Dr. Frederick O. Lewis First Baptist Church of Indianapolis Sunday, September 19, 20910 Fatal Attractions: Lust 2 Samuel 11: 1-9 According to the Soap Opera Digest, here is a capsule summary of what happened one afternoon among the soaps. “After awakening to a sensual dream about Evan, Amanda made plans to marry Grant on Thanksgiving. Carl and Rachaelâ€"s honeymoon was interrupted when part of his past caught up with him. Anton confronted Dmitri who admitted he and Theresa were lovers, but Kendal insisted there was more that hadnâ€"t been yet revealed. Billy found Kristen and John in a compromising situation just as the power flickered back on. John flared when Jill rebuffed his advances. Emily made love to Jed after she confessed about her infidelity.â€� Thatâ€"s only a brief description of what some have come to call “love in the afternoon.â€� Itâ€"s not really so much about love as it is about lust. Now some of you have been anxiously awaiting this sermon. Whatâ€"s the pastorâ€"s going to do with a topic like lust? There are certainly a lot of illustrations to draw upon. Lust is the face of the middle age man ogling the young female attendant at the department store counter. Itâ€"s the face of promiscuity and pornography. Lust is an equal opportunity business in our age as women are schooled that they too are entitled to as much lustfulness as men. Lust is a billion dollar industry. It sells jeans, cars and diet soft drinks, as well as jewelry and football tickets. Lust is the desperate look of loneness, the hidden agenda of the secret business lunch, the nameless face of someone used as arm candy or something far more destructive like for human trafficking. I also suspect that when it comes to topics like lust, most people donâ€"t turn to their pastor for great insights. Pastors are supposed to spend most of their time within the stain-glass walls of the church surrounded by books and prayers and committee meeting agendas. What would a pastor know about the something so earthly as sexuality and longing and love? Human sexuality is something the church has never really grown comfortable talking about. A number of years ago, when Marsha McDaniel, our Associate Minister wanted to place a number of books for children in the library focused on human development and sexuality… you know the kind with pictures and all… her efforts were resisted by the church librarian on the grounds that they were not appropriate. Marsha got them placed in the library anyhow! Of course, lust is such a powerful force because it closely resembles something we all yearn for…intimacy and love. And therefore, it is a tender topic. Itâ€"s by Godâ€"s design that we were made as sexual beings. In another words, sex was Godâ€"s idea! Itâ€"s one of Godâ€"s good gifts … not to be ashamed of… but like all good gifts… treasured, celebrated and ultimately to be given its highest expression in an environment of mutual commitment and faithfulness and love. Do you remember what God said in the story of creation when God made human beings, “It is not good for that human creature to be alone.â€� That human creature had everything you could imagine anyone would need; food, air, water, beauty, a mind to think with, eyes to see with, ears to hear with. But God wanted us to have a heart that yearned for another heart, and so God, knowing just what we need, gave us the ability to love. Think about it. Of all the creatures God created, from the amoeba to the antelope, the human being is the only creature God blessed with the ability to express sexuality loving. It is Godâ€"s unique gift to us. So what are we to do with a topic like lust? The culture around us says, “Do anything you want to do.â€� The culture says there is no longer any connection between sexuality and intimacy. There is no longer any need for something like a life-long commitment of fidelity and faithfulness. I still canâ€"t get over the letter that was Dear Abbyâ€"s a few years ago; “Dear Abby, I am a twenty â€"three your old women who has been on the pill for two years. Itâ€"s getting pretty expensive, and I think my boyfriend should share half the expense, but I donâ€"t know him well enough to discuss money with him yet.â€� There is an interesting word in the Hebrew language that we find in scripture. It is the word YADAH…it means to know. We speak about knowing God and God knowing us. But yadah is also the word in Hebrew … when it speaks of having sexual relationships. Yadah…is to know… it is to express the deep intimacy of oneness and knowing in terms of human sexuality … that separates us from all the other creatures. Lust is a cheap imitation for love and intimacy. It uses sexuality but it does not satisfy. It may look like love, sound like love, taste like love… but it is not love. It is however a powerful force to be reckoned with. Even a former President of the United States, Jimmy Carter (and a Baptist no less) confessed that he had lusted in his heart. He referred to the text we read from Matthew, “You have heard that it is said. Do not commit adultery. But I say to you everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her.â€� President Carter interpreted that passage to mean that Jesus knows we all have lusts. Jesus knows about us, understands us, wants what is best for us, forgives us… and calls us to a new way of life. He stressed that Jesus spoke his rebuke in the face of certain religious leaders who thought themselves free from lust, since they had committed no adultery. In that culture, women were considered property. They were part of a manâ€"s household. These religious leaders could treat a woman disrespectfully and cruelly, and still remain within the narrow definition of their law. They had committed no adultery. But Jesus challenged the property view of women…even to have lust… that is to treat another person as a thing… as a piece of property…for the purpose of lusting after her… was a violation of Godâ€"s intention. I think it would be fair to say that there is no sin in admiring or appreciating a person of the opposite sex. The sin of lust is the pre-occupation of dwelling upon that desire for another. Jesus was not condemning every person with a sexual thought. But he would not stand for treating people as objects to be used…and discarded as mere things. There are a lot of joyful experiences in a pastorâ€"s life. But probably few of them rival the opportunity to officiate at a wedding. After the wedding processional, after the bride and groom have found their places, and after the father has given his daughter one last kiss, there comes that line in the service… will you have this man to be your wedded husband… will you have this woman to be your wedded wife… will you pledge your faithfulness to him…to her…â€� Will you be faithful to each other as long as you both shall live?â€� Not a single person has ever said, “No I wonâ€"t.â€� There is something about faithfulness and fidelity and trust that holds a marriage together. Yet, Popular Psychology reports that one â€"half of all married people cheat on their spouses. It may comfort you to know that according to the same article, 84% of them feel guilty about it. There are many admonitions for fidelity in the scriptures, which is an indication that the whole matter has been an issue for humankind for a long, long time. It certainly was the downfall for King David, the one who the scriptures remind us was both wonderful and terrible. He was a shepherd boy, a musician, a warrior and a king. Yet, the day he saw Bathsheba from the palace walls was the day he lost his best self. When he saw the image of so beautiful a woman bathing below, he knew…he knew he must have her. The verbs tell the whole story. He arose and walked and saw…. Then he sent, he took, he lay, he returned. David uses his royal power to satisfy his personal desires. Everything good and wonderful about his life begins to spiral out of control. Bathsheba becomes pregnant. David tries to cover-up the matter by bringing Bathshebaâ€" husband, Uriah, home for a little R &R … to sleep with his wife and remove any suspicion over the paternity-complication. But Uriah is too dedicated a fighter to enjoy the company of his wife, while his men risk their lives in battle. David arranges for Uriahâ€"s to be conveniently killed on the field of battle. David marries Bathsheba to avoid any scandal. And yet, when it comes to summarizing what happened, the scriptures say that David did what was “evil in the eyes of the Lord.â€� He treated two human beings as things to be manipulated and used for his own purposes. It would be a predictable thing if the whole matter ended there and David became a mere footnote in the story of Godâ€"s people. But that is not the end of the story. David goes on to confess his sin (although reluctantly). God forgives David. His life is restored. There are tragic consequences to what has happened. And David must live with those consequences. But David and Bathsheba eventually have a second son… Solomon…who does something that David was not able to do… to build a temple to honor God… the central place of worship for Godâ€"s people for generations to come. The end of the story is not so much a story about Davidâ€"s unfaithfulness…as it is a story of Godâ€"s unrelenting desire to restore and make us whole. Restoration, not retribution, is always the goal of the kingdom of God. In Anne Tylerâ€"s novel Saint Maybe, a character who is wracked with regret about what he has done in the past is walking down a city sidewalk. He passes a storefront church that has written across the window. “The Church of Jesus Christ of the Second Chance.â€� Thatâ€"s the kind of God we worship. Thatâ€"s the kind of Lord we follow. We have a Savior, a gospel of second chances. A Savior, who is making all things new. Maybe that is the perfect place to conclude a series on Fatal Attractions. Who hasnâ€"t fallen to pride, envy, anger, carelessness, greed, over consumption or lust? And who hasnâ€"t known how one sin leads to another? But the Good news is that the God we worship invites us to receive healing and forgiveness, and hear the great news that beyond the worst that life can do to us, God offers a new beginning. One of the saddest moments in my ministry was in another congregation, when I saw a church member whom I had not seen in worship in a long time, “Iâ€"ve missed you.â€� I said. She answered. Iâ€"ve ruined my relationship with my husband and our marriage has fallen apart. How could I come to church in a state like that?â€� What was so sad about the whole situation was not the personal crises of her life, but the fact that she could not share her brokenness with her own community of faith. In a way it was an indictment against the church. Bill Arnold, a former professor of Pastoral Care, has written, “The church is charged with inviting back home all of those who feel exiled. This is done best when there is a firm and tender invitation to face oneâ€"s own difficulties and be made whole again. In the church we must remember to minister to one another, because we all have shortcomings to be admitted and shared.â€� Maybe what we need to remember is that the church is in the business of restoring relationships. Weâ€"re in the resurrection business. We are in the business of remembering that God can draw the new out of the old. Resurrection is no just about an event that happened to Jesus back then … or we hope will happen to us out there in the future. It is the power of a new creation, a new being, life being created out of death, here and now. If anyone is in Christ, you are a new creation. And the most amazing thing that you can experience is the power of resurrection faith even in the heart of human brokenness. Especially in the heart of human brokenness. In the beginning God said, “It is not good for that human creature I have made to be alone.â€� And because God is good, God gave us one another. Figuring out how to be connected to one another in love and mutuality…is the challenge in every age. Ernest Hemingway once wrote, “The world break everyone, and afterwards, many are strong in the broken places.â€� May it be so for each of you, through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.