i believe in a lot of things, honey

when the sky is big enough


A sermon from II Samuel 7:1-17:


Have you ever given someone a gift, only to have them take it the wrong way?
Because that’s what happens in scripture today.

They say it’s the ‘thought that counts,’ but sometimes it’s the thought -or lack thereof- that makes for trouble…
Sitting on his throne, sheltered from the sun and wind, King David’s thoughts turn to God. 
As they do

Here he is, put up quite nicely. But the ark of God, sits out in a tent! Exposed to all the elements!
Now King David just won’t accept that. It isn’t fitting. He hatches a plans to build a house for God. To put the big guy up in style…

Instead of being thankful, though; the Lord is incensed
That very night the word of the Lord comes to Nathan, putting the divine kibosh on King David’s plans. “Are you the one to build me a house,” God challenges. God puts it bluntly, “after all we’ve been through, have I ever asked for a house?”

Apparently nice digs on the right side of town, isn’t what God wanted

Now, to really understand why God is so irritated, though, you need to recall David’s story. 
Which, as it turns out, is the very thing God does with David!

God sends Nathan to remind David: ‘When your kin put you out to pasture, who made you king? Through all your travels and travails, who was is that went out with you, protecting you from your foes, huh?’ In other words, God asks who chose whom. 

On a roll, God keeps at it! Making a few promises. “I’m also going to make for you a great name. A name that will be read aloud and revered for thousands and thousands of years.” I promise, by the way, that’s fulfilled in our hearing…
Still holding forth, God looks around, ‘And, all the people you’re king over, the ones who look to your for protection, I’m the one who’s going to plant them. I’m going to give them a home.’ 

Finally, God lays it all on the line, flipping David’s plan on its head. The way God is always turning everything topsy-turvy. “No, you won’t build a house for me,” God says. “Because I’m going to build a house for you,” declares God. God chooses to provide for David, even it that means going homeless.
God chooses to serve David, rather than be served by David. God doesn’t care about a place, half as much as God cares about providing for David!

It is the thought that counts, after all! 
And David hasn’t given a though for all the times he’s experienced for himself what God prefers.  
David has it backward!
He thinks he has to be the one to provide for God. He worries that without King David, God is helpless. David thinks that he chose God.
Which is probably why, before making the promise to David, God has Nathan remind him of their past

God’s disapproval over David’s plan isn’t so much the what, as it is the why.

God doesn’t want to be the one who’s served. God doesn’t want David, king or otherwise, to be the one providing shelter. That’s what God wants to do for David
That is what God chooses, to be the one providing. You only have to think back over David’s story to see that. You only have to listen this word of the Lord to hear that. 

Or, you just have to be sitting there like a bump on a log.

David isn’t the only one God chose to send someone with a word of the Lord on their lips to, you know. And Nathan isn’t the only person God sent a word to, either. 
We’re not kings, but we’re a lot like David. We worry God needs our help. That God needs us to put God up. That we need to be strong for God. 
Well, big shot; think back over your own life, our history. 
Who is is, exactly, that’s done the delivering? You, or God? Who got you to a place like this today? Do you dare to take credit for your own existence? Who is it, that has promised to give you rest? 

What has God chosen for you over and over again?

Why it’s the very same choice God made that very night the word of the Lord came to Nathan, isn’t it? The same choice God made all of David’s life, too. 

It’s what God chose when this word was assigned as our scripture for today. It’s what God chooses right now, as in accordance with all those words and with all that vision, I am charged to speak to you

God chooses not to take shelter, but to shelter you instead. Even if that means going homeless…

That’s what God is choosing. This is the word of the Lord interrupting our plans, same as it interrupted David and Nathan’s that very night.

Now God sends a word, that God chooses to care for you; not the other way ‘round. 

It turns out it is the thought that counts, doesn’t it?
But not our’s. God’s thought. God’s intentions. God’s will. 

We’re a lot like David. We too worry. Feeling hopeless and homeless. 
Everything is changing, and we wonder where God is in all this. We’re doing all we can to hold the line. Afraid if too much changes we’ll be godforsaken.

What God promises you, though, is that while God may go without shelter, you won’t. You won’t. God promises to be on the move with you, to shelter to. To find you wherever you go with this word that is your home. 

Like David we think God’s power isn’t enough.
When you find yourself thinking such things, hatching some plan to shelter God, think back
Would God really want that? Remember, it’s the thought that counts…

What has God chosen time and time again for you? Who was it that’s done the providing; you or God? Remember your answer.

But that’s not all. God promises you more
That, finally, God won’t leave you to rely on your memories.

When doubt begins to take hold of you, God also promises to put someone in your midst with the word of the Lord on their lips. The word of the Lord that creates faith. The word of the Lord that saves us from our fears and pretensions. 
The word of the Lord that promises God will be the one to provide shelter for you. Even sending you someone to declare that promise you can take cover under to when all else fails.

In accordance with the Word made flesh I declare to you that God choses to be the one who shows up, not in a place, but on a person for you
In accordance with the one who is the full revelation of God’s will, I declare to you that God chooses, not to sit in the temple, but to go on the move with you.

Even if that means being homeless.
Remember, you too have a savior who was just like his daddy. “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests,” observed Jesus one day, remarking on the fact that he, the son of man, had nowhere to lay his head…

That is what God has done for you.
Not to take a temple, but to give you something that begs to be told. Not a place, but a promise. That while God may go homeless, you won’t. 

The word of the Lord has found you. Welcome home.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

in measured hundredweight and penny pound

i take flight

anywhere you wanna go