Text used – 2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16

• One of my favorite shows to watch with my family when I was home from college was Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.
  • Show that used to be on ABC → family would be nominated by friends, family members, co-workers, community members for an elaborate home makeover
    • Families were always people who were living in a house that was not good for them
      • In disrepair
      • Dealing with issues like mold
      • Inaccessible/physically troublesome for someone with a disability → e.g. – doorways too small for a wheelchair
    • Families were also always people who did good things
      • People who made their communities better
      • People who made the world better
      • People who, despite being “down on their luck,” still found ways to give
  • Host Ty Pennigton and his team would show up at the family’s home, talk to them about what they needed and what they liked, send the family on an amazing vacation, and either fix/add on to their home or build them an entirely new one … in just one short week
    • Focus family’s extended family members would come help
    • Friends and co-workers would come help
    • Sometimes an entire community would come out
    • And at the end of the week, there’s be this huge, amazing reveal where the family got to walk through their new home for the first time and see all of the amazing stuff that the team did. And, especially toward the end of the series, the family usually learned that whatever remained of their mortgage had been paid off as well. It was the kind of show you couldn’t watch without crying.
      • So much gratitude
      • Powerful to see people so blessed
      • And one of the things that really got me was always how humble the receiving family was. They never felt like they were anyone special or deserving of this incredible gift. They never expected any kind of recompense for the kindness that they put out into the world. They were always just amazed that someone else had thought of them in that way. It was that flip-flop – them being on the receiving end of kindness and generosity instead of the giving end – that really got me.
• And that’s not so different from where we find King David in our Scripture passage this morning.
  • Background
    • Still closer to the beginning of King David’s story
      • Whole debacle with Saul is over and done with → Saul is dead[1], and David is the settled king over the whole of Israel[2] (before northern and southern kingdoms split)
        • Find David riding a bit of a high
          • Just after being made king, David and his forces marched against the city of Jerusalem, held by the Jebusites at the time, and conquered it, establishing it as David’s city and building his palace within.[3]
          • In addition → Philistines have heard that David is now king, so they come to march against him (payback for the whole incident with Goliath when David was a youth) à But despite the fact that the Philistines attacked David and his army, the Philistines were defeated.[4]
          • And after these victories, David decides to bring the ark back into the city[5] – God’s chest, the chest that, according to the book of Hebrews, contained “a gold jar containing manna, Aaron’s rod that budded, and the stone tablets of the covenant”[6]
            • Chest had been kept safe in the home of Abinadab and Eleazar after being stolen, then returned by the Philistines before Saul was made king[7]
            • Brought in with much fanfare, sacrifices, and dancing
  • And it’s on the heels of that celebration that we join David’s story with our passage this morning. Clearly, David is in a good place! – beginning of today’s text: When the king was settled in his palace, and the Lord had given him rest from all his surrounding enemies
    • Heb. “settled” = connotations of being established and enduring → There is a finality and a permanence to the way David feels as our text begins this morning.
      • Reiterated with Heb. “rest”: calm, remain → It’s another word that carries implications of being settled in comfort and safety.
    • And in that settled state, King David looks around and realizes that, while he’s safe and comfortable in his lavish palace, “God’s chest is housed in a tent!”[8] And this thought appalls him. Now, our text never actually says that David decides to build a temple for God – a grand and glorious home like the one David himself now enjoys. But the implication is there.
      • Nathan’s words: “Go ahead and do whatever you are thinking, because the Lord is with you.”[9]
      • Directly following that = God’s words to Nathan in a dream that night: Go to my servant David and tell him: This is what the Lord says: You are not the one to build the temple for me to live in.[10] → So it’s pretty apparent that that’s what David was in the early stages of planning.
• And it’s what God says next that brings this passage into the realm of Advent and this theme that we’ve been talking about this year of where we belong and finding that place of ultimate belonging with God. – God’s continued words to King David (through prophet Nathan): In fact, I haven’t lived in a temple from the day I brought Israel out of Egypt until now. Instead, I have been traveling around in a tent and in a dwelling. Throughout my traveling around with the Israelites, did I ever ask any of Israel’s tribe leaders I appointed to shepherd my people: Why haven’t you built me a cedar temple? So then, say this to my servant David: This is what the Lord of heavenly forces says: I took you from the pasture, from following the flock, to be leader over my people Israel. I’ve been with you wherever you’ve gone, and I’ve eliminated all your enemies before you. Now I will make your name great – like the name of the greatest people on earth. … Your dynasty and your kingdom will be secured forever before me. Your throne will be established forever.[11] → Now, I know that’s a lot, but it’s all important, so let’s break it down a bit.
  • First part: God’s point about traveling with the people
    • God is making it clear that what God desires above all else is to be with the people
      • God doesn’t desire the extravagance of gold and cedar, of plush fabrics and bejeweled ornaments
      • God is saying to David, “I have spent all my time traveling with the people, living in tents as they did, and I never once complained because that is where I wanted to be: with the people.” God even emphasizes this by reassuring David, “I’ve been with you wherever you’ve gone” and reminding David that many of those places have been humble, simple places: “from the pasture, from following the flock.”
        • Certainly seems to turn David’s and Nathan’s expectations upside-down – scholar: According to the text, both king and prophet have misjudged the mind of the Lord. … David and Nathan misconceive the character and purpose of the One they worship. … The king and the prophet discover they are in the presence of the One who confounds human expectations and surprises even the faithful – or especially the faithful, who presume to know how God is acting because it is the way God must [12] → goes on to describe God as “the God who is not captive to human expectations and who – not only once upon a time, but time and time again – scatters “the proud in the thoughts of their hearts,” brings “down the powerful from their thrones,” lifts “up the lowly,” fills “the hungry with good things,” and sends “the rich away empty” (to quote Mary’s Magnificat from Luke 1)[13]
    • And it’s exactly this longing – God’s desire to be with the people in the midst of their everyday and their every circumstance – that we honor and celebrate and await in this season of Advent.
      • Wait for the birth of Jesus the Christ, Emmanuel, God-With-Us → a time when God once again yielded lavishness and majesty for the humblest of dwellings: humanity itself
      • Waiting for Christ to return to this humble, broken, crazy world and bring us back into that way of peace everlasting
      • Scholar: Think about the vulnerability of a tent. The tents of David’s day would have been made of animal skins and woven materials or rugs. They would have been patched probably and torn by the winds. Even the tent of the Lord would have been threatened by the forces of nature and would have had to be rebuilt periodically. … The tent’s fragility is the price paid for its mobility. As we take the last steps toward our celebration of the incarnation, it seems appropriate to linger for a moment over the idea of a God who is constantly ready to pull up stakes and move where we go, sleep where we sleep, and be buffeted by the same winds that blow sand in our eyes and tear the roofs off the shelters we erect: Emmanuel![14]
  • But God doesn’t stop there with David. God is not content with turning David’s expectations upside-down. God also flips them back to front. → in response to David’s desire to build God a lasting and bountiful home, God promises to make David’s name great: “Your dynasty and your kingdom will be secured forever before me. Your throne will be established forever.”[15]
    • Tuhina Verma Rasche (architect of this particular Advent series theme): Of course, God is the God of reversals and surprises. God tells David, “I will establish you a home, for you and your people, and I will establish a dynasty.” This home, this dynasty? This is a significant proclamation to come from God. Especially for a people who have lived with displacement, who have a history of wandering, including a good forty years in the desert, having this home is paramount.[16] → This declaration is one we feel like we can gloss over nowadays because dynasties really don’t mean anything to us. But God is promising the people residence and roots. God is promising the people not only a place but an identity in which they can dwell. Yes, God sent the people wandering in the wilderness for 40 yrs. as punishment for their lack of faith, but not only is God saying, “I was with you in all your wandering,” but God is also saying, “That wandering time is over. I am bringing your wandering to an end. You are home.” Truly, it is the best kind of surprise. Thanks be to God. Amen.

[1] 1 Sam 31-2 Sam 1.

[2] 2 Sam 5:1-5.

[3] 2 Sam 5:6-15.

[4] 2 Sam 5:17-25.

[5] 2 Sam 6.

[6] Heb 9:4.

[7] 1 Sam 4-6.

[8] 2 Sam 7:2.

[9] 2 Sam 7:3.

[10] 2 Sam 7:5.

[11] 2 Sam 7:6-9, 16.

[12] Eugene C. Bay. “Fourth Sunday in Advent – 2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16 – Pastoral Perspective” in Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary – year B, vol. 1. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008), 76.

[13] Bay, 76.

[14] Linda Lee Clader. “Fourth Sunday in Advent – 2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16 – Homiletical Perspective” in Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary – year B, vol. 1. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008), 79.

[15] 2 Sam 7:16.

[16] Tuhina Verma Rasche. “Advent/Christmas Series: Where We Belong – Advent 4: Pitching the Tent” in A Preacher’s Guide to Lectionary Sermon Series: Thematic Plans for Years A, B, and C, vol. 2. Complied by Jessica Miller Kelley. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2019), 85.