Sometimes we get readings from the lectionary where the sole purpose of that reading is really just to get to one particular sentence, even though the actual reading may be many verses. Today’s lesson from 2nd Samuel is just such a reading. We go through the whole thing just to get to the money line which is when God says of David, “Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me; your throne shall be established forever.” That is, of course, a big deal today on Advent IV because we are about to get to the Christmas story where we will learn among other things that Joseph was from the line of David and if Jesus will reign forever we have the promise of that eternal reign right here in 2nd Samuel. The previous 11 about the cedar houses and all that seem to be there to give the lector something to do or perhaps give some context, but I thought since no one was really going to be here anyway that we would focus on these seemingly superfluous lines.
In case you were not listening the first time let’s review what the reading from 2nd Samuel was all about. David is taking stock of his life and realizes that he has accomplished much – he has stabilized Israel and now peace reigns. He even now has a pretty nice house, made of cedar no less. And so he has a thought, which seems rather altruistic – he wants to build a nice place for the Ark of the Covenant to reside. On the surface it would seem to be one of David’s more beneficent acts, at least when compared to the whole Bathsheba fiasco. Nathan, who was David’s go to guy for spiritual matters concurs and tells David to go and launch this building project. But then something rather strange happens. The word of the Lord comes to Nathan and he is basically told to tell David that he has no need of a house and so thanks, but no thanks. The story then ends with the promise that God will build David a house and that David’s throne will last forever.
And so the question is why did God shoot down David’s idea? What was so wrong with building a nice place for the Ark of the Covenant? Well, I think the rather obvious answer is that God did not ask for a house. And honestly, that is about all we can answer from the text. God does not explain his decision but simply let’s David know that he is not interested. And while that is sort of interesting it all of this points to an issue that we can have as well. And that is the fact that even with the most altruistic sounding of things may not be that altruistic at all and may actually be us asserting our will over another person. In this case, David is telling God what he needs and what it will be like. In our case, we may give gifts or do things that are not what the other person desires but are rather something that we desire. In David’s case he thinks that he has a nice house and so God must want one too. But I think there is a larger lesson in all of this, not just in terms of gifts. And that lesson has to do with submitting our wills to God’s perfect will. And believe it or not there is actually a take home from this that relates to Advent IV – or at least I hope there is. So first let’s start by talking about our will.
You have probably heard my theory that I have on my more cynical days which is that people do not actually grow up they just get better at masking their selfish motivations. So if a child eats the last cookie they will tell you they did so because they wanted the last cookie, whereas an adult will tell you that they didn’t realize you wanted the last cookie or they were trying to help you with your diet or they had not realized that you had any claim on this particular cookie and so on. This same sort of masking of motivation is also ever present in the church. In fact, it is often worse in the church because people get to mix God in with things. Let me see if I can explain. At my last Parish on one Labor Day, we sang the hymn, “Come labor On.” I thought it seemed appropriate it being Labor Day and all that. Anyway after the service a woman came up to me and told me that by selecting this hymn I had completely destroyed her Sunday worship experience – the show had simply not been to her liking. Now do you see the subtle thing that she did? She did not say, “I hate that hymn and I would not like it sung again.” Rather by my selecting the hymn I had destroyed her ability to draw closer to God. I was now personally responsible for putting her soul in peril. She did not need to figure out a way to survive a hymn she did not like. Rather, it was all up to me. If I was really going to be a shepherd of souls then I needed to make sure that I only chose hymns that accorded with her personal taste. For by describing it as such it was not her will, but God’s will that I was thwarting, because as we all know God wants us to draw closer to him and by my callous hymn selection I had thwarted God’s will. At least that is how she saw it.
Now let’s bring all of this back to Advent IV. As you are probably sick of hearing me say, Advent is a season of preparation. A season where we take time to reflect and see what in us is not living in accordance with God’s will. This morning David had a great idea about building a house for the Lord, but he soon discovered that his will was not the will of God and so he shifted his plan. His plan even sounded fairly reasonable, but it turned out that his desires and God’s will were not in sync. And so he changed things. And the question for us, as we search our actions and motivations is how do we know if we are doing the will of God? Not all of us have Nathan like David did who could come in and tell him that what he was thinking was not what God was thinking. But most of us have friends and hopefully we have friends that will be honest with us. The other thing, though, is that we have to be honest with ourselves. We have to reflect and see what are the real motivations for our actions and ask if we are we trying to dress up selfish motivations in altruistic clothing. Searching ourselves and our motivations can be a very hard thing to do, because it may reveal some parts to our personality that are not terribly impressive. We may find things in ourselves that need to change. And as we all know change can be rather hard.
Certainly, we all know the basics of what God wants us to do. If you don’t let me just give you the big one that Jesus offers in both Luke’s and Matthew’s Gospel. It states, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” When we interact with others or with God we need to ask if what we are doing is loving towards the other person or is it just something we really feel like doing. The more pure and Godlike our motivations the more we will be prepared to welcome Jesus as he comes into the world. Advent wraps up here very shortly and we move into Christmas Eve and so it may be time to cram for the final examination so that our hearts and minds are truly ready to welcome the Messiah when he comes so that we may be his both now and forevermore.