Stopping to Think

Just a few thoughts on, as the title suggests, repentance, forgiveness, and consequences. Many of you may be familiar with the story of David and Bathsheba (if not, you may read it here ). You may also be familiar with David's prayer in Psalm 51 ( here ), In Psalm 51, David makes a most curious assertion when he says to God, "against you, you only, have I sinned." Having performed an even cursory reading of the story, we know that David has either coerced Bathsheba into adultery, or (perhaps more likely) simply used his power as king to demand her "services". At best he's led her into sin, at worst he's raped her. Then we have her husband, Uriah, whose wife has been used sexually by a man to whom he has been exceedingly loyal, and continues to be, even after the fact. And when Bathsheba becomes pregnant, David tries to trick Uriah into coming home and making this look like his kid; when that fails, he has him purposefully killed in battle. Those are ...

Luke 15:8-10 “Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it? And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” As an aside before we begin. Let's do a little Bible study 101. What we read here from Luke is one of Jesus' many parables. Now, when we look at parables, we need to be careful not to spiritualize every little detail. That isn't what parables are for. Parables are designed to communicate one main point, one big idea. The details of parables generally exist to help make the story more true to life and to engage the listener/reader. That said, I want to look at the main idea of this parable. Jesus says that if a woman has ten coins, or perhaps we would say ten $50 bills, and los...