22 July 2018 – 9th Sunday of Pentecost
2
Samuel 7:1-14a; Psalm 89:20-37; Mark 6:30-34
“You
are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to desist from
it.”
(“Ethics of the Fathers”, 2:21)
As I was reading the portion of 2nd Samuel, something occurred to me that forced me to
do a double-take; The Lord never seemed to tell David directly that Solomon would be commissioned to build
the Great Temple; we’re only told “descendants” or “offspring”. In 1st
Chronicles 28, King David reports that The Lord had told him Solomon would
build the Temple, but the portion from 2nd
Samuel in which The Lord speaks to David through the prophet Nathan does not mention Solomon by name. A quick search through Kings describes the construction of the Temple and The Lord
descending upon the completed work – which strongly suggests His blessing – but
there still seems to be no direct, recorded conversation between The Lord and David
regarding Solomon about the Temple.
What began to bother me about this is that the Temple
– believed to have been the very residence of The Lord among His people – has
been destroyed not once but twice. To
top it off, the Ark of the Covenant, which is said to contain the stone tablets,
is still missing. Yet The Lord spoke
through the prophet Jeremiah to the exiles; “I will put My Law in their minds
and write it on their hearts” (31:33).
Now you may ask why any of this matters. It may only be splitting hairs. The first Temple was built during Solomon’s
reign, The Lord seemed to approve; and with the Ark of the Covenant safely in
place, all was set according to Divine plan.
However, might it also be suggested that the Temple
itself eventually became the object of Israel’s devotion rather than The One
who was said to reside within that physical structure? And that the Ark of the Covenant, which contained
the Holy Word, was soon forgotten except as a unique possession of Israel? Not
the Word contained within the Ark but
the “container” itself? The eventual
downfall and exile of what became a divided kingdom would suggest so because
The Lord had withdrawn Himself and His favor from a kingdom which had turned
its back on Him.
King David wanted so badly to hasten the building of
the Temple (his grateful heart seemed to be in the right place), but his mind
and good will got ahead of the Divine Promise that The Lord would build David a
house and that his line would “continue forever” (Psalm 89:36). Come to think of it, Abraham and Sarah had
been assured they would bear a son, but Sarah’s impatience (perhaps because of
her advanced age?) drove her to offer her much younger (and presumably more
fertile) servant Hagar to Abraham to hurry up the Promise – which turned soon
to a curse.
Like most of us, David was unable to think beyond
himself and his direct descendants. It
likely never occurred to him that several generations later, a Child who would
be called “Jesus” – one of his “descendants” - would become the established
kingdom (the Living Word) which would herald a new age in the fulfillment of
the Enduring and Everlasting Promise of the Eternal Kingdom from “the house of
David”.
The Temple, even destroyed, still stands today.
St. Paul wrote to the Church in Corinth (1 Cor 3:16); “Do
you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?”
To clarify for we who speak “Southern”, Paul’s words
are best understood as “Do y’all not know that y’all
are God’s temple?” All of us together,
many members, many parts with many different gifts but One Body make up the whole
and Holy Body of the Living Word! The
quite literal and spiritual Holy Presence in the world today through the Holy
Church attests to the reality that our God cannot – and will not – be
contained; not in a box, not in a physical structure regardless of how grand
and ornate the structure may be, and certainly not within only a single person
(lest we get a little too full of ourselves)!
But together - The Living Temple of the Living God
doing amazing things.
The apostles returned to Jesus (Mark 6:30-34) “and told Him all they had done and taught”. They were surely excited to discover
for themselves that working together and faithfully in the Holy Name, they were
enabled to “cast out many demons, and anoint with oil many who were sick and cure
them” (Mark 6:13).
They had to be more than a little excited about their
success, but it may also be said they were more than a little amazed at what
can happen when they act faithfully and do according to our Shepherd’s
instructions. Not quite “perplexed” as
Herod was, but surely the apostles went forth with more than a little
apprehension (as you or I would) but, by faith, acted according to all Jesus
had instructed them! And remarkable
things happened!
If the Temple of The Lord is restricted only to a box
or a building, this would suggest The Lord never really needed to come to us but
that we must go to Him – and only to a single, particular, physical place. The more I think about it, the more I understand
our Father’s prohibition against idols; physical, lifeless structures that
become the objects of our worship and devotion, that limit our thinking, that restrict
our capacity to act beyond ourselves and our own desires, and that hinder our
ability to step out in faith.
The Temple of the Living God is wherever His Word is
heard, joyfully embraced, and acted upon.
We may not always see the outcome of our efforts – and I think that is
why it is so easy for us to lose heart and give up, believing we’re having no
positive impact in spite of our best efforts – but we can always be sure that
when we act faithfully and step out of our comfort zones in faith and in the
Holy Name, going and doing as Jesus instructed us, we will be amazed at what
the Living Temple of the Living God can actually do!
King David, for his posterity and his own personal
satisfaction, perhaps needed to get the ball rolling before his days would come
to an end, but this may also be what Sarah had in mind when she gave her
servant girl to Abraham, when the immutable
Word coming directly from the mouth of the Most High was modified to
accommodate and justify a cultural practice and fulfill a personal desire.
Human efforts to realize and hasten the Divine Promise
will always fall short in our own lifetimes and will never measure up to our
human expectations; but acting faithfully and living as though we really
believe we together are the Temple of
the Living God will produce fruit long after our days have come to an end. And we are reminded, as it is written in
Jewish wisdom, “We are not required to
complete the work, but we are also not free to stop doing the work”. For the Promise is not ours to keep, but
it is ours to live and to continue for as long as we draw a breath. For we are the living Temple of the Living
God.
To the Glory of The Holy Name. Amen.
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