Samuel 7:1-14 David cannot build God's house.
Before long, the king made himself at
home and God gave him peace from all his enemies. Then one day King David said
to Nathan the prophet, “Look at this: here I am, comfortable in a luxurious
house of cedar, and the Chest of God sits in a plain tent.”
“So here is what you are to tell my servant David: The God-of-the-Angel-Armies has this word for you peace from: I took you from the pasture, tagging along after sheep, and made you prince over my people Israel. I was with you everywhere you went and mowed your enemies down before you. Now I’m making you famous, to be ranked with the great names on earth. And I’m going to set aside a place for my people Israel and plant them there so they’ll have their own home and not be knocked around any more. Nor will evil men afflict you as they always have, even during the days I set judges over my people Israel. Finally, I’m going to give you all your enemies.
“Furthermore, God has this message for you: God will build you a house! When your life is complete and you’re buried with your ancestors, then I’ll raise up your child, your own flesh and blood, to succeed you, and I’ll firmly establish his rule. He will build a house to honor me, and I will guarantee his kingdom’s rule permanently. I’ll be a father to him, and he’ll be a son to me. When he does wrong, I’ll discipline him in the usual ways, the pitfalls and obstacles of this mortal life. But I’ll never remove my gracious love from him, as I removed it from Saul, who preceded you and whom I most certainly did remove. Your family and your kingdom are permanently secured. I’m keeping my eye on them! And your royal throne will always be there, rock solid.
Ephesians 2:11-22 Paul writes to the new converts in Corinth, in Greece.
But don’t take any of this for
granted. It was only yesterday that you outsiders to God’s ways had no idea of
any of this, didn’t know the first thing about the way God works, hadn’t the
faintest idea of Christ. You knew nothing of that rich history of God’s
covenants and promises in Israel, hadn’t a clue about what God was doing in the
world at large. Now because of Christ—dying that death, shedding that blood—you
who were once out of it altogether are in on everything.
The Messiah has made things up
between us so that we’re now together on this, both non-Jewish outsiders and
Jewish insiders. He tore down the wall we used to keep each other at a
distance. He repealed the law code that had become so clogged with fine print
and footnotes that it hindered more than it helped. Then he started over.
Instead of continuing with two groups of people separated by centuries of
animosity and suspicion, he created a new kind of human being, a fresh start
for everybody.
Christ brought us together through
his death on the cross. The Cross got us to embrace, and that was the end of
the hostility. Christ came and preached peace to you outsiders and peace to us
insiders. He treated us as equals, and so made us equals. Through him we both
share the same Spirit and have equal access to the Father.
That’s plain enough, isn’t it?
You’re no longer wandering exiles. This kingdom of faith is now your home
country. You’re no longer strangers or outsiders. You belong here, with
as much right to the name Christian as anyone. God is building a home. He’s
using us all—irrespective of how we got here—in what he is building. He used
the apostles and prophets for the foundation. Now he’s using you, fitting you
in brick by brick, stone by stone, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone that
holds all the parts together. We see it taking shape day after day—a holy
temple built by God, all of us built into it, a temple in which God is quite at
home.
*****************************************************************************In a sermon called ‘When God Says No’, Rev. Thomas Hall tells the story of the church sign, which through the week kept changing as the sermon title changed – and the office administrator was getting a workout running back and forth. On Monday, the message read, "Building a Condo for God." By Wednesday it was "I’m going to live in a Lord-Built House”. By Thursday it was, "Why God isn’t a Republican." And by Saturday, the title had changed to "When God Says No." Tom further comments that he was afraid that if the marquee changed any more, the borough council might pass a law against erecting bad titles on Park Avenue signs without a permit.
But it makes a strange kind of sense, all this theme-changing. Let’s go through the story of David and Nathan again……..see if you can settle on any one theme.
David has hit the top of everything – from a humble boy with a slingshot, to becoming king after Saul. He’s beaten the Philistines and for now they’re quiet and recovering. He’s brought together the north and the south, and made Jerusalem the new centre of everything. Now leaders from the north and south can meet on neutral turf. He becomes worship leader too – he becomes passionate for God. He worships God with song and dance and great celebration – he dances with “all his might” - The visual is really intriguing – dancing with all his might! .
So now he’s made it – no more Goliaths, or Philistines. His soul is at rest. The kids are happy, his wives are happy, his concubines seem OK - memories come flooding in….
He remembers the boy, just a shepherd, and now it’s twenty-four years later and he’s a king. He has everything he could possibly want in life – he’s been blessed beyond measure. And he decides he wants to give back to God – so he’s going to build a proper house for the Ark, not just a tent.
Enter Nathan - a prophet. Prophets – far from what we think – were people who interpreted God to their own time – God spoke through them to the immediate – not the “far into the future”, So Nathan was kind of the resident prophet/advisor to David, and I’m guessing beloved and revered. Pastors are ecstatic when people come up to offer to do something for God. And both pastors and prophets are thrilled when someone offers to do something – cleaning out closets, doing the church garden, taking care of bulletins during high liturgical seasons, - whatever. And Nathan is no different. Here is David offering to build a temple for the Ark of the Covenant – the most holy artifact the Israelites have. And he says to David to do what is in his heart – and walks away elated that David is doing something without being asked.
God has a different idea – God doesn’t need a house, God is talking about building a realm – a people – David is one of the tools God has used for building this realm – and it doesn’t have to be a fancy temple. In fact, God emphatically doesn’t want that at all. God is clear who the king is, and who the king isn’t. – and God is clear that this is not about David’s greatness, but a way of moving forward the building of God’s realm on earth.
The message that Nathan delivers is full of God – look at the verbs in this text. Who is ‘doing’ the action? Let’s look at this text again…
“So here is what you are to tell my servant David: The God-of-the-Angel-Armies has this word for you: I took you from the pasture, tagging along after sheep, and made you prince over my people Israel. I was with you everywhere you went and mowed your enemies down before you. Now I’m making you famous, to be ranked with the great names on earth. And I’m going to set aside a place for my people Israel and plant them there so they’ll have their own home and not be knocked around any more. Nor will evil men afflict you as they always have, even during the days I set judges over my people Israel. Finally, I’m going to give you all your enemies.
“Furthermore, God has this message for you: God will build you a house! ‘When your life is complete and you’re buried with your ancestors, then I’ll raise up your child, your own flesh and blood, to succeed you, and I’ll firmly establish his rule. He will build a house to honor me, and I will guarantee his kingdom’s rule permanently. I’ll be a father to him, and he’ll be a son to me. When he does wrong, I’ll discipline him in the usual ways, the pitfalls and obstacles of this mortal life. But I’ll never remove my gracious love from him, as I removed it from Saul, who preceded you and whom I most certainly did remove. Your family and your kingdom are permanently secured. I’m keeping my eye on them! And your royal throne will always be there, rock solid.”
There are eighteen verb forms of some kind in these two paragraphs – they are God’s action past, present and future….
Now, David didn’t just come up with this idea alone – he got it from all the other cultures around him. This was a part of the world where a myriad cultures interacted every day – and there were temples everywhere. Everyone knew that the way to protect one’s assets was to tie one’s God to a temple. Everybody did that to ensure protection and favor of whatever gods they had. David is making God a house to ensure that his – David’s – earthly kingdom will continue. He wants to *use* God to legitimize his reign. He wants to tether God to Jerusalem, and make himself equivalent to God. There’s definitely a line David is about to cross. And David falls into the trap many do – that he needs to leave a legacy.
But - how long is it going to be before David’s policy’s and God’s get confused, when personal biases and agendas become “God’s”. It’s so easy to mix our own agendas with God’s agenda, and then say God did it. Pretty soon God isn’t God any more – or we can’t hear what God is truly saying.
Then we read "King David went in and sat before God." Verbs – David went, and sat. The single most important thing he could have done. He went, and he sat. Perhaps he meditated, and he listened. He abdicated his authority as a human leader, took off his robes, went back to his loincloth, humbled himself – he went and sat before God.
Paul writes to the Greeks at the new church in Corinth – explaining that God’s ‘building’ is a people – a structure which will outlast any human structure. That’s what I hear God saying in the Samuel passage. God broke down the walls between groups of people – that was the intent – breaking down old walls and building something which didn’t need walls – something open, inclusive, expansive. So Paul says, based on his understanding of Jesus, that the barriers are removed.
I think that’s my agenda here – I hope. That we are a people and a pastor who know how to sit before God, and listen - to find what God can do through us. To hold up what has been done through us until now, but to be open to the new and different, going forward. Far more important than what we might consider our work for God, is believing that God is working within this congregation – in the way God sees fit. Change is inevitable – the moment the amalgamation took place, the life of all three congregations changed – but that doesn’t mean there isn’t life, it means that life must be different, for all of us.
To sit, to listen – here in this building, or outside, or in a coffee shop, or lunch with each other – what is God saying to us….. about life, about this place, about who we are? What are our verbs? What do we want our verbs to be?
Sources: ‘When God says: "No"’ a sermon based on 2 Samuel 7:1-14a by Rev. Thomas Hall
Both Scriptures from The Message Eugene Peterson, copyright 2002.
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