by the Rev. Dr. Paul S. Nancarrow
This sermon is based on 2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16 and Luke 1: 26-38.
An audio version of this sermon is available here.
“We beseech thee, Almighty God,” we pray in our collect today, “to purify our consciences by thy daily visitation, that when thy Son Jesus Christ cometh he may find in us a mansion prepared for himself.”
What does it mean to prepare a mansion, to prepare a dwelling place, for God? That question runs all through our scripture readings for this Fourth Sunday of Advent, this Sunday almost on the cusp of Christmas Day.
David wanted to build a dwelling place for God, as we hear in our reading from 2 Samuel this morning. David wanted to build a splendid temple for God, something that would really show off David’s power and prestige as king. That was kind of standard operating procedure for Middle Eastern kings in David’s time: first you consolidated your territories, then you subdued your enemies, then you built yourself a magnificent palace, then you erected a temple to your god to impress on everyone just how important you were and how powerful you were and how divine authority was on your side to do whatever you wanted. When David was settled in his house, and had rest from all his enemies, and wanted to prove that he really was the king, the next thing to do was to build a temple for God to dwell in, to show everyone how much God favored him.
But God had different ideas about where to dwell. God sent the prophet Nathan to tell David that God didn’t actually need a house, that God was always free to move about among peoples and places, and God was not about to be pinned down to a temple of splendor as a sign of David’s divine favor. Instead of dwelling in a house made by hands, where God really wanted to dwell was in the house of David, in David’s dynasty, in the lineage of Davidic kings who would lead God’s people, and shepherd God’s people, and establish God’s people in righteousness and justice, who would be God’s instrument for bringing peace and wholeness and well-being to all people. The house, the dwelling place, the mansion God wanted was David’s heart, and the hearts of all those who would come after David. For David, preparing a dwelling place for God meant accepting the covenant God chose to make with him.
Preparing a dwelling place for God takes on an even deeper meaning in our Gospel reading today, in Luke’s account of the Annunciation to Mary. The angel Gabriel comes to a young girl in a small town in the backwater region of Galilee to tell her that she, she, will conceive and bear the heir to David’s throne, the one who will open the way to the kingdom of never-ending justice and peace, the one who will be God’s Son, God’s human dwelling place, in the world. Astonished and perplexed by this world-changing news, Mary asks a very prudent question — “How can this be?” — and the angel answers that she will be overshadowed by the Holy Spirit, she herself, her very body, will be a dwelling place for divine presence, she herself will be the mansion where the holy child will grow and form and be prepared to come into the world. Mary’s simple answer, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word,” is a perfect example of human self-offering in response to God’s self-offering in love. For Mary, preparing a dwelling place for God meant trusting that nothing will be impossible with God, and therefore opening herself to the new life God has chosen to place in her.
Preparing a dwelling place by accepting the covenant. Preparing a dwelling place by self-offering for new life. According to our collect, preparing a dwelling place for God happens when God purifies our consciences. “Conscience” is a word that means more than we usually give it credit for. Conscience is more than that little voice that tells you when you’ve done something bad; the word “conscience” comes from roots that literally mean “knowing with”; so conscience in its root sense means a kind of knowledge that is intimate and intense and more meaningful than ordinary information. Conscience is more than objective external data about something; conscience is sharing in the truth of a thing, knowing something so well that it becomes a part of you and you become a part of it. For God to purify our consciences means that God cleans away all the things that get in the way of our knowing God so deeply and so inwardly and so well that God becomes a part of us and we become a part of God. For God to purify our consciences means that God prepares in us the knowledge of Christ, a dwelling place for Christ, a mansion in our deepest hearts where the life of Christ can be formed. Just as David knew God when God offered to make him a house, just as Mary knew God when God offered to make her the mother of his Son, so we know God when God offers to us a purified conscience, an intimate knowing, to be the dwelling place of Christ in us.
And that happens, our collect tells us, by God’s “daily visitation.” The purified conscience is not something we must accomplish on our own before God will deign to come to us, but it is something that God accomplishes with us precisely by coming to us. The daily time we spend in prayer and meditation and contemplation with God is the very way God forms in us the pure conscience, the inward knowing, the heart’s mansion where Christ can live.
And that’s a timely reminder for us today. Christmas is a week away — and for a lot of us that means things are going to get busier and busier with each passing day. There will be visits, and family, and travel, and parties before Christmas, and parties after Christmas, and big dinners, and shopping, and presents, and before you know it will be New Year’s Eve, and then where will the year have gone? It will be easy to get caught up in the whirlwind of it all in the next few days, and while that can be joyous it can also be exhausting, and in some ways it can distract us from the truth of Christ born into the world that is at the heart of it all. Daily prayer, daily visitation with God, will purify our conscience, it will clarify our knowing, it will deepen our sharing with Christ alive in us — so that even in a busy time of year we may be more and more the embodiment of Christ’s hands to serve, and Christ’s feet to go, and Christ’s mouth to speak Good News, and Christ’s heart to love all those who need love most. It was to embody all those things that Jesus was formed in Mary’s womb and born in Bethlehem; it is to embody all those things in us that Jesus forms a mansion in our hearts today.
So I invite you this week, as everything ramps up for The Big Event: Take time each day to pray, spend time each day with God’s visitation, let God’s grace purify your inward knowing and form in you a place for Christ to dwell. And your Christmas celebration will be not just for Jesus’ birth, but for your own rebirth in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
This sermon is based on 2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16 and Luke 1: 26-38.
An audio version of this sermon is available here.
“We beseech thee, Almighty God,” we pray in our collect today, “to purify our consciences by thy daily visitation, that when thy Son Jesus Christ cometh he may find in us a mansion prepared for himself.”
What does it mean to prepare a mansion, to prepare a dwelling place, for God? That question runs all through our scripture readings for this Fourth Sunday of Advent, this Sunday almost on the cusp of Christmas Day.
David wanted to build a dwelling place for God, as we hear in our reading from 2 Samuel this morning. David wanted to build a splendid temple for God, something that would really show off David’s power and prestige as king. That was kind of standard operating procedure for Middle Eastern kings in David’s time: first you consolidated your territories, then you subdued your enemies, then you built yourself a magnificent palace, then you erected a temple to your god to impress on everyone just how important you were and how powerful you were and how divine authority was on your side to do whatever you wanted. When David was settled in his house, and had rest from all his enemies, and wanted to prove that he really was the king, the next thing to do was to build a temple for God to dwell in, to show everyone how much God favored him.
But God had different ideas about where to dwell. God sent the prophet Nathan to tell David that God didn’t actually need a house, that God was always free to move about among peoples and places, and God was not about to be pinned down to a temple of splendor as a sign of David’s divine favor. Instead of dwelling in a house made by hands, where God really wanted to dwell was in the house of David, in David’s dynasty, in the lineage of Davidic kings who would lead God’s people, and shepherd God’s people, and establish God’s people in righteousness and justice, who would be God’s instrument for bringing peace and wholeness and well-being to all people. The house, the dwelling place, the mansion God wanted was David’s heart, and the hearts of all those who would come after David. For David, preparing a dwelling place for God meant accepting the covenant God chose to make with him.
Preparing a dwelling place for God takes on an even deeper meaning in our Gospel reading today, in Luke’s account of the Annunciation to Mary. The angel Gabriel comes to a young girl in a small town in the backwater region of Galilee to tell her that she, she, will conceive and bear the heir to David’s throne, the one who will open the way to the kingdom of never-ending justice and peace, the one who will be God’s Son, God’s human dwelling place, in the world. Astonished and perplexed by this world-changing news, Mary asks a very prudent question — “How can this be?” — and the angel answers that she will be overshadowed by the Holy Spirit, she herself, her very body, will be a dwelling place for divine presence, she herself will be the mansion where the holy child will grow and form and be prepared to come into the world. Mary’s simple answer, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word,” is a perfect example of human self-offering in response to God’s self-offering in love. For Mary, preparing a dwelling place for God meant trusting that nothing will be impossible with God, and therefore opening herself to the new life God has chosen to place in her.
Preparing a dwelling place by accepting the covenant. Preparing a dwelling place by self-offering for new life. According to our collect, preparing a dwelling place for God happens when God purifies our consciences. “Conscience” is a word that means more than we usually give it credit for. Conscience is more than that little voice that tells you when you’ve done something bad; the word “conscience” comes from roots that literally mean “knowing with”; so conscience in its root sense means a kind of knowledge that is intimate and intense and more meaningful than ordinary information. Conscience is more than objective external data about something; conscience is sharing in the truth of a thing, knowing something so well that it becomes a part of you and you become a part of it. For God to purify our consciences means that God cleans away all the things that get in the way of our knowing God so deeply and so inwardly and so well that God becomes a part of us and we become a part of God. For God to purify our consciences means that God prepares in us the knowledge of Christ, a dwelling place for Christ, a mansion in our deepest hearts where the life of Christ can be formed. Just as David knew God when God offered to make him a house, just as Mary knew God when God offered to make her the mother of his Son, so we know God when God offers to us a purified conscience, an intimate knowing, to be the dwelling place of Christ in us.
And that happens, our collect tells us, by God’s “daily visitation.” The purified conscience is not something we must accomplish on our own before God will deign to come to us, but it is something that God accomplishes with us precisely by coming to us. The daily time we spend in prayer and meditation and contemplation with God is the very way God forms in us the pure conscience, the inward knowing, the heart’s mansion where Christ can live.
And that’s a timely reminder for us today. Christmas is a week away — and for a lot of us that means things are going to get busier and busier with each passing day. There will be visits, and family, and travel, and parties before Christmas, and parties after Christmas, and big dinners, and shopping, and presents, and before you know it will be New Year’s Eve, and then where will the year have gone? It will be easy to get caught up in the whirlwind of it all in the next few days, and while that can be joyous it can also be exhausting, and in some ways it can distract us from the truth of Christ born into the world that is at the heart of it all. Daily prayer, daily visitation with God, will purify our conscience, it will clarify our knowing, it will deepen our sharing with Christ alive in us — so that even in a busy time of year we may be more and more the embodiment of Christ’s hands to serve, and Christ’s feet to go, and Christ’s mouth to speak Good News, and Christ’s heart to love all those who need love most. It was to embody all those things that Jesus was formed in Mary’s womb and born in Bethlehem; it is to embody all those things in us that Jesus forms a mansion in our hearts today.
So I invite you this week, as everything ramps up for The Big Event: Take time each day to pray, spend time each day with God’s visitation, let God’s grace purify your inward knowing and form in you a place for Christ to dwell. And your Christmas celebration will be not just for Jesus’ birth, but for your own rebirth in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
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