The Rev. Neale L. Miller

Sermon for December 18, 2005

Texts: 2 Samuel 1:1-11, 16/Luke 1:47-55

Title: “Thinking Bigger”

              Now on the subject of king David’s physical height scripture has nothing to say. Yet his stature in the eyes of those who wrote about him was unsurpassed by any king who occupied the throne of Israel.  David lives tall in the history of the Jews.

               The apple of Israel’s eye, David is described in terms befitting his office; handsome, brave, and wise. He, of course, needed all the gifts in his possession to accomplish the work to which God’s providence directed him. And, friends, heavy lifting was required.  Though Saul, Israel’s first king, had been no slacker, that unfortunate man ran afoul of God before he could really do all that much.  It was left to David, his successor, to win the loyalty of the various tribes who worshiped Israel’s God, but had yet to shape a common, national identity.        

                A charismatic figure, David skillfully consolidated power around himself. He was one of those leaders who knew how to assert authority, without offending those who were accustomed to giving rather than receiving orders themselves. That is not to say, however, that everyone went along with David’s agenda.  Those that didn’t, however, virtually always came out holding the short end of the stick.    

                The praises of David were sung with barely a discordant note.  Even his adultery, his major lapse, failed to diminish him in the eyes of those who charted his career.  Success on the order that David achieved can remediate in some of the blackest stains.

David’s crowning, and lasting achievement, was to establish a capital. The consolidation of both secular and religious authority in Jerusalem not only solved many of the practical problems David faced as he organized his kingdom, his subjects knew that that were no longer nomads, they were now a settled people. Jerusalem would become Israel’s rallying point, a unifying symbol of nationhood. The aura that Jerusalem  would eventually claim in the life and history of Israel finds expression in her prayer book, the Psalms, where the psalmist (David?) declares, “If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither!  Let may tongue cling to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy.”  Yes, Jerusalem came to be a really big deal, signifying to the Jew that a long, arduous journey had been completed.

                 The journey was over, but it would take one final act to drive that point home. In the verses preceding our morning’s lesson, David conducts the Ark of the Covenant, Israel’s supreme religious symbol, into Jerusalem amid great rejoicing and fanfare. A closely guarded treasure, the Ark contained the tablets of the laws and other holy artifacts Israel treasured. David, caught up in the moment, and disregarding appearances, is described as “leaping and dancing before the Lord” as the processional bearing the ark entered Jerusalem.

                  The partying behind him, our morning’s lesson opens with the following statement, “Now when the king was settled in his house”.  A major accomplishment behind him, arguably the greatest accomplishment in the history of the Jewish people behind him, king David was “settled in his house.”  For many of us that phrase, “settled in his house” has taken on new meaning for us in the last several months.

                   “Now the king was settled in his house.”  What might a king do when he is “settled in his house”?  Settled in your house, what would you do? You might well think up another project to tackle.  That is exactly what David did.  David, you see, was a little unsettled by the fact that while he was settled, the ark of God was stored in the equivalent of a FEMA trailer. No, that would not do. David resolved to house the ark, consulting the best architects and engineers in the land, but even before that he ran his plan by Nathan, the prophet. “Go for it,” the prophet said.    

                     Thinking big, David was.  He would do the job up right.  No amount of money or energy would be spared. Dreaming of the edifice he would build, David was consoled during his sleep. The prophet’s Nathan’s sleep, however, was interrupted. God informed the prophet that he was placing a stop order on King David’s enterprise.  It turned out God didn’t want a house.  Oh, David was thinking big, he had big plans, but God was thinking bigger. Might there be a lesson in there for us, you think?

                    It was an object lesson that has stayed with me these many years.  When I was about nine years old, our town decided to build a new YMCA.  As a fundraiser for that project, kids in town between 8-12 years of age were invited to create posters to publicize a gift giveaway. 

                  Assembled in the public library, each of the twenty or so of us who showed up were given a piece of poster board, and invited to select crayons, glue, colored paper and other art supplies from a large table. You need to know that my artistic juices flow about as fast as maple syrup from a Vermont Maple tree. Standing there contemplating that big, very bare, poster board for a long time, I at last drew a big, not very round, circle.  That orb, I imaged, could become a rather serviceable clown’s face.  I barely drew in the eyes and the mouth when my efforts attracted the attention of two of the young teenagers who were supervising our efforts. Before very long the two were off to the supply table, collecting colored paper, cotton balls, string, and three or four other things.  At first suggesting how some colored cutouts and cotton balls might excessorize my clown, in a matter of minutes they had taken the whole project off my hands. They really did a number on my clown.  My “creation,” incidentally won third prize.  The only prize for artistic achievement, by the way, I have received to date. I was thinking, but those two girls were thinking bigger.

                  My life has passed in and out of the hands of some special people who taught me to think bigger. I was in the seventh grade, the first year of junior high, and I wasn’t making a good transition from grammar school.  I don’t know how it came about but my English teacher, Miss Johnson, invited me to try out for the forensics team in the category, public declamation.  She rehearsed me, line by line, working on my pronunciation, cadence, inflection, until I was prepared to take my reading from Tom Sawyer on the road for a regional school competition.  My aspirations for the seventh grade amounted to no more than survival, but Miss Johnson was thinking bigger. She chose, for whatever reason, to allocate extra time to me. While what she did didn’t materially change my, seventh grade turned out much better than it otherwise might have.

                   Two teenagers were thinking bigger.  Miss Johnson was thinking bigger.  Think about your own life, and the person or persons who came into your life thinking bigger. They encouraged you, challenged you, and channeled you in a direction you might not otherwise have traveled. I personally doubt very seriously I would be standing here today if a college professor of mine, David Hopper, hadn’t encouraged me to apply for a grant to do a trial year in seminary.  I was by no means one of his best students; I didn’t know him outside the classroom.  There is no reason in particular that I can think of to explain why he paid me any special attention. I lay it to the fact that he was thinking bigger than I was. Bigger thinkers see more than the rest of us.

                    David, a big thinker, a big doer, but God was thinking bigger.  David wanted to build a house suitable for God to inhabit, and, to be sure, the king had the resources at his disposal to do the job right.

                    David was thinking big.  God was thinking better. “Forget about building me a house, David, I’m going to build you a house.”  “Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me; your throne shall be established forever.” David was talking house, brick and mortar, God was talking dynasty, a throne to be established forever.

                   The apostles of our Lord Jesus witnessed incredible things in his presence, and frankly, being human, they coveted the power they saw him wield.  Problem was, as big as they thought, Jesus was always thinking bigger. They thought about power and prestige on the world’s terms, but Jesus, thinking bigger, said, “I can give you the world itself.” “Ask anything in my name, and I will do it.”

                   Peter put first one leg, and then the other, over the side of the boat.  He was thinking as big as his faith would allow when he accepted the Lord’s invitation to walk to  him on the sea, unfortunately he wasn’t thinking as big as Jesus. He was making his way to Jesus’ side well enough, but then he lost it.  Succumbed to his fears, he began to sink.  We will never know what great things Peter might have accomplished for the kingdom of God, had he thought as big as Jesus, but the great things of God were withheld from him because he couldn’t think bigger.      

                   Lakeview, Carrollton, (Berean) and the other churches of this city, were motoring along just fine while we were in the boat.  We are no longer in the boat. The wind is blowing, the waves are billowing, our fears counsel us to not to risk, even as the nauseating feeling that we aren’t up to the challenge we have been dealt, creeps up our spines.  What we did, and the way we did it, are history, at least for now.  Our churches, our city, are hemorrhaging people. The city is a mess. Our lives resemble those piles of debris lining our streets that once was our household goods and other personal possessions.

                    This mess we find ourselves in has thrust an important question upon us, namely, are we willing to think bigger? Different, that’s the word. Our lives are different.  We will certainly be a different city.  Can we be a different church?

                        Forget about business as usual. The survival of our churches is an issue.  Many of our smaller congregations across this city, predominately supported by an aging population, are now facing what their declining, but adequate resource base, has forestalled.  They have been forced to ask themselves if they can realistically hold on.  The midsized church, even those not seriously damaged in the recent storm, must contend with the reality of fewer members, in some cases many fewer members, and a seriously reduced financial base. The larger, until now, well-funded church, accustomed to commanding many resources, is casting anxious looks at the future.

                       So what does thinking bigger mean in these varied contexts?  For one thing, it means prudence good sober, practical thinking about the future.  At the very least it will mean reassessing budget numbers.  It may mean down-sizing and scaling back. Thinking bigger may mean re-assessing the congregation’s resource base. Does the church have gifts it can bring to its ministry area that it may have overlooked? Thinking bigger may mean consulting more broadly, beginning with folk in the congregation itself. By scheduling today’s meeting, the staff and session is attempting to provide a forum for all Lakeview folk to express your views about the church and its future (Carrollton, you most welcome to join us). 

                     Bottom line?  Thinking bigger means placing faith in action. The recent catastrophe has forced us to undertake a top down reassessment of what we do and why.  Business as usual has been suspended. We are recreating ourselves as a church. One leg over the side of the boat, and then another, we are out there walking, not because we want to be, but because we have no other choice. Our legs may be shaking in this unfamiliar place. But let the winds howl, the waves threaten, Jesus is there with us saying, “have faith, I am with you.”     

                 Thinking bigger.  David had big plans.  He wanted to build the grandest of all houses to honor Israel’s God. God, however, had other things in mind. He was thinking bigger. God would use David in a special way. Not a mere house, David would inaugurate a dynasty.

                A dynasty may not be in our future, but this I do know, God is calling us to a new place, and our journey takes us square into the rubble of this city. It is not the place we want to be, and the work we are doing, and will do, is not the work we are accustomed to doing.  But we are here, and we are filled with regrets, sorrow, and anger about what we have lost.  We have succumbed, and we will continue to succumb to those regrets, sorrow, and anger, but, friends, none of that is going to clear the rubble. 

              Tools to clear the rubble?  God, who was with us before the rubble, has given us tools to clear the rubble.  But what we do with those tools is up to us.  This is no time to cling to the side of the boat.  This is a time for thinking bigger.  This time, more than a time the churches of this city has faced, is a time to place faith in action.  AMEN.     

PRAYER

              Sovereign God, who has given us yet another day, we gather in gratitude for this hour we are privileged to spend together.  The tie that binds us together holds firm once again. We meet here not as strangers but persons bound together by a covenant of grace you initiated in Christ Jesus our Lord.  In the freedom that is ours through that covenant, the assurance of your unconditional love, the forgiveness of our sins, and the hope that sustains us into the as yet unknown future, we shall live this day, our lives bearing testimony to your grace.

              Even as we worship in this sacred place, the devastation that has defaced our city streets is never far from our minds.  Many of us are wounded, adrift, and unable to get our bearings under a sky devoid of stars.  Yet we know, O Lord, that our lives and futures are in your hands. We do not fear for we know that from generation to generation your light has never failed. New with each morning the light of your countenance shines, obscured by clouds perhaps, but never, never absent.

              Even as you taught David to think bigger, teach us to think bigger.  Events in this city have taught us to assume nothing, to be skeptically, to be on guard, while fear of the unknown makes us tentative.  Embolden us to confront our fears and to think bigger. Grant us wisdom for the living of these days, and brace our wisdom with faith to plan for a future filled with uncertainties. Open our minds to see our church in a new way, to recognize the new potentialities placed before us amid the devastation wrought by the storm.

              We pray for our friends in Iraq in the wake of recent elections.  We pray that the new government created will stabilize that nation, and lend confidence and hope to those who at the risk of their lives went to the polls to vote. Abide with all military and civilian personnel who represent our nation to the Iraqi people.  May they be assured of our nation’s support, even as the reason for their being in Iraq is debated.

              As the season of Advent draws to a close, and we prepare to celebrate our Savior’s  birth, we give thanks, O God, for the prophets of old who foretold the great event. We thank you for those who carried your message to the world, people like Isaiah, Jeremiah, and John the Baptist.  We thank you for the quiet confidence of Mary, chosen by you, to be the bearer of the world’s Savior. We thank you for the proclamation of the church which keeps the story of Jesus alive in hymn, prayer and preaching.

              In the confidence you inspire, O God, we pray for all those who have not heard, or hearing, have rejected your life sustaining word.  May our witness as members of this congregation bring light into all those dark places of our world. As we pray for our witness, we pray for those whom it is hardest to pray for, those who are so twisted by greed, lust, or hate that they have forgotten the common humanity they share with their victims.  Even as we pray for our own redemption, we pray for theirs.

              (BEREAN) Finally, O God, we bring our intercessions on behalf of Bill as he wages his fight to live.  Abide with him, and with his family.  Be a very present help to them, and all those who are tested by adversity in this hour. 

              In the strong name of Jesus we pray….