Sacred Spaces: a sermon (1st Kings 8: 22-30, 41-43)

Today’s lesson from the Hebrew Scriptures picks up a theme from the Old Testament lesson from five weeks ago.  

 

Five weeks ago, our lesson from 2nd Samuel had King David declare his desire to build a temple for God, a permanent shrine for the Ark of the Covenant. Even though Nathan the Prophet thought this was a good idea at first, God gave Nathan another message for David: “I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent and a tabernacle.”

 

In other words, God told Nathan, “Give Dave a different message. I’m not the kind of small-g god that needs a shrine. I’m the kind of big-G God that moves around among people, the kind of God that can’t be confined in any shrine.”  

 

By the time we get to today’s lesson, there were a few changes. David had died, and his son Solomon was king. Solomon had picked up on this temple project. The temple was completed and ready to be dedicated.

 

Today’s lesson from the Hebrew Scriptures is the prayer which tradition says was prayed by Solomon at the dedication of the temple in Jerusalem. There are a number of important things in this prayer. I’ll mention three:

• One is the affirmation that God is not contained by our places of worship. God does not need the buildings we erect for God. “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Even heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, much less this house that I have built.”
• The second is that, while God is not contained by our places of worship, while God does not need the buildings we erect for God, we need them. (I’ll get back to this in a moment.)
• The third is the affirmation that God who made Godself known to the Jews will also make Godself known to other peoples. “Likewise when a foreigner … comes and prays … then hear in heaven your dwelling place … so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name ….” This statement was a very early move, almost unique among all the cultures of the world at the time, toward understanding God as far more than the tribal God of a single culture.

 

But, anyway, as I said a moment ago, while God is not contained by our places of worship, while God does not need the buildings we erect for God, we need them. We hear this in some of the words of Solomon’s prayer: “Regard your servant’s prayer and his plea, O Lord my God, heeding the cry and the prayer that your servant prays to you today; that your eyes may be open night and day toward this house, the place of which you said, ‘My name shall be there,’ that you may heed the prayer that your servant prays toward this place. Hear the plea of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place; O hear in heaven your dwelling place; heed and forgive.”

 

While God is not contained by our places of worship, while God does not need the buildings we erect for God, we need them. As part of our human nature, we need all the visible and tangible reminders of the sacred that we can get.

 

There are many well-meaning Christians who would tell us that we don’t need our places of worship; that we can worship just as well in someone’s loungeroom, or in a school classroom, or on the golf course, or whereever. And of course, when the need arises, the people of God can and will do just that.

 

 But, for most of us, the experience of worship includes the experience of being in a sacred space, of being in a location that was hallowed by many others worshipping God over the years. While there are those saints who can see any spot as hallowed ground, for most of us there is this real need for a sacred space.

 

Even for those who are not regular worshippers, there is often this need. Thus there are public controversies whenever a denomination proposes to close a church building. There are many who, while not frequent worshippers themselves, see their own sense of the sacred diminished by any proposal to close a place of worship. 

 

While God is not contained by our places of worship, while God does not need the buildings we erect for God, we need them. As part of our human nature, we need all the visible and tangible reminders of the sacred that we can get.

 

As Solomon prayed, “Regard your servant’s prayer and his plea, O Lord my God, heeding the cry and the prayer that your servant prays to you today; that your eyes may be open night and day toward this house, the place of which you said, ‘My name shall be there,’ that you may heed the prayer that your servant prays toward this place. Hear the plea of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place; O hear in heaven your dwelling place; heed and forgive.”