December 18, 2011:
Text: 2 Samuel 7: 1-11, 16
Closing: Luke 1: 26-38
The Promise
This message has a different ending
than what I expected to share with you
when, on Oct. 31 I decided to speak on this scripture
But then again it is different than what I expected to share with you
When on Thursday I read and prayed in preparation for it
For on both October 31 and on December 15
I anticipated sharing a reasonably routine message
About how God kept God's promise
By sending God's son into the world.
After all, The Sunday School program is today
And who is going to remember the sermon
Even one that would have been worthwhile and of value.
And hopefully interesting as well.
But on Friday morning, for whatever reason
Perhaps because having gotten up shortly after 2:30 AM
To deal with the broken window and sign vandalism
I did not have the strength to
lead my ideas as to the message
which were fine and appropriate
to a triumph over God's ideas
which were better and more needed.
Sometimes, we can hear God best when we are tired and weak.
The scripture is the story of God's covenant with David.
We only heard the 16th verse when we lit the Advent candle.
This is the rest of the story: [2 Samuel 7: 1-11, (12-15) 16]
What God told Nathan to convey to David
Involved a play on words
The Greek word for "house" could mean
"house" as a home, as a temple, or as a dynasty
So in essence God - through Nathan - told David three things:
First: You do not need to build me a house
House in the home sense,
like David had already built for himself
House also in the temple sense
Like other nations had for their gods
In saying this, God pointed out to David that he (God)
had not asked for either a dwelling place or a shrine
The second thing that God - through Nathan - told David was
"I will, however, let your descendent build me a house."
And here the meaning of the word "house" is ambiguous, questionable, and debated
It might be a temple
Certainly David's son Solomon interpreted it that way for he built a temple for God
It might be a home for God,
Certainly after the temple was built
the Jewish people began to interpret it that way
For they began to see it as "where God resided"
But the most interesting way might be to interpret as "a dynasty"
With David's descendents
including adopted descendents like us -
as building materials
And with God ruling forever.
And the third thing God - through Nathan - told David was
"Furthermore, I will build you a house."
Here it certainly meant a dynasty
A dynasty that would rule forever,
For David already had a home
So that is not what God would have built
And David was not a God,
so there would be no temple for him.
And, of course most clearly, God told him
"your house and your kingdom
shall be made sure forever
and "your throne shall be established forever."
Having said all this, God then told David
That there will be times when I punish your descendents
But I shall not take my steadfast love from them.
This promise of a God empowered Davidic dynasty
was important to the Jewish people of David's day
and to the generations that followed.
But they began to question that promise
When the Babylonians overran Jerusalem
Destroying the temple
Placing someone other than a descendent of David on the throne
And taking many of the best and brightest into exile
When no descendent of David sat as king in Jerusalem:
Some felt that God had broken God's promise
Some felt that God was too weak to keep God's promise.
But still, the promise provided hope for many of those exiled
Hope that this exile was simply a punishment
And hope that God would keep the promise
By sending the anointed one
a messiah descended from David
This hope helped them endure the exile and the difficult days after some had returned to Jerusalem to rebuild the city and the temple.
And you and I know that in the birth of Christ
God fulfilled that promise,
Sending his son to be our Lord and our king.
You and I know that God kept that promise
And that we can count on all of God's promises
You and I know that God is steadfastly reliable
Christmas is dramatic evidence of that.
That could have been the lesson with which we concluded Advent.
Originally, in fact, I had intended it to be.
However, on Friday, I became increasingly aware that there was another lesson here
A lesson that is easy to overlook
As we smugly sit back to open our Christmas gifts
And give verbal thanks for that first Christmas gift
And for the fact that we can rely on God's promises.
That other lesson is the lesson that we who live in today's society need, but hear less frequently.
The lesson is that not only
has God taken the godly promises seriously
and approached them steadfastly,
But that in doing so,
God has given us an example of what we need to do
When we make promises to God
When we make commitments to others.
To our spouses, to our children
To our employers and those with whom we work
To our churches and the people in them
For keeping promises and fulfilling commitments
is not just something that God does
It is something that God expects us to do as well.
There are examples all around us of people doing that
I think of historical examples
Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain and the 20th Maine
Keeping their promise
to hold the flank at Little Round Top "at all costs"
I think of personal examples
My father caring for my mother during the last few years of her life, remembering,
That in their marriage
He had professed to love her and care for her,
in sickness and health; in good times and bad
One of the gifts wrapped in the Christmas swaddling cloths
Was the assurance that God keeps God's promises
Another
Was the example that you and I are to do the same
I pray that seven days from now, you and I will give thanks for
Both the assurance and the example.