This is a typed Advent sermon from 1987. I used optical character recognition from Google Docs to transcribe the text for this sermon. The sermon indicates a hymn at the end, so I’ve included a youtube video of the hymn.
The sermon text is listed as 2 Samuel 7:15-16, which is not a gospel text, but is a part of the Fourth Sunday of Advent B in the Revised Common Lectionary.
BUILDING A HOUSE : 4 Advent B (12/19/87) 2 Samuel 7:15-16
“Moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house. And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure for ever before me; your throne shall be established forever. "
It’s an exciting time when a new house begins to take form on your street. As you go for evening walks, you pause and look in that hole in the ground, the cement forms, the layout of the floor plan. Then in the weeks that follow, you see the skeleton appear, and window holes are cut, a roof put on, and finally it begins to look like a home, with landscaping and siding and driveway. You wonder, what kind of home will this be, and what kind of family will live here? Those of you who have built a house know some of the risks involved, the sacrifices, the effort that it takes.
In the Old Testament encounter between King David and God, David has a concern that the Lord should have a house, a special permanent house that was a fitting place for worship and sacrifice. After all, he lived in a palace fit for a king—-why should God continue to abide in a tent? “Camping out” in the great city of Jerusalem as if God were still Lord of a band of Wanderers!
And God turns the tables on King David. He says, “You want to build me a permanent house—I am going to make you a house that will last forever.” God who has raised him from a shepherd to a prince now promises to lift him up forever . . . " I will make of you a great name”. Well, David’s name did become great, and was remembered for generations. On a day much later, when the angel appeared to a young girl in Nazareth named Mary, he referred to the child she would bear as an heir to David’s throne—there was no better king’s name to drop than David’s—he was the greatest. For Mary, things were much like they are for us today: Because of some recent occupants of the Whitehouse, we have all the more reason to look back upon Washington and Jefferson as the ‘greats’. Mary may have felt the same way, recent kings had not been much to brag about compared to Solomon and David.
God had chosen David. Now God had chosen Mary as he sought to build this house which would last forever. David and Mary were both people who would listen and obey. They were not merely families which God wanted to perpetuate, but they were tools in the hand of God, tools which would craft a household in which God’s will could be done.
Has God’s house been finished? I don’t think so, not as long as Christmas continues to Come into this world in which we live. God Continues to speak to the humble and faithful—and says to us like he said to her, “Fear not, I am with you.’ And God is with us as we say with Mary, ‘Lord, let it be to me according to your word.” In the days to come as you hear the familiar story of Jesus’ birth once more, remember that God uses faith and obedience to build his house of salvation—God works through willing and attentive and obedient people – shepherds, wise men, Joseph and Mary, in order that this world might know a Savior who is Christ the Lord.
God’s promise in our lives is that he will build an everlasting house. It is a house of faith that is bigger than church buildings or traditions. . . . it is bigger than our own dreams and efforts. I’m reminded of the struggle of some congregations in neighborhoods of transition. They limp along with a dying church and finally one day give in—a ‘for sale” sign goes up on the lawn and they walk away. And yet, a few years later, we find a thriving new Congregation in that old building—different music a different style of worship , a different sense of mission in the neighborhood, but the Lord has built a house that lasts beyond our wants and dreams.
The Lord does the same in our lives. As things change around us, we can see a ‘God at work’ sign in our lives. As our old expectations and goals fade, God gives us new challenges, new reasons for living, new foundations on which to place our lives. Nathan spoke to David, ‘God will build an everlasting house’ , the angel spoke to Mary “You will bear a son’, and God speaks to us today: “I am here, I am doing a new thing in you—you are part of my house which will last forever.”
This coming week as you hear carols about angels and shepherds, a stable and manger, sheep and donkeys and hay—remember that faith is the key, that Christ comes where there is room. Listen to the messengers of this day that God sends, and let God continue to build this everlasting house in you, in your family, in our congregation and in our world.
And may the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.