In the name of Jesus. Amen.
This morning in the ongoing saga of what God continues to do
among God’s people, we have the story of King Solomon. Solomon was King David’s
son. If you’ll remember, last week we talked about how King David was this
flawed, very complex character. One of his more interesting complexities was
his affair with the general’s wife, Bathsheba.
Well, Bathsheba and David had a son together and his name
was Solomon. Solomon grew older and became Israel’s king after David died.
Solomon was a very wise king, one of the few kings of Israel who God was very
proud of. Solomon was so wise, that almost the entire book of Proverbs in the
Bible is dedicated to the wise king. Scripture says, “He [Solomon] composed
three thousand proverbs, and his songs numbered a thousand and five.” That’s
more than Gandhi and Jesus put together!
However, Solomon was known for other things besides his
great wisdom. Solomon was also the first king of Israel to build a temple in
Jerusalem. The temple for the ancient Israelites was an important place of
worship. It was built in the land that God had promised to Abraham and Sarah
and it was the first time in the history of Israel that a place of worship was
permanently built.
As with any building project, Solomon needed a lot of help.
And he needed supplies. So he asked one of his father’s good friends for the
lumber to build the temple. This friend, King Hiram, gave him the lumber and
even some workers to build the temple. Solomon forced into slavery some 30,000
Israelite people to build the temple. They cut stone from the quarry, built
walls and doors and rafters from the lumber and worked tirelessly to build the
temple. It was a massive undertaking.
While they were building the temple, God talked with Solomon
about what he was building. God said, “Now about this house you’re building for
me, if you will follow my laws, obey my commandments, then I will keep the same
promise that I made with your father King David, to give you a son to carry on
your kingship.”
When the temple was finished, Solomon had to hold a
dedication ceremony at the temple. So Solomon called together all of his
leaders and elders. They gathered all the people and got the priests together
for the ceremony.
Solomon’s dedication speech and prayer was a remarkable one.
Because instead of taking great pride in the temple that he had built, the wise
king began asking God some questions about what they had built. Solomon said,
“Will God dwell here on earth? Will God fit in the temple that we have built?”
Solomon knew that God could not be boxed in the temple.
“Even heaven could not contain you, God,” Solomon
prayed. “So listen to my prayer,
God. Hear me out. I know that you won’t fit into this box of a temple, but
please let our temple be a place where you will hear our prayers. Always let
our temple be a place where you will hear your name spoken. Here us and forgive
us when we pray to you’re here. God, let this temple be a place of prayer, not
a box to keep you in.”
And Solomon didn’t stop there. Not only did he not want the
temple to box God up, but he wanted to the temple to be a place where strangers
were welcomed, a place were foreigners and people who were from many foreign
countries, people who were not Israelites, would be welcomed and called to
experience the presence of God. This wise king knew that it could not be only
the people of this one church who were welcome there, but ALL people, even if
they didn’t believe in God before they came. ALL were welcome!
This wise king Solomon knew the many blessings of God, and
he knew that God could not be boxed up, but that God would hear their prayers
in that place and God would call and welcome all to the Lord’s house.
On this Sunday, we celebrate the Reformation of the church,
a reformation that was begun by a stubborn old German monk by the name of
Martin Luther. Many, many, many thousands of years after Solomon had built a
temple, Martin Luther was fighting hard to stop the building of another kind of
temple, a temple that was not a house of prayer, but a house of deception. The
temple was a church, the old St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome to be exact.
As the story of the Reformation goes, this church was
financed by selling something called indulgences. The indulgences were sold to
the common people in the church as a way for the people to buy their way out of
purgatory, that place between hell and heaven were one could work their way
from the bottom to the top. In fact, you could even buy indulgences to get your
loved ones out of purgatory.
This, as the young monk Martin Luther saw it, was contrary
to the gospel of Christ. A person could not earn or buy their way to heaven;
eternal life was a pure gift from God. So, when Martin saw this temple of the
Lord being built with lies, he wrote a series of debates against the church. These
were the 95 theses and he nailed them to the door of the church in the town
where he was the priest.
Martin’s 95 theses were a direct attack on the idea that a
person could earn their way to heaven. Martin knew that the pope was in the
wrong and so did many other pastors and bishops in the church. This temple was
no house of prayer for these pastors and bishops. This was a house of deception
and went against the good news of the Gospel.
Unlike king Solomon, the pope was not acting wisely. His
temple project was not dedicated as a place where God would hear the prayers of
his people, but a place funded by the fear and guilt of the poor people of the
church.
History should be our teacher, here. The wise will seek to
build houses of worship that always serve the good news of God, houses of
worship that always offer thanks and praise to God alone. The foolish ignore
the good news of God in Christ and seek to build houses that only serve the
desires of people.
The wise king Solomon is our example. Our house of worship
should always be a place where God is honored, a place where God is prayed to,
a place where we can count on God to hear our prayers and forgive our sins.
And speaking of forgiveness, both Solomon and the rebel monk
Martin Luther knew what the good news of God really is. The good news of God is
forgiveness in God’s name. Our forgiveness cannot be bought. God will not be
bought or boxed up. God will come to us; God will forgive us. This whole
business about being God’s people is about God being God. God will forgive us,
God will bless us, and God will call us to life in his name. God is the actor;
God is the one who will do all of this. Our attempts to build a house to God
almost always end up like the pope’s and almost never end up like king Solomon’s.
Unless that is God breaks into our sinful lives and does what he promises.
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