Read 2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16; Luke 1:26-38 - King David is in a very generous mood. He offers to build God a marvelous temple in which to live. Maybe King David felt ashamed. While building his fantastic empire, David’s first inclination had been to erect for himself a magnificent “royal” estate built out of the finest cedar in the entire world. Meanwhile, God was expected to remain satisfied with the tents of the tabernacle. In this morning’s Old Testament Lesson from 2 Samuel, we see that as King David began to get settled in his palace, he apparently felt a little guilty over the way he has treated God. Certainly, this was no way for a king to behave.
Upon further reflection, however, I’m not so sure that David’s temple construction program was motivated by guilt. You see, King David was a politician, and we all know that politicians are seldom motivated by anything as inconvenient as a conscience. No, I don’t think it was guilt that motivated David’s as much as it was his own desire to gain more power and prestige. Don’t let David fool you. His desire to build a house for God was not a generous sign of piety and devotion, but rather stemmed from his desire to extend his own power and influence. King David was the most powerful military and political leader of the ancient world. As such, he needed a God who would correspond to his new Kingly power. The world in which David lived measured a monarch’s power by the sort of God who was his patron. It wasn’t fitting for David’s “god” to live in a tent. The tabernacles had become a source of embarrassment for the king. The great house that David proposes to build for God was merely an extension of the king’s plans for himself.
King David announced the beginning of a construction program for the building of a temple in Jerusalem. Noe please don’t think that the location has anything to do with Jerusalem being a “holy city.” Jerusalem was chosen for a purely political reason. As a capital city, ruled over by such a wise a powerful king, it ought to have a temple to express it close relationship with the greatest of all Gods.
Interestingly enough, God did not appear impressed by King David’s suggestion. The text makes it quite clear that God did have any desire to settle down and be domesticated in Israel. Through the prophet Nathan, the Lord God addresses the monarch as “my servant David,” asking him, “are you going to build me a house to live in?” God tells David that he is quite content to live in the tents and tabernacles. God reminds David, “It is I who made you.” I gave you a house. I established your throne. I gave you everything. Who in the world do you think you are, suggesting that you are going to build some sort of “house” for me?
The prophet Nathan reminds the King that if any royal households are going to be established in Jerusalem, it be done by God, not by David. The king may need a house to shore up his reign, but not God. God has been quite happy roaming around the earth “in a tent and a tabernacle.”
God realized that King David’s show of royal benevolence and piety was not what it seemed. This God will not become the tamed house pet for the King of Israel. This God is larger. This God will not be contained. This God refuses to be manipulated for personal political power. This God will not be control. This God comes and goes as he pleases. This God appears when and how he sees fit. No earthly president, premier, prime minister or potentate has power over the movements of this God.
What a wonderful prelude this story is to this morning’s gospel. Whenever we talk about important events, we usually talked about powerful people. Pick up the newspaper this morning and you will read few stories about people like us. You will read stories about what the bigwigs in Washington, London, Berlin and Moscow are doing. When you and I are in the mood to discuss important events, we begin as we have begun our scripture readings today, speaking about kings and their conversations. What is King David doing in Jerusalem this morning? What new tax is he proposing to collect this week? What is that new building program he is suggesting? This is the way we define power. This is the way we expect a king to act.
In today’s gospel, however, we are confronted with a very different way of reading the news. In this gospel reading we come face-to-face with a very different kind of royal behavior. We are not in Washington, Berlin, Moscow, or London. We are in the backwater, unsophisticated little town of Nazareth, out in Galilee, the poorest community of an already desperately poor region of the world.
For centuries, God’s people have been waiting in expectation for God’s advent into this world. The scholars have poured over the scriptures, looking for clues. Sages have been scouring the heavens looking for a sign, some signal that God is on the way.
Then at last, with a flutter of wings and a cloud of mystery, God sends his messenger Gabriel to earth with an announcement about a royal birth. To whom does the angel bring this announcement? He goes to the little Galilean town of Nazareth to find poor young teenage girl engaged to a man named Joseph. We know about Washington, Jerusalem and Rome, but who has ever heard of Nazareth? We know Caesar. We have even heard about Herod. We know about Bush, Clinton, and Obama. But who is the world is this Mary?
In a way, we can understand the thinking of King David more than we can the way the Gospel of Luke tells it. We expect to meet God up at the temple, in the capital city, among the famous, well educated, powerful elite.
But that’s not the way our God does things. Our God comes to people like us in the everyday common places of our world. If God chose to make an entrance into this world at Nazareth, among people like Mary and Joseph, then there is hope that God may come among us, here.
Luke’s Gospel reminds us that we shouldn’t be surprised by the mysterious movements of God. The entire scripture gives evidence to the fact that God’s prefers the underdog. God has a preference for the poor and oppressed. At no place is this more clearly seen then in the story of Christmas when God’s sends his archangel Gabriel to a small town called Nazareth, to bring the glad tidings of salvatiuon to ordinary Mary, and everyday Joseph.
How many times must we learn this basic gospel truth? You and I have been waiting several Sundays to celebrate the Advent of Immanuel. We have gathered weekly throughout Advent to sing hymns of petition that pray for God presence in our lives. Maybe God has already come to us, and we have missed it. Maybe God’s Advent has come so wrapped up in the swaddling clothes of ordinary, everyday life that we have missed the wonder of it all.
A couple years ago I attended a middle school concert. My son Michael was playing his trumphet in one of the bands that performed. Before his performance, however, the “beginner’s band” would be playing. The only people who like listening to a “beginner’s band” are family members who have a child making their virtuoso debut.
The band director stood to announce how proud she was of all the children who have been working so very hard to convert squeaks and squels into actual music. To prove how far the students had progressed, they would now perform “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.” Sitting behind me was a four year old child whose big brother was in the band. When the band director announced the song, this little girl stood up behind be and said, “Hooray, that’s my favorite song!” Understand that we are not talking about Mozart, Brahmns, or Beethovan.
As the band began to play, the little girl joined them by singing.
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
how I wonder what you are!
Up above the world so high,
like a diamond in the sky.
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
how I wonder what you are!”
As I listen to this little girl and the band, I thought about the wonder of Advent. God’s comes to us. God comes not in pomp and circumstance. God comes not in a flash or lighting or the rolling thunder. God comes to us in the simple, swaddling clothes or ordinary, everyday life. Too see God’s Advent, maybe we need to recover the child-like wonder of looking at life the way that little girl sitting behind me did when she heard the band would be playing, “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.”
Today, as you leave this place, I want you to think about the surprising source of God’s Advent. In the birth of Christ, God chose to identify with a certain segment of society that most of us would consider worthless. The reality of Christmas is that God did not come into human history in a form and fashion that most of us would feel is fitting the ruler of the universe.
As it tells the story of Advent, notice who the Bible includes and who it leaves out of the picture. The proclamation of the Christ’s conception was not made to a beautiful aristocrat on a royal estate, but to a humble peasant in the ghetto of Nazareth. The announcement of the Messiah’s birth was not made to Herod’s royal advisors, but to lowly shepherds abiding in the fields. The angel’s song about peace and goodwill was not for the powerful and prestigious, but for the persecuted and oppressed. Christ was not born in the home of a wealthy ruler and then laid to rest on beautiful silk sheets; but was delivered into this world as one of the homeless, wrapped in rags, and laid to sleep in a farm animal feeding box. Everything about the story of Christ birth speaks of a rejection of all the people, places and things that we value as important.
What should this say to us? Perhaps, it says that our value judgments are flawed. Perhaps, it says that what God’s considers important and what we consider significant are usually two different things. Perhaps, it tells us that we too often look for God in all the wrong places and among all the wrong people.
Doug Marlette, the gifted political cartoonist who worked many years for the Atlanta Constitution, ran a very powerful cartoon a few years ago. The image in the cartoon was one of a soup kitchen for the homeless during the holiday season. In the soup kitchen, one could see the image of Jesus. What was astounding about this picture was what Jesus was doing. We’d probably expect to see Jesus as the powerful host, serving the homeless. In Marlette’s picture, however, Jesus was not serving the homeless — he was one of the homeless. That is the story of God’s Advent. If you and I really want to see the movement of God in this world we need to be look into the faces of the poor and needy. We need to see the homeless person on the street. We need to see the refugee in Iraq. We need to see the hungry child in Somilia. That’s were Jesus is . . . and he’s just waiting to be seen.
Now if God chose to enter this world from the underside of human history that means that there is tremendous hope and wonderful promise that we, too, can experience God’s presence. That’s the other thing I want you to think about in relation to the surprising source of God’s Advent. God approaches each of us.
I imagine that this may be a more radical concept for some of us to accept then the suggestion that we can see Christ in the face of the poor. You see, most of us think too little of ourselves to believe that the great God of the universe really cares about us. But the story of Christmas is that God has come to us. Today, I want you to leave this church pondering the words of angel Gabriel to Mary: “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.”
Think about that! You and I, just like Mary, have been favored – blessed – by God’s grace! “Greeting, favored one! The Lord is with you.” We are favored by God not because of who we are and what we’ve done, but rather because of who God is and what God chooses to do out of his mercy and grace. Christmas is the story of Immanuel — God with us.
The Lord is with you. Yes, you, as you go about the next few days running errands, baking pies, roasting turkeys, wrapping gifts, visiting friends. God is with you as you visit with your family. God is with you as you go to your jobs and honor the commitments of your career. God is with you as you hang with your friends at the mall. God is with you as you stand in line at the grocery store.
God is with you. God is not removed from us on Cloud Nine. God is not the property of presidents, premiers, prime ministers, or potentates. God is here! The Lord is with you.
This is the way our God and king does things. Our king favors ordinary people like Mary and Joseph in places like Nazareth, or right here. In God, all our definitions of power, all our opinions about who or what is important, all our expectations about how things are supposed to work – all of these things get rearranged, refocused, changed. When an emissary of the Lord God shows up in a place like Nazareth, we need to be prepared to see Him anywhere, even here!
Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you?
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