Fellowship Reformed Church of Holland

Preaching: Brian Keepers
Text: Hosea 11:1-11

When El Shaddai, God Almighty, first called me to be his messenger and spoke to me, it was not what I expected.

“Go, take for yourself a wife who is a prostitute and have children with her, “ El Shaddai said.  “For the land commits great harlotry by forsaking the LORD.” (2:1-2)

I knew immediately of whom the Lord spoke.  Gomer, daughter of Diblahim.  A woman with a reputation soiled by scandal.  A woman who welcomed many men into her bedchamber, who offered her sexual services down at the pagan temple during the fertility rituals.   

Gomer, the harlot.

“Go, “said the Lord, “and take that one—yes, her—to be your wife.”

So I did what the Lord commanded me.  I was perplexed by it.  But I went.  I went down to the temple and I found Gomer and I betrothed myself to her.

My friends and relatives were dead set against it.  “Have you gone mad, my son?” my father fumed.  “Can’t you see that this will ruin your name, will bring shame to our whole family?”  “She is filth,” my mother insisted, “trash, a woman unclean.  She is not the wife for my son!”   “We cannot bless this union.” They said.   “We will not bless it.”  

Still, I did it.  In obedience to God, I took Gomer as my wife and we went into my tent.  There was no wedding celebration, no feast, no music and dancing.  Only the two of us holding each other in the stillness of the dark.

The truth is, I loved her.  I gave her my heart.  There was so much more to her than what others saw.  Isn’t this usually the case?  They saw only a harlot, a woman with roving eyes who preyed on the lusts of men’s hearts; but I saw a human being who desired to be loved, to be known fully.  A human being, like us all, who was lost and scared and had figured out what she needed to do to survive in the world.  In her eyes I saw sadness and loneliness and deep longing.

Yes, I loved her.  She became my treasure, my joy.  I will never forget the birth of our first son, Jezreel.  The long, painful labor.  She squeezed my hand, such strength in her grip, and pushed with all her might.  She was so brave.  When I placed our baby boy in her arms, I combed back her matted hair with my fingers and leaned down and kissed her sweaty brow.  “He’s beautiful,” I whispered.  “I love you, my wife.” She looked into my eyes and smiled, “I love you, too, my husband.”

She bore me two more children.  A daughter, whom the Lord said, Call her name Lo-ruhamah, which means “Not-Pitied” because I will no longer have pity on the house of Israel to forgive them. (1:8)

Then another son was born.  And the Lord said, Call his name Lo-ammi, which means, “Not My People” because Israel is no longer my people.  (1:9)

Strange names you say.  But names that reflected El Shaddai’s judgment on his people who had broken covenant with him and went chasing after other gods.  It was a dark time in Israel.  All was not well.

Quietly we raised these children together.  Though it was a dark time in the land, these were good years for Gomer and me.  But rumors rippled through the community that my wife had not been faithful.  “They say the last two children are not even his but from other men,” people whispered.  I was met with pitiful stares when I walked the cobbled streets of the market and went to the Holy Temple to pray.  It pained my heart to say it, but I knew they were right.  I had always known.   

And then one day Gomer, my Beloved, gathered her things and left.

She went back to her old life.  Back to the streets.  Back to the pagan temple.  Back to giving herself to other lovers.

And my heart broke.   Agony overcame me.  The pain of it was too much to bear.  Have you ever been betrayed by someone you loved more than life itself?  Then you know what I mean.   You understand.

A jealousy burned within me.  Not a jealously fueled by insecurity and possessiveness, mind you, but one born of love.  How could she betray me?  How could she dishonor me?  After all I had given her!  How could she trade in a life of fidelity and love for a prison of reckless harlotry that, in the end, would only be her ruin?          

I cried out to the Lord in my loss and grief. 

El Shaddai heard me and again he spoke to me. 

Hosea, now you have been given a glimpse into my own heart. You have felt an ounce of the anguish I feel for my people.  Israel, My Beloved, My Treasure, has turned away from me and run off with other lovers.  Israel, my adopted Son, has turned against me and left his Father’s house.

Hosea, go and deliver this message to my people.  Say to them:

When you were a child, I loved you.  And I called you out of Egypt.  But the more I called you, the more you went away from me.  You burned sacrifices to Baal.  You burned incense to idols.

Yet it was I who taught you how to walk.  When you grew tired, I carried you in my arms.  I healed your weariness.  I led you with cords of compassion.  With bands of love I drew you through the wilderness to myself.  Where you chafed with your burdens, I eased you.  When you were hungry, I bent down to feed you.

What shall I do now, O my people—now that you refuse to turn back to me?

I will send you back to Egypt!

I will let Assyria rule over you!

I will send a sword to break the bars of your gates and to rage in your cities!

I will ignite war inside your fortresses, and war will devour you!

Oh, Israel!

Oh, my Child, My Beloved!

How can I give you up?  How can I hand you over to destruction?  My heart recoils within me.  My compassion grows warm and tender. 

No, I will not execute my fierce anger.  I will not destroy Israel, for I am God and not a mortal.  I am the Holy One in your midst.  I will not come to destroy.  I will seek you, and I will bring you home. (11:1-11)

Then El Shaddai said to me: 

Hosea, My prophet, listen to Me.  Go again and love the woman who has become an adulterer with other men.  Love her, Hosea, even as I the Lord love the people of Israel, though they have turned to other gods. (3:1-3)[1]

And so again I went.  Though she had broken my heart, betrayed my trust, dishonored my name.  Because the Lord commanded me, I went.

And it dawned on me what the Lord was doing.  By calling me to love Gomer, a woman unfaithful.  To love our children, two who were fathered by other men, children who spurned my love.  El Shaddai had not only given me a message to speak to his people.  I was the message—my life was the message-- a visible sign of God’s agony and tender compassion for his people to see.

I went and found Gomer, my Beloved, and I bought her back for fifteen shekels of silver and a measure of barley.  I said to her, “You must live faithfully to me.  You cannot belong to other men any more.  And I will be faithful to you.”

So I brought her home and I loved her.  Will she be faithful to me?  Will she stay?  I do not know.  Only time will tell.  But I will risk loving her again and pledge my faithfulness to her, no matter what.

And the Lord changed the names of our children.  Don’t call your daughter Not Pitied, said the Lord.  Call her, “She Has Obtained Pity.”  And call your son, “My People.”

Listen to what I shall do for my people, said the Lord.  Listen to what I shall do for Israel…

But now I will allure her.  I will lead her again into the wilderness as at the beginning and speak tenderly to her.  And even in the desert will I give her vineyards.  No other love can do this thing.  Baal cannot do this.  So she shall answer me again as in the days of her youth.

She shall call me her husband.

O Israel!  I will betroth you to me in righteousness and justice, in steadfast love and in mercy.

For I have pity on Not Pitied!

And I say to Not My People, no!  You are my people![2]

Please answer me.  Return to me.  Today.  Turn from your sin.  Leave your false gods behind.  Come home. 

Come home to the God who made you and redeems you.  Return to the God who loves you passionately, unconditionally, eternally… and is pleased to call you His own.  (2:14-24)

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

[1] Adapted from Walter Wangerin’s translation of the text (The Book of God, Zonvervan, 1996, p.321).

[2] Adapted again from Walter Wangerin’s translation.  Ibid, p.322.

Preaching: Brian Keepers
Text: Hosea 11:1-11

When El Shaddai, God Almighty, first called me to be his messenger and spoke to me, it was not what I expected.

“Go, take for yourself a wife who is a prostitute and have children with her, “ El Shaddai said.  “For the land commits great harlotry by forsaking the LORD.” (2:1-2)

I knew immediately of whom the Lord spoke.  Gomer, daughter of Diblahim.  A woman with a reputation soiled by scandal.  A woman who welcomed many men into her bedchamber, who offered her sexual services down at the pagan temple during the fertility rituals.   

Gomer, the harlot.

“Go, “said the Lord, “and take that one—yes, her—to be your wife.”

So I did what the Lord commanded me.  I was perplexed by it.  But I went.  I went down to the temple and I found Gomer and I betrothed myself to her.

My friends and relatives were dead set against it.  “Have you gone mad, my son?” my father fumed.  “Can’t you see that this will ruin your name, will bring shame to our whole family?”  “She is filth,” my mother insisted, “trash, a woman unclean.  She is not the wife for my son!”   “We cannot bless this union.” They said.   “We will not bless it.”  

Still, I did it.  In obedience to God, I took Gomer as my wife and we went into my tent.  There was no wedding celebration, no feast, no music and dancing.  Only the two of us holding each other in the stillness of the dark.

The truth is, I loved her.  I gave her my heart.  There was so much more to her than what others saw.  Isn’t this usually the case?  They saw only a harlot, a woman with roving eyes who preyed on the lusts of men’s hearts; but I saw a human being who desired to be loved, to be known fully.  A human being, like us all, who was lost and scared and had figured out what she needed to do to survive in the world.  In her eyes I saw sadness and loneliness and deep longing.

Yes, I loved her.  She became my treasure, my joy.  I will never forget the birth of our first son, Jezreel.  The long, painful labor.  She squeezed my hand, such strength in her grip, and pushed with all her might.  She was so brave.  When I placed our baby boy in her arms, I combed back her matted hair with my fingers and leaned down and kissed her sweaty brow.  “He’s beautiful,” I whispered.  “I love you, my wife.” She looked into my eyes and smiled, “I love you, too, my husband.”

She bore me two more children.  A daughter, whom the Lord said, Call her name Lo-ruhamah, which means “Not-Pitied” because I will no longer have pity on the house of Israel to forgive them. (1:8)

Then another son was born.  And the Lord said, Call his name Lo-ammi, which means, “Not My People” because Israel is no longer my people.  (1:9)

Strange names you say.  But names that reflected El Shaddai’s judgment on his people who had broken covenant with him and went chasing after other gods.  It was a dark time in Israel.  All was not well.

Quietly we raised these children together.  Though it was a dark time in the land, these were good years for Gomer and me.  But rumors rippled through the community that my wife had not been faithful.  “They say the last two children are not even his but from other men,” people whispered.  I was met with pitiful stares when I walked the cobbled streets of the market and went to the Holy Temple to pray.  It pained my heart to say it, but I knew they were right.  I had always known.   

And then one day Gomer, my Beloved, gathered her things and left.

She went back to her old life.  Back to the streets.  Back to the pagan temple.  Back to giving herself to other lovers.

And my heart broke.   Agony overcame me.  The pain of it was too much to bear.  Have you ever been betrayed by someone you loved more than life itself?  Then you know what I mean.   You understand.

A jealousy burned within me.  Not a jealously fueled by insecurity and possessiveness, mind you, but one born of love.  How could she betray me?  How could she dishonor me?  After all I had given her!  How could she trade in a life of fidelity and love for a prison of reckless harlotry that, in the end, would only be her ruin?          

I cried out to the Lord in my loss and grief. 

El Shaddai heard me and again he spoke to me. 

Hosea, now you have been given a glimpse into my own heart. You have felt an ounce of the anguish I feel for my people.  Israel, My Beloved, My Treasure, has turned away from me and run off with other lovers.  Israel, my adopted Son, has turned against me and left his Father’s house.

Hosea, go and deliver this message to my people.  Say to them:

When you were a child, I loved you.  And I called you out of Egypt.  But the more I called you, the more you went away from me.  You burned sacrifices to Baal.  You burned incense to idols.

Yet it was I who taught you how to walk.  When you grew tired, I carried you in my arms.  I healed your weariness.  I led you with cords of compassion.  With bands of love I drew you through the wilderness to myself.  Where you chafed with your burdens, I eased you.  When you were hungry, I bent down to feed you.

What shall I do now, O my people—now that you refuse to turn back to me?

I will send you back to Egypt!

I will let Assyria rule over you!

I will send a sword to break the bars of your gates and to rage in your cities!

I will ignite war inside your fortresses, and war will devour you!

Oh, Israel!

Oh, my Child, My Beloved!

How can I give you up?  How can I hand you over to destruction?  My heart recoils within me.  My compassion grows warm and tender. 

No, I will not execute my fierce anger.  I will not destroy Israel, for I am God and not a mortal.  I am the Holy One in your midst.  I will not come to destroy.  I will seek you, and I will bring you home. (11:1-11)

Then El Shaddai said to me: 

Hosea, My prophet, listen to Me.  Go again and love the woman who has become an adulterer with other men.  Love her, Hosea, even as I the Lord love the people of Israel, though they have turned to other gods. (3:1-3)[1]

And so again I went.  Though she had broken my heart, betrayed my trust, dishonored my name.  Because the Lord commanded me, I went.

And it dawned on me what the Lord was doing.  By calling me to love Gomer, a woman unfaithful.  To love our children, two who were fathered by other men, children who spurned my love.  El Shaddai had not only given me a message to speak to his people.  I was the message—my life was the message-- a visible sign of God’s agony and tender compassion for his people to see.

I went and found Gomer, my Beloved, and I bought her back for fifteen shekels of silver and a measure of barley.  I said to her, “You must live faithfully to me.  You cannot belong to other men any more.  And I will be faithful to you.”

So I brought her home and I loved her.  Will she be faithful to me?  Will she stay?  I do not know.  Only time will tell.  But I will risk loving her again and pledge my faithfulness to her, no matter what.

And the Lord changed the names of our children.  Don’t call your daughter Not Pitied, said the Lord.  Call her, “She Has Obtained Pity.”  And call your son, “My People.”

Listen to what I shall do for my people, said the Lord.  Listen to what I shall do for Israel…

But now I will allure her.  I will lead her again into the wilderness as at the beginning and speak tenderly to her.  And even in the desert will I give her vineyards.  No other love can do this thing.  Baal cannot do this.  So she shall answer me again as in the days of her youth.

She shall call me her husband.

O Israel!  I will betroth you to me in righteousness and justice, in steadfast love and in mercy.

For I have pity on Not Pitied!

And I say to Not My People, no!  You are my people![2]

Please answer me.  Return to me.  Today.  Turn from your sin.  Leave your false gods behind.  Come home. 

Come home to the God who made you and redeems you.  Return to the God who loves you passionately, unconditionally, eternally… and is pleased to call you His own.  (2:14-24)

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

[1] Adapted from Walter Wangerin’s translation of the text (The Book of God, Zonvervan, 1996, p.321).

[2] Adapted again from Walter Wangerin’s translation.  Ibid, p.322.

Preaching: Janelle Koolhaas
Text: Isaiah 5:1-7; 11:1-5

Preaching: Janelle Koolhaas
Text: Isaiah 5:1-7; 11:1-5

Preaching: Brian Keepers
Text: Psalm 13

(No sermon manuscript this week.)

Preaching: Brian Keepers
Text: Psalm 13

(No sermon manuscript this week.)

Preaching: Marijke Strong
Text: 1 Kings 18:20-39

INTRODUCTION: ISRAEL’S MEMORY LOSS, ELIJAH’S PURPOSE

Come near. Let me tell you a story. I think you know it: in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and made humankind in God’s image. The design of human beings was to glorify God with flourishing lives and to reflect God’s likeness to the world. The people of God – the Israelites – knew that story too. It was their story, after all. They also knew about having wandered from the goodness of Eden, about being promised children that would outnumber the stars, about encountering the absurdity of grace (is anything too wonderful for the Lord?), about wrestling with angels face to face, being built into the nation of God, being forced into slavery, rescued from Egypt, declared God’s treasured possession and given the Law of freedom as a way to live in gratitude and witness for the grace they had received.

They knew about being brought through the desert to the promised land. They knew about settling down, about bringing foreigners like Ruth into the covenant community, about moving into a new town – Jerusalem – as they grew up into their identity as children of God, which meant lengthening their stride and widening their embrace. They knew about building a temple, the place where God would hear their prayers and put his name on them as his holy people. They knew (they really did know at one time) that all of this – all of their past, present and future, the whole story – was about worshiping God and reflecting God’s likeness on earth. That was their purpose. Their design. For the glory of God and the sake of the world. 

And yet, maybe it is the human condition to forget. What does the old hymn say? “Prone to wander, Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love.” That’s why the prophets have been so important throughout the history of God’s people. The role of a prophet is, in many ways, to recall us. To remind us of our past, present and future: who we came from, how we are designed to live, and what kind of people we are called to become. They bring us back to the truth.

Now Elijah was a prophet in the truest sense: when the people of Israel wandered from God, he called their attention to the truth and he did it with a flair for drama. That’s where we pick up the story today – with Elijah. So let’s set the stage. The Israelites had been divided into two kingdoms: Israel in the North and Judah in the South. And they had gone through a long line of evil kings who led poorly and enticed them into dark practices. At the place where we come in, King Ahab had taken the throne of Israel and he and his wife Jezebel did more evil in the sight of God than any of the rulers before them. One of the worst things they did was to invite the people of God to worship Baal.

To their credit, the Israelites didn’t embrace Baal with their whole hearts. Sometimes they turned to Baal, sometimes to Yahweh, sometimes to some of the other local gods. They were torn. And it was at this moment in the story that Elijah stepped in like bolt from the blue, confronted Ahab’s evil leadership and did something startling. He called for drought. It was like a time out. Elijah said to Ahab’s face: “As the Lordthe God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.” And then he went to hide in a ravine. Listen to what happened next….

DRAMATIC READING: SELECTIONS OF 1 KINGS 18

NARRATOR (MARIJKE) 1 After many days the word of the Lord came to Elijah, in the third year of the drought, saying, “Go, present yourself to Ahab; I will send rain on the earth.” 2 So Elijah went to present himself to Ahab. The famine was severe in Samaria. 17 When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, “Is it you, you troubler of Israel?”

ELIJAH (JANELLE): 18 He answered, “I have not troubled Israel; but you have, and your father’s house, because you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord and followed the Baals. 19 Now therefore have all Israel assemble for me at Mount Carmel, with the four hundred fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.”

NARRATOR (MARIJKE) 20 So Ahab sent to all the Israelites, and assembled the prophets at Mount Carmel.

ELIJAH (JANELLE): 21 Elijah then came near to all the people, and said, “How long will you go limping with two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.”

PEOPLE (BRIAN/JORDAN): The people did not answer him a word.

ELIJAH (JANELLE): 22 Then Elijah said to the people, “I, even I only, am left a prophet of the Lord; but Baal’s prophets number four hundred fifty. 23 Let two bulls be given to us; let them choose one bull for themselves, cut it in pieces, and lay it on the wood, but put no fire to it; I will prepare the other bull and lay it on the wood, but put no fire to it. 24 Then you call on the name of your god and I will call on the name of the Lord; the god who answers by fire is indeed God.”

PEOPLE (BRIAN/JORDAN): All the people answered, “Well spoken!”

ELIJAH (JANELLE): 25 Then Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Choose for yourselves one bull and prepare it first, for you are many; then call on the name of your god, but put no fire to it.”

NARRATOR (MARIJKE) 26 So they took the bull that was given them, prepared it, and called on the name of Baal from morning until noon, crying, “O Baal, answer us!” But there was no voice, and no answer. They limped about the altar that they had made.

ELIJAH (JANELLE): 27 At noon Elijah mocked them, saying, “Cry aloud! Surely he is a god; either he is meditating, or he has wandered away, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened.”

NARRATOR (MARIJKE) 28 Then they cried aloud and, as was their custom, they cut themselves with swords and lances until the blood gushed out over them. 29 As midday passed, they raved on until the time of the offering of the oblation, but there was no voice, no answer, and no response. 30 Then Elijah said to all the people…

ELIJAH (JANELLE): “Come closer to me!”

NARRATOR (MARIJKE) …and all the people came closer to him. First he repaired the altar of the Lord that had been thrown down; 31 Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord came, saying, “Israel shall be your name”; 32 with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord. Then he made a trench around the altar, large enough to contain two measures of seed. 33 Next he put the wood in order, cut the bull in pieces, and laid it on the wood. He said, “Fill four jars with water and pour it on the burnt offering and on the wood.”

PEOPLE (BRIAN/JORDAN): [They did it]

NARRATOR (MARIJKE) 34 Then he said, “Do it a second time”;

PEOPLE (BRIAN/JORDAN): and they did it a second time.

NARRATOR (MARIJKE) Again he said, “Do it a third time”;

PEOPLE (BRIAN/JORDAN): and they did it a third time,

NARRATOR (MARIJKE) 35 so that the water ran all around the altar, and filled the trench also with water. 36 At the time of the offering of the oblation, the prophet Elijah came near and said…

ELIJAH (JANELLE): “O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your bidding. 37 Answer me, O Lord, answer me, so that this people may know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you have turned their hearts back.”

NARRATOR (MARIJKE) 38 Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering, the wood, the stones, and the dust, and even licked up the water that was in the trench.

PEOPLE (BRIAN/JORDAN): 39 When all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, “The Lord indeed is God; the Lord indeed is God.”

ELIJAH (JANELLE): 40 Elijah said to them, “Seize the prophets of Baal; do not let one of them escape.”

NARRATOR (MARIJKE) Then they seized them; and Elijah brought them down to the Wadi Kishon, and killed them there. Elijah said to Ahab…

ELIJAH (JANELLE): “Go up eat and drink; for there is the sound of rushing rain.” …45 In a little while the heavens grew black with clouds and wind; there was a heavy rain. Ahab rode off and went to Jezreel. 46 But the hand of the Lord was on Elijah; he girded up his loins and ran in front of Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel.

ACT 1: EXPOSURE (What we are currently worshiping)

This is the Word of the Lord. This is the story in which we find our story. It’s dramatic, isn’t it? The action on that mountaintop unfolds like a three-act play. Act One: Exposure. Elijah began by exposing the people’s allegiance to a false god and the impact it was having on them.

He called them out, saying, “How long will you go limping with two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” It’s embarrassing, you know, to be called out for waffling. “Prone to wander, Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love.” Really, it was in their genes. Remember how David brought the ark of the covenant into Jerusalem so that worshiping Yahweh would be central to the life of the people? And then David lusted after another man’s wife and killed her husband. Remember Solomon who was called upon to build a temple, a house for God’s name, and who grew up to lengthen his stride and widen his embrace… but who also lost his focus and wavered between money, sex and power for the rest of his life! If this is how their leaders behaved, it is no wonder the people of God developed a divided heart. Elijah confronted that condition head-on. It’s like he says, wake up! Notice who you’re serving and what it’s doing to you!

The prophets of Baal helped him illustrate his point. They went first in the contest at the altar: choosing the best bull, cutting it in pieces, laying on the wood, and calling on the name of their god to bring fire. Now Baal was a storm-god. They said he controlled the elements. He was powerful as lightning, present as rain. But Baal was also a cruel god: capricious, requiring child sacrifice, temple prostitution, self-harm. He governed the people with the fear of violence and scarcity. So after having prepared the bull, the prophets of Baal erupted into the kind of behavior you might expect such a god to require: calling on Baal from morning to noon, limping crazily around the altar, shrieking out, cutting themselves, raving in fearful desperation. You can see, actually, how the character of Baal is exposed by their behavior.  And in the end, after all that, he didn’t come through. Nothing happened.

ACT 2: REVELATION (The God who invites our worship)

Eventually Elijah had had enough. He moved the drama from Act 1 (Exposure), to Act 2 (Revelation). It was time for the character of Yahweh to be made known. And how different he is from Baal. You notice that earlier Elijah “came near” to all the people. Now he invited them to come near to him. God is close. Elijah repaired the altar with twelve stones representing the tribes of Israel. God is in our history, our origins. Elijah poured water all over the sacrifice. God is a God of the impossible. Elijah begins by praying, “O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel.” You might know that the formula for this prayer is usually Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the ancestors. Here Elijah inserted Israel; purposefully changing it to remind the Israelites that they themselves belong to God. He is a God of the people. Elijah concludes the prayer simply. It is short and personal (compared to the hours of raving that the prophets of Baal had done). God answers. Then the fire of the Lord fell on the altar and consumed everything, including the stones! God is powerful. It was so sudden and shocking that the people fell to their faces and made a confession of faith. Their hearts had been changed. And that is perhaps the most important point of all. God is concerned with the human heart.

There would be another who would come down to rescue the people – all people – because of God’s concern for the human heart. He confronted idols too. I don’t mean carved idols (that word is probably too easy for us to trip up on). I mean the things we turn to for life that are not life. That’s what had happened with Baal. It wasn’t so much about setting up his statue in the center of the life of the people – it was what setting up his statue in the center of the life of the people implied. Martin Luther said, “that to which you look for life is your God.” The problem was that the people had looked to Baal for life, and he was lifeless.

Let’s be honest. We know something about that. Our culture is full of other “gods” that promise to give us life and which not only cannot give it but which take it instead.  These are any of the things we look to for affection or value, identity, importance or meaning in place of the true, abundant life that has been offered us through Christ. And let’s not be afraid to take it a step further. Because you know what impact these “gods” have. The prophets of Baal took on the character of Baal. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “The gods we worship write their names on our faces,” and “What we are worshiping we are becoming.”

ACT 3: RENEWAL (How worshiping God shapes our becoming)

But good news. The end of the drama is yet to come. Elijah led the people from Act 1 (Exposure), to Act 2 (Revelation), to Act 3: Renewal. God came down at Elijah’s altar in a fiery display of power that revived the people’s hearts. They must have felt their heads lifting, their hearts widening, their lungs filling with fresh air. And THEN, the Lord told Elijah to call for rain. It is important to note that the drought was never intended as a punishment for sin but to mirror the spiritual drought of the people. To catch their attention and show them the condition of their parched hearts. It is also important to note, that God never instructed Elijah to kill the priests of Baal. And actually, there is a rabbinic story that God was angry at Elijah for taking matters into his own hands with that. Which just goes to show that God uses flawed people all the time (thank goodness).

What happened next was nothing short of glorious. While the land was still dry and there was not a cloud in the sky, Elijah spoke of what was to come. He said to Ahab, “Go up, eat and drink; for there is a sound of rushing rain.” And. It. Poured. What must this have been like for those who had lived in drought for so long? Ps 126 gives us a picture: “When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then it was said among the nations, ‘The Lord has done great things for them.’ The Lord has done great things for us, and we rejoiced. Restore our fortunes, O Lord, like the watercourses in the Negeb.” And that is exactly what happened.

CONCLUSION: WHAT WE ARE WORSHIPING WE ARE BECOMING

You know there would be another who came down to rescue the people – all people – because of God’s concern for the human heart. To restore their fortunes like water courses in the Negeb. This is the one who told the woman at the well: “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.”

The Baals are gods of slavery and fear, of darkness and scarcity. Our God is a God of salvation, of flourishing, hope, of light. The is the One to whom we turn for life. If the Lord is God, follow him! And, as Emerson said, what we are worshiping we are becoming. Therefore, Paul says: “let us let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith….”  And “…whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” 

As we wake up, throw off our false gods and turn to the Lord – as we live as we were designed in the beginning to live, worshiping with our full selves the one who gave us life – we are being made into a people who reflect God’s flourishing, hope and life in the world. 

In the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Preaching: Marijke Strong
Text: 1 Kings 18:20-39

INTRODUCTION: ISRAEL’S MEMORY LOSS, ELIJAH’S PURPOSE

Come near. Let me tell you a story. I think you know it: in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and made humankind in God’s image. The design of human beings was to glorify God with flourishing lives and to reflect God’s likeness to the world. The people of God – the Israelites – knew that story too. It was their story, after all. They also knew about having wandered from the goodness of Eden, about being promised children that would outnumber the stars, about encountering the absurdity of grace (is anything too wonderful for the Lord?), about wrestling with angels face to face, being built into the nation of God, being forced into slavery, rescued from Egypt, declared God’s treasured possession and given the Law of freedom as a way to live in gratitude and witness for the grace they had received.

They knew about being brought through the desert to the promised land. They knew about settling down, about bringing foreigners like Ruth into the covenant community, about moving into a new town – Jerusalem – as they grew up into their identity as children of God, which meant lengthening their stride and widening their embrace. They knew about building a temple, the place where God would hear their prayers and put his name on them as his holy people. They knew (they really did know at one time) that all of this – all of their past, present and future, the whole story – was about worshiping God and reflecting God’s likeness on earth. That was their purpose. Their design. For the glory of God and the sake of the world. 

And yet, maybe it is the human condition to forget. What does the old hymn say? “Prone to wander, Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love.” That’s why the prophets have been so important throughout the history of God’s people. The role of a prophet is, in many ways, to recall us. To remind us of our past, present and future: who we came from, how we are designed to live, and what kind of people we are called to become. They bring us back to the truth.

Now Elijah was a prophet in the truest sense: when the people of Israel wandered from God, he called their attention to the truth and he did it with a flair for drama. That’s where we pick up the story today – with Elijah. So let’s set the stage. The Israelites had been divided into two kingdoms: Israel in the North and Judah in the South. And they had gone through a long line of evil kings who led poorly and enticed them into dark practices. At the place where we come in, King Ahab had taken the throne of Israel and he and his wife Jezebel did more evil in the sight of God than any of the rulers before them. One of the worst things they did was to invite the people of God to worship Baal.

To their credit, the Israelites didn’t embrace Baal with their whole hearts. Sometimes they turned to Baal, sometimes to Yahweh, sometimes to some of the other local gods. They were torn. And it was at this moment in the story that Elijah stepped in like bolt from the blue, confronted Ahab’s evil leadership and did something startling. He called for drought. It was like a time out. Elijah said to Ahab’s face: “As the Lordthe God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.” And then he went to hide in a ravine. Listen to what happened next….

DRAMATIC READING: SELECTIONS OF 1 KINGS 18

NARRATOR (MARIJKE) 1 After many days the word of the Lord came to Elijah, in the third year of the drought, saying, “Go, present yourself to Ahab; I will send rain on the earth.” 2 So Elijah went to present himself to Ahab. The famine was severe in Samaria. 17 When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, “Is it you, you troubler of Israel?”

ELIJAH (JANELLE): 18 He answered, “I have not troubled Israel; but you have, and your father’s house, because you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord and followed the Baals. 19 Now therefore have all Israel assemble for me at Mount Carmel, with the four hundred fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.”

NARRATOR (MARIJKE) 20 So Ahab sent to all the Israelites, and assembled the prophets at Mount Carmel.

ELIJAH (JANELLE): 21 Elijah then came near to all the people, and said, “How long will you go limping with two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.”

PEOPLE (BRIAN/JORDAN): The people did not answer him a word.

ELIJAH (JANELLE): 22 Then Elijah said to the people, “I, even I only, am left a prophet of the Lord; but Baal’s prophets number four hundred fifty. 23 Let two bulls be given to us; let them choose one bull for themselves, cut it in pieces, and lay it on the wood, but put no fire to it; I will prepare the other bull and lay it on the wood, but put no fire to it. 24 Then you call on the name of your god and I will call on the name of the Lord; the god who answers by fire is indeed God.”

PEOPLE (BRIAN/JORDAN): All the people answered, “Well spoken!”

ELIJAH (JANELLE): 25 Then Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Choose for yourselves one bull and prepare it first, for you are many; then call on the name of your god, but put no fire to it.”

NARRATOR (MARIJKE) 26 So they took the bull that was given them, prepared it, and called on the name of Baal from morning until noon, crying, “O Baal, answer us!” But there was no voice, and no answer. They limped about the altar that they had made.

ELIJAH (JANELLE): 27 At noon Elijah mocked them, saying, “Cry aloud! Surely he is a god; either he is meditating, or he has wandered away, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened.”

NARRATOR (MARIJKE) 28 Then they cried aloud and, as was their custom, they cut themselves with swords and lances until the blood gushed out over them. 29 As midday passed, they raved on until the time of the offering of the oblation, but there was no voice, no answer, and no response. 30 Then Elijah said to all the people…

ELIJAH (JANELLE): “Come closer to me!”

NARRATOR (MARIJKE) …and all the people came closer to him. First he repaired the altar of the Lord that had been thrown down; 31 Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord came, saying, “Israel shall be your name”; 32 with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord. Then he made a trench around the altar, large enough to contain two measures of seed. 33 Next he put the wood in order, cut the bull in pieces, and laid it on the wood. He said, “Fill four jars with water and pour it on the burnt offering and on the wood.”

PEOPLE (BRIAN/JORDAN): [They did it]

NARRATOR (MARIJKE) 34 Then he said, “Do it a second time”;

PEOPLE (BRIAN/JORDAN): and they did it a second time.

NARRATOR (MARIJKE) Again he said, “Do it a third time”;

PEOPLE (BRIAN/JORDAN): and they did it a third time,

NARRATOR (MARIJKE) 35 so that the water ran all around the altar, and filled the trench also with water. 36 At the time of the offering of the oblation, the prophet Elijah came near and said…

ELIJAH (JANELLE): “O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your bidding. 37 Answer me, O Lord, answer me, so that this people may know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you have turned their hearts back.”

NARRATOR (MARIJKE) 38 Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering, the wood, the stones, and the dust, and even licked up the water that was in the trench.

PEOPLE (BRIAN/JORDAN): 39 When all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, “The Lord indeed is God; the Lord indeed is God.”

ELIJAH (JANELLE): 40 Elijah said to them, “Seize the prophets of Baal; do not let one of them escape.”

NARRATOR (MARIJKE) Then they seized them; and Elijah brought them down to the Wadi Kishon, and killed them there. Elijah said to Ahab…

ELIJAH (JANELLE): “Go up eat and drink; for there is the sound of rushing rain.” …45 In a little while the heavens grew black with clouds and wind; there was a heavy rain. Ahab rode off and went to Jezreel. 46 But the hand of the Lord was on Elijah; he girded up his loins and ran in front of Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel.

ACT 1: EXPOSURE (What we are currently worshiping)

This is the Word of the Lord. This is the story in which we find our story. It’s dramatic, isn’t it? The action on that mountaintop unfolds like a three-act play. Act One: Exposure. Elijah began by exposing the people’s allegiance to a false god and the impact it was having on them.

He called them out, saying, “How long will you go limping with two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” It’s embarrassing, you know, to be called out for waffling. “Prone to wander, Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love.” Really, it was in their genes. Remember how David brought the ark of the covenant into Jerusalem so that worshiping Yahweh would be central to the life of the people? And then David lusted after another man’s wife and killed her husband. Remember Solomon who was called upon to build a temple, a house for God’s name, and who grew up to lengthen his stride and widen his embrace… but who also lost his focus and wavered between money, sex and power for the rest of his life! If this is how their leaders behaved, it is no wonder the people of God developed a divided heart. Elijah confronted that condition head-on. It’s like he says, wake up! Notice who you’re serving and what it’s doing to you!

The prophets of Baal helped him illustrate his point. They went first in the contest at the altar: choosing the best bull, cutting it in pieces, laying on the wood, and calling on the name of their god to bring fire. Now Baal was a storm-god. They said he controlled the elements. He was powerful as lightning, present as rain. But Baal was also a cruel god: capricious, requiring child sacrifice, temple prostitution, self-harm. He governed the people with the fear of violence and scarcity. So after having prepared the bull, the prophets of Baal erupted into the kind of behavior you might expect such a god to require: calling on Baal from morning to noon, limping crazily around the altar, shrieking out, cutting themselves, raving in fearful desperation. You can see, actually, how the character of Baal is exposed by their behavior.  And in the end, after all that, he didn’t come through. Nothing happened.

ACT 2: REVELATION (The God who invites our worship)

Eventually Elijah had had enough. He moved the drama from Act 1 (Exposure), to Act 2 (Revelation). It was time for the character of Yahweh to be made known. And how different he is from Baal. You notice that earlier Elijah “came near” to all the people. Now he invited them to come near to him. God is close. Elijah repaired the altar with twelve stones representing the tribes of Israel. God is in our history, our origins. Elijah poured water all over the sacrifice. God is a God of the impossible. Elijah begins by praying, “O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel.” You might know that the formula for this prayer is usually Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the ancestors. Here Elijah inserted Israel; purposefully changing it to remind the Israelites that they themselves belong to God. He is a God of the people. Elijah concludes the prayer simply. It is short and personal (compared to the hours of raving that the prophets of Baal had done). God answers. Then the fire of the Lord fell on the altar and consumed everything, including the stones! God is powerful. It was so sudden and shocking that the people fell to their faces and made a confession of faith. Their hearts had been changed. And that is perhaps the most important point of all. God is concerned with the human heart.

There would be another who would come down to rescue the people – all people – because of God’s concern for the human heart. He confronted idols too. I don’t mean carved idols (that word is probably too easy for us to trip up on). I mean the things we turn to for life that are not life. That’s what had happened with Baal. It wasn’t so much about setting up his statue in the center of the life of the people – it was what setting up his statue in the center of the life of the people implied. Martin Luther said, “that to which you look for life is your God.” The problem was that the people had looked to Baal for life, and he was lifeless.

Let’s be honest. We know something about that. Our culture is full of other “gods” that promise to give us life and which not only cannot give it but which take it instead.  These are any of the things we look to for affection or value, identity, importance or meaning in place of the true, abundant life that has been offered us through Christ. And let’s not be afraid to take it a step further. Because you know what impact these “gods” have. The prophets of Baal took on the character of Baal. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “The gods we worship write their names on our faces,” and “What we are worshiping we are becoming.”

ACT 3: RENEWAL (How worshiping God shapes our becoming)

But good news. The end of the drama is yet to come. Elijah led the people from Act 1 (Exposure), to Act 2 (Revelation), to Act 3: Renewal. God came down at Elijah’s altar in a fiery display of power that revived the people’s hearts. They must have felt their heads lifting, their hearts widening, their lungs filling with fresh air. And THEN, the Lord told Elijah to call for rain. It is important to note that the drought was never intended as a punishment for sin but to mirror the spiritual drought of the people. To catch their attention and show them the condition of their parched hearts. It is also important to note, that God never instructed Elijah to kill the priests of Baal. And actually, there is a rabbinic story that God was angry at Elijah for taking matters into his own hands with that. Which just goes to show that God uses flawed people all the time (thank goodness).

What happened next was nothing short of glorious. While the land was still dry and there was not a cloud in the sky, Elijah spoke of what was to come. He said to Ahab, “Go up, eat and drink; for there is a sound of rushing rain.” And. It. Poured. What must this have been like for those who had lived in drought for so long? Ps 126 gives us a picture: “When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then it was said among the nations, ‘The Lord has done great things for them.’ The Lord has done great things for us, and we rejoiced. Restore our fortunes, O Lord, like the watercourses in the Negeb.” And that is exactly what happened.

CONCLUSION: WHAT WE ARE WORSHIPING WE ARE BECOMING

You know there would be another who came down to rescue the people – all people – because of God’s concern for the human heart. To restore their fortunes like water courses in the Negeb. This is the one who told the woman at the well: “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.”

The Baals are gods of slavery and fear, of darkness and scarcity. Our God is a God of salvation, of flourishing, hope, of light. The is the One to whom we turn for life. If the Lord is God, follow him! And, as Emerson said, what we are worshiping we are becoming. Therefore, Paul says: “let us let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith….”  And “…whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” 

As we wake up, throw off our false gods and turn to the Lord – as we live as we were designed in the beginning to live, worshiping with our full selves the one who gave us life – we are being made into a people who reflect God’s flourishing, hope and life in the world. 

In the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Preaching: Brian Keepers
Text: 1 Kings 2:10-12; 8:14-30

Introduction

The house was difficult to find.  I stepped off the bus and followed the winding street as it led back into a wooded area.  And there it was tucked among blossoming flower gardens and carefully manicured shrubs.  A quaint, brick cottage home.  I knew it was the right house because there was a blue plaque by the front door that read:

 C.S. Lewis
1898-1963
Scholar and Author lived here
1930-1963 

Michael, the man I had talked with on the phone, greeted me.  He was an American doing a Ph.D. at Oxford on the life and writings of Lewis.  Michael gave me a tour of the house, stopping in each room to point things out and talk about Lewis.  My favorite room was the study.  It was exactly as I had imagined it.  Walls crawling with books.  A desk perched by the window with Lewis’ round spectacles and his pipe and ashtray—where he sat and did his writing.  Next to the desk--Lewis’favorite reading chair, where he spent hours devouring books and puffing away on his pipe.

Of course C.S. Lewis had long since died and this home was now a tourist site.  Still, even though Lewis was absent, there was an eerie sense of his presence.  It was like I could feel his presence in that place, through the furniture and artifacts and books scattered around.  Since he is one of the people who has most influenced my own faith, it was a kind of holy moment to be standing in the place where C.S. Lewis once lived and worked.

Have you ever had an experience like that?  Have you ever visited a place where someone famous once lived, and you had that eerie sense of their presence even in their absence? 

This is something like what God’s people, the nation of Israel, experienced in reference to the Temple in Jerusalem.  The Temple was the “house of God,” so to speak.  It was the place where God’s presence dwelled here on earth in a special way, a physical symbol of how God was with his people.

When God delivered his people from Egyptian slavery, he instructed them to build a tabernacle as a symbol of his presence with them.  The tabernacle was a portable sanctuary, the place where they stored the Ark of the Covenant.  It was a constant reminder of God’s covenant relationship with them—that he was their God and they were his people.

When God’s people arrived in the Promise Land and King David eventually captured Jerusalem and made it the center of his kingdom, the first thing David does is have the Ark of the Covenant brought to Jerusalem.  Instead of a portable tent, David wants to build a permanent “house for God”—a Temple.  This would honor God and remind Israel (and all the surrounding nations) that God is the sovereign King of the whole world, all the nations.

God affirms David’s intent, but tells David that God has not chosen him to be the one to do this.  It would be David’s son, Solomon, who would be charged with this task.  Solomon, who asked God not for riches or fame but for one thing:  wisdom to discern right from wrong and govern God’s people with understanding.    God grants Solomon wisdom and also blesses him with wealth and power.  And Solomon uses this wealth and power to build a beautiful Temple “for God’s name.”

In the part of the story we heard from 1 Kings chapter 8, the Temple has been completed and Solomon is leading God’s people in a ceremony of dedication.   Solomon makes a speech in the assembly of the worshipping community, and then he leads them in prayer.

God Puts His Name on the Temple

One of the most striking things about Solomon’s speech and prayer is how many times this curious phrase “building a house for God’s name” shows up.  It is mentioned at least seven times in these verses (and as the prayer goes on, it comes up a total of 14 times!).  “My father David had it in mind to build a house for the name of the LORD, the God of Israel.  But the LORD said to my father, David, ‘You did well to consider building a house for my name; nevertheless you shall not build the house, but your son shall build the house for my name.’  And God himself talks about how, in reference to the Temple, “my name shall be there.”

What does it mean that God’s name shall be on the Temple?  Think about what it means when a name is put on a house or building today.  Let’s go back to my opening story about C.S. Lewis’s home.  I knew it was his house because his name was on it—literally marked with a plaque.  To put a name on a house indicates who lived there or who lives there now.  It also indicates that this place, this home, belongs to that person; it is their property.  Well this is exactly what God is saying (through Solomon) about God’s name being upon the Temple.  It indicates that God lives there—this is God’s residence.  And this home belongs to God.  

Now let’s just be clear.  Solomon and the Israelites didn’t believe that God was confined to the Temple.  Solomon himself says, “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!”(8:27).    No, the Scriptures are clear that God is sovereign and that the heavens and the earth are God’s Temple, God’s sanctuary.  It’s not just the Temple in Jerusalem that belongs to God, but the whole world belongs to God.  However, the Temple provided a physical place, a holy place, for God’s people to encounter God in a special way. 

The Temple was the place that God revealed himself to his people and his eyes and ears were open to their prayers.  That’s also what it means when God says, “My name shall be there.”  In the ancient world, when a deity gave his/her name, they were inviting people to call out to them in prayer and they would answer.  And so Israel is instructed to “pray toward” the temple because God would hear and answer their prayers.  The Temple became known as “a house of prayer.”

But let’s take all of this one step further.  Think about a building that has the name of a major donor on it (like the “Jack Miller Music Hall” on Hope College’s campus).  What does that mean?  It means that through this person’s generosity, the construction of that building was made possible.  It is a way of honoring that person, of showing them respect and gratitude.

And this, too, is what it means that God’s name was put on the Temple.  Even though Solomon led the construction of the Temple, and Solomon was the wisest and wealthiest king in the history of Israel, Solomon does not get the credit for the Temple.  Even Solomon had to acknowledge that the purpose of the Temple was to give God honor—to revere and worship God.  And that it was really God who made it possible for the Temple to be built. 

Even more, it is God whose steadfast love and mercy made it possible for Israel to be in covenant relationship with God—which is what the Temple symbolized.   It was God who rescued his people from Egypt and brought them to the Promise Land and established David’s dynasty.  But here’s something remarkable about Solomon’s prayer.  God puts his name on the Temple not just so he will be glorified among Israel but so Gentiles, too, will be drawn to the Temple and might come to know God’s name!  There is a strong missional thrust to the whole purpose of the Temple. 

God Puts His Name on Jesus

But if we follow the storyline of the Bible, there is a problem.  Eventually the Temple will be destroyed.  It will be destroyed because God’s kings (including Solomon) fall into sin and God’s people break covenant with God and live selfish, unjust lives.  They will be carted off into exile.  Eventually, they’d return to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple (although it would not be near as glamorous as Solomon’s Temple).  But when Jesus arrives on scene, he says something that is puzzling and gets him in trouble.  He says that the Temple will be destroyed again (and it would in AD 70), but then it will be built up again in three days (John 2).

What?  The Temple would be destroyed and rebuilt in three days?  How can that be?  What is he talking about?  Well Jesus goes on to say that he is God’s Temple—God’s Temple in the flesh—and he was referring to his own death and resurrection.

If the heart of the biblical storyline is that God is determined to be with his people and restore the entire creation to his design, then it’s going to take more than constructing a Temple of bricks and mortar.  It’s going to take more than the Law and the sacrificial system.  It would take more than the leadership of an earthly king as wise and wealthy as Solomon.  This is only possible if God himself enters into the mess of humanity, and draws his people back to himself through his own sacrificial love.

So God puts his name on a man from Nazareth named Jesus.  God takes up residence in the person of Jesus!  John’s famous prologue declares this beautiful mystery: “And the Word became flesh and tabernacled  among us…and we have seen his glory!” (Jn. 1:14).  And it is through Jesus death on the cross that we are cleansed of our sin and forgiven—the veil is torn, and we are ushered into the holy of holies through a new and living way (Hebrews 10).  God puts his name on Jesus, dwells with us in Christ, and all who call upon his name are forgiven, healed, restored, set free.    “Therefore God highly exalted him, “ St. Paul declares in Philippians 2:9, “and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

God puts His Name Upon Us

But God goes further.  Jesus is the beginning of God’s living Temple—the cornerstone that the builders rejected.  And when we put our faith in him, he dwells in us by the Spirit and we now become living stones—God is building us up into his living Temple.  Paul put it this way in Ephesians 2:19-22:

“So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone.  In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built together in a spiritual house.”

1 Peter picks up on this same theme: “Like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ…But you are chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you might proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light.” (1 Peter 2:5,9).

Isn’t this remarkable?! God who put his name on the Temple, then decisively puts his name on Jesus, now through Jesus puts his name on us!  God takes up residence in us, and sends us into the world to bear witness to his life and light.  To make his name known among others—“so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you…” (1 Kings 8:43).

God is Building Us Up into A Missional People

This is such a fitting story for us today as we celebrate the one-year anniversary of our capital campaign and continue to move forward with a building project.  David wanted to build a house for God.  But God says something striking. God says, “David, I’m going to build a house for you.  Even as your son will build a house with my name on it, through that building and through your obedience to my law, I’m really going to be the one doing the building—building you into a holy people who will bear may name upon your hearts and who will make my name famous in all the earth.”

I believe this is a season of preparation for us as a church, as we wait and watch our new building being constructed.  This is a season in which God desires to be building us up into a spiritual house, with Jesus Christ as the cornerstone.  A people who are being conformed more and more to the image of Jesus, and who are being drawn more deeply into God’s mission of compassion and justice in the world.  A people whom God has put his name on and who are learning to live all of life as those who belong to Christ.

Perhaps the most important way that we can enter into this season of preparation is to be a people of prayer.  Praying not only for ourselves and the building project; even more, praying for our neighborhoods, workplaces, schools, community, nation and world.  This is what it means to be both a spiritual house and a priestly people—we pray with and for the world in the power of Jesus name.  So I’m asking you to join me in this in a very intentional way over the next 9 months.  Let these green wristbands be a reminder of this important work to which we’ve been called.  I’m going to ask you, once again, to set your alarms for 3:20pm each day and commit to praying for at least one minute —for God’s will to be done in and through us and for God’s name to be known in our community, nation and world.

Why 3:20?  In reference to Ephesians 3:20—that important Scripture passage that we’ve dwelt in over the past year.  Let me close with it this morning, only I’m going to read the passage in its entirety because it really does capture the heart of all that we’ve talked today:

For this reason I bow my knees before my Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name.  I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love.  I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses all knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we ask or imagine, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever.  Amen.

End with singing “Lord Prepare Me to Be a Sanctuary” (acapella)

Preaching: Brian Keepers
Text: 1 Kings 2:10-12; 8:14-30

Introduction

The house was difficult to find.  I stepped off the bus and followed the winding street as it led back into a wooded area.  And there it was tucked among blossoming flower gardens and carefully manicured shrubs.  A quaint, brick cottage home.  I knew it was the right house because there was a blue plaque by the front door that read:

 C.S. Lewis
1898-1963
Scholar and Author lived here
1930-1963 

Michael, the man I had talked with on the phone, greeted me.  He was an American doing a Ph.D. at Oxford on the life and writings of Lewis.  Michael gave me a tour of the house, stopping in each room to point things out and talk about Lewis.  My favorite room was the study.  It was exactly as I had imagined it.  Walls crawling with books.  A desk perched by the window with Lewis’ round spectacles and his pipe and ashtray—where he sat and did his writing.  Next to the desk--Lewis’favorite reading chair, where he spent hours devouring books and puffing away on his pipe.

Of course C.S. Lewis had long since died and this home was now a tourist site.  Still, even though Lewis was absent, there was an eerie sense of his presence.  It was like I could feel his presence in that place, through the furniture and artifacts and books scattered around.  Since he is one of the people who has most influenced my own faith, it was a kind of holy moment to be standing in the place where C.S. Lewis once lived and worked.

Have you ever had an experience like that?  Have you ever visited a place where someone famous once lived, and you had that eerie sense of their presence even in their absence? 

This is something like what God’s people, the nation of Israel, experienced in reference to the Temple in Jerusalem.  The Temple was the “house of God,” so to speak.  It was the place where God’s presence dwelled here on earth in a special way, a physical symbol of how God was with his people.

When God delivered his people from Egyptian slavery, he instructed them to build a tabernacle as a symbol of his presence with them.  The tabernacle was a portable sanctuary, the place where they stored the Ark of the Covenant.  It was a constant reminder of God’s covenant relationship with them—that he was their God and they were his people.

When God’s people arrived in the Promise Land and King David eventually captured Jerusalem and made it the center of his kingdom, the first thing David does is have the Ark of the Covenant brought to Jerusalem.  Instead of a portable tent, David wants to build a permanent “house for God”—a Temple.  This would honor God and remind Israel (and all the surrounding nations) that God is the sovereign King of the whole world, all the nations.

God affirms David’s intent, but tells David that God has not chosen him to be the one to do this.  It would be David’s son, Solomon, who would be charged with this task.  Solomon, who asked God not for riches or fame but for one thing:  wisdom to discern right from wrong and govern God’s people with understanding.    God grants Solomon wisdom and also blesses him with wealth and power.  And Solomon uses this wealth and power to build a beautiful Temple “for God’s name.”

In the part of the story we heard from 1 Kings chapter 8, the Temple has been completed and Solomon is leading God’s people in a ceremony of dedication.   Solomon makes a speech in the assembly of the worshipping community, and then he leads them in prayer.

God Puts His Name on the Temple

One of the most striking things about Solomon’s speech and prayer is how many times this curious phrase “building a house for God’s name” shows up.  It is mentioned at least seven times in these verses (and as the prayer goes on, it comes up a total of 14 times!).  “My father David had it in mind to build a house for the name of the LORD, the God of Israel.  But the LORD said to my father, David, ‘You did well to consider building a house for my name; nevertheless you shall not build the house, but your son shall build the house for my name.’  And God himself talks about how, in reference to the Temple, “my name shall be there.”

What does it mean that God’s name shall be on the Temple?  Think about what it means when a name is put on a house or building today.  Let’s go back to my opening story about C.S. Lewis’s home.  I knew it was his house because his name was on it—literally marked with a plaque.  To put a name on a house indicates who lived there or who lives there now.  It also indicates that this place, this home, belongs to that person; it is their property.  Well this is exactly what God is saying (through Solomon) about God’s name being upon the Temple.  It indicates that God lives there—this is God’s residence.  And this home belongs to God.  

Now let’s just be clear.  Solomon and the Israelites didn’t believe that God was confined to the Temple.  Solomon himself says, “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!”(8:27).    No, the Scriptures are clear that God is sovereign and that the heavens and the earth are God’s Temple, God’s sanctuary.  It’s not just the Temple in Jerusalem that belongs to God, but the whole world belongs to God.  However, the Temple provided a physical place, a holy place, for God’s people to encounter God in a special way. 

The Temple was the place that God revealed himself to his people and his eyes and ears were open to their prayers.  That’s also what it means when God says, “My name shall be there.”  In the ancient world, when a deity gave his/her name, they were inviting people to call out to them in prayer and they would answer.  And so Israel is instructed to “pray toward” the temple because God would hear and answer their prayers.  The Temple became known as “a house of prayer.”

But let’s take all of this one step further.  Think about a building that has the name of a major donor on it (like the “Jack Miller Music Hall” on Hope College’s campus).  What does that mean?  It means that through this person’s generosity, the construction of that building was made possible.  It is a way of honoring that person, of showing them respect and gratitude.

And this, too, is what it means that God’s name was put on the Temple.  Even though Solomon led the construction of the Temple, and Solomon was the wisest and wealthiest king in the history of Israel, Solomon does not get the credit for the Temple.  Even Solomon had to acknowledge that the purpose of the Temple was to give God honor—to revere and worship God.  And that it was really God who made it possible for the Temple to be built. 

Even more, it is God whose steadfast love and mercy made it possible for Israel to be in covenant relationship with God—which is what the Temple symbolized.   It was God who rescued his people from Egypt and brought them to the Promise Land and established David’s dynasty.  But here’s something remarkable about Solomon’s prayer.  God puts his name on the Temple not just so he will be glorified among Israel but so Gentiles, too, will be drawn to the Temple and might come to know God’s name!  There is a strong missional thrust to the whole purpose of the Temple. 

God Puts His Name on Jesus

But if we follow the storyline of the Bible, there is a problem.  Eventually the Temple will be destroyed.  It will be destroyed because God’s kings (including Solomon) fall into sin and God’s people break covenant with God and live selfish, unjust lives.  They will be carted off into exile.  Eventually, they’d return to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple (although it would not be near as glamorous as Solomon’s Temple).  But when Jesus arrives on scene, he says something that is puzzling and gets him in trouble.  He says that the Temple will be destroyed again (and it would in AD 70), but then it will be built up again in three days (John 2).

What?  The Temple would be destroyed and rebuilt in three days?  How can that be?  What is he talking about?  Well Jesus goes on to say that he is God’s Temple—God’s Temple in the flesh—and he was referring to his own death and resurrection.

If the heart of the biblical storyline is that God is determined to be with his people and restore the entire creation to his design, then it’s going to take more than constructing a Temple of bricks and mortar.  It’s going to take more than the Law and the sacrificial system.  It would take more than the leadership of an earthly king as wise and wealthy as Solomon.  This is only possible if God himself enters into the mess of humanity, and draws his people back to himself through his own sacrificial love.

So God puts his name on a man from Nazareth named Jesus.  God takes up residence in the person of Jesus!  John’s famous prologue declares this beautiful mystery: “And the Word became flesh and tabernacled  among us…and we have seen his glory!” (Jn. 1:14).  And it is through Jesus death on the cross that we are cleansed of our sin and forgiven—the veil is torn, and we are ushered into the holy of holies through a new and living way (Hebrews 10).  God puts his name on Jesus, dwells with us in Christ, and all who call upon his name are forgiven, healed, restored, set free.    “Therefore God highly exalted him, “ St. Paul declares in Philippians 2:9, “and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

God puts His Name Upon Us

But God goes further.  Jesus is the beginning of God’s living Temple—the cornerstone that the builders rejected.  And when we put our faith in him, he dwells in us by the Spirit and we now become living stones—God is building us up into his living Temple.  Paul put it this way in Ephesians 2:19-22:

“So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone.  In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built together in a spiritual house.”

1 Peter picks up on this same theme: “Like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ…But you are chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you might proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light.” (1 Peter 2:5,9).

Isn’t this remarkable?! God who put his name on the Temple, then decisively puts his name on Jesus, now through Jesus puts his name on us!  God takes up residence in us, and sends us into the world to bear witness to his life and light.  To make his name known among others—“so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you…” (1 Kings 8:43).

God is Building Us Up into A Missional People

This is such a fitting story for us today as we celebrate the one-year anniversary of our capital campaign and continue to move forward with a building project.  David wanted to build a house for God.  But God says something striking. God says, “David, I’m going to build a house for you.  Even as your son will build a house with my name on it, through that building and through your obedience to my law, I’m really going to be the one doing the building—building you into a holy people who will bear may name upon your hearts and who will make my name famous in all the earth.”

I believe this is a season of preparation for us as a church, as we wait and watch our new building being constructed.  This is a season in which God desires to be building us up into a spiritual house, with Jesus Christ as the cornerstone.  A people who are being conformed more and more to the image of Jesus, and who are being drawn more deeply into God’s mission of compassion and justice in the world.  A people whom God has put his name on and who are learning to live all of life as those who belong to Christ.

Perhaps the most important way that we can enter into this season of preparation is to be a people of prayer.  Praying not only for ourselves and the building project; even more, praying for our neighborhoods, workplaces, schools, community, nation and world.  This is what it means to be both a spiritual house and a priestly people—we pray with and for the world in the power of Jesus name.  So I’m asking you to join me in this in a very intentional way over the next 9 months.  Let these green wristbands be a reminder of this important work to which we’ve been called.  I’m going to ask you, once again, to set your alarms for 3:20pm each day and commit to praying for at least one minute —for God’s will to be done in and through us and for God’s name to be known in our community, nation and world.

Why 3:20?  In reference to Ephesians 3:20—that important Scripture passage that we’ve dwelt in over the past year.  Let me close with it this morning, only I’m going to read the passage in its entirety because it really does capture the heart of all that we’ve talked today:

For this reason I bow my knees before my Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name.  I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love.  I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses all knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we ask or imagine, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever.  Amen.

End with singing “Lord Prepare Me to Be a Sanctuary” (acapella)