Sermon # 2

Because it is sometimes nonsensical to start with # 1.

Well, these are definitely not the days to talk about houses…. Real estate, the bottom line, assets—these aren’t popular topics either…. but definitely not houses…. In fact, its associated word, that word economy has come to feel all the more and more ominous —like a one-word formula to define all the problems going on the world.—And you don’t need me to tell you this—We even hear it in conversation:: How is your cousin doing?! Well, you know, the economy. How are you feeling!? Well, you know, the economy. What do you think about the future?! Well … the economy.
According to the biblical account surrounding the life of King David, we have good right to imagine that the life of the people of Israel was likewise unstable and fraught with complications. As Biblical scholars are quick to note, these people of Israel were a small band often in competition with the peoples surrounding them… competing for land and resources. Perhaps we get a sense of this instability when we consider the emotion and pathos that must have birthed the Exodus narrative and imagine that tremendous, frightening escape out of the land of Egypt—and how, regardless of how one interprets it, the manna must have glittered like specks of gold across the horizon… As we move further through the pages of the Old Testament, we hear the resounding words of the prophets, who spoke with boldness & clarity, demanding an end to the unjust exporting practices of the rich few in their midst—likewise showcasing the instability of the world… And perhaps we discern the instability of life for these biblical witnesses even in the little bit of text that precedes this one in 2 Samuel: In the narrative that denotes the capriciousness of a God who would decide to bless King Saul and then drop him with the wink of an eye. Nonetheless, I know for myself that it doesn’t just take Economy talk to bring up the issue of instability—although that one usually does it. But too, I am moving into the last years of my degree program, and many days I literally feel like my future could take almost any form or bring me to any place. Instability--- yes, sometimes we feel like we are riding a rollercoaster…. Setting sail along the pendulum swing and we’re not sure where is up or down… Yet to imagine that God is likewise an inhabitant of this pendulum swing, of a seemingly topsy-turvy, out of control—kind of roller-coaster ride, may be --- as we’ll see as well in the case of King David--- unwise.
..Nonetheless, in today’s passage, it appears that things aren’t that bad or unstable for King David. In fact, we find striking language of settledness & seeming relaxation…. The Philistine attack is repulsed, the Ark is in Jerusalem, and King David is described as “settled in his house” and given “rest from all of his enemies.” You all know those long days when you wake up with the alarm clock, jerk out of bed, and then continue to surmount item after item, activity after activity, on your to-do list. But then you come home, your husband or wife or friend is no longer angry about your behavior a few days ago, the insurance company sends you a letter, realizing that they mistakingly over-charged you and so you have an extra cheque in your pocket; you begin to draw yourself a gentle warm bath, and then walk into your bedroom and someone has made up the bed for you---even put a chocolate on your pillow and arranged that comforter you like the most. Perhaps this description is stacked high, but my point, I think, is made: King David is comfortable and, no longer roaming the wilderness, fighting off aggressors, he is now living in a house of cedar--- those beautiful cedars of Lebanon. And so, as things are pretty good for him and … out of seemingly good intention, he imagines: Well, this is great for me—I bet that God would like this too… I know—I should build God a house!
There is something of mythic & theological significance in this move—This deciding to put the Ark of God in a house…
According to the OT, the two tablets of stone constituting the "testimony" or evidence of God's covenant with the people (i.e. The Ten Commandments) were kept within the Ark itself. A golden jar containing some of the manna from the Israelites' trek in the wilderness and the rod of Aaron were added to the contents of the Ark (According to Ex. 16:32-34; Heb. 9:4)…. . A Rabbinic tradition states that Moses also put the broken fragments of the first tablets of the Law into the Ark. And some scholars have argued that the plans to the Tabernacle were contained in the Ark.
But no matter the distinctions coming to us from tradition, the Ark was a symbol of sacredness and sanctity--- meant to depict the actual dwelling place of God. And hence, when King David suggests that the Ark be put in a house, the nuance of meaning we glean is this: That the Spirit of God can belong to one particular place and be kept there. But, as our 2 Samuel passage reveals, God, in true punster-form, offers King David, through the mouthpiece of Nathan, a different option: “No… I do not belong in a box! God says: “You will not make me a house…” But I will make you a house—the word in Hebrew is bayit--- and it can also refer to the term household or dynasty. In my musings for today, I will also use the term realm. But this point is huge: Our God cannot be categorized or limited to our own human needs and perceptions.” As I said before, it is not wise to put God in a box…..
In another book that deals with houses… the one we’ve been reading for our upcoming Tuesday night book club, The Shack… this same point is brought to bear: Mackenzie who goes by Mack, a middle-aged father who has known great tragedy, has an experience with the Holy Trinity—the book is a story of redemption and we read of his conversations with Jesus, God, and Sarayu—a special name the author crafts for the Holy Spirit. Listen into this conversation between God, who is called Papa in the book, and Mackenzie:
Page: 98
But what does this mean for us today?! To that question, let’s turn to today’s Gospel reading—a few short verses but with a lot of weight to consider. We hear these words: “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I tell you? I will show you what someone is like who comes to me, hears my words, and acts on them. That one is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on rock; when a flood arose, the river burst against that house but could not shake it , because it had been well built. But the one who hears and does not act is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the river burst against it, immediately it fell, and great was the ruin of that house.”
• I first met this story on some cartoon television film when I was quite young, and from my perspective at the time, the message was this: “ Do the right thing, be a good Christian, or your life will fall apart like the dilapidated house at the bottom of the shore. There is some truth to this statement. There come times in our lives when we have to make a stand and when personal responsibility and response is crucial. And yet, as too many of us know (and as Leslie pointed out last week), bad things happen and we cannot necessarily equate them to our actions. Sometimes the economy falls apart, a Hurricane comes and rips apart your house, and you had nothing to do about it.
• But I also believe that today’s passage offers something else for us to chew on.
The first thing that this passage does is echo that cute title of “Lord, Lord” that we see other places in the Bible—the first place that strikes me is that famous line…”Not all those who say the word, Lord, Lord”--- The title suggests: “Be real. Wipe away your niceties… your encounters that lack real encounter, real communication…. And get serious. This faith stuff.., this religious stuff is important. It’s meaningful. It’s the kind of thing to base your life on!
Second, the passage endorses a triple way of approaching God: “The act of coming to God, hearing God’s words, and acting on them.” So often, we in communities of faith find ourselves arguing over the way to do things—making faith come down to either: A) cognitive belief—“the act of coming to God”— B) l istening to God & prayer—or how spiritual you are – which could be described as hearing God’s words,--- and C) service & social justice--- “acting on God’s words.” In today’s Gospel passage, we see that all three of these faithful responses are significant and important. The wise person is one who does all three…
Finally, third, today’s Gospel passage beckons us to consider our own foundation… to ask– What is our foundation?!
And that wise one we want to emulate in Luke, who comes to God, hears God’s words, and acts of them (NOTE THAT TRIPLE FAITH ACTION) is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on rock.
What is this rock that the Gospel passage refers to?! To me, it is quite simple—so simple that it’s in some ways too complicated to express… The Sunday School answer works— Jesus, or the one who announces the coming house, the realm of God. And too—let us consider the term Foundation; it is an evocative word. It connotes structure and stability and yet too--- in some of its other lingual uses—foundation as an organization that exists to create change as an example, to help those in need, the term suggests something that is capable of empowering transformation, non-rigidity--- SPACE FOR GRACE. This is significant.
If we only think of this story of the wise man building his house on the rock as a drama of moral rules we must follow, we risk making the same mistake that David did: Thinking that we could build God a house—while instead it is the other way around. The triune God announces a house, a realm, that we can both experience and help to announce—the kingdom of God—where we live as brothers and sisters, where reconciliation is the rhetoric of reality, and where the story of God’s great grace is given space to speak.
In one of his famous reflections on the spiritual life, priest and theologian Henri Nouwen (Note: L’Arche )wrote about the important step of moving from the house of fear to the house of love…. It is hard to just say move from the house of fear to the house of love…. Something about it to our contemporary ears usually sounds so soothing —and so you don’t have to convince anyone to think about it more deeply--- to others it can sound so sweet and syrupy, that people feel like: “Oh gee… More naivety for us.” Some fear is helpful—practical…. But moving from the house of fear to the house of love is the work of a lifetime. Ronald Rolheiser, President of the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, expands on the concept for us:

Henri Nouwen, in his writings, frequently asked this question: "How can we live inside a world marked by fear, hatred, and violence and not be destroyed by it?"
At a certain point in life that becomes the real task of spirituality: How do we stop ourselves from being sucked into the house of fear so as to live in the house of love? What's meant by this?
We live in a world of division, hatred, and violence. One only has to watch the news to see this. Daily we see fear and hatred translated into violence and death all over the world. What's true at this level is true too, in a less pronounced way, in our ordinary lives. Inside our families, churches, and communities we see the problems of the world played out on the small-screen of our daily lives. Bitterness, suspicion, the sense of injustice, anger, jealousy, hatred, division, and subtle forms of violence eventually penetrate even our most intimate relationships. We often don't recognize these for what they are and consider them simply part of the normal give and take of everyday life….
What this does is keep us, almost always, inside the house of fear. Because we live inside of families, churches, and communities where there is suspicion, gossip, cynicism, jealousy, and bitterness, it's natural that our first instinct so often is to protect ourselves, to be suspicious, to be hard… We live, as Nouwen puts it, inside the house of fear rather than inside the house of love.
How do we save ourselves from getting lost there? How do we remain tender when so much around us is hard? How do we remain free of fear when we there is so much anger around? . . .
There are no easy answers. Moreover this is not, as Nouwen himself points out, something that we can ever accomplish once and for all. (Although this actually gives me some hope) The world is not divided up between those who have conquered fear and those who haven't. Rather our own days and hours are divided up between those times when we live more in fear and those times when we live more in love. There are times when our fears take over and we act out of them, just as there ****** are other times when grace opens us beyond fear and we can act in graciousness and love.”

How do I think we can live within the house of Love?!—the realm of God. I obviously do not have the whole answer, but three last convictions have struck me:
1) First, it’s all about Grace. God is building the house. We need to respond, but it’s all wrapped up in the story of grace.
2) First is to remember a thing about rocks. When they are under pressure, they become diamonds!
3) In the Shack: story……