House of God

Propers: The Fourth Sunday of Advent, A.D. 2017 B

Homily:

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

David wanted to build for God a House.

And not just any House, mind you, but the greatest and most extravagant House in all the Near East. It would in many ways look like the temples that the Greeks and the Canaanites built for their gods, but with key distinctions. This was no mere shrine to some local desert deity, for indeed the Hebrews worshipped the One God, the True God, the Almighty and Most High Creator of all. Such a God could not be represented in a mere statue of marble or idol of gold.

No, the House that David wanted to build would be something different altogether. It would be a microcosm, the universe in miniature, with the earth and the heavens arrayed in all their glory. There would be the Garden of Eden, where God and Man once dwelt together, and the blazing Tree of Life, our once and future hope.

And there at the center of that House, looming over yet concealed by the veil of the cosmos, would rise the Sanctum Sanctorum, the Holy of Holies. And in this sacred space would stand no statue, no giant bust of Zeus, but rather the Ark of the Covenant: the physical manifestation of God’s promise to Israel, that He would be their God, and they would be His people, and He would make of them a great nation so that they would be a blessing to all the peoples of the earth!

God kept up His end of the bargain. He stayed true to the family of Abraham through thick and thin, through slavery and liberation, through shame and through glory. And the people had become a great nation, wealthy and influential, poised at the crossroads between Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. And so now David, King of the Israelites, ruled a strong and secure empire of his own at the very heart of the world, all thanks to the mercies and faithfulness of God, the Creator of all worlds, the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, the God of Israel.

And so it was only fitting, David believed, that a House be erected in God’s honor, a House for the Ark of His Covenant. Now, David was no fool. He knew that the One God, the God of gods, could not be contained in a House made with hands. Nor could He be truly localized, for while He had chosen Israel to be His special priestly nation, nevertheless He was the God of all peoples, whether they knew it or not.

Yet if Canaanites built houses for Molech and Greeks for Artemis or Athena, then surely it was right and proper for those who knew the True God to honor Him in better fashion. Or so David reasoned.

But God would have none of it. “Are you the one to build Me a House to live in?” God retorts. “I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day.” You might as well build an aquarium to fit the ocean. “I took you from the pasture,” says God to David, reminding him of his humble origins, “and I have been with you wherever you went … Moreover the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a House!”

You want to make a House for Me? sayeth the Lord. Nay, I will make a House for you! And here we have a bit of wordplay, because in Hebrew, rather like in English, the word for House can mean a palace, a temple, or a dynasty. David wanted to build for God a Temple, yet in response God promises to build for David a dynasty, a royal lineage that will never die. A descendant of David will always and forever sit on the Throne of Judah, sayeth the Lord. And that’s final! The Davidic kingship has been given divine decree in perpetuity.

Now of course, God does give David permission to plan a Temple: a grand, unique Temple, seemingly fit for the Most High God. It will be built in the reign of Solomon, King David’s son and heir. And even Solomon, while building it, freely admits that his House of stone can never hope to contain the God who contains Creation. Nevertheless, the Temple of Solomon will go on to become the most famous religious House in the eastern world, standing as a monument and tribute to the faithfulness of God for a thousand years!

But it’s still just stone. It cannot contain God.

Yet there is more going on here than we know, for God’s plans are infinitely intricate, spinning wheels within wheels. When David proposed to build a House for God, God planted the seed for what would become His true House, His true home, the Living Temple of the Living God. For God knew before all ages that Man would Fall from grace and break the world. And He knew that to fix Creation, to save our broken race and mend our broken world, He Himself, the Creator, must enter His Creation, like an Author stepping into His own book. God would become Man, to save us, as it were, from the inside out.

And He would do this through the House of David. The crown of Solomon’s royal line would be passed down, generation upon generation, for a thousand years. Long after the kingdom fell, long after David and his wonders crumbled to dust, God’s promise remained pure and true, like a thread of gold woven into the tattered tapestry of history—until at long last, in the fullness of time, it fell to a woman named Mary.

She, like Joseph her betrothed, was of the royal House and lineage of David. Humble though they were, poor though they were, they were of ancient royal blood. And in the flesh of Mary, beneath the guardianship of Joseph, the Eternal Word of the Eternal Father—God from God, Light from Light, True God from True God—became flesh and dwelt among us. The Infinite and Almighty Creator, in whom we all live and move and have our being, fit Himself entirely within the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, within a tiny clump of cells, the Infinite made small, the Almighty made vulnerable.

This is the House of the Lord. This is the True and Living Temple of the True and Living God: Jesus Christ, God made Man, God made flesh, come down to dwell among us and shoulder our burdens and weep for our sins and bleed for our salvation. The universe itself, indeed all possible universes, could not hope to contain Him, yet Mary does. Mary is the New Ark containing the New Covenant. Mary is the temple that contains the Temple. Mary is the Queen Mother to the King of Kings.

This is the miracle of Christmas. It is not yet time to introduce Him to the world. That will come at His birth, His Nativity, sung by angels and heralded by a Star and worshipped by shepherds and Magi alike. That will all come soon enough. For now the King is here, in secret, in silence, in the womb. The Creator has entered Creation so quietly that only the softest of souls might notice.

Soon, soon He is born for us all. For now He dwells in that House not made with hands; the House of His servant David; the House of His Mother’s womb.

Let all mortal flesh keep silence.

In the Name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Hymn of the Day: “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence”

Let all mortal flesh keep silence,

And with fear and trembling stand;

Ponder nothing earthly minded,

For with blessing in His hand,

Christ our God to earth descending

Comes our homage to demand.

King of kings, yet born of Mary,

As of old on earth He stood,

Lord of lords, in human vesture,

In the body and the blood;

He will give to all the faithful

His own self for heavenly food.

Rank on rank the host of heaven

Spreads its vanguard on the way,

As the Light of light descendeth

From the realms of endless day,

Comes the powers of hell to vanquish

As the darkness clears away.

At His feet the six winged seraph,

Cherubim with sleepless eye,

Veil their faces to the presence,

As with ceaseless voice they cry:

Alleluia, Alleluia

Alleluia, Lord Most High!