Where God dwells

Reformation/Confirmation Sunday                            1 Kings 8    

This week, 6^th-8^th grade Confirmation students and mentors gathered on Wednesday evening and we watched Rick Steves’ program Luther and the Reformation together. If you didn’t have a chance to watch on Wednesday, it’s available online or DVD—just ask—and afterward, we had a few minutes to talk in pairs about what we saw. Here’s something I heard in those mini-conversations… “I watch how much things changed in that time 500 years ago, and I just wonder if we aren’t due for another change like that?! Will this building even be standing 500 years from now?”
What will last? What can we depend on in times of great change?

So it’s interesting that on this Reformation Sunday, we have a window back—way back—not just 500 years, but nearly 3000 years back, all the way to the time of Solomon.[1] Solomon wants to do what God’s people have been imagining ever since they followed Moses out of Egypt, they want to build a temple as a place of encounter with God. They had followed a tent for so long—those of you in Godly Play have heard this story—about following the ark of the Covenant (the box that held the stones that Moses received from God) through the wilderness.
Now the people had settled down, and they begged for a King. God tried to tell them, let me be your king. But the people wanted a king like others had, so God gave them first Saul and then, their best, most well-loved King David. David first had this vision of a beautiful temple built for God, but God told David this wouldn’t happen in his time. His son, Solomon, would build it… and so he did. Solomon became so wise and powerful and wealthy among his neighbors, that he built what his father had only dreamed of… and it was magnificent.

God had appeared in fire and clouds for as long as the people could remember, and even longer. They never experienced God directly and God was always on the move… but now, finally, they imagined that God would finally be in one place… forever.

But did you notice what Solomon said at the very end of the reading?

“The Lord has said that he would dwell in thick darkness. I have built you an exalted house,
    a place for you to dwell in forever.”

1^st Kings was probably composed around 550 BCE, at least 30 years after the First Temple was destroyed. Notice how we, in times of chaos and transition, often look back to a time (real or imagined through nostalgia) when things were more stable and reliable…

Here’s another important detail… even with all its glories, the writer notes that the only thing in the ark of the Covenant was the two stone tablets (where God wrote the Torah, or what we call the 10 commandments or the 10 best ways in Godly Play). That’s all there was… just the Covenant between God and people… and a spreading cloud that somehow was God’s glory spreading out way beyond the walls of the Temple.

I think that it’s reassuring somehow that even though what many people want is a place where we can go to where we will be able to encounter God reliably, forever, that actually God’s glory shows up in places where we can’t really see clearly the way forward. That has to be how the people felt when the Temple was destroyed… until they remembered, actually God was never really contained there. God’s presence flowed out from there, but remember, the only thing actually in the ark was the stone tablets, and they were important for what they signified—the relationship between God and God’s people.

At the dedication of the temple, Solomon prayed a very long prayer, asking God to show up in this temple, asking God to help people know what God wanted them to do in various situations. Then Solomon turned to the people and blessed them, closing with these words: “Obey the Lord our God and follow his commands with all your heart, just as you are doing today.”

We gather in this space (and in many spaces) because God’s house is a place to celebrate and honor God’s covenant with us. Hopefully, our gathering spaces honor the promise between God and God’s people. But the main dwelling place of God has been and is the people.

In one of our preaching resources, the author asked:

What is taught in your place of worship? It is a place where the music or decorations are more important than the people who like or dislike the music or decorations? Is it a place where the “shoulds” and “should-nots” speak louder than the covenant of forgiveness? Is it a place that excludes outside groups to preserve the integrity of the carpet?

Or is your place of worship a place where people of different colors, cultures, genders, ages, and abilities share the same pews? Is it a place where the cries and voices of children are holy noise? Is it a landing place where disciples then go out into the world to do God’s work? Is it a place where God’s covenant with the world is proclaimed, and God’s love is honored and accepted with humility and grace?

When I say “I love this church,” it’s because of the many, many ways we are practicing that second way… where the people are more important than our personal preferences, where mercy is more powerful than judgement, where people are included over and over again, even when that requires replacing the carpet or the kitchen or the sound system because together with our partners, we’ve just worn them out.

No, we’re not doing those things perfectly here, and often, it’s hard work to figure out our shared values across significant differences, but even when we don’t know for sure, we are on this kind of way together… a way where God is constantly loving us through challenges, and reforming this part of the body of Christ again and again. Those of you who newly join as members today—you are reforming this church into a new “us.” Those of you who worship here regularly or occasionally, you make us new.

And so, even as we celebrate a momentous occasion—the 500^th anniversary of Martin Luther’s 95 ideas for reform that sparked unimaginable change throughout the world—even as we learn the history, remember, try to mend what was broken, and rejoice in the good that has come, we really can’t be stuck in nostalgia. We look back to honor those who have taught us along the way, to those reformers and mentors (ancient and contemporary) who said something to us that changed us for the better, but we can’t cling to the past… because God keeps calling us to be here, now, recognizing that even if now is like a thick dark cloud and we can’t really imagine what exactly what will come next… God is present in that place of not knowing, the glory of God is all around us… here and now.

In a few moments, seven 9^th & 10^th graders will stand and be reminded of the covenant (the promises) God made to them in baptism… and then, they’ll state their intentions for how they want to live in that relationship with God. They say five things…

And I always ask each one as we meet to prepare for today, what’s the one that really makes you say “yes!” Nearly always, our kids want to work for justice and peace through all the earth. Sometimes, one or two are drawn to this practice – proclaim the gospel through word and deed. This year, two chose this – to live among God’s faithful people.

I’m moved by this one especially this time…

There is so much to reform in our world and in our church, there is so much peace and justice work to be done, there are so many ways we want and need to show up in loving ways in our life… and we can’t do it alone. We need to be with God’s faithful people—those who will remind us we’re loved when aren’t trusting in that, those who can challenge us to stand up and raise our voices, those who comfort us in grief, those who say the word we need to receive to safety net us out of despair…

God’s presence fills this place and extends far beyond it… and we need to gather, not because our places are eternal, but because what we may receive when we’re together is actually the real presence of God… embodied and living in the diverse people you see around you, broken and blessed, through the water, the word, the bread, the body.

When the people were first reading 1^st Kings’ story of Solomon’s grand temple and how it would last forever, most likely, it was already a ruins… and they had the choice to cling to the past…

…or to remember the way that God is always creating and re-creating places to worship the God who wants to be your God,  your God,  your God,  your God,  your God,  your God,

God wants to be our God, so that nothing else would have power over us, except the covenant of love—not death, not any evil powers or systems, not any empty promises—and instead, we would be free to fully love our neighbors.

Now, some of us might think (like the people of Jesus’ own day), we’re free, we’ve never been enslaved to anyone! How lucky and privileged we are…

But that is why God keeps reforming us—so that we will become awake to how deeply interconnected we are—and know that as long as even one of us is experiencing any intersection of oppression, fear, despair, grief, violence—if any of us is suffering any of those, then God’s work and our work together with God is not done.

I asked another person at the movie night, “What do you think is reforming in the church right now?” And that student said, “I think that now, you can come to church if you’re different. And I think that’s good.” Yes.

Until every different person can freely taste and see the goodness of God, and experience loving community, the reformation is still on and continues… and you are called and invited to be part of God’s reforming work.

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[1] Approximate date of destruction of First Temple 587 BCE (stood for perhaps 400 years). Approximate date of 1 Kings, 550 BCE.