CATCHING UP TO EMMANUEL

(This text will be delivered on the fourth Sunday of Advent at LBPC while strategically moving around the space of the sanctuary. It follows the lectionary reading of 2 Samuel 7:1-11. I hope that you enjoy my wandering.)

Bishop Desmond Tutu wrote a book this past year entitled, God is not a Christian: and Other Provocations.  I resonate deeply with books like that. They capture my attention and deservedly so. Teaching and preaching is a dangerous and perilous task, it is a mandate to difference, according to Walter Brueggemann, and one that ought never be taken lightly. Those who presume to speak on behalf of YHWH and I AM should shake in their boots every time they mount the stairs of this office. I assure you that I do.  This God cannot be fooled by and human ruse!

I also resonate with this title because the term, the identity and the word, Christian, was originally given by Rome to a small movement beginning with Christ that has not stopped to this day.  This global cosmic network continues despite every effort of the new atheists to remove God, or other “enlightened religious people” to delete the Creeds and the historical Jesus---this ONE is still here.  The early people of this movement called themselves followers of the way, disciples, and apprentices of a God that tented in their midst.  It was the empire that named people Christian, not the people of the movement. Thus, this God beyond all naming, cannot be named. Which is why I am reluctant to call myself Christian too.

I would agree with Bishop Tutu that we are not Christians either; if by that term you mean a group that is defined, controlled and domesticated either by the empire or the religious political structures that we align with. By a living and tented definition we follow a God that can never be defined, controlled or domesticated---as hard as we might try to do just that. The Prophet Isaiah says, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.”

Our text today speaks similarly of a God that cannot be defined, manipulated, managed, or domesticated. This is a message that is imperative for advent seeking people. 

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This passage stands at the heart of key theological themes that are quite pertinent for advent chasers in the story continuum. David’s conquests and ascension to kingship are highlighted, the saga of the roving and moving ark is satisfied, and God’s promise to be with David and his descendants forever is no longer in jeopardy. This passage is both rhetorically clever and theologically profound. David desires to make a name for himself and build his reputation and Nathan, it appears, becomes a chaplain for the state. Both are dangerous liaisons as the story unfolds for the misplaced power and ego of these two must be exposed. 

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In the words of the text, David (verses 1-3) wants to do something for God and announces this to the prophet Nathan. Unfortunately, David forgot that it was God who made this happen and not himself.  Usually a move of this type requires the leader to consult the priest who consults God and God gives the answer. Nathan says in return to David go for it! Do what you like, as God is with you.  Usually the prophet consults the Lord and God gives the direction. Not the case here.  Each make their own moves for their own sordid reasons.

Even in these three quick verses we must not miss the subtleties in the flow of the text.  Because in the center of the small stuff is precisely where all the really big drama is found.  Neither of the main players actually has anything more in mind than power. King David is interested in making his name great and Nathan follows along complicit with a domesticated religion at the will of the state. In this story the people of power care only about their name, the money, the endowment and the buildings. And the prophets are spokespeople for the wily wishes of the empire. Each is a dangerous liaison for advent and Christ following people of the WAY.

Later that night God appears to Nathan in a dream and says basically. I don’t need a building. For I have given the world my people, my promises, and my presence. I am a God who moves with you. I am a God who walks with you. I am a God who tents with you.  

In the text this morning the word move appears twice and the word went withyou appears once. God is a God on the move. God cannot be pinned down, propped up, or pulled apart.  We are always catching up to Emmanuel and always finding God just out of reach, but ever moving.  God is always present but never graspable.

This same verb form is found in Genesis 3:8 where God is on a “walk about” in the garden looking for the first human beings.   My guess is that this advent season we have some considerable catching up to do with the One whose thoughts are not our thoughts and ways are not our ways. 

This text points the way for a moving, walking and tenting God to drop into the center of our frenetic and anxious activity. The Lord is most comfortable living in a tent with a people on the move, as he has done since the day he made a promise to Abraham to be his God in Genesis 12 and realized it the “day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt” (2 Sam 7:6). This thread of theology is tenderly and forcefully tethered with the prologue of John’s gospel, “and the word became flesh and lived among us.” A more literal translation would read, “And the word became flesh and tented among us.” Tents are vulnerable, moveable, walkable, and fluid. In other words they are agile, flexible and constantly in and able to be on the move or in change. 

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Perhaps a few key questions might be helpful today. What are our assumptions about what will be pleasing in Gods sight? What are the ways we seek to set up a building and confine God? Should we not be much more reticent before linking Gods’ purposes with political agendas (David) or religious totalizing viewpoints (Nathan)? Where in the world, Burien, LBPC, Your life, does God want to do something completely sick (this is the new word for cool) and outrageous only to have your agenda in the way?  How open and receptive are we to a God who dropped in the backstairs of a Bethlehem one star hotel, become trailer park trash by an unwed teenage mom, to grow up in the hick town of Nazareth, to live with and connect with the worst of the worst and die on a cross?  Could that same moving, walking and tenting God be leading this church in new and un-thought of directions?  I think so.

God says, “I, through you, will show the rest of the world a new way to be human.” Stay light on your feet as I am. Be ready to move about to respond to the needs that you see as I do. I am a God who seeks to catch people off guard in the midst of all of the Empires of the world.  I will not be domesticated by the politician or boxed in by religious people who tote a flag under the rubric of my name.  God says, “I AM who I AM” and I will walk where I desire to walk. 

We are getting near to this amazing new way to be with this walking, moving and tenting God. We too can use a reminder and a history lesson from David and Nathan in the ways we get in the way. It seems appropriate to linger just a bit longer over the idea of a God who is constantly ready to pull up stakes and move someplace new, different and unique. Lets linger and remember and then lets go on a walk. A walk that catches up to Emmanuel, at least a little bit.