· 2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16
· Psalm 89:1-4, 19-26 (1)
· Romans 16:25-27
· Luke 1:26-38
This passage from 2 Samuel conveniently summarises two main themes I've been preaching about: that loot doesn't matter to God, and that it is not for us to make decisions for God. David gets rich, lives in a nice house made of cedar, by the Lord's grace. So David decides to make a nice house of cedar for the ark of the Lord. The Lord puts David in his place, saying "I raised you up from nothing; you don't make me a house, I make you a house."
There's hardly any need to preach this, is there? David, chosen of the Lord, gets put in his place for trying to make decisions for God. Corollary: David, chosen of the Lord, doesn't even know what God wants.
Think about this next time you're making a to-do list for God. If David didn't know what the Lord wanted, what makes you think you do? If David can't make decisions for the Lord, what makes you think you can? That's pretty much what you're doing when you have a list of things you want the Lord to do for you. Get me a job, fix my relationship, make my headache go away, blah blah blah. If the Lord isn't taking orders from David, do you think he's going to take them from you?
Notice also, that the Lord didn't talk to David directly in this reading. He spoke through a prophet. Many people today claim the Lord speaks to them constantly, directly, telling them how to live their lives or who knows what. I can't exactly say that this is not true, but I doubt it. If God speaks to David through prophets, who are you that he would speak directly to you about how to go about your day? Somehow I don't really think so. The only person we know of who had regular chats with God himself was Moses.
During the Christmas season we often talk about how wonderful and amazing it is that God was so humble as to be born poor and laid in a manger. Now I have my doubts as to the reliability of Matthew and Luke's stories of Christ's birth, but assuming this really happened, then why are we not learning anything from it? Why are we not humble? Why are we telling God what to do, making demands when he's already give us everything, and not carrying on the work he asked us to do? Does that make sense to you? Is it because Christ came to serve us?
Christ served us by his death on the cross, and also by feeding many, healing, and washing his disciples' feet. Not so we could get arrogant and ask for more, but so we could learn to serve others. If Christ wasn't too good to live simply and serve others in humble ways, why are we? Why are we celebrating of his humble birth by being greedy and wallowing in our wealth? Does that make any sense at all?
By the way, Jesus himself did say, "not my will, but yours."
David came from humble beginnings, tried to tell the Lord what to do, got put in his place. Jesus came from humble beginnings, asked the Lord to change his mind, didn't get what he wanted either. The Lord favours the humble, but not to the extent of getting told what to do. We work for the Lord, not the other way around.
Like I said, there's hardly any need to preach on this, it's so self-evident.
Praise be to God, the Compassionate, the Merciful.
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