Advent 4, Year B
2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16; Romans 16:25-27; Luke 1:26-38
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I.
The other day I visited the local Roman Catholic church. I was struck by the wall of flowers that were left before the statue of the Virgin of Guadalupe. I was reminded that her feast day (December 12) had just passed.
I also remembered that the local Episcopal church commemorated this feast this year. I suspect this had something to do with trying to make the Episcopal Church attractive to Mexican immigrants. (Our Lady of Guadalupe is, after all, uniquely Mexican.)
This concerns me for two reasons. First, it seems to be an attempt at sheep-stealing from another Christian flock.
If we’re going to steal anyone, let’s make sure it is to a lively, Reformed faith, and not to an appropriation of something they already have.
Second, this form of Mariolatry is completely foreign to Anglicanism, indeed, it was rejected at the time of the English Reformation.
It was rejected for a good reason, too: a reason that is at the very heart of the readings today for the Fourth Sunday in Advent.
II.
Today’s reading from 2 Samuel speaks to King David’s desire to build a house for God, a permanent structure, a temple fitting for the LORD.
David says:
“See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells in a tent.”
Remarkably, God rejects David’s offer.
In all of the time since the Exodus that God has dwelt with His people He has dwelled in a tent.
Never once did God ask His people to build Him a house.
Speaking to Nathan, His prophet, and a kind of chaplain to the king, God says:
“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 all places where I have moved with all the people of Israel, did I 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?’”
So, the answer is no. God does not want David to build Him a house.
But there is a twist.
God ends His word to Nathan by reversing David’s prayer, saying:
“The Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house.”
David proposes to build God a house and is told instead that God will build David a house.
III.
Now, David already had built himself a house, a lovely palace made of cedar.
Clearly, God is speaking of more than building another domicile.
This promise sets up the entire Christian story. This promise is made explicit in the three verses that come after verse 11, which ends today’s reading.
God continues His message to David, through Nathan, His prophet:
“When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, 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 for ever. I will be his father, and he shall be my son.”
This is an explicit prophecy about Jesus Christ. Let’s take a closer look at it.
First, the Messiah, or Christ, is the physical offspring of David, “who shall come forth from your body.”
Flesh and blood matter in the kingdom of God. The goal of the Christian religion is not to become “spiritual” in some incorporeal sense that eschews normal human behaviors like marriage and family formation.
In fact, family formation is front and center in God’s plan of salvation. The eternal kingdom is rooted in a relationship between a Father and His Son.
God says:
“I will be his father, and he shall be my son.”
Second, this son will build a house for God’s name. David’s son, Solomon, did in fact build a house for God. He built a temple, which was later destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.
The temple was rebuilt a generation later, and, by Jesus’ time, had been lavishly expanded into a mighty stone edifice, and housed on its grounds, among other things, was a Roman garrison.
But in Nathan’s prophecy of the coming Christ, nothing is said about building a temple of stone.
Third, the family relationship that I described earlier establishes the divinity of the coming Messiah. People will argue that believing that Jesus is both fully human and fully God is incompatible with strict Jewish monotheism.
The divinity of Christ may be incompatible with a strict Jewish monotheism but that does not stop the Old Testament from asserting it as true.
It is a simple fact that the offspring is of the same kind as the father. A man may love his dog, but he will never call his dog “my son.”
IV.
The mistake David made is the same one I think the Church often makes. It’s a mistake that misses the point God is trying to make.
Let’s read again the first part of David’s and Nathan’s discernment about temple-building:
“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.’ And Nathan said to the king, ‘Go, do all that is in your heart; for the Lord is with you.’”
Nathan understands what David intends to do, even though the Bible does not record David explicitly saying what he plans to do.
Perhaps this is because David hasn’t really thought it through. Later on, after the temple is built, Solomon dedicates it with these words:
“But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain thee; how much less this house which I have built!”1
Solomon, being wiser than his father, understood what God made clear to Nathan that same night after David made his heart’s desire known.
Likewise, our desire may be to make our church appeal to new and different people, people who are not like us, and from another culture.
Our desire may be to show our love in tangible ways, through the offering of flowers, to what purports to be an image of the mother of Our Lord.
But is this the point?
V.
It is not the point. Temples, churches, statues, and images are never the point. They are not even good reminders of the point.
The whole point of Advent and of the Christmas season to which we are about to turn, is that God has declared that He will make us a house, not the other way around.
Are you still thinking that means a structure of wood, brick, or stone?
Peter calls his fellow believers, the members of the church, “living stones.”
He writes in 1 Peter 2:5:
“Like living stones be yourselves built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”
Paul calls this in today’s reading from Romans:
The revelation of the mystery which was kept secret for long ages.”
There is an old wordplay that goes like this.
How do you spell “church”?
C-h-u-r-c-h.
Or try it this way:
C-h-you are-c-h.
You are the church, the house that God is building.
Mary’s is the womb, the tent of human flesh, that God dwelt in for nine months. If that’s not reason enough to honor her — without all sorts of other pictures, and images, and statues, and stories — think about that for a moment. Think about what happened during those nine months and draw out the implications from that about the sanctity of life and the honor of motherhood.
Jesus is the son of David who calls God His Father.
God calls Jesus His own Son, the Son in whom He is well pleased.
And the Church is Christ’s body, which, in a mysterious way, is the very same body of which Jesus said:
“‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’ The Jews then said, ‘It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?’ But he spoke of the temple of his body.2
I suppose a certain amount of signs and symbols and temple-building are necessary.
Words are, after all, nothing more than vocal signs, and letters are the written symbols of their sounds.
Churches, architecture, and liturgy are full of signs and symbols. They are a kind of language.
But let us not confuse them for ends in themselves. That is the first and easiest mistake to make in religion.
Advent points us to Christ and Christ points us to the Father. We travel that way by faith, knowing by that same faith that the signs that lead us there are true.
Paul called this the “obedience of faith.”
Mary modeled this obedience, not so that we would honor her in years to come with lifeless statues, painted images, and dead roses, but by coming to know and love her Son.
So that we too can say to God, “be it unto us according to your word.” Amen.
Questions for reflection and discussion:
1. What was rejected at the time of the English Reformation?
2. King David desired to build a ____________ for God.
3. Up until this time, God had always dwelt in a ____________.
4. God’s promise to build David a house foretells the coming of the ____________.
5. The Messiah, or Christ, is the physical ____________ of David.
6. The eternal kingdom is rooted in a relationship between a ____________ and His ____________.
7. What son of David initially fulfilled the prophecy and built a temple?
8. Explain why Nathan’s prophecy supports the divinity of Jesus Christ.
9. Explain what David hadn’t thought through in his desire to build a house for God.
10. Peter calls the members of the church this: ____________.
11. Explain why signs, symbols, and even church architecture, are necessary to true religion.
12. Explain the first and easiest mistake to make in religion.
Parents and Grandparents, you are responsible to apply God’s Word to your children’s lives. Here is some help. Young Children – draw a picture about something you hear during the sermon. Explain your picture(s) to your parents or the minister after church. Older Children – Do one or both of the following: 1) Count how many times the word house is mentioned. 2) Read this article and discuss with your parents what it takes to make sure you have a home to live in and a roof over your head.
(1) Mariolatry; (2) house; (3) tent; (4) Christ or Messiah; (5) offspring; (6) Father, Son; (7) Solomon; (8) the offspring (God the Son) is of the same kind as His Father (God the Father); (9) an earthly home cannot house God; (10) living stones; (11) they are a kind of language that is used to communicate the gospel; (12) making the signs and symbols ends in themselves
1 Kings 8:27.
John 2:19-21.
A house for God