This has been a rough advent for many, 21 wars rage across the globe; Congress is preoccupied with partisan bickering rather than with governing; the presidential primary season has been ramping up with hateful rhetoric; our climate is quickly warming; the number of people in need of food and housing continues to climb; and the number of people with mental health problems is staggering. Everywhere I turn I see sadness and worry and despite my skepticism that any of this will ever end, there is hope. Not pie in the sky, maybe I will win the lottery hope, but true Christian Hope. Hope that is rooted in the knowledge that the outcome we dream of is actually possible and will happen. Will I live to see the end of suffering? No! Will I live to see a world without poverty? No! Will I live to see a government who is more concerned with taking care of people than with being right? No! None of these things will occur as long as humans are in control because, while we are not inherently selfish and sinful, we do put comfort, and our vision of creation ahead of the greater good more than we would like to admit.
King David thought that he knew best, but God, through the prophet Nathan, told him that it was not his place to build a house for God. Samuel is reminding us that God has walked among the people since the exodus from Egypt and not once did God ask for a permanent home to be built, in fact it is God who will create a house for David. It is unlikely that Samuel is talking about an actual house here, especially since we already know that David has a very nice one. Instead, he is speaking of building a house in the heart of David; a place where the spirit of God can reside with the hope that God will then be able to work through David and his descendants for the betterment of all.
The Gospel of Luke immerses Jesus and his birth squarely in the center of Jewish culture and tradition. From the very beginning the story he tells is a Jewish account of the events of the life of Jesus. He speaks of Zechariah and Elizabeth, who are descended from the house of Aaron, the Israeli tribe chosen by God to tend to the tabernacle. He goes on to describe the announcement of Jesus conception, making it clear that Mary, who is also from the house of Aaron, is to become a part of the House of David through her marriage to Joseph. The house of David is the tribe chosen to be the kings of Israel. So, with the joining of Mary and Joseph, their children will be of both the priestly and kingly houses of Israel which means that in the eyes of the Jews of the first century Jesus had a solid lineage, which was very important to them and if there was ever a person that might fulfill their image of a messiah it would be someone like him, because his lineage is tied to both the political and religious leaders of Israel; but as we see through the remainder of the New Testament many, if not most, Jews struggle to make room for God incarnate in their culture and they struggle to allow the building of a house in their hearts; but before we pass judgement let’s first ask ourselves if we have made room for God in our culture? Have we allowed God to build a house for us as intended, or have we built a house and then attempted to force God into it?
We have most certainly gone down the path of building a house for God. We have constructed a system in which God is relegated to designated spaces, specific language, and even specific days and then wonder why the world is such a mess. When we only associate God with a specific location, or specific language, or specific holy days then we are limiting God and closing ourselves off from their invitation to be in complete relationship with them.
The perfect example of what it means to allow God to be the builder is seen in Luke’s account of the annunciation. When Gabriel comes to Mary and tells her that God has chosen her to be the mother of God incarnate, she is afraid, who wouldn’t be; but her fear subsides, and she indicates that she is willing. Her ability to pivot from fear to acceptance is a sign of the strength of her faith and trust in God and is a sign that she has allowed God to make a home for her, instead of relegating God to an unseen place.
Advent is about preparation, but it isn’t about preparation for Christmas. It is about being prepared to overcome the fear and accept that God may ask us to walk a path we just assume avoid. Perhaps the reason we try to contain God is because we are afraid of the choices we would have to make. By keeping God locked away in a house of our design we get to maintain a sense of control in the relationship, but by doing so, we lose site of the promise that the things we are most upset about in the world will be resolved in God’s time. The arrival of hope, which we will celebrate later today, is not a distant promise of some intangible theological concept, it is the real presence of God within us.
King David wanted to build a house for God because God deserves to have a permanent home, but what David apparently didn’t understand is that his desire to please God, by building a house, had more to do with him than God. Mary did not have the means to build God a house, so instead she honored her relationship with God by allowing a home to be built within her.
Mary lived in a time where virtually everyone lived in poverty, when war and death was far more common than it is now, and when governments existed for the sole purpose of enriching the lives of the people in charge. In the midst of all this she accepted God’s call to be the mother of a man who would change the world. Is the world free of war and poverty and death? No; but there is far less of it today than there was 2000 years ago and in God’s time creation will be restored to its true glory, at which point we will experience the apocalypse, the revealing of all that has been promised and hoped for, so as we prepare for Christmas, for the arrival of hope, lets not forget that it is God who does the building, we are simply the building blocks from which the house of the Lord is built. Amen.
Learning by Fire! 