We are approaching the zenith of
Israel’s impact on the world around it.
As we have discussed this season after Pentecost, it is an incredible
history, to be sure. What started out as
a promise to Sarah and Abraham was just fulfilled, politically speaking. David has ascended the throne. The elders of the tribes have all made a
covenant with David. David has taken the
city of Jerusalem to be his capital city.
Foreign kings have provided the materials for the building of a
palace. Life is good, and God is clearly
in control of events in the world. As I
have reminded you many times these last weeks, the historians who wrote Samuel,
Kings, and Chronicles are not so much concerned with history in the way many of
us are. Some names, some dates, some
events are relatively important. Of far
more significance, though, is the fact that God is reaching into life to affect
the present and to keep His covenant with the patriarchs and matriarchs. Think of the last month. David went from being the youngest of a
family bigger than mine, forced to watch the flock while his brothers dined
with the prophet Samuel to being king over all Israel. Given that the old king was still alive, laid
more than one trap for David, such an outcome is improbable, to say the
least. Yet, as He so often is, God was
with the least and made the least the greatest.
Today, we read this story of David’s
desire to build a Temple for the Ark of the Covenant. Since the days of the Exodus, the Ark, when
possessed by Israel, has been in the Tabernacle, a big fancy tent. David thinks it not right that he lives in a
palace while God is stuck with a tent.
So, unlike his predecessor, David asks the prophet if he can build a
temple for the Lord. Nathan agrees,
initially. Then, of course, the word of
the Lord comes to Nathan, who goes to David and reminds David that God does not
need a temple. God is everywhere. Unlike the gods and goddesses of the ANE, who
need a focus of power, God is God wherever and whenever He is. He does not need a Temple to effect His
purposes. He does not need a Temple to
commune with His people. And so, in a
bit of polemic against the dumb idols of the nations, God tells David through
Nathan that he will not build the Temple.
David’s desire, though, is not evil. David is not trying to uphold the honor of
God as did Uzzah just a few verses before.
No, David is motivated simply by thankfulness and humility. And so, as a result of this offer to build
God a house, God swears an amazing covenant with David. God swears that He will make David a
house. When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your ancestors, I
will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body,
and I will establish his kingdom. He
shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom
forever. I will be a father to him, and
he shall be a son to me. David is
blown away by the promise. Our
lectionary editors separate David’s response from the promise of God. David is humbled and overjoyed, though, that
the Lord has decided to build him a house.
Having just survived the twenty years of Saul’s contrivances, a bit of a
Civil War, and the death of his friend Jonathan (a son of Saul), David recognizes
the import of God’s promise. Of course,
David has no real idea who this offspring will be. David does not understand that Jesus will be
that Son under whom God places the authority of the world. As is so often the case, God is promising
something beyond our wildest imaginations or desires. We see, in the most spectacular way, the best
answered prayer to our collect this morning.
David is a great grandfather, many times over, of the Messiah! Can you imagine?
You should. Why do I answer that question so
abruptly? We have, from time to time
this year, reminded ourselves of our heritage in Christ. I have pointed out how we have been adopted
into God’s family. Our adoption is
unlike anything ever seen in the world.
We are adopted as firstborn children into God’s kingdom. We are princes and princesses in His eternal
kingdom. Who can explain the math, let
alone the titles? How can we get a
double share, as the firstborn are promised, if we are all adopted
firstborns? Truthfully, I have no idea,
just as David had no idea the scope of the promise that the Lord was making
with him in this passage. Like David, we
have the stories of our ancestors and we have our own experiences. God has always kept His promises, so somehow,
we are all going to be kings and queens in His eternal kingdom.
But, and there is often a but, God is not
just speaking to us about the eschaton, the final judgment, just as He was not
just speaking to David about the eschaton.
God reminds David that it was He who took David from the fields and the
flocks and made him king. David himself
has testified that the Lord helped him when he saved his sheep from the jaws of
lions or wolves or bears. David knows
before he fights Goliath that the Lord will help him in the battle against the
seeming titan. David knows the paths to
the throne from the last twenty years was difficult, arduous, full of turns and
switchbacks and plot twists. The
evidence is before him, even as it is before us. Now he is king. God has kept His promise yet again. And now that God is going to make a house for
David, a house to which you and I belong and to which all humanity is called.
Fifteen times in this passage, God and
David speak of house. Depending upon its
context, house can mean Temple, a dwelling-place, a palace, or a dynasty. Given that it appears in this passage fifteen
times, you might get the sense that a house was important, in all senses of the
word. But they, aren’t they? We have this almost primal urge to want to
belong to something greater than ourselves.
It’s almost as if our very being senses that there is something to which
it needs to be attached. I see the
nods. Who is not nostalgic about their
school? Heck, I’m in SEC country now,
who in this room does not bleed crimson or orange or commodore gold or blue or
whatever color when football rolls around?
Why do youths seek gangs and clubs and fraternities? Heck, I laughed at Sarah’s school because
some of the ladies wanted desperately to belong to the Harry Potter
houses. Real ladies wanted to belong to
fictional houses. Why do adult seek
other organizations such as Jaycees or Rotary?
Yes, the business contacts can be good, but the sense of belonging is
the real draw. And here’s the best news
of all: we are all, by virtue of our baptisms into the death and Resurrection
of our Lord, we are baptized into David’s house! We belong to that dynasty that will last
longer than the sun and moon endure. We
belong to that house that will be given true peace, true rest from our
enemies. We belong to that house in which the Lord dwells and
leads. It is an amazing thought, is it
not? You and I are heirs, and firstborn
heirs at that, of the very promises God made to David in this passage.
Looking at some of your expressions, I can
see such an idea never really dawned on you before. That’s right, David is not some far off
figure in some far off land about whom we read from time to time. David is part of our family; or rather, we are
now part of his family. Sometimes, in my
more fanciful moments, I wonder if David ever has time to stop the “Whom am I,
Lord?” as he meets and greets the saints who continue to enter into glory ahead
of us. It would be unimaginably cool to
be the great grandsire of the Messiah; how much more unfathomable humbling would
it be to see saints and people like you and me entering into your house!
That call upon us, that invitation to us
comes with a cost. Thankfully and
mercifully, it was paid in full by David’s ultimate son, Christ our Lord, but
we still have our part to play. What is
the tagline? With great power comes
great responsibility. I had the pleasure
some eleven or twelve years ago to hear NT Wright preach on this passage. NT Wright writes books like you or I
sneeze. Just imagine a quick allergy
sneeze and, boom, there’s a book. That’s
how quickly it seems he produces books sometimes. Tom has been given a wonderful gift, and he
seems to exercise it well. He is one of
the two or three best known Anglican theologians in the world today. Anyway, in his sermon on this passage, Tom
discussed how houses have sigils and signs to identify themselves. Think back to the Crusades and the Medieval
Ages and the knights with their painted crests or flowing banners. Those crests and banners testified as to who
was on the field. Those of you who watch
or read Game of Thrones see how important that can be in some battles. Heck, classicists like me remember how
Patroclus inspired the Greek troops at Troy wearing the armor of Achilles. I suppose the modern incarnation of this
would be the kilts in Outlander. I know,
you are all laughing at the idea of kilts being modern. In some parts of the country, though, this
idea of a cloth pattern representing your clan is being re-discovered. Rotarians wear pins; fraternity brothers and
sorority sisters have handshakes and greetings.
Houses have these signifiers that help them identify themselves to one
another as well as to those outside the group.
Not unsurprisingly, Bishop Wright preached on the idea that our sign,
our sigil, our identifier as a house is the cross of Christ crucified. I see the nods. It makes sense.
But, and Bishop Wright is ever the flesher
out of details, the cross is not just a sigil for us. It is a standard, a battle flag, if you
will. We are called, by virtue of our
baptism, into battle against forces that reject the sovereignty of God. We are called to stroll into places and plant
the standard of the cross and remind ourselves and those around us that God
claims sovereignty even over that particular territory where we find
ourselves. You see, there are forces and
enemies of God arrayed against us. They
are doing everything they can to blind people to the love of God. They give headlines to those Christians that
we wish were muzzled. They give
“rational” arguments for things to be the way that they are. And slowly, over time, the world begins to by
in to what they are selling. Now the
world believes that glory is an appearance on a reality television show. Now the world thinks love, if it really
exists, is best found on a dating show where men and women throw themselves at
the bachelor or bachelorette in question.
We glorify war and raise kids on shooting video games, and we wonder how
tragedies like Chattanooga, Sandy Hook, Columbine, or elsewhere happen. We use sex to sell everything, and even
marvel at the abundance of sex on the internet, and then we wonder why sex is
such an issue for husbands and wives. We
listen as people drop the “til death do us part and in richer and in poorer” as
antiquated, and then we wonder at the divorce culture we have become, where
sociologists now notice that marriages have become relationships that exist
until something better comes along. And
make no mistake. You and I have played a
role in the siren songs that have seduced society around us. We have been timid in planting our
standard. We have been shy about
proclaiming our Lord.
And we engage in this battle with weapons that seem foolish to the world. We don't pick up guns or swords. We don't worry much about the world's armor. We pray, we fast, we study, we serve, we worship, and we give thanks, all the while knowing and trusting that the power that will overcome these forces of evil derive not from us, from some well-intended desire to try and do good, but from our Lord, who is working in us far more than we can ever ask or imagine even as He did in our brother David.
When God speaks of making a house, He
speaks of making a dynasty. If I asked
you to name a dynasty, some of you would yell out the late 20’s or early 60’s
Yankees. Smart people might suck up to
the new priest and suggest the Steelers of the 70’s, the Reds of the Big Red
Machine, or even the Celtics of the 60’s.
Historians among us might toss out the Khans, the Tudors, maybe the
Kennedy’s or the Bush’s. Those are all
well and good, but their honor and their glory pale when compared to the glory
promised our house! Brothers and sisters,
we should be living a life full on in the shadow of the cross, that those in
our circle of coworkers, our friends, our neighbors, and even our enemies
should want to know why we do what we do, how we find hope in the hopeless, why
we are so determined to be a beacon of His light in a far too dark world. Make no mistake, neither Bishop Tom was nor
am I calling us to the street corners with Bibles and repent signs in
hand. But God is calling us to be His
standard bearers wherever He has planted us.
And such a calling is full of responsibility. It means being that prophetic voice when those
around us buy into the false narratives of the world. It means being that helping hand when others
have fallen, serving them as He served us.
It means being that shoulder to cry on when others mourn, just as our
Lord was often full of compassion and even, at times, moved to tears. It means being that cheerleader when others
are full of joy, reminding them of the true source of life’s blessings and the
eternal promises and joy offered by the one whose standard we have become.
Sitting here, listening to that other voice
in your head or heart, you may have a thousand other reasons to think you are
not up to the task He has given you, that your set of circumstances
ill-prepared you for any significant role in His kingdom building process, that
you are beneath His notice, that your circle of friends or enemies have their
minds made up. When we listen to those
other voices, we can think of any number of storms that might rise up to swamp
us or any number of Goliath’s that might appear to fight us. But there is one voice, one promise! There is a refrain throughout David’s
narrative. Today, as David was asking of
Nathan whether to build God’s house, Nathan responds with a nearly ignored
line, “God, do all that you have in mind; for the Lord is with you.”
Brothers and sisters, when we plant that
standard, when we commit to living life, full of His grace, with a
determination to share His love, His mercy, and His hope, we never undertake
that battle alone. Each of us baptized
into His house is sealed with the Holy Spirit and marked as Christ’s own
forever! The prophet even uses the word
Lord, reminding David and us of the personal relationship, the covenant that
God has sworn with each one of us who call upon His Son for salvation. From that moment forward, our Lord, our Head
of our House, is never separated from us.
He is always with us. And it is
the same Lord who lifted David from the flock of sheep as a ruddy faced boy to
be king of Israel who lifts you to His glorious purpose. The same God who protected David when Goliath
battled him, when the Philistines fought him, when Saul sought to kill him,
when his son Absalom sought to kill him, and countless other events that
threatened David’s very life, has extended that covenant to you and to me
through that great grandson of David. God is every bit able to lift you and to lift
me as he did David before us.
And, lest we think this covenant was made
unawares, God knows full well David’s sins, just as He knows ours. For the rest of Scripture, we will be
reminded of Uriah the Hittite and Bathsheba.
We will read of a census. We will
read of sons and grandsons who erect idols in the Land promised to Sarah and
Abraham. We will read of grandsons who
kill the people they are charged with shepherding, of stealing plots of land
they desire, knowing full well that land was granted to those people by the
Lord Himself. We will read of falling
away and all kinds of sins. If this book
was a piece of propaganda, it is the dumbest propaganda ever created. Who extols someone by never forgetting their
faults? Yet David and those who come
after remind us that not even our sins will permanently separate us from the
Lord. Yes, God takes sin very
seriously. But thankfully, mercifully,
He takes forgiveness just as seriously.
And that standard, the Cross, is the means by which we become a House
who proclaims freedom to slaves, who brings health to those suffering from
disease, who offers help to the poor, who offer words of forgiveness to those
burdened by their failures!
Brothers and sisters, you who have accepted
His offer are part of the greatest dynasty the world will ever know. It may not know it today, or tomorrow, or
next week, next month, or next year. But
one day, when our Lord returns, all in His House will be lifted up and
glorified, gathered up to share in that wonderful response of David, “Who am I?” Brothers and sisters, we are His. And it He who calls upon you and me to plant the
standard of His House wherever we are planted, that His light may become a beacon
of hope to a dark and dying world, a world that rejected Him when He came into
His own, but a world He purposes to redeem in spite of itself. Why not share in His purpose? Who knows what amazing wonders He has in
store for each one of us, just as He did for that shepherd boy now become king?
Peace,
Brian†
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