Sermon 2006-07-23

It hasn't always looked like it does today.
And actually, to some degree,
walls CAN talk.
The original sanctuary
was only as big as the back part.
You can tell by looking at the window frames.
In the back, they're detailed and ornate.
When you come and look at the frames up here,
you can tell that they had less money to work with
because they are very plain.
Jimmy Collins remembers
when the back section of the church
also served as the Sunday School rooms.
There was an X-shaped partition
which they would put in place to make four classrooms,
and then move back out to get ready for worship.
Wouldn't you love to do THAT every Sunday!
Stained-glass windows were given in memory of loved ones.
Loretha Riales hand-crafted those banners with love.
And we cannot hear that bell ring
without thinking of Billy Collins.

The more time we spend in a certain space,
the more memories get associated with it.
Many of us have been baptized and confirmed and married right here,
and some of us have seen our children and even grandchildren do so.
We have buried our loved ones
and gathered time after time at this table.
The paint and carpet
and even the layout have changed over the years,
but our attachment to this space has only grown deeper.
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There haven't always been churches.
And there haven't always been synagogues either.
When the Hebrews were first taking shape as a nation,
they were frequently on the move
for one reason or another.
So when they moved,
they took the holy of holies with them.
It was called the Ark of the Covenant.
It may not have been much bigger than a wardrobe moving box,
laid on its side,
carried on a cot-like kind of carrier.
Its main function was to carry the holy scriptures.
But more than that,
it stood for the presence of God.
No matter where the traveling Hebrews found themselves,
God was always with them
in the form of the Ark of the Covenant.
Taking it with them as they traveled
was a good way to keep it safe.
But they also believed that as long as it was in their possession,
that GOD would be in their possession.
And when King David came into power,
this was still the case.

David was quite a guy,
the Bible tells us.
He like his ancestor Joseph was the youngest and the favorite
and it seemed like everything in life always went his way.
He gets hand-picked by God
and goes on to slay Goliath,
marry beautiful women,
grow even more handsome,
prevail in war,
and even defeat King Saul,
who had seen himself as a mentor to David
and was actually his father-in-law for a bit.
David could do no wrong,
and he would be the first one to tell you so!

When we meet up with David today,
he had arrived!
He had put down all his enemies.
The kingdom was his.
He had no more mountains to climb
and so he basically decided it was time to put down roots -
not only for himself,
but for God as well.
He decided that his next project
would be to build a permanent home for God.
But was he building it for God's sake, or his own?
Was David's idea of a temple more about David,
or more about God?
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The temptation to build a fixed place for God is understandable.
Ever since the Garden of Eden,
we have been interested in a God that we can control.
We want to know how God works,
to know that God is with us
and not with those we don't like.
We want God to act in ways that make sense to us.
We want God to be exactly where we want God to be.
Well, we all have things we want.
David was trying to accomplish this to some degree
when he decided to build the temple.
Of course it was a move to honor God.
But it was also a move to establish his own self as the king.

But God was wise to David's plan.
And par for the course,
God would have none of it.
God said through the prophet Nathan
that the builders and the buildees were getting confused.

There were a couple of things going on here.
One was the uncontainability of God.
The God of Abraham and Sarah
could not be kept inside any one structure,
no matter how large its size
or how grand the building materials.
That was the case even when they were carrying the Ark around.
God was with them,
but in a much larger sense than just inside the ark.
Any grand and glorious plans that David has,
or any of us have,
are too small yet for what God intends.

And that's the other thing.
Not only is God much larger than anything which might try to contain God,
but God's VISION is larger than any vision we might have.
What David forgot in his own egotistical way
is that neither he nor we are the builders.
When God told David that God would be building DAVID a house,
he wasn't talking about a 3-2-2 with a two-car garage.
He was talking about a nation.
A people.
A heritage.
God was letting David know that,
thousands of years later,
people would be talking about the "Davidic dynasty"
God's vision is always bigger than ours.
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When you set this story up against the letter to the Ephesians,
we get another perspective.
God doesn't have anything against churches.
I suspect God loves this place as much or more than we do.
But God is far less interested in this structure
than he is in OUR structure.
God is much more interested in making each one of us
into a sanctuary,
"pure and holy, tried and true."
Instead of putting up walls,
God is far more interested in tearing them down.

I guess you know
that both of this morning's scripture readings
are not unrelated to the current situation in the Middle East.
There is more than one religious group there,
and here,
that calls our God their God.
There is more than one religious group
that believes that God has built a dynasty for them.
In fact, one of the things that gets Jews and Muslims and Christians into trouble
is that they all claim that one particular spot
is their holy of holies.
But God is bigger than that one spot.
Holy places can get us into trouble.

But listen again
to both of this morning's readings
and what they say to Israel and Lebanon.
Second Samuel might say that,
instead of fighting over the Dome of the Rock,
all sides could claim that the God we share in common
is interested in building something much larger
and much more permanent
than anything we could ever build.
How does that fit with three distinct religions?
I don't know.
But what I do know
is that God can make it happen,
and God's vision is broader than any horizon we might see.
In the words of the Psalmist,
"Unless God builds the house,
those who build it labor in vain."

Then Ephesians chimes in to say
that not only is God doing the building,
but that Jesus Christ is the cornerstone of it -
the first thing put onto the foundation,
that against which everything else is measured,
that which aligns bricks and boards
and enables them to become a sturdy building.
If we are searching for peace in these times,
the letter to the Ephesians tells us that Jesus would be it.
There are no more walls.
No longer are there insiders and outsiders.
And whether or not our beliefs enable our Jewish and Muslim friends
to be in community with us,
believing that Christ our peace has taken down all the barriers
enables and requires us to be in community with them.
Even if we go by different names,
we are all God's children,
under one roof.

For those of us who go by the name of Christian,
I'm not about to try and solve the conflict in the Middle East this morning.
It's way more complicated than we have time for.
I do hope that I'll see you tonight at the Methodist church
for specific prayer for peace in the Middle East.
And I hope you'll be here Monday evening
to learn more about how we got to this point
and what we as people of faith might be able to do about it.
I just think that it would be helpful for us to remember this day
that we only think we have been maintaining a house for God
for a hundred and thirty five years.
In truth, God has been building a house for us.
God has bigger plans for each one of us
than we could ever dream up for ourselves.
And guess what?
As much as we love our little white frame gingerbread sanctuary,
God has bigger plans for this church,
this congregation,
than we could ever dream for ourselves.
God is in the house, there is no doubt.
And if God is up to building us a house,
that means that we don't get to pick the size,
or the color of the carpet -
or the neighbors in the neighborhood.
We get to live in it.
And when God gets ready to remodel us as individuals
or when God gets ready to remodel this congregation,
well, that's what God will do.

Friends, I can feel it -
God is up to something around here,
in your life and mine,
and in this congregation.
I don't know what it is,
and I suspect that none of us do.
But it's going to be wonderful,
more wonderful than anything we can come close to imagining right now.
Let's be about serving as God has called us to serve:
not for our own glory,
or to put down our enemies and secure our own kingdoms,
but in a way that will honor God.
If we can do that,
we can be sure
that you and I and all of us
are being built together into a dwelling for God
that's larger than the Ark,
bigger than Solomon's Temple,
and as much as we love it,
even grander than 818 N. Main.

Amen.