House Building
2 Samuel 7:1-14a

July 20, 2003

On July 1, 1912, would this Old Testament episode of David and Nathan musing about building a house for God have come to anyone’s mind? Most of us have seen the amazing photos in this congregation’s centennial history Let the Bells Ring (p. 50) of the aftermath of that infamous cyclone - nothing amazes us more than the destruction of something familiar. Somebody must have asked, were we supposed to have built this temple in the first place? Both Knox and Metropolitan began worshiping in tents in late summer 1882. Shouldn’t we have stuck with tents?

We are used to being bombarded by action in these historical books of Samuel and Kings. One battle, one confrontation, one adultery after another make this scene almost surreal.

Walter Brueggemann, perhaps the foremost Old Testament scholar, says that this interlude is “the dramatic and theological center of the entire Samuel corpus,” “one of the most critical texts of the Old Testament for evangelical faith.” I have mentioned before in sermons and Bible studies that the true centre of the Old Testament is the David and Bathsheba affair, which is next week’s installment. I guess I prefer adultery to church construction; nevertheless, we’ll be able to examine both.

Everybody knows that a church is not the building. We know it, we just don’t act like we know it. We love this building in its elegance and beauty. When most congregations decide to build, the debate is whether to have a sanctuary-centred building, or a central multi-purpose space.

The United Church Observer has yet another article this month on how certain congregations responded to the loss or ill-repair of church edifices by simply not rebuilding and doing without a permanent roof over their heads. It is a wonderfully self-righteous refrain about the proper use of financial and ecological resources - echoes of Judas complaining that the fragrant oils and spices Mary Magdalene rubbed over Jesus’ feet could have been sold and given to the poor. There is a need to think more the way David and Nathan were eventually forced to think.

Things had gotten quiet for David. He was now undisputed king of Israel, Jerusalem he had secured for his capital, and the ark of the covenant was now safely at the centre of his reign. For once, there were apparently no wars or battles or insurrections distracting his energies - “the Lord had given him rest from all his enemies.” David was sitting back, watching the sunset in a reflective mood with his minister, Nathan the prophet. A thought came to him, a good thought, a humble thought. “Look, I’m living in a house of cedar, but the ark of God stays in a tent.” Nathan gets his drift, “Yeah, that’s not a bad idea. I don’t think God would be opposed at all. Go right ahead and do it.”

That is, until Nathan went to sleep and the Word of the Lord came to him in a vision. “Tell David: do you want to build a house for me? I haven’t lived in a house since I can’t even remember. I was happy in a tent and I never nagged anybody about building a house of cedar for me.”

The Word of the Lord continued with a long recitation of all that God had done for David and for Israel. And God promised to build a house for David, not the other way around. The word “house” - Bet - means a physical structure, but even more an extended family, a people, a dynasty.

David is a man of action, driven to the matters of war and conquest and nation-building. Yet he consistently reveals another side in which God is clearly the only focal point. The scripture is clear that it was King David who went into the tent and sat before the Lord. The King of Israel knew who really was King, so he stopped all he was doing and simply sat and prayed to and with God.

Prayer is a lot of things, but when it is genuine prayer, a real living in the presence of God, it has a habit of sorting out what one’s real relationship to God. Who is the master builder?

On the practical level, the house of God will have to wait, at least until David’s son gets around to it. The house of David is being built right now, of lives well lived, of flesh and blood knowing that God is the King of the universe.

It is all too easy when you get caught up in the entrepreneurial spirit to believe that you are the driving force behind change and goodness. David was being seduced into that mode, especially when he had the luxury of time to think and reflect rather than do battle with enemies. He wanted to do more, just as we want to always do more in this church, and so he wanted to build a house for poor God who has to spend the nights in a tent.

For years David had always been on the move, taking his sheep to better pastures, staying ahead of his enemies on the battle field, shifting his headquarters from place to place. Finally, he had settled down to life in the city, as had much of Israel. The tent represents a God always on the move, never to be cornered or defined to a certain place. God is free beyond our own definitions of freedom. God is free even to act in a way you and I have predetermined to be unGod-like. That is the whole story of Jesus in a nutshell.

For a lot of reasons, Israel and David had settled down and that wasn’t going to change, nor is it going to change for us. A roof does make more sense here than a covering of canvas. The issue is not whether we use our money more responsibly to fund projects other than buildings. The issue is whether with all the human changes impinging upon us - a settled life in a city of which we are proud, technologies that would make life incomprehensible to Biblical people, a house of God that inspires worship - are you still worshiping God? Or are you the one who is organizing the agenda of God?

David sat before the Lord, and stopped doing for a while so he could listen and talk and sort things out. To simply stop all action and expect God to take care of us and our needs is not what David expected. None of this passive “I’ll let God take care of it all.” No, as Eugene Peterson points out, when David stopped doing and just sat, it was a strategy, neither sloth nor stoicism. When he stopped and prayed, the real action began, because God began making David a house. Making our house too.

Preached by Robert Kitchen
Knox-Metropolitan United Church
Regina, Saskatchewan