Joy
Third Week of Advent
Friday December 20, 2013
Read: 2 Samuel 7:18-22
Then King David went in and sat before the Lord, and said, ‘Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far?…Because of your promise, and according to your own heart, you have wrought all this greatness, so that your servant may know it.
—2 Samuel 7:18, 21
Tevye, the lead character in the movie Fiddler on the Roof, sometimes comes to mind when I read the Psalms attributed to David. He had a one on one relationship with God. His prayers are from the gut and he holds nothing back. Not so much the prayer in our scripture reading today. David is king now, familiar with power, when he decides he needs to build a permanent house for God. He consulted the prophet Nathan who said go for it, until he had slept on it. Nathan comes back to David and said that the Lord had come to him in the night and told him that David should not build a house for God but his offspring would. But God promised David that God would not take God’s steadfast love from David and that David’s house and his kingdom would be made sure forever before God.
David’s prayer in response is more nuanced than usual—perhaps more in the tone of the diplomat in negotiations. But in the end, David essentially says, that he is going to hold God to his promise. Pretty audacious don’t you think?
It occurs to me that God may appreciate a little energy in our prayers, a little trust through risk taking. God wants to know we are taking God as seriously as we expect God to take us. Even though David did some bonehead things in his life, he always took God seriously.
The incarnation, the coming of the anointed one to reconcile us to God, moves our relationship with God to a higher level. It deepens the commitment on God’s part. Has it deepened the commitment on our part?
When we sing Joy to the World, the Lord is come this Christmas season let us consider the wonder of the gift as we consider the depth of our response.
Prayer: O Lord, give us the courage to commit our whole-selves to you in love and service and let us celebrate together our relationship with great rejoicing. Amen.
All scripture passages are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version.