“Finding God in All the Right Places”

2 Samuel 7:1-14a

July 20, 2003

St. Paul UMC

Rev. John Fleming

I remembered the story that I once told while I was working on our sermon for this morning about the preacher who recalled a faith crisis that he had early in his childhood. He could not tell you how old he was, when it happened, but he remembers that he was old enough to crawl under a church pew, but still small enough to be pulled up by his belt loop. He was, however, old enough for his first faith crisis. You see, this little want to be preacher wanted to see Jesus. His mother was unfailing in taking her son to church every week. After Sunday School, his place was in a pew, five or six rows from the back, right beside his mother. He remembers thinking how at ease everyone seemed to be during the worship services. People came in visiting with one another with a peaceful look on their faces. When it came time to sing the hymns, they sang with enthusiasm. When they prayed, it looked like they did not have a worry in the world. And when the preacher preached, they smiled and shook their heads in agreement. This young want to be preacher was sure that all of these people had seen Jesus and he wanted to see Jesus, too.

He looked just about everywhere they he knew to look for God’s Son. Sometimes he would drop his worship bulletin or a pencil and while he was on the floor, would look under the pews hoping that among the polished shoes, he would see the sandals on Jesus’ feet or the hem of his robe. But he never did. In the time in between Sunday School and church, he looked for Jesus. He had been in most of the Sunday School rooms. He had been in the boiler room and he had searched the nursery. He supposed that since Jesus liked babies, he might be there, but Jesus was not there. He had been in the church office and had even slipped into the preacher’s study, but Jesus wasn’t there, either. He was starting to panic. He wanted and needed to see Jesus. He remembers the Sunday when the preacher’s sermon was so great, when the sermon was loud. That was not like their preacher. Their pastor was a frail man who never got excited. The boy decided that Jesus must be up there, under the pulpit, helping their pastor with the sermon. So, when the service was over, he snuck away from his mother, went to the chancel area of the church, went behind the pulpit, opened the door that was under it and screamed out loud enough for everyone to hear, “Aha!” But, you see, Jesus was not there. There were some old Bibles and a hymnal or two, but Jesus was not there. His mother gave him the look that meant that when they got home, he would be in trouble. For some reason, he was afraid to tell his mother about

his faith crisis. When lunch was over, he would have to spend some time thinking about what he had done. Actually, he was grateful for the time, because it helped him focus and to think about all of the rooms in the church that he had been in. One by one, he went through them in his mind. Visually he pictured each of them, and then it came to him. There was one room that he had never been in. He was sure that that is where Jesus must be.

He could hardly wait until the next Sunday morning. He was up and dressed before anyone else in his house. He wiggled his way through Sunday School. He was hoping to look in the room in between Sunday School and church, but there were too many people around there and so he had to wait. When the worship service began, he ducked down, crawled under the five or six pews in front of him, slipped through the side door and made his way to the place where he was convinced Jesus was. By the way, you probably should know that the one room that he had not been in was a restroom, the women’s restroom. By the way, young boys walk past women’s restrooms with awe and fear. Women have many more things in their bathrooms than do us men. There is a church pew in one of our women’s restrooms. The little boy, this preacher to be, had to look in there. He gently pushed the door open, and called out to Jesus, “Jesus, are you in here? Jesus, are you in here?” It turns out that Jesus was not in there. He opened all of the stall doors, and Jesus wasn’t in there. Where could Jesus be? He was sure that he lived in that church. He had seen too many things to think otherwise, but he had looked everywhere that he knew to look and still had not seen Jesus. Defeated, he went back towards the sanctuary. His mother saw him when he walked back through the side door. She gave him a just you wait until we get home look. He took his place next to her. It was that part of the service that happened once a month, where their preacher took a loaf of bread, broke it, and gave it to everyone. Row by row and one by one, the church went to receive the bread and the juice. He did not go forward that morning. His mother came back and sat beside him. She looked at ease and peaceful. There was something different about her. He could tell that and he could even smell that. He put his nose closer to her mouth and he asked, “Mother, what is that?” She looked at her son and answered, “What is what?” He asked, “What is that smell?” She answered, “It is what I drank, son.” That was not enough for him, and so he pressed her, “I know, but what is it, mama?” Listen to what she said, “Oh son, that is Jesus. It is Jesus inside of me.” He sat back and concluded, so that is where Jesus has been all this time. Jesus has been inside my mama.

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Isn’t that a great story? You only get to tell a story once an appointment. People may not remember your sermons, but they will remember your stories. I have learned that. I have told it before, but not here. In the past, when I have told it, it has been in connection with communion. But I thought that it was a nice fit for our scripture lesson for this morning. I hope that the writer of Second Samuel agrees with me. I do not mind telling you that this is a strange and hard passage to understand and yet it is easy all at the same time. In the chapters leading up to it, the once shepherd boy, David, is now king over a united kingdom of Judah and Israel. He is popular. His people respect him and he is powerful because he has listened to God and has done what God has told him to do. He has consulted Nathan, God’s prophet, at every turn. After being at battle at what seemed like forever, David is now resting and relaxing in his house of cedar. I looked it up, cedar was a valued building material used mostly for royal buildings. It symbolized power and wealth. There was David, in this new home of his, with all of the extras around him. He was home. I think that it was the theologian Dorothy, who once clicked her heels and said, “There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home!” But you know that. I have used this line in a sermon before, home is the place that when you have to go there, they have to let you in. But it is much more than that, too. Home is the place where you can be your very best and then again, it is the place where you can be your very worst, too. It is the place where you can relax and be you. It is the place where you can laugh and cry, shout and sing, and kick the vacuum cleaner when you need to. Home is the place where you get the strength and the courage to face the world. Ah, yes, there is something special about calling a place home.

Perhaps David had settled in one night in his nice home, with his things around him, when the thought occurred to him. He voiced the thought to Nathan, “See now I am living in a house of cedar, but the ark of God stays in a tent.” What he was really thinking was this, “It is not right for me to be in this house, while God is out there living in a tent.” So he tells Nathan that he would like to build a house for God. At first Nathan thinks that it is a wonderful idea, but then God speaks to him. God has Nathan ask David this wonderful question, “Are you the one to build me a house to live in. Maybe it would be like going out in the middle of the woods, with trees everywhere and animals all around you and saying to the birds, “I’m going to build you a bird house.” Or perhaps you could compare it to a tenant having this great place to live, a new apartment with fresh paint on the walls and lush carpet, loving living there and saying to your landlord, “I’ve got to get you one of these apartments” when he already owns the entire building. Listen to the question, “Are you the one to build me a house to live in?” It is a great and wonderful question and before he has the chance to answer it, God recounts history and he reminds David of the story of the people that he now is king over. These are the same people who, with staff in hand, and God with them, Moses led from slavery to freedom.

Now I think that we all know how it is when something marvelous is happening in our lives and what we want the most is to stay there. The Bible tells that story in one of it’s great passages. Three of the disciples go up with Jesus on a mountain and while they are up there, suddenly Jesus’ clothes become dazzling white and Moses and Elijah appear. It is Peter who voices the feeling, “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will build three tabernacles. One for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” The impulse is to build, to capture, and to hold on to a powerful moment. How many of us do not want to build a monument to a time when we had no doubts? The answer is none of us. I want you to see this and understand this. There will be a time to build the temple, but it is not now.

There is a great line nestled near the end of this passage that we cannot miss this morning. I put the verse at the top of your order of worship. I do not want you to miss it. Through His prophet, Nathan, God says, “I will make you a house.” Now I know what that is supposed to mean. I know that that is a reference to the future. I know that it means that God is going to build a wonderful kingdom and David’s blood line will last forever. I know that that is what that line is supposed to mean, but if you’ll give me a little freedom with the phrase, I would like to use it differently. The way I see it, you could interpret that one line a couple of different ways. First, it could mean, “Buy the supplies, call the concrete company to lay the foundation, I’m going to build you a house.” Or it could mean this, I am going to make you a house, a place where my spirit can live inside of you. The question that this text really wants to ask us is this one: “Where does God live these days? In this building of ours? Or really, does God live and lodge somewhere else?”

This building is where we worship Him, but I have always wanted to tell you this. Here is not where God really lives. You cannot contain God in four walls and I don’t think that you can keep him out of your heart. I have always wanted you to know this. Being here on Sunday is usually a powerful feeling; we have all known it. We have all felt it. It charges us up and keeps us going. But when you leave the sanctuary friends, God goes with you!

I have heard recently about some church buildings that have been destroyed.. There was a tornado that ripped through my hometown and took the Episcopal Church with it. My own home church is repairing their building to the tune of one million dollars. Bryan Gray shared with me that the company he works for had a contract to build an organ in a Presbyterian Church in New Jersey. Some folks were working in that church with a blow torch and soon the church burned down. In a worship service right after it happened, the pastor said this, “Our church is still very much alive, it’s just our building that’s toast!” Let me leave you with this question to think about. “Where does God really live.” Let us pray.

(Special thanks to the writings of Walter Wangerin. He is the young preacher in the opening story. You can find it and other powerful stories in his book, Little Lamb Who Made Thee? And special thanks to Bryan Gray who often helps me focus on the message of God’s Word).