2 Samuel 7:1 - 18
After the king was settled in his palace and the LORD had given him rest from all his enemies around him, he said to Nathan the prophet, “Here I am, living in a house of cedar, while the ark of God remains in a tent.”
Nathan replied to the king, “Whatever you have in mind, go ahead and do it, for the LORD is with you.”
But that night the word of the LORD came to Nathan, saying:
“Go and tell my servant David, ‘This is what the LORD says: Are you the one to build me a house to dwell in? I have not dwelt in a house from the day I brought the Israelites up out of Egypt to this day. I have been moving from place to place with a tent as my dwelling. Wherever I have moved with all the Israelites, did I ever say to any of their rulers whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, “Why have you not built me a house of cedar?”’
“Now then, tell my servant David, ‘This is what the LORD Almighty says: I took you from the pasture, from tending the flock, and appointed you ruler over my people Israel. I have been with you wherever you have gone, and I have cut off all your enemies from before you. Now I will make your name great, like the names of the greatest men on earth. And I will provide a place for my people Israel and will plant them so that they can have a home of their own and no longer be disturbed. Wicked people will not oppress them anymore, as they did at the beginning and have done ever since the time I appointed leaders over my people Israel. I will also give you rest from all your enemies.
“‘The LORD declares to you that the LORD himself will establish a house for you: When your days are over and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with a rod wielded by human beings, with floggings inflicted by human hands. But my love will never be taken away from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.’”
Nathan reported to David all the words of this entire revelation.
Then King David went in and sat before the LORD.
I'm convinced that most of us totally don't get grace. We have virtually no point of reference for it in our world, in our relationships or in our social structures. We are much more skilled in merit, that is, in earning or losing, achieving or failing. Grace is so completely radical that we cannot imagine work or school settings that are not predicated on achieving and earning. We cannot imagine governmental systems built on generosity and grace rather than what people "deserve." Even within the Church, where the language of grace is frequently overheard, there is little real understanding of a life without conditions, merit and comparison.
Because we don't get grace, we spend a great deal of energy trying to be a certain kind of person and do certain kinds of things. Our hope is heaven, or to avoid hell, or to please God, or to get some kind of divine favor as reward for our faithfulness. . . . the list is endless. We each have our own motivation for being connected to God or for living a certain kind of life.
There are two sets of texts for Christmas Eve in the Church. The texts for late Christmas Eve, called vigils, include Isaiah 62:1 - 5 and Matthew 1:18 - 25. They are not surprising texts for Christmas Eve.
The morning texts for the day, however, are more surprising. They stretch us a bit and force us to stay open. They keep us from locking in on the easy formulations and trite expressions that come out of dealing with the same nativity story for 20 centuries. The morning readings are in 2 Samuel 7 (above) and Luke 1:67 - 79.
Work with me in 2 Samuel 7 for a moment. King David had come to a pause in his reign. He was a man given to God with a heart tightly bound to God. That didn't mean he was morally perfect or that he didn't make some really stupid and self-interested decisions. None of his imperfections disqualified him, though, from loving God, being committed to God, and knowing God's deep love and blessing for him. [For that reason alone, I'm so very glad his flawed life and story are in the Scriptures!]
For whatever reason, David decided he wanted to do something grand for God. As the king it was within his power to do something weighty and meaningful that would impact his kingdom. He thought that God had lived long enough in a portable worship space (the tabernacle). God deserved a permanent residence, David thought, so he determined to build a permanenttemple to God, a house that would be God's dwelling place.
David consulted his spiritual advisor, Nathan, about the plan. Nathan gave him the go-ahead, but then had a vision in which God corrected Nathan's initial intuition. God gave Nathan a message to take back to David that basically said, "I don't want you to build a house for me. Instead, I'm going to build a house in you and with you!"
It's a radical concept . . . God saying to the most powerful man in the nation, "I don't want you to do this thing for me. I do, however, want you to be so open, willing and receptive that I can do something in you!"
Of course, one level of meaning is that the house God wanted to build in David and through David was a succession of kings and leaders in the nation who would be descended from David. This passage is the assigned text for Christmas Eve because Jesus is descended from this very Davidic line (as Matthew 1:1 - 17 makes clear).
For this meaning to come from the text, David had to be open to changing his plans. David had to say, "Yes," to this alteration of his program of leadership.
Which brings me to the deeper meaning in the text, the meaning which really is most significant. For God to build this "house" through David, first of all David had to allow God to build a different kind of "house" inside David. David had to open his life to God in such a way that would allow God to re-form David's inner landscape, shaping David in such a way that this "outer house" could come to be.
This inner work always precedes the outer work. David's lineage doesn't mean a thing if David doesn't first open his heart and his mind and his hands to the deeper inner shaping that God wants to mold within him.
The same is true with us. The inner work precedes the outer. Life, full and abundant life moves from inside to outside.
I mentioned that this text is important because the "house" God builds through David ends up extending to Jesus. I think it is important for another reason. God is always trying to be born in us. God is continually coming to us. As God came into the stable, into the manger, into the world, so God is coming constantly within us and around us. In a sense, the birthing of Jesus within our hearts is the foundation of the "house" God is building inside us.
This birthing is offered to us without condition. We did nothing to deserve it. We cannot manage it in order to make it happen. That God would give Jesus to the world, that God would build this "house" within us, is entirely an act of generosity and grace.
Seven centuries ago Meister Eckart said, "What good is it if Jesus was born in a manger in Bethlehem, but he is not born in my heart?"
Psalm 132 is a poetic imagining of the David story from 2 Samuel 7. When I tried to put this psalm in my own words, I thought about David wanting to build a house for God and the surprise of hearing that God wanted to build a house in him! I called it The Great Reversal. It is both a graced reversal and a great reversal. Here are the lines I came up with in that psalm.
I remember, God, Your servant David,
and the vow he made in the midst of grief and shattering loss,
A pledge that he would build a home for You in the Holy City.
He loved You so deeply, was so thoroughly committed to You,
that even when his own life was falling apart . . .
rebellious children, death threats, kingdom crumbling . . .
he wanted to build a house of worship for You,
a place where his people could offer their devotion to You.
It was the least he could do – so he thought –
replacing what had become a portable shrine with a permanent residence for God,
a place for Your rest and worship, a true Home.
But that’s not how it turned out.
For all of David’s good intentions, for all his desire to sacrifice for You,
that was not what You desired.
And my life . . . like David I ask:
“What can I do for You?”
“What sacrifices do You want me to make?”
“How can I build a structure or a program or a ministry or a relationship that will glorify God?”
“Are there ascetic penances that should represent my surrender to You?”
“How much money shall I give?”
“How much time shall I spend?”
“How much energy shall I invest?”
For all my grand intentions, this is not ultimately what You have desired.
Then comes this Great Reversal:
I’ve lumbered through life with this illusion
that the center of life is about what I do for You,
that I need to find great and small things to do for You;
When all along, You’ve wanted to do something in me!
You’ve desired to build a life of meaning in me,
a life animated by Your Spirit and lived from the soul, inside-out!
David had it backwards; he didn’t need to build a house for You.
You wanted to build a house inside him!
Others through the years misunderstood as David did . . .
Peter at Mount Transfiguration,
St. Francis at San Damiano,
and Jerry in the contemporary world.
You are renovating my interior, remaking me from the inside-out.
My concern for doing – even good and holy things – in the outside world,
Distracts me from the first work You have initiated within me, in my soul’s interior.
This is my own Great Reversal:
The shift in consciousness to which I open myself daily,
as You build a life of meaning within me;
A house where You dwell, that becomes a home of peace for the world.
To this reversal, I open myself.
(Fingerprints on Every Moment, Day Fifteen, Psalm 132)
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