Mary and David

A sermon for the fourth Sunday of Advent, based on 2 Samuel 7:1-11. 16 and Luke 1:26-38.

Would you pray with me?

God whose love surrounds us now and always, thank you for bringing us together in this moment. By your Spirit, make your presence known among us, and may the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

Let’s talk about God building David a house.

I know, I know, Christmas is four days away, and you’d think we’d be focusing exclusively on the gospel, but I want to start off talking about King David because I think this story contrasts in a really important way with Mary’s story that we heard in the gospel. At this point in his reign, King David is in charge. The Philistines have been soundly defeated, he's come through a difficult scandal, and he's even had time to build a palace. And not just any old palace at all, a palace of cedar, which would have to have been brought in from Lebanon. King David has a nice palace, a growing family, and an established rule over his people. Life for David is good.

And so, because he has established his political power through war, he wants to honor The God who was by his side through it all. He wants to build God a temple. And not just any old Temple, like that Temple up at Shechem where Samuel was in charge, but a big beautiful Temple in Jerusalem, made of cedar, just like the palace. David wants everyone to know the power and Majesty of his God and he'll show it to them by building a grand Temple.

If you hear a little sarcasm in my voice, that's because there is a little bit there. David is a complex figure in the Hebrew Bible. he is the king of all kings, the king that every King wants to be like, but he also makes some huge mistakes. For a man after God's own heart, he does several things that I know are not within the heart of God. Plus, these books of the Bible were written to tell us the story of King David with some embellishment. They do their best to make David look good, because David is the ancestor of the current Kings of Judah. the people who wrote This book of the bible, they did a little bit of smoothing over some of David's legacy. Besides, David was a smart King. That's how he stayed in power all his long life. He must have known that there would be some political advantage to building this temple.

Still, I think we can be generous to David and say that he truly did want to honor God. He was a man of great faith. And it must have seemed to David that this was the perfect moment for his faith and his power to align. He finally had everything in order, everything he needed in order to build God the temple that he thought God deserved. In his heart of hearts, David was probably very excited to start this project that seemed to benefit everyone.

So I'm sure that he was floored when the prophet Nathan came to talk to him. Nathan and David will have a much more heated discussion a few chapters later, but this interaction isn’t all sunshine and roses either. Nathan comes with the message that the Lord doesn’t want David to build a temple, a house for the Lord. Instead, the Lord will build a house for David.

We lose that parallel in translation, but the word for palace, temple, and dynasty are all the same word in Hebrew: בּיִת (bayith), meaning house. David wants to build a house for God. He’s sure that this is the right time to undertake this huge project that will bring glory to God throughout the land. But that’s not what God wants. God’s got the bigger picture in mind. The temple in Jerusalem will come and go many times over the centuries. God’s not really concerned about that. God is focused on David’s house, David’s lineage, which we know will one day include Jesus.

David, who’s at the top of his game, is running out ahead of God. He’s dreaming big dreams, trying to be faithful, trying to do something he’s so sure will bring God glory, but the timing just isn’t right. In fact, it’ll never be right, not while David is king. The temple will have to wait until David’s son, Solomon, is ready to build it. David will have to let this dream go.

Now, let’s turn to Mary. She’s not queen of anything, unless it’s Joseph’s heart. Any battles she’s won have been on a much smaller scale than what David is dealing with. She’s a teenager, just getting started in the world. If she were to build God a house, it would be a couple of sticks gleaned off of neighboring trees, built up in the hard earth behind her family’s home. Mary, a young poor unmarried girl in a land that’s been conquered again and again by empire after empire, is almost as opposite as opposite can be from King David.

And yet, it’s to Mary that God chooses to appear, through the angel Gabriel. Gabriel makes a proclamation, a proclamation that will establish David’s house in a new way, a way David didn’t expect, and Mary listens. Mary considers. Mary asks questions. Now, our gospel reading today comes before the passage we read last week. In this passage, as Mary listens to the angel, she’s thoughtful, not yet as certain and sure as she will be when she goes to visit Elizabeth. Mary thinks about the life that she’s been dreaming about with Joseph, the simple family life in Nazareth, and she lets that dream go. Mary steps into God’s plans, God’s dream for God’s people, and when she does, the world changes. Mary says, “Let it be with me as you have said,” and in that instant, the powerful Word of God who set the stars in their courses finds a new home in the womb of a girl with not much power at all.

See, this is how God works. God works in the lowly, in the least, because God knows that we all need to be reminded, time and time again, that God is God and we are not. God is not impressed by status or wealth or power. God doesn’t seek out kings. God seeks out people who are willing to share God’s dreams, people like Mary, who are willing to set aside the future they’d been dreaming of to be a part of the future God is bringing about.

So friends, which one are you? Are you a David or are you a Mary? Are you planning mighty acts or are you humbly listening to God? Are you out here dreaming dreams for God or are you listening for God’s dreams for you? Are you dreaming with practical matters in mind or are you dreaming in love? And if you’re more of a David, are you keeping an eye out for the Nathans in your life, the ones who can remind you to dream in love?

Because there’s no shame in running out ahead of God, not really. We should all dream big dreams. But God dreams loving dreams, for us and for this world. God dreams dreams both big and small and God, God loves taking little dreams and changing the world with them. I invite you this week, friends, to open up your heart to God and wait for the dreams that God will plant there. Spend these last few days of Advent waiting for the dreams that God has stored up for you. I promise, they will be beautiful ones, filled with love and joy and peace.

Amen.