Thursday, December 18

Scripture: He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. (2 Samuel 7:13). 

Observation: The prophet Nathan is the speaker, and King David is the audience. David has reached a milestone in his career as commander-in-chief: peace, the first season of enduring peace in Israel since he replaced Saul as king. David has beaten back the armies of the surrounding nations and quelled the rebel forces from the tribes of Israel that supported Saul’s claim to the throne. David has done what no one human being since Moses has been able to do: he has united the tribes of Israel under one leader. David has concentrated governance to one city, Jerusalem, and has lifted up the God of Abraham as the one God to whom Israel pledges allegiance. For the first time since the prophet Samuel anointed David as king – and that was years ago - David has no threat to eliminate. Finally, David can rest.  

Yet like a typical overachiever, David won’t stay still. He must stay busy, so he takes on a peace-time project. David wants to build a “house” for the Ark of the Covenant. The ark, which contained the remnants of the original Ten Commandments, had been kept within a tent, a literal tent made of animal skins, ever since Moses himself commissioned the ark while the Israelites were in the wilderness. Now, thanks to David, the ark has a permanent location in the city of Jerusalem, but the ark doesn’t have a permanent building. It’s camping out in a tent. Meanwhile, David has a palace made of the finest cedarwood. Maybe because David feels guilty about the disparity between the ark’s temporary housing and his own permanent throne room, or maybe because he wants to demonstrate yet again how powerful he has become, David makes it a personal goal to build a permanent structure to house the ark. He wants to build a temple. 

But God says no. Through the prophet Nathan, God flat-out rejects David’s ambition to build a temple for the ark. Instead, God turns the table on David and says that it will be God, not David, who builds a house. This time, “house” doesn’t mean a physical building, but a family, a people, and this family will be the container for holding God’s presence forever. The “house” is David’s family tree. God is promising to continue David’s royal bloodline to the end of time. It’s a guarantee. God doesn’t want to be boxed in a building. God wants to live within a people, and God is choosing to live in David and his descendants. 

Looking back, we know David’s son, Solomon, does in fact build a Temple to house the ark, but history has shown that the other meaning of “house” – a people, not a building – is more enduring and effective. The house of Solomon was destroyed. The house of the family of David continues. Now it continues through David’s descendant, Jesus of Nazareth, the rightful heir to David’s throne, and because of Jesus, the house continues through you and me. 

Jesus has opened up his ancestor David’s family tree to any and all. Now every person is the place where God’s presence chooses to dwell. God has moved into the neighborhood of our very hearts. God’s promise did not fail: the house of David continues, through Jesus and expanded by his sacrifice to all people. Now the only real temples are people. Every life is where God’s life lives. It’s up to us to recognize what was already there. 

Application: Yes, God- it’s up to me to recognize what was already there. Your presence in my life has never left. I can trace your presence from David to Jesus to me. If I didn’t recognize your presence, it was because I moved away from you or I was like a baby within a womb, being grown in the dark without knowledge of the person who was growing me. I need to pay attention to the continuity of your presence with me, not just the presence itself. Your solidarity with me is measured by its stronger-than-death continuity. I will draw strength, perspective, and peace from the continuity of your withness with me. 

Prayer:  

Forever is your presence with me.   

Forever is your love, forever your solidarity.  

Forever is your company. 

As marvelous as your choosing to get involved with me

Is your unrelenting inflexibility in sticking with me.  

More permanent than any ink is your presence.   

I am stained by it.  

If it were up to me, I would have blotted the divine

    On a worthier soul.  

But there’s no lifting you from the fabric.  

It’s not like I haven’t tried. 

Christmas is permanent marker:  

Your presence with me is the mark,  

And I am the couch cushion,

    Showing signs of being sat on,

    Stained by other stains,

    Much loved but tired

    Of bearing the weight

    Of the weight of others.  

    Still you’re stuck on me. 

And the continuity of your presence with me  

Inspires me to keep showing up     

    To a job that keeps the lights on,

    For people I wish would stay forever,

    With hope that my presence in creation, and theirs,

    Will be uninterrupted forever because your presence  

Is forever. 

The continuity of your presence overcomes

    My fear that one more challenge will unravel me.

Bless me, Holy One, with trust in love that cannot be scrubbed off,

  And I will face today braver for it.