If No Sound

God's House©

July 19, 2009

2 Samuel 7:1-14a

Psalm 89:20-37 (UMH 807)

Ephesians 2:11-22

Mark 6:30-34, 53-56

            When I was in college in Virginia, I took a class on the history of religion in America since the 1840’s.  My professor was an expert of sorts on church architecture, especially from the Victorian period, so we spent a lot of time in class talking about different kinds of church buildings and what they said about the beliefs and lives of the people who worshipped there.  Pulpits in the center of the front chancel area indicate the congregation’s emphasis on the preached Word of God.  Sanctuaries where the pulpit is off to the side but there is a large, prominent altar in the front might mean that the congregation really values the sacrament of Holy Communion.  Is there a baptismal font in the church or a baptismal pool? That would give clues about what the people there believed about they way people should be baptized.  I was finding all of these things interesting, so I was really excited about the major class project.  With small groups from our class we were to travel to a place that exhibited Victorian architecture and explore that area’s churches, homes, and other buildings to see what we could learn about the people who built them.  My group decided to go to the Shackoe Slip region of Richmond Virginia,  I had the opportunity to visit and worship in several different kinds of church buildings with a bunch of different kinds of worshippers.  Maybe it’s because I had been formed into a church architecture nerd, but was one of the coolest experiences of my life. 

            One day when we were searching the neighborhood for a church to visit, we came upon a cute little building that looked like a church but it had several different doors and we didn’t know which one to go in.  So we just picked a door and opened it.  When we did, we were immediately in a weird hallway that had a few doors that looked like doors they would lead into an apartment or something.  We were kind of confused, and we didn’t want to get in trouble or anything so we left and started walking away.  Well, as we were leaving, somebody came out and called to us to see what we wanted.  We told him about our project, and he said that he thought he could help, so he invited us into his house.  It turns out this building really was a church at one time, but somebody had come in and converted the sanctuary into four small apartments.  You could see where the front chancel area had been made into a kitchen, where the pews once were became a living area, and the choir balcony was converted into a loft for a bedroom.  From up in that loft we could still climb a ladder into the bell tower.  We actually got to tour two of the apartments, and we were amazed at the creativity. These people had made their homes out of a house of God.

            In light of today’s Scripture lessons I’ve been thinking about church architecture a lot.  Thinking back to David’s desire to build a house to hold the ark of God, I wonder what he envisioned that house to look like. He proposes to make a permanent building for the dwelling place of God.  He doesn’t seem to think it right that he has a sturdy house to live in while the ark of God stays in a portable tabernacle.  So he has a brilliant idea to build a house for God out of cedar.  Sounds like a good idea to me.  God’s house would even smell good if it was built out of cedar.  But Nathan seems to think that God doesn’t think this is a good plan.  Overnight, the prophet Nathan hears from God, who asks a very simple question: what makes you think I wanted you to build me a house?  And he goes on to tell of a great plan he has for one of David’s descendants – it is that person who is to build the everlasting throne for God.  It is that person who will inaugurate the time and the place for God’s monarchy.  That temple promises to be a grand place suitable for the dwelling place of God.  This is not simply a less temporary house – a wood building rather than a tent.  No this temple, and this kingdom, will last forever. 

            Now we hear that promise, and we immediately think of Solomon’s temple, the grandiose temple whose architect was God himself and whose builder was indeed a descendent of David.  This was the great temple that was the center of Israelite worship, and commerce, and community life.  It was adorned in gold and it smelled of incense.  And indeed it was the dominant structure of that people for centuries.  But not forever.  Even this dwelling place of God would fall.  For when Jerusalem fell and the Israelite people were captured and sent into exile, the temple was destroyed.  It could no longer be the essential element of Israelite culture and religion and identity.  And the people of Israel were scattered all about the earth.  And then when the people Israel built a new temple, the same temple at which Jesus taught in Jerusalem, the same temple where he turned over the tables in the marketplace, that t0o was destroyed.  Indeed neither of these temples that were intended to be the dwelling place of God could survive division and corruption and war and destruction. 

            But did God not promise that he would establish the throne of the descendant of David forever?  Where is that eternal kingdom?  The early church saw Jesus in that promise that God made to Nathan and David.  They envisioned Jesus as the one whose throne God would establish forever, seated at the right hand of God, even.  When God said that the one who would build his house would be a son to God, and God would be a father to him, they imagined that this was the promise of God the Father to God the Son.  And I think this is a remarkable architectural analogy.  God does make way for Solomon to build his amazing temple, but he also points to the inauguration of God’s kingdom on earth, which is ushered in by his son, Jesus the Christ. 

            Paul himself makes use of this analogy in his letter to the Ephesians.  Indeed he says that Jesus himself is the cornerstone of the eternal temple.  Jesus became the place where God would dwell on earth.  God chose to unite himself with humanity in him.   Even further, we, because of what Christ has done for us, because we too are made into the Body of Christ, redeemed by his blood, each of us is spiritually formed into the dwelling place of God.  We are each members of the household of God, Paul says.    We  haven’t just made our house out of God’s house, like those folks I found living in an old church in Richmond.  No, we ourselves have been made into God’s house.  We are the place where God chooses to dwell.  We have become the new temple, and we are  a part of the eternal kingdom.  This is the temple that is not built of bricks and mortar, or even of  gold.  This is the temple that cannot be destroyed by division or corruption or war.  And this is a kingdom that will reign forever.

            And as Paul affirms the Ephesians as the dwelling place of God, he tells them to act like it.  He tells them to exhibit behavior worthy of God’s kingdom.  He tells them that God’s kingdom is not divided, and tries to show them how they are attempting to make their own arbitrary divisions.  He reminds the Christian Gentiles that they were once outside of the fold.  They were once called the “uncircumcision” by the Jews, God’s chosen people who marked their identity by being circumcised.  They were at one time aliens to Christ and strangers to God’s people.  But now that they too are known to Christ and are brought near to God, they are part of the new humanity which Christ has brought into being.  Paul encourages the Ephesians that there is to be no division among Gentile and Jew, for they are all part of God’s new house, and there is no dividing wall between them. 

            We, too, have been made into the dwelling place of God.  It is through us that God makes his presence known.  And we should be the open house that invites everyone in.  In this household of God, there should be no walls that separate rooms of different kinds of people.  We who call ourselves Christians are not to be alienated from other members of our Christian family who are different from us.  Paul points to the problem between Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians.  Somehow neither group thinks the other should be included among God’s household.  Now in our society, we don’t really make that distinction.  But we do make other distinctions, subtle or obvious, don’t we?  In truth, all of us are brought near, all of us a part of a structure which God has raised up to be his eternal temple, to usher in his eternal kingdom.  This is a great privilege and a hefty challenge. We like to categorize people into organized, definable boxes.  But in truth, in Christ, in the coming kingdom, the rich and the poor are all part of the household of God.   Blacks and whites and Hispanics are all drawn together.  The household is made of  both Chinese and Taiwanese, Hutus and Tootsies, Israelis and Lebanese, Somali and Ethiopian, The household includes opposing sides of our own family struggles; it includes Democrats and Republicans alike.  It is made of prisoners and those who imprison them.

            The household of God is a beautifully designed structure whose architect is God himself.  And he dwells among us, uniting us into one people.  But just as the building of the Temple had to be done in God’s time rather than on David’s schedule, so too does the coming of the kingdom of God.  For in so many ways this world has been transformed by the power of Christ, and yet we have a ways to go.  Like David, we need to realize that this temple is not our gift to God, but it is God’s gift to us.  David sincerely wanted to repay God for protecting him from his enemies and giving him rest from battle by building him a nice house like his own.  But what David didn’t realize was that he was setting out to create something for God that was worthy of David.  God’s plan was much bigger.  God’s plan was to create a dwelling place that was worthy of God.  His vision was bigger and more far-reaching than David’s.  And it’s a good thing for us.  Because God’s plan wasn’t just for a small group of people in a single location.  Rather, God worked through David’s monarchy and Solomon’s temple.  God worked through the dispersal of the Israelites all around the world.  He worked through his incarnation in Jesus the Christ who showed us how to really be the household of God. 

Copyright © 2009 Amy DeWitte. All Rights Reserved. No portion of this writing may be reproduced in any form without specific, written permission of the author.

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