It used to eat of his morsel and drink from his cup and lie in his arms, [1] and it was like a daughter to him.
4 Now there came a traveler to the rich man, and he was unwilling to take one of his own flock or herd to prepare for the guest who had come to him, but he took the poor man's lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.”
5 Then David's anger was greatly kindled against the man, and he said to Nathan, “As the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves to die, 6 and he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.”
7 Nathan said to David, “You are the man! Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul.
8 And I gave you your master's house and your master's wives into your arms and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah. And if this were too little, I would add to you as much more.
9 Why have you despised the word of the Lord, to do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and have taken his wife to be your wife and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites.
10 Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.’
11 Thus says the Lord, ‘Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house. And I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun.
12 For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel and before the sun.’”
13 David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.”

This is the DSM III. DSM stands for Diagnostics and Statistical Manual. Therapists use it to help them diagnose things like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder and narcissistic personality disorder. A few years ago I read that someone has suggested that the DSM needs to be expanded to include a new mental illness. That new mental illness is IDD which stands for Integrity Deficit Disorder.

A person who suffers from Integrity Deficit Disorder is someone who constantly refuses to do the right thing. People like that think the same way a man did when he became seriously ill. In his desperation the man pleaded with his doctor to make him well again. “Doc,” he said, “I still have a lot of living to do. If you make we well I promise I’ll donate $100,000 to your hospital.” Fortunately for the man didn’t die. Several months later the doctor asked the man how he felt. “Never felt better in my life,” the man said. “That’s great,” the doctor said. “Maybe we can talk now about the $100,000 that you promised to give to the hospital.” The man nodded his head slowly. “You know,” he said, “That just goes to show you doc. If I said that I really must have been sick.” The hospital didn’t get the money.

When you don’t do the right thing that’s called a lack of integrity.

Unfortunately, integrity is in short supply these days. Just look at the fiasco that we’ve been watching on the news the last couple of weeks. Last Thursday Professor Henry Louis Gates, Sgt. Jim Crowley and President Obama sat down for a beer at the White House. Now here’s what I don’t understand. Last Thursday Lucia Whalen went to work as usual. Lucia Whalen is the woman who made the 911 call. A recording of the 911 call shows that she never mentioned race until she was asked by the police dispatcher if the two men were black or Hispanic. Lucia Whalen did her civic duty and what did she get for doing her civic duty? She’s been called a racist and she’s been threatened with violence. Now something’s wrong when the person who did the right thing is paying for it while the police officer, professor and president who all overreacted are drinking a beer and smiling for the camera.

Every now and then you have to stop and ask yourself a very simple question. You have to ask yourself, “Am I going to do the right thing here?”

That’s a question that David had to ask himself. In order to fully appreciate what happened that day between David and Nathan you need look at the sordid affair that David had with Bathsheba. So, let me give you the Reader’s Digest’s condensed version of what happened.
One day David sees Bathsheba sunning herself.
David invites Bathsheba over to the palace for a few drinks.
David and Bathsheba get a little frisky even though they’re both married.
Bathsheba later tells David that she’s great with child.
David realizes he’s got a political scandal on his hands.
So David decides to get rid of Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah.
Uriah is a soldier in David’s army.
David sets it up so Uriah is killed in a battle.
David then marries Bathsheba and everyone lives happily ever after except for one thing.
Nathan shows up and makes it clear to David that you can fool all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time but you can’t fool God.

Nathan actually gets David to condemn himself. He does that by telling David about a rich man who steals a poor man’s lamb. When Nathan asks what should happen to that rich man David makes it very clear what he thinks. In a fit of righteous indignation David declares that the rich man deserves to die. As soon as David says that Nathan points his finger and says, “Behold you are the man!” David is guilty. God knows it. Nathan knows it and more importantly David knows it.

So, this is where David faces his moment of decision. What should he do? Now remember David was the king. He was a rich and powerful man. So, the way I see it David had six options.
• He could have denied everything. That was option #1.
• He could have used his wealth to try and bribe Nathan. That was option #2
• He could have had Nathan arrested and thrown into jail. That was option #3.
• He could made arrangements for Nathan to suffered an unfortunate accident. That was option #4.
• He could have confessed his sin privately and asked Nathan to keep it between the two of them. That was option #5.

David didn’t choose any of those options though. Instead David went with option #6. He confessed his sins publicly. We know that he confessed his sins publicly because it’s right there in Psalm 51. If you turn to Psalm 51 in your Bible you’ll see that the psalm is introduced with these words: “A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.”

In that psalm David confesses his sins and throws himself on God’s mercy. It’s the same psalm that we said together a little while ago for our Prayer of Confession.

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love;
According to Your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.
Create in me a clean heart, O god, and put a new and right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from Your presence and take not Your Holy Spirit from me.

David came to one of those moment moments of decision and he did the right thing.
That’s what this part of the story is all about. Like David, God has given you and me the ability to do the right thing. Of course, more often than not, the right thing to do is the hardest thing to do.

After all, it’s always easier to tell a little white lie than it is to tell the truth.
It’s always easier to blame someone else than it is to stand up and say, “It’s my fault.”
It’s always easier to let someone else tackle a problem than it is to roll your sleeves up and try to solve the problem yourself.

It’s always easy to follow the example of a man who made an appointment to see a therapist. “Well,” the therapist said, “what seems to be the problem?” The man took a deep breath and said, “I keep doing something that’s wrong and my conscience is bothering me.” The therapist nodded his head. “I see,” he said. “So you want me to help you work on your will power.” “Oh no,” the man replied. “I was hoping you could give me a pill or something that would help weaken my conscience.”

It isn’t always easy to do the right thing but it can be done. God has given each and every one of us the ability to do the right thing and doing the right thing is it’s own reward. Just ask Corey Platt’s mother. Her son was in the news several years ago when he and some friends found 70 Yankee playoff tickets. The tickets were in a pouch that fell of the back of a UPS truck and the tickets were worth $20,000. Corey turned the tickets in to the police. After he heard what happened Yankee owner George Steinbrenner invited Corey and his friends to a Yankee game. In a statement he said, “It’s a tribute to their honesty and total integrity.” There’s the word integrity again! The New York Daily News also got the boys tickets for a playoff game a couple of weeks later. When I read about this story the thing that impressed me most though was something Corey’s mother said. She was humbled by all the positive things that were happening to her son but also said, “I just don’t want all the attention to make him think that there’s always a reward for doing the right thing.”

Integrity is when you do the right thing simply for the sake of doing the right thing. David did the wrong thing at first but after everything was said and done he also did the right thing. Lucia Whalen did the right thing. Corey Platt did the right thing. God has given each of us as the ability to do the right thing which is why there’s always hope for tomorrow. Amen.

Rev. Dr. Richard A. Hughes
August 2, 2009