God’s House – David’s House

So many of our Christmas songs talk about Home during the Holiday Season. When the daylight grows short and the rude wind’s wild lament groans around the corners of our lives, we remember with some nostalgia how we think Home used to be… Our Christmas cards picture trees being brought Home to a well-lit house, often by horse-drawn sleigh. Flannel-robed children, dogs & cats by the blazing hearth, all speak to our wishes of Home. “Home,” (said who, Robert Frost?) “is where they have to take you in.” So welcome to the never-land of how we wish things were. Scripture lessons for the upcoming weekend may speak to the jaded and disappointed, even to those whose noses are pressed to the window-pane.

King David sat back in his padded throne, kicked his sandals off, and breathed a sigh of belonging (I Samuel 7:1-11). “y’know”, said David to his right-hand prophet Nathan, “I live in a better house than YHWH does. I think I’ll build God a house.” But that night God said to Nathan that He’s doing fine–but don’t forget that I the Lord took you (David) from a shepherd to a warrior to a king, “and I have been with you wherever you went”. And there’s a verse added: “YOUR HOUSE and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me; your throne shall be established forever.” David’s House is his dynasty, his heritage. Is that what we hope for when we “go home for Christmas”?

The Epistle seems to be full of benedictions, lately. Romans 16:25-37 is another one–“to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever.” Its purpose on this Fourth Sunday of Advent, is to notice the transcendent presence of God even in the middle of holiday stress, political despair and economic insecurity. It is a response to the startling interventions of the Holy within our vale of secularity. The coming of Christ is news that breaks human-made boundaries and barriers, and sets the world back to innocence and the Voice of God calling in the Garden.

The Gospel, Luke 1:26-38, is the Story of the Annunciation: the angel Gabri-el comes to teen-aged Mary and makes amazing promises about the baby she shall have. “How can this be?” said she. And the answer comes to all of us, “Nothing will be impossible with God.” But don’t forget Joseph, the guy played by the tall kid in the oversize bathrobe in the Christmas pageant! Joseph is in the story for credentials: after all, he IS of the House of David. Even though the turning of the years has blunted the history of that House, we still remember with nostalgia the perfectness of those wondrous days. And now this House is to rise again! O, do we hope for relief from occupation, from taxes, from the secularity we bemoan all around us… Will God break into our lives again?

“Advent is a season of hopeful anticipation, but it begins with the acknowledgement of human despair….We prepare again to welcome the Prince of Peace amid a world filled with war, terrorism, poverty, disease and natural disasters.”–Cathy F. Young writes in FEASTING on the WORD, B 1:90. Even so, I and my house wish you a blessed Christmas!

In the process of unfolding, Horace Brown King

My musings on Scripture assigned to the upcoming weekend can be found every Tuesday at this spot on Facebook; or at horacebrownking.com