Homily, Building a Place for God Within
Fourth Sunday of Advent, Year B, 2023
Good Shepherd Episcopal Church
Tequesta, FL
The Rev. Derek M Larson, TSSF
Today’s Lectionary Readings:
In the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Who here likes to build things? Maybe you don’t. We’re all different, of course, but I love to build things. Whether its furniture from Ikea, or tables out of wood pallets, or a fort of blankets for the kids in the living room, I have always liked to build. And I have this silly, little habit that my wife sometimes pokes fun at me for. Whenever I finish a project and have built something, I like to pull up a chair and just look at it. Have you ever done that? I just sit there and stare at the work I’ve done. A few weeks ago I put together a shed from Home Depot in the backyard of the parsonage, and I still find myself sometimes staring out the kitchen window at that magnificent structure.
I love building. I love the feeling of creating something with my own hands, and then seeing the result there before me. I love the sense of pride that comes from using something that I’ve built, or even giving something away as a gift that I created. There is a special connection between a creator and the created, an artist and the art, a builder and the building. I love it.
And I imagine I share that love with King David. He was a builder. Though not always as much as he would have liked, and not as much as his son, but he was a builder. And we see that in our first reading today from 2 Samuel. In this passage David has just been instituted as king and has built himself a magnificent house of cedar. But as he looks out his window, he sees a tent. And in that tent is the Ark of the Covenant, which held the presence of God in its most tangible form. And he thinks to himself, “Why am I in this magnificent house, but God is in a tent? I should build for God a house.”
In our reading we only get a glimpse of David’s excitement for this idea. Without telling the whole story, David was never able to build a house for God, that was left for his son, Solomon, but he planned out every detail of the project as you can read in 1 Chronicles 22 and 23 and 24 and 25 all the way through 29 at the end of the book. David had a passion for the building of this temple and he carried that passion to the end of his life.
God, on the other hand, was less than enthusiastic about the project as we read in this morning’s passage when God essentially says, “In all this time of walking with Israel, have I ever said to anyone that I want a House of Cedar?” It’s not the building that God minded, I don’t think, instead, I think it was the idea that God could be placed somewhere with walls that would separate God from being able to move freely among the people. It’s as if God says, “Sure, a house is nice and all, but how often would you visit me? How often would you come within its walls? I much prefer to dwell among you without any walls to separate us.”
In contrast to this story is today’s gospel reading. The story of the Annunciation. One is about a woman, and one about a man. One is about a king, and one is about a poor woman. One is about a human’s plans for God. One is about God’s plans for a human. But the difference that strikes me the most about these two passages is this: while God did not find a House of Cedar a fitting place to reside, God found the womb of a woman a worthy place to make a home.
Isn’t that incredible? God had no interest in David’s dreams for a Divine mansion, but God had every desire to dwell within a humble woman.
Now there’s some scholarly debate about why it is Mary that God chooses. In the passage we hear this wonderful phrase, “favored one”, used by the angel Gabriel about Mary, but there is debate about what this phrase actually means. Many scholars, particularly Roman Catholic scholars who believe in the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, or the sinlessness of Mary, say that Mary had some special quality among all women that God desired her for this sacred task of bringing God’s son into the world. God favored her because she was righteous.
There are, however, other scholars who say that what makes Mary favored is not any quality or deed of her own, what makes her favored is that God favors her. That God loved her. And that it is because God loved her, and not because of any righteousness of her own, that God chose to dwell in her. Now I love some good Roman Catholic theology, but on this one, I think fall with the latter position.
Because like Mary, we are not all perfect, but we are all favored by God. We are all loved by God. And Mary stands for us as a representative of God’s desire to dwell in each of us.
As 13th century German mystic, Meister Eckhart wrote, “We are all meant to be mothers of God… What good is it to me if Mary is full of grace if I am not also full of grace? What good is it me for the Creator to give birth to his Son if I do not also give birth to him in my time and my culture? This, then, is the fullness of time: When the Son of Man is begotten in us.” Mary stands as a representative of all humanity and the favor of God on all who make room for Christ within themselves. Which is captured so well in the opening collect for today’s service, “open our hearts and enlighten our minds, that your Son Jesus Christ at his coming may find in us a dwelling place.”
Now back to the building for a moment. Many of us, like David, feel like we need to build something to earn God’s favor. Many of us have spiritualities which base God’s favor towards us on things that we do, on things that we accomplish, our own righteousness and goodness. And unfortunately, because we can never build something great enough for God to dwell in, we never feel like we can receive God’s favor.
But the truth is, before you do a single thing, you already have God’s favor. Even now, you are favored and loved by God. And God wants to dwell within you.
Building things is nice. Accomplishing things is great. We do those things because we are made in the image of a God who creates and God is the one that calls us and equips us to do those things. But in the end it is not what we do that God desires, it is simply ourselves that God desires. To paraphrase the great Episcopalian, Mariah Carey, “All God wants for Christmas is you.” To dwell in you. To be close to you.
God doesn’t want you to build for God a house, God wants for you yourself to be for God a house. If you are going to build something, build a place within you for God to dwell. God doesn’t need anything from you; God just wants to be with you. God just wants to pull up a chair, and sit down, and delight in you, the work of God’s own hands.
So be like Mary, and receive God’s favor, and say yes, “Here am I, let it be” and allow God to dwell within you. Amen.
Thoughts on Faith 