advent week four

power and presence
advent week four
2 samuel 7:1-11, 16

this bit of samuel brings us the story of king david. david wants to build god a place to live. (chronologically, this is before the destruction of the temple in jerusalem, and before the exile in babylon.)

david looks around at his beautiful home and says, “what a great house i have here. I should build god a house.”

god responds, “you’re gonna build me a house? listen here, i have been with you since the beginning, since egypt, through the wilderness; i was with you when you were ruled by judges, and i am with you now, and i have never asked for a house. but you want to build me a house? ok. fine.”

and then god clarifies things. god says, “i will make you a house.” god speaks in the metaphor of kings that Israel has demanded, and it is easy to assume that this word from god means that god will build a “house” or lineage of david’s kingdom (prophecy foretelling jesus, perhaps). but i think it is bigger than this.

i think god is saying that Israel itself is god’s house. god doesn’t need a house because god already dwells within the people themselves.

and lest we think that god dwells only with the Israelites, let us remember that god blesses Israel to bless all nations, that the good news is for the jew and the gentile, and most of all that god was with adam and eve before god’s covenant with abraham and before the existence of the Israelites.

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this bit in samuel also reminds us of some of the stages of Israelite society and interaction with god. so, here’s a quick review of some of the highlights we’ve covered so far: god and humanity begin with a close, intimate, shameless, mutual-knowing kind of relationship at creation; god appoints judges to rule over the Israelites (at their request); god appoints a king to rule over Israel (at their request); god allows david to build god a house (at david’s insistence); the house that david built in jerusalem is destroyed and the Israelites are sent away from their home.

at each turn in the story, humanity changes the terms of relationship with god, and god obliges. and it all starts with the fig leaf.

the fig leaf is humanity’s attempt to take control of the narrative. the fig leaf consists of the structures and systems that we put in place to categorize, describe, codify, our relationship to the divine. the fig leaf is power, and humanity’s attempt to wield it.

the law is a fig leaf.

the temple is a fig leaf.

the exile is a fig leaf.

dogma is a fig leaf.

denominations are a fig leaf.

USAmerican nationalism is a fig leaf.

heteronormativity is a fig leaf.

patriarchy is a fig leaf.

racism is a fig leaf.

because god was, and is, and always will be present.

in each of these moments of the story, we changed the terms of relationship, and the divine found a way to show up and love us anyway.

the truth, beauty, love and freedom of the incarnation, of the story of the divine dwelling with humanity - the gospel, if you will - is not that god is doing a new thing. the incarnation reveals that god always was with us. there was never a point at which our humanity was separate from the divine. we covered ourselves with a fig leaf.

emmanuel, a name for jesus, means “god with us.” and if that is really true, we don’t get to decide who god meant by “us.”