Spirits Under Construction
July 19,
2015
Rev.
Katelyn B. Macrae, Richmond Congregational Church, UCC
2 Samuel
7:1-14a
Ephesians
2:11-22
Prayer:
Dear God, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be
acceptable in your sight. O God our Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer. Amen.
Introduction
I was once on a planning committee for a church
retreat held at the local church camp in Maine. Our theme was “Spirits Under Construction.”
I went up early to help get ready for the weekend. We had all kinds of
construction themed stuff to decorate with – hammers and buckets of nails, hard
hats, and also caution tape. The yellow and black kind that they use at
construction sites. I was really excited about the caution tape and took it
upon myself to decorate and put it up on some of the trees lining the dirt road
going into camp.
Well, the camp director drove into camp that
afternoon and saw all of this caution tape and wondered if, unbeknownst to him,
there was some kind of crime scene at camp…
Not exactly the intended reaction to my
caution tape extravaganza -
Thinking about this moment now from a
management perspective I can see why the camp director may have reacted this
way!
I also see how beyond just setting the scene
for a theme, this idea of Spirits under Construction is one that should be
approached with caution, that it might be even dangerous and cause us to don a
hard hat!
For the reality is that our lives,
especially our spiritual lives, are like a permanent construction zone!
Sometimes we are in a building mode as we
draw closer to God and soar to new spiritual heights, and sometimes our Spirits
need some renovation.
We need to tear down walls, replace some
rotten sills of belief, or get rid of the carpenter ants of sin that have made
their way into the places in our Spirits that we cannot see until we begin
peeling back layers.
Our two biblical texts today give us two
different examples of how our Spirits are constantly under construction. The
first story is in Second Samuel and picks up from where we left off last week
with King David bringing the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem.
Part
1: 2 Samuel 7:1-14a
King David was in a building mood! As he was establishing himself as the ruler of
Israel, he wanted to build a fitting Temple to house the Ark of the Covenant.
For those of you who were here last week, we reenacted bringing the Ark of the
Covenant into the city of Jerusalem with dancing and tambourines. The Ark of
the Covenant was believed to be where the Holy One dwelled. It had on it two cherubim
guarding the mercy seat, the place where the Holy One was thought to have sat.
Whoever was in the possession of the Ark of the Covenant had an awesome
responsibility.
Once in Jerusalem David made a temporary tent
for the ark up on a hill, a seemingly appropriate place for God to dwell.
And then David set about making plans for
his construction project. David wants to build a house for God, but God,
speaking through the prophet Nathan says, David do not build me a house,
instead, I will build a house for you.
Since the Ark had been constructed, this is
the first time we see God moving from particularity to expansiveness. Instead
of being the God of a particular tribe, God says, “I don’t want to be confined
just to this place, my work is about more than that. I have a different
construction project in mind.” Instead of David building a literal house of
worship, God sets about building a household. This marks the start of the Davidic
dynasty – a legacy which will stretch to Jesus.
Part 2: Ephesians 2:11-22
As we move from the Old Testament to the New
Testament, God’s building project continues. In today’s scripture we enter
Ephesus. Ephesus was an important coastal city in what is today Turkey.
In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, Paul
writes to an early church community that is divided. The Jews and the Gentiles
(or as you heard the circumcised and the uncircumcised) do not see themselves as
a part of the same family. Their divisions, their walls, are seemingly stronger
than what unites them.
But as Paul writes he explains that Christ has
broken all of these divisions down. Through Jesus, God is building a new house
– for Jews and Gentiles – for all who seek God’s love. That movement that began
when God said, through the prophet Nathan to King David, I will build you a
house continues to expand.
Now we are all part of the same household
–citizens of the same place – and this place is the community of Christ, to
which all are welcome.
Hear Paul’s words again -
Ephesians
2:11-22 So then you are no longer strangers and
aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household
of God, 20 built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ
Jesus himself as the cornerstone. 21 In him the whole structure is joined
together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; 22 in whom you also are
built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God.
With Jesus Christ as the cornerstone of our
foundation, the ground in which we root our whole lives, the love of God
flourishes within us. We live in God and with the saints who have gone before
us. And God lives in us too!
Another way to imagine it is there are no
walls, no separations, no separate compartments where what you do is separate
from who you are and who made you. Everything you are and everything you do
operates from this foundational relationship with the Divine.
Other religious traditions might call this
nirvana, or achieving oneness.
Well that’s great and all Katelyn, but what
am I supposed to do with this? How do I actually live this out?
Why it is that in our world the walls still
appear to be there? Why I don’t feel this great sense of nirvana and peace and
oneness and divine union?
Well friends, I wonder the same thing!
There’s a phrase I’ve learned to use called already/not yet.
Our Christian tradition teaches that God
chose to dwell with us through the person of Jesus Christ. God took on human
form. And through Christ the world has been reconciled. There is no disconnection;
sin and evil have been defeated for all time on the cross.
And yet our experience in the world tells us
we’re not living in the Promised Land.
We’re people of the already/not yet.
Our Spirits are still under construction, God’s kingdom here on earth is still under construction. We get glimpses,
moments every now and again where we feel God’s presence, maybe in nature or a conversation
with a stranger, or in the way that events in life seem to add up in just the right
way.
Our task as followers in the way of Jesus is
to embrace the incompleteness and still work for this broader vision of a world
without divisions.
We know that this task will most likely not
be accomplished on a societal or global in our lifetime. But we can still do
some work at clearing away these artificial walls that not only separate us
from each other but those smaller more personal walls that separate us from
God.
And the first step is doing a spiritual home
inspection – taking a closer look at what lies beneath!
Nathan and I did that last week. Our home
inspector climbed up on the roof, looked in all of the houses’ nooks and
crannies, the attic and basement.
Most of the house was in pretty good
condition but there was some rot and places of concern that need to be attended
to and that we might not have found, like the rotten sill underneath the deck,
without the home inspection.
Maybe in our own homes we’ve swept under the
rug some grudges that we’re still holding. Until we forgive or apologize, the
lump under the rug isn’t going anywhere.
Maybe we’ve locked away a family secret in
the attic or closet, and the door can’t be shut anymore.
Maybe we’ve been so mad at God for that time
when God just didn’t seem to be there, and we can’t possibly seem to forgive
God or want to talk to God.
We need look in all of the nooks and
crannies of our own personal homes and lives, and the world we live in to see
what is worth keeping and what might need some demolition and Holy Reconstruction!
Sometimes when you do a home inspection you
find lead paint or asbestos. In their time they were considered perfectly fine
building materials. But now we know that asbestos causes Mesothelioma, and ingesting
lead can impact brain development in children.
Similarly, we may have been raised with
certain foundational beliefs that some people, some members of the household of
God, are more valuable than others because of their skin tone, or their
educational attainment, or the zip code they live in. Over time, these beliefs
have created cracks and fissures in the foundation of our communities.
But through the process of Holy Reconstruction,
God, the chief architect, can help us tear down some of the walls of division
between us, and put bridges in their place.
Add some more windows to let the light in. Windows
which allow us to look out and see that we’re part of a broader world, and let
people look in and see what we’re about.
Improve the building materials we use to
meet today’s current specs.
God began this construction project a long
time ago when God said, “David I’m going to build you a house.”
God’s work continues today in building up
this diverse, wonderful, and challenging household that calls God’s people to
live together and work together even though they may be very different.
We are spirits under construction, living in
a world in need of some Holy Reconstruction.
So let’s put up the caution tape and don the
hard hats and get to work! God knows the world needs it!
