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Date: November 25, 2007, Season four,
Episode 8
Scene: Wisteria Lane, city of
Fairview
Synopsis: Victor, the mayor, has been
murdered and Carlos wants to go to the police and plead
self-defense, but Gaby (Victor’s wife and Carlos’
girlfriend) wants to keep it quiet. Edie tips off the police
that Carlos and Gaby are having an affair. Lynette feels
guilty about running off her over-bearing mother, until her
stepfather returns after a thirty-year absence to share
information about her past she never knew before. Mike needs
more pills, but when his dealer shows up at the house and
takes an interest in his stepdaughter, Julie, he freaks out.
A stranger, Sylvia, appears out of Adam’s past to tell
everyone they had an affair. And all of this under the
threat of a tornado! Interestingly enough, the voiceover
says: “Sometimes mistakes of our past have a way of
drifting back into our lives, and when they do, we have to
pay for them.”
It is a comedy, but at times it is also
incredibly poignant. It has one of the most outrageously
immoral TV plot lines, but it often ends up delivering
powerful moral truths. It reads like a soap opera, and it
reads like the scripture. In fact, this episode runs a close
parallel to the greatest soap opera of the Bible, the story
of David. You can read the whole sordid tale right here in
the Holy Book, but here is a brief synopsis of what might be
called Desperate David.
It’s the story of a simple sheep-herding
farm boy who rises to the heights of King Saul’s palace, the
best friend and beloved companion of the king’s son,
Jonathan. He becomes the favorite prince of the people, up
against a jealous king who tries to kill him. David runs for
his life, hides out in the wilderness, and eventually
returns to become king. And of course, once he gets there,
the power of the office goes to his head.
And we’ve seen that all too often,
haven’t we? Princes and presidents, politicians and
preachers who find themselves at the pinnacle of power and
think that power sets them above the law—and dishonesty,
corruption and immorality abound. Now David is the king!
David sees Bathsheba. David wants Bathsheba. David gets
Bathsheba, and she gets pregnant.
Then the Watergate-style cover-up begins.
First he manages to have her soldier husband brought home
for a little R&R, thinking that will explain the pregnancy.
When that doesn’t work, David plots his death on the
battlefield. With the hubby out of the way, David takes
Bathsheba as his wife and she bears him a son.
But then…enter the prophet Nathan. (Read II
Samuel 12)
Or, as they say on Desperate
Housewives, “Sometimes the mistakes of the past have a
way of drifting back into our lives, and we have to pay for
them.”
What can we say about Desperate
Housewives? And what can we say about Desperate David?
It is the story of the power of
relationships to hurt and to heal. It is the human story of
sin and redemption.
If you’ve watched Desperate Housewives,
one of the things that seems mind-boggling to me is how
these women are willing to lie and cheat on their very best
friends, the people they love and trust the most.
Side-by-side—loyal friendship and deceitful behavior.
Side-by-side—backbiting and bickering and caring support.
Side-by-side—the human story of brokenness and sin and mercy
and redemption. It shows up in graphic bold relief when we
see it in the exaggerated confines of an hour of television.
But to one degree or another, haven’t we all experienced
it—the power of relationships to hurt and to heal, the
ancient story of sin and redemption?
I’m thinking about these Boys Scouts here
today, remembering when I was a Scout. It may come as a
surprise to you, but I was never a great athlete. I was
clumsy, skinny, unsure of myself…and in my small town high
school, that meant you really weren’t “in” at all. I knew
the experience of harsh words, name-calling, bullying. I
can’t remember if my mother actually said it, but someone
said, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can
never hurt me.” And whoever said it, how wrong they were.
Words can hurt, deeper than any stick or
stone.
Words can destroy and bring pain,
especially when you are 13.
Words can hurt, with wounds that can take
a long time to heal.
Relationships, marriages, careers,
families and friendships are shattered by spiteful words,
careless actions, broken trust, lost respect. It’s all about
the power of relationships to hurt and the need for
redemption and grace.
Now obviously, few of us will ever find
ourselves living on Wisteria Lane or in David’s palace. But
at one time or another, all of us find ourselves in painful
relationships in need of healing and wholeness,
reconciliation and renewal. Maybe we’ve been the recipient,
maybe we’ve been the source, but at some time in our lives,
haven’t we all experienced the hurt of unhealthy
relationships and the need of confession and forgiveness,
the need for mercy and grace?
Have you seen the current movie
Atonement? I haven’t seen the movie, but I
recommend the book. It is the story of how one mistaken
experience, one casual word brought about by childish
jealousy, caused pain for a lifetime. It’s the story of the
desperate need in the lives of desperate people for
atonement—making things right; reconciliation and
redemption.
For our Desperate Housewives
this season—a season cut short by the writers’
strike—atonement, redemption comes in a time of crisis. A
tornado hits Fairview, dead aim on Wisteria Lane. In the
chaos, there are confrontations with truth and the need of
confession. In the crisis, there are glimmers of redemption
and offers of reconciliation. In the most desperate of
times, our Desperate Housewives turn to each other for
courage and for strength:
-
Lynette, her mother
and stepfather find understanding
-
a gay son finds
acceptance
-
a philandering Adam
faces up to the truth of his past
-
a drug-addict Mike
admits his need of help
-
and neighbors learn
anew the value of their friendships
Wisteria Lane does not become the sawdust
trail or a primrose path, and I am sure once the writers’
strike is over there will be more sinning to come. But in
the moment of crisis, there is at least a moment of
redemption and grace, forgiveness and new life.
For Desperate David,
the healing comes in his relationship with Nathan
the priest, the one who was willing to speak truth to power;
the one who loved him enough to confront him and to lead him
on the path to new life. To bring in another new TV show
premiering this week, it was his Moment of Truth.
Nathan uses a parable to show David his own sin and his need
of grace: “Thou art the man!”
And again, we’ve seen it all before,
haven’t we? Nathan confronts David with the truth. “David,”
to use an all-too-familiar phrase, “you did in fact have sex
with that woman.” He said, “David, you and your
administration used at least 900 lies to justify your policy
and position.” But in that moment of truth, when the text
messages became public (here you have it—two presidents and
a mayor), David was forced to face the brokenness of his
life, the pain he caused, the ugliness of his past. Or as
they say on Wisteria Lane, “Sometimes the sins of our past
have a way of drifting back into our lives.”
And in that moment, David acknowledges
his own need of forgiveness. Or as the old spiritual says:
Not my brother nor my sister but it’s
me, O Lord,
Standin’ in the need of prayer.
David’s response to that moment of truth
can be found in Psalm 51. The caption over the Psalm reads:
“A Psalm of David, when the prophet Nathan came to him after
he had gone in to Bathsheba.”
Have mercy on me, O God, according to
thy steadfast love.
According to thy abundant mercy, blot
out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin.
For I know my transgressions, and my
sin is ever before me.
Purge me with hyssop and I shall be
clean,
Wash me and I shall be whiter than
snow.
Create in me a clean heart,
and put a new and right spirit
within me.
Out of the tragedy and pain of his
disastrous behavior, out of the agony and despair of his
boatload of guilt, out of the confrontation with Nathan and
the honest acknowledgement of his shortcomings and sins,
Desperate David turns to the God of mercy and finds the way
to healing and hope.
In the liturgical church traditions, the
journey from brokenness and sin to healing and wholeness
includes the step of formal confession, the weekly encounter
with the priest to itemize our sins and receive absolution—a
Nathan moment of truth.
In the revivalist, evangelical tradition
in which I grew up, it happened in revival services and camp
meetings…invitations and altar calls, accompanied by 29
verses of “Just As I Am”—a Nathan moment of truth.
Every time we gather at the table of
Christ to receive the sacrament of Holy Communion, it is a
time of acknowledging our need, opening our lives and
receiving God’s grace—a Nathan moment of truth.
Sometimes it comes in quiet, private
moments of self-reflection. Sometimes it comes through
intense therapy when we confront the pain of our past—Nathan
moments. However it comes, aren’t there times in all of our
lives when we realize once again our need of God’s healing
grace and pray with David:
Purge me and I shall be clean,
Wash me and I shall be whiter than
snow.
Create in me a clean heart
and put a new and right spirit
within me.
Well, it’s easy to be critical of the
all-too-public sins of politicians and preachers, prime
ministers and presidents, performers and TV personalities,
people in power. It’s easy to joke about the TV stereotypes
of desperate suburban housewives. It’s easy to judge the
mistakes of those who live in the spotlight of public
acclaim. But when we are really honest with ourselves, when
Nathan steps into our lives in that moment of truth, aren’t
we just as desperate as David to know we have been redeemed
and made new? Aren’t we also in need of the healing touch of
God’s mercy and grace?
There’s a beautiful chorus written to
reflect this psalm of David by the great missionary preacher
J. Edwin Orr. Orr was born in Belfast, preached in Great
Britain and Canada in the early 1930s, and then literally
traveled the world as an evangelist. He wrote this text
based on David’s psalm and set it to a tune he heard in the
South Pacific:
Search me, O God,
and know my heart today.
Try me, O Savior,
know my thought, I pray.
See if there be some wicked way in me,
cleanse me from every sin
and set me free.
Sometimes the mistakes of our past have a
way of drifting back into our lives…and when they do, the
God of steadfast love, the God of abundant mercy meets us to
redeem us and make us new. |
