WHERE GOD RESIDES

II Samuel 7:1-13a
Psalm 84

St. Andrew's-Wesley United Church

Rev. Gary Paterson

July 12, 2009

Well, here we are at sermon # 5 in our journey with David. Remember, we started with David being anointed as king while he was still a young lad, a shepherd boy in the hills around Bethlehem. Then we met David the giant-killer, soon to be followed by David, the man of tears. Last week, he was dancing for joy before the Lord. Well, that was part of the story… he was also consolidating his power base in the newly-captured Jerusalem. And, if you thought David was a political animal last week, well, let me tell you, you ain’t seen nothing yet… today’s story -- about the dream of building a great temple, and the divine re-affirmation of David and his dynastic hopes – well, it will take your breath away.

Remember how the story opened…. David is enjoying a little kickback time in his newly built cedar palace. The wars have gone well and the Philistines are quiescent; the troops are happy; likewise the ordinary every day folk; peace and prosperity are on the horizon. And David is feeling pretty good. He decides -- as a gesture of religious piety, or perhaps as an astute political move -- to build a great temple for the Lord. Isn’t that what kings always do, embark on great building programmes -- monuments of immortality… palaces, temples, Conference Centres?

At first this temple-building seems to be a blessed undertaking. “Go for it!” says the prophet Nathan. Until the next morning; for during the night Nathan has a dream from God that in so many words declares, “No way!” However, there is a consolation prize -- David’s son will be permitted to build such a temple; and, by the way, “Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me; you throne shall be established forever.” – that’s quite a promise; most kings would give their right arm for such a guarantee of dynastic succession… just ask Dear Leader Kim Jong-il in North Korea.

Now, you don’t have to be a Marxist to be suspicious of such religious promises. It sure looks like King David and friends – the ones who ended up writing down the story – they are determined to provide a religious blessing upon this new royal dynasty. But that leaves us readers with a key questions -- how do you determine what is a word from God and what might come from political posturing? And further more, why even pay attention to such a story, when it seems that its primary function is to bless and buttress state power, a divine sanction on a particular line of kings?

Well, for one thing, it was a big deal for Israel. I mean, the line of David lasted in the south for over four hundred years. That’s pretty impressive -- ask the Shah of Iran… if you can find him. Or members of the Nehru family; or the House of Windsor. And then, when the dynasty was brutally eliminated by the Babylonians, and a puppet king installed to rule over Israel, -- well, Israel went into shock. What about those promises? Were they not true? Or just time-limited? Or transformed? Well, answering those questions is another sermon, but just think about all those Christmas hymns you sing about that “little town of Bethlehem” as Christians proclaim that Jesus comes from the line of David. It’s a strange claim of course, since it depends on Joseph being Jesus’ father… but dreams of a Messiah who would somehow be connected to the line of David gripped Jewish imagination for centuries. And early Christians, good Jews that they were, shared that dream.

But as I was pondering this story, I found myself less interested in the king and his politics, and far more intrigued by David’s dream of building a house for God. What was that all about? Does God really need a house, a “beth”? Where does God reside? Hang his hat? If you wanted to encounter the Holy, where would you go? God on the golf course; God in church; God in my heart… are there any hints about where divinity dwells… any signs, any guarantees?

So I’m inviting you to walk with me, discovering how Scripture has answered these questions, realizing that it isn’t a question of either/or, rather it’s more a weaving together of different understandings, recognizing the impact and influence of a particular context or situation; perhaps sketching an extensive blueprint, which incorporates different answers to where God resides.

Perhaps we need to begin first with the God of the stars, of the sun and moon, of the storms and blue oceans and green earth. “Thus says the LORD: ‘Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool; what is the house that you would build for me, and what is my resting place? All these things my hand has made, and so all these things are mine….’” (Isaiah 66:1-2). This is the creator God, whose home is the universe… “O LORD, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth…. When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; what are human beings that you are mindful of them?” (Psalm 8) You want to know where God resides? -- look to the stars, look to the atom.

Perhaps you remember the story of Jacob in the book of Genesis … on the lam, running from his family after having swindled his brother, fearful for his life. He falls asleep, in no place in particular… a patch of shelter in a terrifying wilderness. He dreams… oh, and such a dream… the famous ladder, with angels ascending and descending… a moment of transcendent glory. Jacobs wakes, and cries out, “‘Surely the LORD is in this place – and I did not know it….How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.’” And so Jacob names this place Bethel… “beth” for house, “el”, shorthand for God. The house of God. this unknown, unremarkable spot… which can be any spot, from English Bay to the Grouse grind; from a patch of lawn in Nelson Park to your kitchen table. Every place is holy ground; and God is present… wherever you find yourself standing in the universe, if you pay attention, full attention, you will find yourself crying out, “Surely the LORD is in this place… this is none other than the house of God.”

Now, to this understanding of God’s house, I want you to add Exodus where we encounter the God who is experienced in the Hebrews’ liberation from slavery in Egypt. The God of the stars is also the God who is committed to justice, freedom and dignity. This is the God who moves in the midst of the people as they are delivered from bondage and travel into the wilderness, struggling to find out how to live as a faithful people rooted in the Holy. This is the God who, when asked for a name, replies, “Yahweh… I am who I am; I will do what I will do, I will go where I will go.” Now this is where it gets interesting… for God’s house in this particular story is a tent, the Tent of the Tabernacle. It’s not a permanent structure, but one that is mobile, travelling, not rooted down. This is the God whom you can’t box, pin down, control – you might as well try and catch the wind. This God will not be used for imperial purposes, to buttress up the state. It is this understanding of God’s house that Nathan tells David about in his holy dream:- “Thus says the LORD, [according to Nathan,] “Are you the one to build me a house to live in? I have not lived 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 and a tabernacle.” So when you want to know where God is to be found… look into the centre of all those movements that struggle for justice, freedom, and an ethical way of living. Look for the flashes that come from the tent, knowing that God is on the move and will make use of whatever is at hand. No temples here… nothing that stable, certain… no, the tent… simple, unfettered, here… then there…

And then we come to today’s story… the building of the temple. There is ambivalence about this undertaking… you can sense the worry in the writers, worried about domesticating the Holy, about the temptations to use God for imperial purposes. However, the temple did get built; and lasted for four hundred years. And though it was destroyed by the Babylonians, when the Jewish exile was over, a new temple was slowly rebuilt, and it lasted for another four hundred years, until the Romans destroyed it utterly, some thirty or forty years after the death of Jesus. All that was left was a crumbling western wall, where still today Jews gather for prayer. The wailing wall it’s called now, for the temple remains just a memory of times gone by.

But the temple was important… and it did function as a house for God. It’s too easy to simply be critical; especially standing in a sanctuary like ours… a temple in all but name, with soaring gothic roof, stained glass windows, an organ that can shake the foundations, with room for over a thousand worshippers to gather. So, if we remember that the blueprints are never either/or, but a weaving together of different truths, then perhaps we need to link God of the stars, with God on the move for liberation, with God in the temple.

Perhaps the temple reflects our human need for a place, a focus point to concretize the holy; a reminder in our midst of the centrality of God… so build it big. Maybe the temple is to space as the Sabbath is to time; we are simply carving out a place to remind us of God’s presence in our midst. Yes God is everywhere, but God is also here. As a Hindu washes in the Ganges; as a Muslim embarks on the Haj to Mecca; as a modern Christian might walk the Camino Santiago de Compestela in northern Spain… so might we come to this cathedral, St. Andrew’s-Wesley, trusting that we will encounter God in this house; a place full of memories… of births and baptisms; of marriages and divorces; of death and funerals; full of tears and exultation, repentance and joy, healing, challenge and comfort; a place of extraordinary beauty and quiet; a space filled with prayer. A house of God.

I don’t want to stop here, though, because the story continues and for Christians, Jesus Christ becomes part of the holy blueprints. Jesus Christ is a person in whom God resides; call it the theology of incarnation, God in the flesh. Jesus is the house of God; indeed, at one point Jesus (or the gospel writer) implied that his body was the new temple. So God of the stars, and justice, and holy human space, and now Jesus Christ.

Which gets expressed in a couple of interesting ways. First… Christ in the heart… knocking at the door, wanting to come in and find a home in us. Indwelling. Christ in my heart… a house of God. And if true for me, then true also for you. Which means that I need to figure out a way to respect and honour each and every person I encounter, for their hearts house holiness. God resides in my friend, my neighbour, the stranger, my enemy…. if it’s true for me, then it’s true for them.

Which is what the early church discovered; meaning, they recognized that the community they were part of, people of The Way, followers of one sort or another of Jesus the Christ, they sensed that God was in their very midst; they experienced the church as the body of Christ. And from there, it’s not much of a jump to push the metaphor, and suggest that the church community, the people of God... it too is a house of God. Catch this image… from I Peter… “Come to [Jesus Christ], a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house….” Meaning that in the midst of this congregation, this church, God resides, hangs out, has found a home – we are a spiritual house.

A contemporary poet and hymn writer, Marty Haugen has caught the sense of this in his hymn, “Let Us Build a House”…

Let us build a house where love can dwell

and all can safely live;

a place where saints and children tell

how hearts learn to forgive.

Built of hopes and dreams and visions,

rock of faith and vault of grace,

here the love of Christ shall end divisions --

All are welcome, all are welcome,

all are welcome in this place.

Let us build a house where hands will reach

beyond the wood and stone,

to heal and strengthen, serve and teach

and live the Word they’ve known.

Here the outcast and the stranger

bear the image of God’s face;

let us bring an end to fear and danger --

All are welcome, all are welcome

all are welcome in this place.

Built of tears and cries and laughter,

prayers of faith and songs of grace;

let this house proclaim from floor to rafter --

All are welcome, all are welcome

all are welcome in this place.

So… where does God reside? Weave it together friends; follow the blueprints; hold the metaphors and stories together. That’s what the Bible does… makes truth very complicated; and that’s a good thing. Stars, justice and liberation, on the move… that’s where you’ll find God; in temple, cathedral, church and synagogue, in mosque and gurdwara; God in Jesus Christ… and in our hearts, and in our community of faith. That’s a lot of places, which makes it all the more surprising when we sometimes can’t seem to find the way home. But with grace and faithfulness we’ll get there, to the abode of the Beloved., to the house of God.