You know the story of King David, the shepherd boy who was chosen and called by the Lord to shepherd His people, Israel, as King. No doubt you recall his ups and downs — how David killed a man and stole his wife, Bathsheba, after committing adultery with her; and how his own son, Absalom, rebelled against him and then was killed in the course of his rebellion — but also his great courage in facing down and killing the giant, Goliath, with nothing but a slingshot and his fear, love, and trust in God; and his overall success as King, beloved of the Lord and the people.
It was after many years of warfare and conquest, when the Kingdom of Israel was prosperous, large, and secure — and David was comfortably seated upon his throne in a brand new palace — that he developed a pious and well-intentioned plan: He would magnify the Lord by building Him a house, a magnificent temple surpassing the royal palace. So he intended to give thanks to God.
It sure sounded like a great idea, even to the Prophet Nathan. And surely David’s intentions were good (notwithstanding what they say about the road of good intentions). But he was mistaken in supposing that the humble things of this body and life are beneath the purposes of the Lord God; and he was wrong to be embarrassed that the Ark of God was dwelling in a tent (the Tabernacle).
It was the Lord God Himself who had chosen to cause His Name and His Old Testament Means of Grace to dwell among the people in the Tabernacle, that He should thereby deal with them in mercy and preserve them with His forgiveness of sins. And it was likewise the Lord God Himself who had taken David from the humility of herding sheep to be the mighty shepherd-king of Israel. So it was not for David to do any favors for God or to improve upon the purposes of the Lord.
The problem is that your own fallen flesh is prone to think and act in the same way that David was at that point, as though you could actually help God out and deal with Him according to your own ideas and with your own efforts, rather than relying exclusively on His Word and on His Gifts.
By the same token, it has always been rather sobering and instructive to me, as a pastor, to consider the way things went in this case with the Prophet Nathan. When King David came to him with his idea for a temple, Nathan immediately replied, “Go right ahead; the Lord is with you.” But the Lord actually had a very different message for David, with which He sent Nathan back to the King.
The Prophet had spoken out of turn, apart from the Word of the Lord; and so he got it wrong. And so I am reminded how easy it is to fall into the same kind of error. When people are actually eager and excited about some new project or program, when they want to contribute and get involved in some new effort or activity, the instinctive gut reaction is to encourage them to go for it. It’s so easy, then, to speak out of turn, without considering the Word of the Lord, when you’re faced with enthusiastic volunteers offering to do something (even if it doesn’t really fit the situation).
The truth is that Nathan should have waited, first of all, to hear what the Lord would say. And so must a pastor take the time to consider every potential activity of the Church in the light of the Lord’s clear and certain Word. Likewise, I dare not enter this pulpit or attempt a Bible class, unless I can say with confidence concerning my preaching and teaching, “Thus says the Lord.”
But, again, our flesh is prone to go with the flow in thinking like David instead of the Lord.
Consider how easily and often you cringe at the “foolishness” of the Cross, if not as an historical event, then as the way by which the Lord God reveals and gives Himself to you now. As St. Paul has written, the Cross is a scandal and a stumbling block to the world and to your own sinful heart, mind, body, and life. Despite the testimony of the Holy Scriptures, the Cross and Passion of Christ Jesus do not compute with your feelings about “God” and what you think He should be like.
And by the same token, the ordinary Word of the Gospel and the humble Sacraments of the same Lord Jesus Christ do not square with the way you hope and expect that God will deal with you. Are you not more readily pleased and impressed by the glories, successes, and monuments of the world than content and satisfied with the Means of Grace that God Himself has chosen and given to you within the fellowship of His Church? Does the Body of Christ not seem like a mere tent, as He tabernacles with you in His Flesh and Blood, seemingly unworthy of the God you desire?
Those who weary of the Sacrament of the Altar (and hearing about it) are of the same mind as King David when he presumed that he would build a temple for the Lord, something better than a tent.
But, no, the Lord does not need your help or your advice. Your ways are not better than His ways, and your thoughts are not as high (much less higher) than His thoughts. On the contrary, you need Him and depend on Him for everything — every breath, every moment, every penny, every bite. And with all of that, what you need from the Lord above all else is to be instructed by His Word and Holy Spirit, in order to learn His way of thinking and to forget the expectations of the world.
If the Lord your God chooses to dwell in a tent — if He chooses in love to hand Himself over to the Cross as the Sacrifice of Atonement for the sins of the world — and if chooses to deal with you, to reveal and give Himself to you, in the humble simplicity of words and water, bread and wine — as He has done — then you’ll not improve upon His ways and means, but you must be humbled and taught the true wisdom of His apparent “foolishness.” Instead of trying to liven up the Lord, you must be crucified and put to death to yourself by way of contrition and repentance.
It is fundamental that you must recognize your need for the Lord your God, and that you go to Him for all that He would do and say and give — by His own ways and means — instead of presuming to help Him. In respect to your relationship with the Lord, “‘Tis far better to receive than to give.”
Which is not at all to say that you should simply sit around doing nothing and waiting for God and others to serve and care for you. St. Paul shuts that way of thinking down elsewhere in his letters. To begin with, you have your own particular calling and station from the Lord, just as David was called and anointed by God to be King over Israel. So do you have your duties and responsibilities in this body and life on earth, in relation to the neighbors whom the Lord has set alongside of you.
What is more, it is quite right and appropriate, with respect to the Lord, that we should beautify and care for His House of Prayer and conduct ourselves in His presence with dignity and reverence befitting His Holy Name and His grace toward us. But the key here is that His Name and His grace are His good gifts to His Church, which you receive and use and enjoy according to His Word.
Whatever you may do or give in support of His Church and Ministry of the Gospel is rightly a confession of His Word to you and a sacrifice of thanksgiving for all His gifts and benefits to you. Likewise, all that you do and say and give in love for your family, friends, and all your neighbors (whether at Christmas or whenever) is a reflection and extension of the Lord’s divine love for you. Everything begins and continues with the good and gracious Word and works of God, the Lord.
As the Prophet Nathan also learned after his premature blessing of King David’s plan, you are to live your life and worship the Lord in strict accordance with His Word, no matter how foolish or nonsensical it may seem to the world and your own flesh. In sticking to His Word and clinging to His promises, you have done your part, even as the outcome and all things remain in His care.
That is the “obedience of faith,” as St. Paul has described in the Epistle. For faith hears, receives, and believes the “Mystery” of the Gospel in the preaching of Christ Jesus, even though it remains a mysterious “secret” to the world. As God alone is wise, so faith lives according to His Word.
You have heard an example of this “obedient faith,” a true Christian example of the proper way to “magnify the Lord,” in the response of the Virgin Mary to the Annunciation of Gabriel. And here you find that King David’s dear descendent has been taught by the Word and Spirit of God.
The message the Lord delivers to St. Mary by the Archangel Gabriel fulfills the Word He spoke to David by the Prophet Nathan. For here and now He is establishing the House of David in the Person of the Son of God, in His own Body of flesh and blood taken from the body of St. Mary. His Name shall be “Jesus,” because He is the Lord, Yahweh, who comes to save His people from their sins. As true God and true Man, He lives and reigns forever in His Kingdom without end.
It is true, of course, that David’s more immediate son and royal successor, King Solomon, did build a Temple for Yahweh (following David’s death). But as magnificent as Solomon’s Temple was, it was a sign pointing forward to the true “House” of great David’s greater Son, the King of kings and Lord of lords, your dear Savior, Jesus Christ, who is Himself the House and Temple of God.
And St. Mary, a distant descendant of David, magnified the Lord in response to His Word, not by offering to do or build anything for Him, but simply by trusting His Word, despite the apparent nonsense of a virgin birth, and by receiving the Son of God into her womb in humility and faith.
In this Blessed Virgin Mary we have another example of God’s choice and preference to dwell in a simple “tent,” as it were, instead of a royal palace. For she is no queen or princess of the world, but a meek and lowly young woman, little known or regarded by anyone other than the Lord.
That the almighty and eternal Son of the living God, the Creator and Ruler of the Universe, should thus become for us the tiniest of little human beings, an Embryo conceived within His Mother’s womb, then living and growing through all the stages of human life and development — that is an event of cosmic proportions and divine compassion beyond the comprehension of our finite human minds. I daresay that none of us will ever grasp the magnitude of that divine Mystery; it is too much for us. In the humility of faith we simply bow before the Lord in His own Flesh and Blood.
For it is in His Body of human flesh and blood (like your own) that His everlasting Kingdom is established, not only in heaven, but already here and now in the midst of this fallen, sinful world, full of sickness, sorrow, sin, and death. Conceived and born of St. Mary, crucified under Pontius Pilate, put to death and buried, but now risen and ascended in His Body to the right hand of His Father — living and reigning in love to all eternity as the incarnate Son, the Lord’s Anointed, the King of all Creation — He establishes, nurtures and sustains, preserves and prospers His Church on earth, His Body and Bride, by His Word and Holy Spirit and by and with His Flesh and Blood, given and poured out for the forgiveness of sins, unto Life and Salvation with God in body and soul. So the House of God in the Body of Christ Jesus is to be found wherever His Word is taught in its truth and purity and His Holy Sacraments are administered in accordance with His Gospel.
And so it is that this earthly building we are in — built by sinful human beings out of perishable materials like bricks and wood — is rightly called and truly is the House of God, because Christ Jesus is actively present and at work in this place with His Word and Spirit, Flesh and Blood.
With St. Mary, we magnify our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, not by erecting monuments to Him, as David desired to do, but rather by honoring Him as our Host and receiving His hospitality as guests in His House, hearing and trusting His Word and relying on His good and gracious Gifts.
So do you magnify the Lord by praying and confessing that He will speedily help and deliver you and His whole Church by His grace and mercy. You glorify His Name by confessing your sins and weaknesses, yet seeking His forgiveness, life, and salvation with confident trust in His Gospel.
That is chiefly what it means to be a Christian and a child of God — to depend on Him, as your Father in Christ Jesus, for all things — to receive all that He gives for this body and life and for the Life everlasting in faith and with thanksgiving — and so to love one another as He loves you.
God grant His grace and Spirit to you and to each and all of us, therefore, that we might pray and confess with St. Mary: “Thy Will be done,” O Lord! “Let it be to us according to Thy Word.”
In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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