Focus: God builds his house with us.
This past week and in the week to come, our prayer breakfast has been wrestling with the question, “Is prayer a conversation?” What does that mean anyway? Well, in a conversation you need two sides, and sometimes when we pray, it can be hard to hear when God responds. It can even be like we are doing all the talking!
That is a bit like what is going on in today’s story from 2 Samuel. King David and the prophet Nathan are having a wonderful conversation about what God wants. David is grateful that he’s settled in a palace, that God has given him rest from his enemies, and that things are ok for him, but he feels bad that God is traveling around the countryside in a tent, seated on the ark of the covenant that moves all around without his own house to stay in. So David tells Nathan about his plan to build God a house—the temple. Nathan responds, “Go, do all that you have in mind; for the Lord is with you!”
Wonderful, good talk, we are done here, right!? Order the lumber while the prices are plummeting again! Except for one thing…David and Nathan with all their wonderful little plans forgot to consult one party in this conversation: a very important party…God! Oopsie-Do!
Well, that very night God speaks to Nathan very directly—don’t we wish God would do that—but he says that this plan is not what he has in mind. God points out, “Wherever I have moved about among all the people of Israel, did I ever speak a word with any of the tribal leaders of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, ‘Why have you not built me a house of cedar?’” And for once, Nathan is so quiet he can hear the crickets chirping outside the window. God makes his point: “You want to build me a house? I’ll build you a house!”
David wanted to build God a fancy temple, a church, a “house.” But God wanted to build David a house: a royal line that would last forever, a house that culminates in the birth of God’s Son and our eternal king Jesus. As the John the Baptist’s father Zechariah sings during the Nativity story, “You have raised up for us a mighty savior, born of the house of your servant David.” That’s the kind of house God has in mind. If only anyone had thought to ask him!
Sometimes we think we know what God wants. And God wants something different. Often God wants something better.
I don’t know about you, but I grew up thinking that the church was God’s house. Maybe my parents just told me that to be quiet; now that I have a kid I have to say I can kind of understand that. Well, the church is God’s house. But as Paul tells us in the letter to the Ephesians, the church is a special kind of house: the kind of house that God was talking about to David. A spiritual house. A living house. Whose bricks and mortar are, guess what, all of us. Or as he says more eloquently, the church is “built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God.”
Notice that we are a part of this house, but we are not the owner. This house is “a dwelling place for God.” Maybe you’ve heard the saying, “Your house, your rules.”
It can be easy for us to fall into the David trap, especially when it comes to the church. We all love the church. Some of us come from families who have been part of the congregation for generations. Others of us are newer, but sure spend a lot of time and energy here. We are passionate. We have good intentions. We think we know what is best.
Maybe today’s story is a chance to reflect. What does God want for us at Trinity/St. John’s? Who is invited to be a part of this conversation when decisions are made? Is God “in the room where it happens?” Has God got something bigger and better planned for us than we had in mind?
For all that Nathan got wrong when he told David to go ahead with his building project, he got one thing marvelously right. “The Lord is with you.” Today’s lessons compare God to the shepherd of Israel: shepherding them out of slavery in Egypt, feeding them in the wilderness, leading them to the green pastures of the Promised Land. Finally, in the fullness of time, God sent Jesus the Good Shepherd, who Mark tells us has compassion for the sheep, feeding thousands, teaching, even laying down his life for the sheep. Jesus will not leave us aimless, wandering, shepherdless, lost sheep but promises to send us his Spirit. This is, after-all, his house. But when the time comes to listen, will we hear his voice?
Amen.