Pentecost 21 - Oct 21

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

I wish I had time to read to you and tell you the whole story of David. You probably know many parts of the story. David’s growing up years in 1 Samuel 17, when he fought the Philistine warrior named Goliath with just a sling and five smooth stones. Or how about later on in David’s life, 2 Samuel 11 after he is made a king, and he begins to have an affair with his general’s wife, Bathsheba? But there are even more great stories about David in the Bible. Stories of David’s anointing in 1 Samuel 16, stories of David and Saul gunning for each other’s lives in 1 Samuel 18-35, stories of David and his son Absalom in 2 Samuel 14-15.

I wish I had time to tell you all of the details of David’s stories, too. Details like how David was probably about 12-14 years old when he fought Goliath. Or how Saul had first dressed David in armor to fight Goliath, but the armor was too heavy and bulky, so David went in just his shepherd’s clothes. Or how David’s slingshot wasn’t really like a slingshot like we know it, but like a long strip of fabric that David swung in circles above his head and released one end of to throw the smooth stone. I would also like to take you into imagining the many mighty giants of our own time, and considering what five smooth stones God has given us to do battle with.

I wish I had time to tell you the darker details of the stories of David. Details like how he had Bathsheba’s husband sent to the front of the battlefield with the Philistines, so that his death would look like a courageous death at war, but in reality it was because of a gutless king David who couldn’t stand that someone else was married to the woman he lusted after.

I wish I had time to tell you that this same, complex, sinner/saint of a man is the ancestor of God’s only Son, Jesus. And not only an ancestor, but the Messiah, the Savior that God promised. 

I wish I had time to read you all of the stories of Scripture. I wish it for a lot of reasons, but one main reason is because we have flattened the Bible’s stories. We know so few details about so few stories of the Bible that we assume that all the characters that are Godly people are good and moral and upright people. But if you take David as one, small example of the many characters of Scripture, you soon begin to realize that the stories of Scripture are just about as complex as our own lives.

David was no perfectly moral saint. Even with his many wives, David still had to go out and take another man’s wife and have the man killed to satisfy his desires. To me, this sounds like something straight out of daytime TV, or one of the dysfunctional family’s I happen to descend from.

These stories are not flat. They have dimensions, they have shape, they have character. And they are completely fascinating stories to spend our time with.

Today’s story is another in the saga of King David. It happens just before David’s adulterous affair with Bathsheba and it is the story of God making a covenant with David.

As God was slowly leading the Israelite people into the land that he had promised to Abraham and Sarah, it was like scenes straight from the old, Wild West of America. Rogue, tough guys from the people began to emerge as leaders among the people. But they couldn’t hold those Israelite tribes together as a nation. And so Israel started to demand a king.

Hannah, the woman whose song we talked about last week from 1 Samuel 2, gave birth to a son named Samuel and this little boy grew up to become the Israelite leader. He was the first to have the Israelite people complain to him about not having a king. The people said to Samuel, “You are old and your sons do not follow in your ways; appoint for us, then, a king to govern us, like other nations.” This was upsetting to Samuel, because the Israelites already had a king and his name was God. God was always with them. They carried around a little box, called the Ark of the Covenant, that had stored inside it God’s promise to always be their God in the form of the Ten Commandments. But, God said, “Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them.” So Samuel gave them a king named Saul, and Saul would later give his kingship over to David.

Without an earthly king, the Israelites had God and God was always with them, surrounding them with safety and protection. When King David came along, he lived a great big house of beautiful cedar, but God, David thought, lived in a tiny little box. So David talked to his trusty sidekick and court prophet Nathan and told him that he wanted to build God a house. And Nathan said, “Sure! Go ahead; that’s a great idea!”

But God had other plans, as God always does. David had forgotten that God told the Israelites to build that box. God did that so they could carry God’s commands and promise around with them. God had designed the box even, telling them exactly how to build it. (If you want that story you can look in Exodus, chapter 25). The Israelites forgot, too. As they spent so much time worrying about whether or not they had a king, God was always their king and was always with them as he told them he would be.

This story really comes to life when God comes to Nathan and says, “Now wait a minute Nathan. I never said it was okay to build me a house. Go remind David about how I used to travel all around in that Ark of the Covenant. I was the one who was with them. They didn’t do anything for me. I was the one who was keeping them safe, who was protecting them from harm. I was their God and they were my people.

“Go and tell David about all of that. And then tell him this: David, you want to build me a house? No, no, no. I am going to make you a house. And this will not be a house of cedar, or a house of stone. I am going to make a house like you’ve never even heard of before. I am going to give you an heir. I am going to give you offspring, a person. And he is going to build a house for my name. He is going to make a bigger kingdom, not built with human hands. He will be your ancestor. Though there is punishment for sin, my love and promise will never be taken away from this ancestor of yours. I will always love the kingdom that he makes.”

And this is the beginning of God’s promise for a Messiah; a man from the house of David, a man promised by God. As Christians, we know this man to be Jesus Christ, who built a house for God’s name by dying on a cross and raising on the third day for our sake. God has made us his people by this man whom God promised to David.

God did not want a house for himself, he wanted to make a house for his people. An eternal house, a kingdom bigger and better than anything David could ever dream up. And God wants the same for us.

How many times have we tried to build a house for God? How many times have we poured our hearts and souls into a building, or a program? God doesn’t want buildings or programs. God was to build us a house. And he is doing it even today. God is building a name for himself, not with bricks and mortar, but with human hearts and hands and feet. God is calling you to a life of service in the kingdom that he is building. So get out there and get to work.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.