See Your Temple, Raise you a Dynasty
A Sermon by Andrew Colman on 2 Samuel 7
Tonight, our Old Testament reading is of a pivotal moment in the History of the Israelites. It says that God had given David peace, and all of the surrounding enemies had been defeated or at least were taking a break from the constant war that besought the region.
"Now when the King dwelt in his house, and the Lord had given him rest from all his enemies round about, the King said to Nathan the prophet, "See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells in a tent.”
Now that David has had a moment to think and reflect on all that's happened, his mind has apparently turned from war to building. Walter B., in his commentary on 1&2 Samuel, is constantly showing how almost everything that David does, starting with his fight with the Giant Goliath, has two purposes.
The first one is to give glory to God, and the other one is to mind his political career.
Probably when many of us hear those words political career, we bristle a little bit, or at least I did. Thoughts of House of Cards or other political ugly drama come to mind.
For David, it's not that clear. After all he has been told that he is going to be made King of Israel one day, so paying attention to his role as a leader falls right in line with what he has been called to do.
It is not just maneuvering for power, though it is at least a little bit of maneuvering for power.
David really is not a simple character.
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In tonight's reading, we can imagine him sitting in his study or at the table surrounded by walls covered in cedar planks, eating and drinking from his favourite bowls and cups, and giving thanks to God for taking him through so many battles time after time.
Then the march in Jerusalem, with the presence of the Lord right beside him, played and danced all the way to God's place among his people—a tent!
Hold on a second, here I am, lowly me, once a shepherd made ruler of Israel by none other than the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, sitting surrounded by the sweetest smelling wood and the finest dishware money can buy and the one who set the whole of the cosmos into being is in a tent!
If you think of that from a purely human perspective, it really makes no sense at all. The most powerful among us ought to live in the biggest and most impressive house; that's just how it is!
Along side of that it surely would not have been bad for his reputation to have what ended up being the largest structure in the Middle East, at the time, situated in the place from which he ruled.
Walter B. offers that it would solidify his claim as ruler even more than being the one to bring the Ark of God, the very Presence of God, into his city from whichever town it had been forgotten.
After all, David was chosen to be King, so he might as well be the best King he could possibly be, and that is true.
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Anyway, David goes to Nathan, a prophet, and tells him that it's just not right that he's living in this big, beautiful palace and God, the creator of the Cosmos, is living behind some curtains.
Nathan, being the human he is, can't seem to disagree with that. He goes with what he's seen to be true all along and says, "Go for it. God is with you!"
Apparently, this sent up some serious red flags because that very night God went to Nathan and put them in their place.
“Thus say the Lord: Would you really build me a house to dwell in? I have not dwelt in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent for my dwelling. In did I ever speak a word with any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, "Why have you not built me a house of cedar?”
Every commentator went to great lengths to make the point that God was essentially laughing at David for saying this!
In this moment David is not anticipating Jesus, the future Messiah, the coming king in the line of David, but rather, Peter on Mount Tabor when Peter says he is going to build three booths at time of the transfiguration.
In this moment David has completely missed the point.
"Oh David, you think you're going to build a house? You can’t even begin to imagine what that means.”
And then God, probably still laughing, says to Peter I mean David,
"I took you from the pasture that you should be prince over my people Israel... When your days are fulfilled, and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. ”
It’s as if David and God were playing poker on the strip in Las Vegas. David offered God a few chips to play a hand; after all, God deserves something extra for all he's done, and David will look good to all those watching, win-win, and then God gave David the whole strip of casinos.
Now, while God may have been chuckling at David for his complete misadventures in missing the point - God still gave David the whole strip of Casinos.
And , it was in response to David offering him those measly, totally misunderstood chips, or temple, political maneuvering included.
God promised David to make him King, Ruler, Prince, and David took that seriously. Even after God tells David that he will not be the one to build him the Temple, David spends the rest of his life amassing all the materials that his son Solomon will need to complete it. It was still David's life's work to bring Glory to God.
God responded to that in a way that David could not ever have imagined.
Now, does God need us to initiate this over-flowing gift? No. Of course not! Abraham had no clue what was happening when God chose him to be the Father of nations.
But here with David we see God, indeed, responding to works done in his honour and then multiplying them ad infinitum in utterly surprising ways.
If I may offer a personal example, when I was serving at a church in Markham, outside of Toronto, I was tasked with building a recording studio in the church's basement.
As part of this gear in this studio, I wanted to make sure that kids who had never had the privilege of taking music lessons their whole lives, who would normally be the ones with the capacity to use a semi-professional studio, but still wanted to make music had the chance to make something.
I insisted that we get this sampler machine, a black box with 16 pads and a few other buttons. With this little unit, you can play every instrument imaginable and create a whole song.
Thing was is that I had to learn to use it so I could eventually teach it to one of these kids.
Well, as soon as I started using this thing, it was like a hole inside of me, in the shape of music, was being filled right up and overflowing.
It's led to more ministry opportunities than I can list and continues to be a surprising source of blessing.
I never did get to teach any kids to use that unit, like David, that was for the next person to do. But blessings that have come since are innumerable and continue to surpise.
We speak so often of God's never ending love that gives and forgives when the worst of the worst has happened. Even on our worst days we are not exempt for the full blessings of God.
That is unequivocally true.
What is also true - is that God works through us through the power of the Holy Spirit and makes the work that we do in his name so much more.
If God is going to do it anyway, then why bother? Right?
Tonight's reading is part of the answer to that question.
While God can do miracles and make water flow from a rock, it's much more common and a lot easier for us to work with if water to comes from a well.
Tonight's story is one of encouragement - the work that you are I doing in the name of the Lord is but a drop in the ocean. We may only be having one conversation at a time, when there are countless who are lonely or feeding one person at a time when there are millions who are hungry. Or only having one good day at a time when there an unknown number of days to come.
But God can and will and does, in ways that are totally beyond our knowing - make that single drop of water into wine maybe just that drop that day, but every once and a while God will take that drop and turn it into barrels and barrels of the best wine you've ever had or like David and his beloved temple maybe you’ll never have.
Amen.