God’s Always
Sermon given by the Rev. Christine Gowdy-Jaehnig on 18 July 2021
Texts for Year B : Proper 11
2 Samuel 7: 1-17 * Psalm 89: 20-37 * Ephesians 2: 11-22 * Mark 6: 30-34, 53-56
Our society has a peculiar tradition played out by families and the retail industry during the month of December. Adults introduce to young children a character called Santa Claus and encourage them to believe he really exists. This character is very loosely based on a real person, but shares more characteristics with God: immortally, omniscience, and the ability to do miraculous things, such as delivering gifts to all the children all over the world in one night. Children are told that Santa will bring them gifts at Christmas if they are good. I imagine parents promote this fairy tale as a way to reduce problematic behavior during a stressful time of year. Recently, some entrepreneurial person has enhance the experience with a new character called the Elf on the Shelf. Parents can now buy an elf doll that they place in different places around the house. It is a spy that observes children’s behavior and communicates with Santa overnight –perhaps it travels to the North Pole.
The relationship between the child and Santa is conditional: if you are good you will get great presents; if you are bad you will get fewer presents or none, or even a nasty present –which used to be coal or a switch. I don’t know if parents ever actually follow through with this punishment for misbehavior. I never had to decide myself, for we did not “do” Santa Claus with our children.
Today’s reading from the story of David tells us of a crucial time in God’s relationship with His children. The question, “Should Israel have a king?” has been answered in the affirmative. There now was at least a temporary peace for the newly expanded kingdom. A new question arose: “How is God’s presence --and thus His continued protection-- to be made sure?” David proposed to build a home for God, a grand edifice congruent with God’s power and glory. God says no. Two reasons are given in the Bible. In 1 Kings it says that David has blood on his hands. Here, the prohibition is due to God’s freedom to be God, the initiator and giver. The storyteller refers to David as “the king,” but when God speaks, God calls the king “my servant David” and refers to Himself as “the Lord of hosts”, emphasizing the vast difference between them.
The bad news about David’s plan to build is followed by good news about God’s intention to build: “The Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house; I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, … and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.” A few verses later God continues, “When your offspring commits iniquity, I will punish him with a rod such as mortals use, with blows inflicted by human beings. But I will not take my steadfast love from him, … Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me; your throne shall be established forever.” These are significant words! This is a tremendous promise! And it extends beyond David and subsequent kings to the people, for the king represents them. The king also embodies and institutionalizes God’s faithfulness. God’s presence is made sure not in a structure of stone and wood that is good for ten or twenty generations and subject to fire, erosion and political upheaval, but in a relationship with all generations forever. There would never be another contractual IF; there was henceforth to be only the covenantal ALWAYS.
Our Psalm, written from God’s point of view, celebrates the strength and sureness of the relationship between the king and God and the reliability of God’s favor and love. We do not read to the end of the Psalm, but those verses recount a time when the king has been defeated and is mocked, his splendor ground into the dirt and his life in danger. This Psalm, as well as many other OT passages, tell us of an on-going dialogue in Judaism, which struggled with the question: Since God has promised an ALWAYS, why does life feel/look so much like an IF? This question was particularly acute during the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile in Babylon some 400 plus years later. God’s people had lost king, land and temple; where was God’s loving care now? They came to understand that their defeat was God’s punishment “with a rod such as mortals use, with blows inflicted by human beings,” to quote God, and a painful way to turn God’s people back to Him. They discovered that God had accompanied them into the wilderness of exile and was still attentive to their well-being.
Five hundred or so years later, Jesus begins his ministry. Christians believe that the promise to David is kept in the promise of the coming Messiah –which Jesus fulfills. He shows us definitively that our relationship with God does not need Land or Temple, and that the meaning of King has changed; it is no longer a political and military role, but one more akin to “shepherd,” one who watches over us and leads us to abundant life. The shepherd is the one who lays down his life for the sheep, who doesn’t abandon the sheep, who invokes no exit clause. We see this in Jesus’ life; he doesn’t bale out. He embodies God’s eternal fidelity to all. As Sam Wells put it, “The Christian word for Always is Jesus.”
In his letter to the church in Ephesis, Paul reminds his readers what Jesus lived and died to make possible, and what Jesus commissions his followers to proclaim: God’s desire for an unconditional relationship is not limited to the descendants of Abraham and Sarah. We are all one humanity, reconciled to God and each other in one body. The promised ALWAYS is made to all people.
Unfortunately, the Church has not universally communicated God’s ALWAYS. It’s message has contained a lot of IFs:
you will be right with God if you confess each and every sin ;
your body will be a temple fit for God if you are sexually pure ;
you are assured of a place in heaven or less time in purgatory if you go on a pilgrimage or crusade, buy this indulgence, etc.;
you will be blessed by God if you make a donation to this ministry;
you are assured of salvation if you are baptized in this way and in our denomination;
and so on. Unfortunately, these IFs have created in people severe and disabling guilt around such questions as: “Have I been good enough? How can I be sure God loves me?” When I was young I found a booklet –-a comic— at my grandparents’ home. It told the story of a man who got to the gates of heaven and there had to review his life with a St. Peter-type judge. The comic focused on times in which he had lied, lusted, cheated, etc. At the end the judge said the man couldn’t enter Heaven. The last panel showed the man surrounded by flames. I found this disturbing and wondered how much badness was too much for God? Is there really a chance that one could be such a sinner that God rejects one?! It is no wonder there are many who carry around a smoldering resentment towards God, based on the feeling that they are always on probation.
The IFs that the church has promoted to control people and keep bringing them back has kept people in thrall to those who claim to be able to remedy their guilt. Ambitious people have taken advantage of this; think of the abuse by clergy who have tremendous institutional power (e.g.: the Catholic church) or personal power (e.g.: non-denominational churches). God seeks to head-off such abuse in His offer of prevenient grace and forgiveness. IFs have kept people from experiencing the enormous freedom Jesus lived and offers to us.
Christians and the Church need to be sure of their message, and find a way to help people make the journey from an IF relationship to an Always relationship with God.
God does not offer us the IF of Santa Claus, whose generosity and favor comes with conditions. Anyone can love and be generous with the lovable and the so-called “deserving”, but God loves and cares for all, even the unlovable; and God offers us more than we can ask or imagine.
God does not offer us the IF of foster care, which is temporary and often dependent upon the good behavior of a child wounded by neglect, trauma and rejection.
God does not offer us the IF of an abusing spouse, who promises to be kinder if only the other one doesn’t do that thing that sets them off or submits to control.
God does not offer us the IF of a young relationship, in which an overbearing father, the slurping of soup and coffee, or the constant disorganization of one member are cause enough to part ways.
Rather:
God offers us the ALWAYS of tenure, which frees the holder from the pressure and anxiety of impermanence and change so they can focus on their work.
God offers us the ALWAYS of land or house-ownership. Tenancy is dependent upon the owner’s needs and whims. Resident owners can invest in the property, enriching and restoring it, confident they will see and benefit from their efforts.
God offers us the ALWAYS of a mature relationship such as marriage, in which there are differences and even conflicts, but these are addressed in the context of always.
May each of us and the whole Church witness strongly and loudly to God’s gracious always.
Let us pray:
God who is always faithful:
We thank you for sending us a Shepherd who knows us by name and who cares enough to invite us to a place apart for respite and renewal;
Increase our confidence that nothing can separate us from Your Love;
And strengthen all you children to resist those who offer specious Ifs.
This we prayer through Jesus Christ, who brings us near to you. Amen.