You Can't Control It
Spending most of my ministry inside the Beltway I have learned the best way to be alone in a coffee shop, not bothered by the over-eager person at the table next to you, is to put my Bible on the table next to my laptop or notebook. 99% of the time it works every time. Nothing acts like kryptonite in North Arlington than the combination of a clergy collar, a Bible – preferably opened to Revelation – and overpriced drip coffee.
Two Fridays ago, I was sitting at a table in Frederick, MD, my hometown, reading a book. I had my typical “out in the field” work setup that usually garners me great success in Arlington minus the clergy collar. A man and his girlfriend asked if they could join me. “Oh, sure, I’m just reading a book," I said all the while thinking this will not take too long. I flashed the cover of the book their way, The Ninefold Path of Jesus by Mark Scandrette. BAM, kryptonite! I was thinking they would say, “we’ll let you be.” After I had deployed what always worked in Arlington, 99% success rate remember, they sat down.
We exchanged pleasantries, sat in awkward silence for a while, and once I outed myself as a pastor (it was hard at that point to go with my typical architect or lawyer pseudo gig) Phil began to tell me about his brother. Phil described his brother as being the wild child of the family. Phil used the phrase “out of control” more than once and stated that his brother needed to get his life together and settle down. “Don’t we all,” I replied forgetting everything I had learned in the past year of Clinical Pastoral Education.
“Teer,” Phil said, “will you pray for my brother? You’re a pastor, you can do that right? Even if you don’t know him?”
“Well, I do know a little about him. Of course, I’ll pray for him. If you don’t mind me asking, what is your brother’s name?”
“His name is Jesus (Hey-Seus).”
David was finally able to rest. His people were settled in Jerusalem, the city that would bear his name. Once again, the Ark was in the possession of God’s people, the recipients of the covenant God made on Mount Saini. And David, he had constructed a home of cedar for himself.
Everyone and everything was where it belonged.
Their enemies were at bay.
David's kingdom had been established. His rule was legitimized.
Then, he had an idea.
“Look at this,” David said. “Here I am, comfortable in a luxurious house of cedar, and the Chest of God sits in a plain tent.”[1] It did not make sense to David that God would be in a tent while he, the king, resided comfortably in the posh-kingly digs of Jerusalem. Nathan, forgetting everything he was taught on the first day of prophet-school – not prayerfully conferring with God – OK’d the king’s building project. David was going to build a home for the Lord. In the ancient near-East the practice of building homes, temples, was a tool to legitimize a ruler’s rule as well as ensure favor with the gods or god of the earthly rulers choosing.
David’s status and place as king, but not yet his legacy, was sealed by defeating the Philistines and recovering the Ark. David’s building project was a further attempt to solidify his name, his rule, and his legacy. If David can move the Lord’s residence from the mobile Ark to a permanent temple no one would be able to question him, his rule, or his legacy. A temple would relocate the presence of the Lord, symbolized by the Ark to a permeant structure within David’s namesake city.
The Lord enters the scene, speaking to Nathan in a dream, “Thus says the Lord…[2] "Hey, Nathan since you didn't check with me on this one let me tell you and that king, I installed you as king and you didn’t think to check with how I might feel about this house and temple business you’ve cooked up.”[3] David and perhaps Nathan too had forgotten that up to that moment the Lord had been with David and Israel. “Now therefore thus you shall say to my servant David: Thus says the Lord of hosts: I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep to be prince over my people Israel; and I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies from before you; and I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may live in their own place, and be disturbed no more.”[4]
The Lord did not require or desire a home. The Lord would not be contained, domesticated, or moved away from God’s people. The Lord, though, did not back away from David. Instead of David building a house for the Lord, the Lord would build a house for David. The Lord would build a dynasty. The name and legacy of David would live on. “When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.”[5]
“Your brother’s name is Jesus (Hey-Seus)?” I asked. “As in Jesus?”
“Yes,” Phil responded.
“Please pray that he will settle down, get his life together, and you know, do what he’s supposed to do.”
“With a name like that, I don’t know how much praying will domesticate this guy,” I thought to myself.
“Of course, I’ll pray for your brother.”
David was able to control God just as much as I can prevent the movement of God with a well-placed Bible on a table. No matter how hard David tried, no matter how hard we try we are unable to domesticate, to control, to keep at bay the movement and presence of God. This section of 2 Samuel is titled “God’s Covenant with David” with God being the center of the story and not the actions of David no matter how well-intended or pious David’s actions were.
Introduced in this oracle to Nathan was the unconditional grace of God to Israel, the bedrock of hope, securing the hope of David and his people even when they turned away from God. God would raise up a house out of David’s name. David’s son will raise a temple, a house for the Lord, and ultimately the messianic hopes of all creation would bear David's name. Jesus would be born into David's line, bearing his name, establishing the house of God as the cornerstone, built upon the witness of the prophets and the apostles.
This is the kingdom, the Kingdom of God, we saw inaugurated in Bethlehem.
It was the kingdom, the Kingdom of God, that could not be broken by the pains of the cross and the separation of death.
And it is the kingdom, the Kingdom of God, Christ promises will be fully realized, by all of creation. All of creation repenting, turning back towards God and away from the security promised to us by power and lifestyle.
God’s Kingdom cannot be contained, manipulated or used to legitimize anything other than the reign of God in Jesus Christ.
I was reminded of this, again, on Monday morning. Seated in the corner at Starbucks on Lee Highway, my NRSV Bible was placed conspicuously on the corner of the table when one of the saints of Mount Olivet found me. I was not called out by title, no “Hey Pastor Teer!” atop the sound of coffee grinders and people demanding the speak to the manager. Rather a reminder that the church, along with all of creation is joined together, inseparable, and a growing temple, house of the Lord. Christ is in you. Christ is in us, in word and sacrament. So much so that the Lord cannot be controlled and is always with us.