Movement or Monument?

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ROSLIN-THOMASBURG PASTORAL CHARGE
July 19 2015: Eighth Sunday after Pentecost
2 Samuel 7:1-14a; Psalm 89:20-37; Ephesians 2:11-22; Mark 6:30-34, 53-56

Prayer: God who goes before us and all those willing to follow, help us hear your whispers and to learn, to ask questions and to evaluate ourselves in light of your vision for us in the present and in the future.  Amen

2 Samuel 7:1–14 tells the story of David’s desire to build a structure worthy of being the permanent resting place for the Ark of the Covenant, the symbol of God’s presence with the nation of Israel.

David had solidified the nation and his armies had defeated all its many foes.  Peace had become a reality and now a king’s palace had been built.  This seemed to have sparked Davis conscience.  Why should he live in such posh surroundings while there was nothing to house the throne of God?  So he called Nathan the prophet, one of his royal advisers and offered the thought to him.  Nathan tells David that if he has a good idea, he should go with it since it is obvious that God is behind David.  But that night, God has a conversation with Nathan that he is to relay to David.  This conversation boils down to three main points: 1) God has never complained about living in a tent and has never asked for anything different; 2) in refusing David’s gift, God will give David one – a house or dynasty that will live on and on and on and 3) God will chose one of David’s heirs to build a temple for God’s presence.

Later on we discover that one of the reasons God denied David’s offer is that David was a man of war – loosely that David was a destroyer not a builder.

I have said on several occasions that much of what we read in the Hebrew Scriptures are physical representations of things that are far more lofty.  It is true that David’s son Solomon, after David’s death, built the first temple in Jerusalem but is that what this passage is ultimately referring to?  I think not.  Why?  Well, because verses twelve through fourteen “a” read this way, “12 For when you die and are buried with your ancestors, I will raise up one of your descendants, your own offspring, and I will make his kingdom strong. 13 He is the one who will build a house—a temple—for my name. And I will secure his royal throne forever. 14 I will be his father, and he will be my son.” (Emphasis mine. NLT)

These same thoughts are expressed in many ways in various passages throughout the Hebrew Bible all referring to the Messiah.

It seems to me that this passage conveys several thoughts.

It was never God’s preference that there should be a temple, a monument to God’s presence.  Perhaps the temple came about in the same way as Israel’s first king – because it was the common practice of all the surrounding nations and the Israelites felt deprived because of this lack.  If all the other nations had a king, shouldn’t they?  If all the other nations honoured their gods with large elaborate buildings shouldn’t they?

Perhaps the story of the Children of Israel wandering in the desert is more than a story.  Perhaps being led in their journey by the Pillar of Smoke and the Pillar of fire and by the Ark of the Covenant born by God’s people is more than just a story.  Perhaps these stories present for us a model by which we should live, encountering life as we are led by God.

Perhaps God preferred to not have a temple, a monument to God’s presence because God didn’t want to set a bad example by suggesting it is time to rest rather than to continue the journey.  God chose to create the Children of Israel, not so they could build God a temple, a monument to God’s presence but to be a temple, a movement designed and enlivened by God to represent God to the world.

Is this not what the reading from Ephesians says of the church?  Eph. 2: 19b – 21 reads, “…You are citizens along with all of God’s holy people. You are members of God’s family. 20 Together, we are his house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself. 21 We are carefully joined together in him, becoming a holy temple for the Lord.” (Emphasis mine NLT)

So, what does any of this have to do with our circumstances as a church or as Church in the 21st century?

Let me start by saying that as usual, I spent some time scouring the internet looking for jokes about church buildings.  I couldn’t find any.  I guess there is nothing funny about church buildings but there reams of jokes about those who attend church.

Let me also state that I know there are great potential benefits of having a congregational home.  Buildings offer meeting places for congregational worship, for various programs, for initiatives reaching out to the community and for providing community space.  However, there are disadvantages as well.  Whether we are speaking of our own setting, our denominational setting or referring to most church buildings in North America, the reality is that for the most part our church building sit empty except for Sunday mornings and perhaps one or two mid-week, sparsely attended meetings.  For the most part our buildings are made up of single use rooms built in a time when the proportion of younger people to elderly was significant enough that little thought was given to accessibility.  For the most part whether because of monies currently being spent or failed to be budgeted for ongoing maintenance, our buildings represent a financial liability beyond our ability to meet.  For the most part our buildings are monuments to the past that have such a strong hold on us that we find it impossible to face the here and now let alone consider the future realisitcally.  For the most part, even though most congregational members are engaged in vital, ongoing ministries, there is a reluctance to view those activities as ministries because they see “ministry” as something that somehow has its roots in the building rather than in the God who works through us as individuals and as groups because, we are God’s temple and as such God’s movement on earth to demonstrate the reality of God.

On occasion, I have said some seemingly ridiculous things.  One such thought I have expressed is that in my opinion, the best thing that could ever happen to the United Church of Canada is that every one of our church buildings be hit simultaneously with massive lightning strikes, given a five minute warning to ensure no loss of life.

Because of technology, there has never been a more opportune moment to see church buildings as unnecessary.  With some planning and training, there is nothing we are currently doing as church or should be doing as church that cannot be accomplished using other avenues.  There has never been a better time to let go of our monuments and direct our focus and energies toward the movement that Scripture, whether Hebrew of Christian (Old or New Testaments) advocate of which we should be part.

In researching this passage, I read the summary of a three point sermon by a J. Lawrence McCleskey entitled Steps to Greatness[1].  His main premise is that when God rejected David’s offer to build God a temple, God was calling David to a higher purpose.  His three points bear repeating.  They are, “Accept the Call to a Greater Vision”, “Accept the Call to a Greater Mission” and “Accept the Call to a Greater Blessing.”

David’s offer stemmed from good intentions as did the construction of our church buildings.  However, sometimes good intentions yield less than good results.  Do you think that God was incapable of preventing the Temple’s destruction?  Perhaps, God had better things in mind.

Have we let our church buildings become monuments to the past and in so doing making us a monument as well or are we sufficiently free from their hold and sufficiently trusting of God so that we are the movement God intends us to be?

[1] McClersky, Jay Larwrence.  Steps to Greatness: 2 Samuel 7:1-14a in Sermon Options: July 19, 2015.  June 15th, 2015.  MinistryMatters.com.

Four Promises that Can Change Lives: 4 – Love

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December 23, 2014

December 21, 2014: Advent 4: Love

2 Sam. 7:1-11, 16; Lu. 1:47-55; alt. Ps. 89:1–4, 19–26, Rom. 16:25-27; Lu. 1:26-38

But now as the prophets foretold and as the eternal God has commanded, this message is made known to all Gentiles everywhere, so that they too might believe and obey him..  Romans 16:26 NLT.)

Four Promises that Can Change Lives: 4 – Love

 

We have been considering Four Promises that Can Change Lives, I say “Can” because in order for God to work these miracles in our lives, we must cooperate with God.  God does not force God’s grace upon us.

The first promise was hope and we were reminded that we have reason to be hopeful because God has given us others to walk the journey with, the gifts and talents necessary to live as Christ wants us and a partnership with Christ, a reminder of Christ’s presence in our midst.

The second promise was that of peace.  We talked about how we can find ourselves at odds with others for no apparent reason only to discover irritates us about them is actually the something or ourselves we see in them, how quite often a lack of peace with others is actually a lack of peace within ourselves and how it is difficult to have peace within ourselves if we do not have peace with God.  We also talked about how coming to peace begins with an honest conversation that eventually takes us down the path of justice.

Last Sunday we talked about Grumpy the Cat and how we don’t have to be grumpy.  In fact, we looked at how we can find or retain a sense of joy no matter our situation – be in a constant state of prayer, be thankful no matter the circumstance – perhaps not for those circumstance but for how God had provided in the past.

Today, we will consider Love and how God’s love is not only something that is generally true – i.e. God loves people – but also specifically true – i.e. God loves you and I as individuals.

Joke:

A rich man went to his minister and said, “I want you and your wife to take a three-month trip to the Holy Land at my expense.  When you come back, I’ll have a surprise for you”.  The minister accepted the offer, and he and his wife went off to the Middle East.

Three months later they returned home and were met by the wealthy parishioner, who told them that while they were gone, he had had a new church built. “It’s the finest building money can buy, pastor,” said the man. “No expense was spared.” And he was right. It was a magnificent edifice both outside and in.

But there was one striking difference.  There was only one pew, and it was at the very back. “A church with only one pew?” asked the minister.

“You just wait until Sunday,” the rich man said.

When the time came for the Sunday service, the early arrivals entered the church, filed onto the one pew and sat down.  When the pew was full, a switch clicked silently, a circuit closed, the gears meshed, a belt moved and, automatically, the rear pew began to move forward.  When it reached the front of the church, it came to a stop.  At the same time, another empty pew came up from below at the back and more people sat down.  And so it continued, pews filling and moving forwards until finally the church was full, from front to back.

“Wonderful!” said the minister, “Marvelous!”

The service began, and the minister started to preach his sermon.  He launched into his text and, when 12 o’clock came, he was still going strong, with no end in sight.  Suddenly a bell rang, and a trap door in the floor behind the pulpit dropped open.

“Wonderful!” said the congregation, “Marvelous!”

 

Prayer:  In the words accredited to Mary, let us see your truth.

Have you ever had experience that just seemed to be too good to be true and when it was over, perhaps the next day, it caused you to wonder if it actually did happen?

Consider Mary.

She has this totally unexplainable experience where she is told that she would become the mother of the long awaited Messiah.  How to you think she felt the next day?  Do you think that perhaps she may have wondered if it was nothing more than a dream?  She has good reason to doubt.  Everybody knew that the Messiah would be born to upper class people, probably living in or near Jerusalem.  Parents even went so far as to have a servant be present with their daughters at all times to ensure that any child born to them would be legitimate.  But if there was the slightest chance, don’t you think she would do what she could to discover if that experience was fact or fantasy?  Well, there was one thing.

The angel in her dream or vision or whatever it was told her that her cousin Elizabeth was six months pregnant.  Remember that it was impossible for that to be true.  So, if Mary went to see for herself, then she would know for sure.  If in fact, Elizabeth really was pregnant then she would be too.

Mary gets permission to go to visit Elizabeth and as soon as Mary’s eye’s behold Elizabeth, because Elizabeth is pregnant enough to be showing, Mary knows instantly that what she experienced was not just a young girl’s dream.  It was something that really happened.

So overwhelmed is she that she bursts out in a song, perhaps with or perhaps without a tune but a song none the less.

She praises God she is not crazy.

She praises God that God would see her, a nobody, and choose her to be the mother of the Messiah.

She praises God that God has, or at least will soon make good on the promise given so long ago.

She praises God that all those promises connected to the reign of the Messiah would soon come to pass.

She praises God that God has been faithful to Israel even though Israel had turned their back on God so many times.

She praises God that despite what she has experienced, living in a land occupied by a foreign power, God is still at work within her people and will soon things aright.

She praises God because God loved God’s people so much that God was about to change everything.

When the angel appeared to Mary to tell her that she would bear a child, Mary was quick to respond with a yes to God.  Why, well perhaps, on the surface, it was because of the fact that becoming the mother of the Messiah was the ultimate dream of every Jewish girl.  But deep down inside, it was that she loved God with all her heart.

There is something about this story that we all know but perhaps have never thought about.  As the eternal is breaking into the temporal – that is as God is breaking into the realm of mere mortals, it is also true that the temporal is breaking into the eternal – that the actions of a mere human being will have eternal consequences.  When Mary said, “Yes” she made it possible for things to happen at affected not just her life and the lives around her but has and will affect countless generations in including us.  There is a very real sense that our lives and the lives of so many others were changed because of what she did.

We all know from our own experience that God’s love for us changed our lives.  But it is also true that when we say “Yes” to God, our love for God will literally changes the lives of others.  And not just in the here and now, but in the time beyond time.  Why?  For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believe is him shall have eternal life.

The love of God for us has the power to change our focus and life’s orientation from chasing what I want to living our lives as God wants, to being in right relationship with God.  But most of the time, God demonstrates that divine love as God has always done, through people.  People like Mary.  People like you and I.

Prayer: Remind us God that your love is no small thing and neither are those little things you ask us to do for others.  Amen.

Four Promises that Can Change Lives: 3 – Joy

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December 15, 2014

December 14, 2014: Advent 3: Joy

Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11; Psalm 126; 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24; John 1:6-8, 19-28

 

Always be joyful.  Never stop praying.  Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.  (Thessalonians 5:16-18 NLT)

Four Promises that Can Change Lives: 3 – Joy

Most of us know that joy and happiness are not the same thing.  Happiness usually has something to do with our circumstances but joy can often be found in spite of our circumstances.  So here is a little story to illustrate.

A Joke: A teacher was testing the children in her Sunday school class to see if they understood the concept of getting to heaven.

She asked them, “If I sold my house and my car, had a big garage sale and gave all my money to the church, would that get me into Heaven?”

“NO!” the children answered.

“If I cleaned the church every day, mowed the yard, and kept everything neat and tidy, would that get me into Heaven?”

Again, the answer was, “NO!”

Now she was smiling. Hey, they’re getting it, she thought! “Well, then, if I was kind to animals and gave candy to all the children, and loved my husband, would that get me into Heaven?” she asked.

Again, they all answered, “NO!”

She was just bursting with pride for them. “Well,” she continued, “then how can I get into Heaven?”

A five-year-old boy shouted out, “YOU GOTTA BE DEAD.”

Dying is rarely thought of as a happy occasion but going to heaven is always seen as a joyous one.

Prayer: God of all joy, help us to see how we can rise above our circumstances.  Amen.

Most of you probably know that on the internet are sites that allow people to display their videos.  One of the most used sites is YouTube.  If you were to go to YouTube, you would find that many of the most viewed videos have to do with pets and that one of the current big internet starts is Grumpy Cat.  She is all over the internet and just recently there was a movie in which she starred.

Grumpy Cat got her name from her face.  She always has a big scowl on her face and always looks like she is fed up with the world.  No matter what is in front of her, all she can see is a problem.

Sometimes people are like that too.  Always a frown, always grumpy.

Well, I don’t know about cats, but I find that people who are always grumpy are the ones that always feel trapped.  Somehow life has handed them some bad circumstances and those people feel like there is nothing they can do to change anything.  But you know, that isn’t true.  No matter what we are going through, no matter how helpless we are to change things, we can change something that makes life so much better.  That something is our attitude.

Paul was a man that was very familiar with things not going his way; he was whipped, stoned and spent a lot of time in prison.  And yet, as unpleasant as much of his life was, he learned this lesson: 16 Always be joyful. 17 Never stop praying. 18 Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.

How are we supposed to always be joyful?  Well, he tells us – never stop praying – when our relationship with God is strong we are much more content.  We talk about how God is always present but when pray, God’s presence becomes far more a reality.  Saying the words, “We are not alone” is one thing but having a sense of God’s presence is far better.

The second thing we are told, is to “Be thankful in all circumstances” – it is hard to be truly thankful when we are sick, when we are facing a major problem or when someone we love is hurting but we can be thankful for all the times in the past when were sick or facing a big problem or someone we loved was hurting and God took care of us of those we love.  And it would be crazy us to be happy because the doctor has just told us that we have pneumonia or cancer and might die soon or that we have dementia and in all likelihood will soon forget who we are and who all of those people who we love and love us are.  But we can be joyful knowing that no matter what we face, God is with us helping us and that no matter what we are facing God can use the bad things in life as well as the good things to help us understand God better.

You see, whether or not we are happy usually depends on our circumstances but having a sense of joy deep down inside is often in spite of our circumstances.

Grumpy Cat is always grumpy even when things are going well.  It seems she just can’t see the good and so to her, things are always bad enough to complain.  When we have joy, even when what’s going on tells us we can’t be happy, we can be joyful because God is with us, because God cares for us, because God always supplies what we need, because God always has a plan and purpose for us even in the midst of our suffering.

And so, we return to the words found in 1 Thessalonians, 16 Always be joyful. 17 Never stop praying. 18 Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.

Prayer:

Open our eyes, Lord.  Help us to see the opportunities you set before us to help us make our lives and the lives of others rich and full even when our health is failing or our age is increasing.  Open our eyes to your instruction that comes from your hand through the everyday circumstances of life.

Help us to remember that you want us to have lives that are full and rich regardless of how our bodies and brains may fail us.  Give us the courage to say, “Hello” to the day with a sense of expectation and to be ready to learn more about you.  Help us to be truly joyful people even when we are not happy.