Today ended the summer lectionary run through I and 2 Samuel and 1 and 2 Kings. I have enjoyed the preaching opportunities this summer. Generally speaking, I find it easier to preach narrative texts, which is part of why I enjoyed the summer preaching series. Ia also discovered that I had never preached many of these great stories, so it was fun to explore them in the context of preaching.
I found particularly powerful NT Wright's image of a Christian praying at the fault line. He speaks of it in terms of being shaped by Jesus who is holding things together, but my image (shaped by his image) was more of a person praying standing on one side of the gap praying to God on the other side of the gap, who is answering prayer in ways that closes the gap. I find that to be a powerful image.
My spoken words in the section on the gap were different than what was written in the sermon text. Not sure what I said, but i know I was not following the written text very well.
“Crafting a Prayer” August 26, 2018, SAPC, Denton; I Kings 8: 22-30; 41-54; Richard B. Culp
41 “Likewise when a foreigner, who is not of your people Israel, comes from a distant land because of your name 42 —for they shall hear of your great name, your mighty hand, and your outstretched arm—when a foreigner comes and prays toward this house, 43 then hear in heaven your dwelling place, and do according to all that the foreigner calls to you, so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your people Israel, and so that they may know that your name has been invoked on this house that I have built.
44 “If your people go out to battle against their enemy, by whatever way you shall send them, and they pray to the Lord toward the city that you have chosen and the house that I have built for your name, 45 then hear in heaven their prayer and their plea, and maintain their cause.
46 “If they sin against you—for there is no one who does not sin—and you are angry with them and give them to an enemy, so that they are carried away captive to the land of the enemy, far off or near; 47 yet if they come to their senses in the land to which they have been taken captive, and repent, and plead with you in the land of their captors, saying, ‘We have sinned, and have done wrong; we have acted wickedly’; 48 if they repent with all their heart and soul in the land of their enemies, who took them captive, and pray to you toward their land, which you gave to their ancestors, the city that you have chosen, and the house that I have built for your name; 49 then hear in heaven your dwelling place their prayer and their plea, maintain their cause 50 and forgive your people who have sinned against you, and all their transgressions that they have committed against you; and grant them compassion in the sight of their captors, so that they may have compassion on them 51 (for they are your people and heritage, which you brought out of Egypt, from the midst of the iron-smelter). 52 Let your eyes be open to the plea of your servant, and to the plea of your people Israel, listening to them whenever they call to you. 53 For you have separated them from among all the peoples of the earth, to be your heritage, just as you promised through Moses, your servant, when you brought our ancestors out of Egypt, O Lord God.”54 Now when Solomon finished offering all this prayer and this plea to the Lord, he arose from facing the altar of the Lord, where he had knelt with hands outstretched toward heaven;
Introduction: the people are gathering in the seventh month for the Feast of Booths, which is time for the ceremonial renewal of covenant that goes back to the time of Moses.
In fact, it appears the dedication of the Temple is delayed eleven months to coincide with the 448th year since Moses gave the command to read the law every seven years (note 448 is divisible by 7) (Richard Nelson, interpretation: First and Second Kings, 50)
The ark has been put in place in the temple, which means the tablets of the law are physically present as symbol of God’s presence.
A cloud has filled the space suggesting the presence of God is in their midst.
The time to dedicate the temple has arrived.
Solomon has made a speech to the gathered people.
Solomon lifted his hands toward the heavens.
Now, Solomon prays.
What would you pray at the dedication of the Temple, if you were Solomon?
Sort of like praying for the dedication of a sanctuary, or new church building, or building for ministry dedicated to God.
Let’s take a few moments and look at the prayer Solomon prayed that day.
Move 1: First of all, the prayer reveals the theology of God’s people at that time.
a. Chapter 8 has been redacted numerous times to fine tune the theological impact of it (Richard Nelson, interpretation: First and Second Kings, 50).
1. In other words, the pray we read as Solomon’s has probably been edited in later years to make the prayer reflect what the editors think Solomon ought to have prayed!
2. A reflection of Israel’s central theological understandings.
c. Solomon begins with covenant.
1. “God, remember the covenant you made with us.
2. Skips over Israel breaking the covenant.
3. Reminder that at the core of Israel’s relationship with God, indeed at the core of our relationship with God, resides the covenant God made with them and us - the promise to be faithful to us.
d. Solomon prays about forgiveness and the return of the Promised Land.
1. Solomon does acknowledge the Israelite tendency to sin, but asks that when Israel repents and turns back to ward God, if God will be true to the promise of giving them land.
2. a reminder of God’s call to repent and God’s promise to the Israelites that they understand in relationship to the Promised Land.
e. Solomon prays about foreigners who come into their midst and lift their prayers to the God they do not know.
1. Builds on the Israelite tradition of welcoming foreigners.
2. But also announces their belief in the God’s sovereignty - even if the foreigners do not know God, God will use them.
f. Longest petition in the prayer is about is exile (vss. 46-51) perhaps reflecting the fact that the story was put together while Israel was in exile.
1. Important point is made - if the people are in exile, if they can’t be in the Temple to pray, will God still hear their prayers.
2. In fact, if they turn toward their land, face Israel, if you will, then will that help God hear their prayers.
3. a prayer request rooted in a place, Jerusalem, but hoping in the God of new possibilities who is at work anywhere and everywhere.
Move 2: We also notice this divide in which the prayer is prayed in the Temple, heard in heaven.
a. Prayer is made in the Temple, right there in the midst of the people, but God hears the prayer in heaven.
1. In fact, in several of the sections of the prayer, Solomon describes the Israelites praying in exile, or on earth, or in the Temple, and God hearing the prayer in heaven.
2. what do we make of that distinction?
b. the point is not a distant God.
1. Remember, we have already been reminded us that the God is present in the Temple.
2. But the belief that God is present in their midst is in tension with the idea that the Temple cannot contain the presence of God.
3. Solomon’s prayer points out the gap between our world, the place where we lift our prayers, and the heaven where God hears our prayers.
4. A reminder that even our most informed, our most theological, our best prayers in every sense of the world cannot know what God knows or ask for what God desires to give because we are asking out of our human experience and God is answering out of God’s plan for our lives and our world.
c. Prayers try to bridge the gap by inviting us to offer our needs, our praise, our desires to God and in turn listening for what God desires of us.
1. for the pantheist, prayer is simply getting in tune with the deepest realities of the world and of oneself. Divinity is everywhere, including within me. Prayer is therefore not so much addressing someone else, who lives somewhere else, but rather discovering and getting in tune with an inner truth and life that are to be found deep within my own heart and within the silent rhythms of the world around....For the Deist, prayer is calling across a void to a distant deity. This lofty figure may or may not be listening. He, or it, may or may not be inclined, or even able, to do very much about us and our world, even if he (or it) wanted to...Christian prayer is about standing at the fault line, being shaped by the Jesus who knelt in Gethsemane, groaning in travail, holding heaven and earth together like someone trying to tie two pieces of rope with people tugging at the other ends to pull them apart. “ Simply Christian, N. T. Wright (163-164).
2. Facing the gap, God’s people pray.
2. Solomon in his time stood at that fault line, praised God, and asked for God’s answer to their prayers.
3. When we pray, we stand at that fault line as well, turning to God in the name of Christ, the one who stands with us, and asking for God to move us beyond where we are to the new places God calls us.
Move 3: Prayer opens us up to possibilities beyond ourselves
a. Solomon may be praying about specific situations, but as he prays to the God of endless possibilities, he hopes God will move Israel forward in ways he cannot even impinge or articulate.
1. At the end of his prayer, he has laid out his hope for what God and Israel will do.
2. But he has no idea what God has in mind for Israel.
3. Solomon might have imagined that if Israel ended up in exile in the future, God would send a ruler to Persia like Cyrus who would allows the exiled Israelites to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple. Actually, on the day of dedicating the Temple, Solomon’s imagination would not have been so wild.
4. But could Solomon ever have imagined that God’s Israel’s sinfulness would be to come in the person of Christ?
5. Solomon could have prayed all day and all night, and he would not have gotten there.
b. As we hear Solomon pray, we are reminded that God’s answer to our prayers probably do not fit with our best solution.
1. As quoted Kathleen Norris, the Christian writer notes (as quoted by Ann Lamott): ‘Prayer is not asking for what you think you want, but asking to be changed in ways you can’t imagine.’” Grace (Eventually):Thoughts on Faith (11).
2. The risk of praying to God is that God is going to hear and answer, and the answer calls us to do something, often something different than we had in mind.
3. I am reminded of the story told about a minister who hears a woman is near death in the hospital, so he rushes to visit her. He walks in and she appears to be comatose. He leans over her bed and prays for her healing. She sits up. He races from the room, down the stairs out to his car, where he pauses and says, “dear God, don’t you ever do that to me again!”
c. Solomon does not know it in the moment.
1. In fact, he will not live to see all the ways in which God answers his prayers.
2. But God does answer.
3. God answers Solomon prayer in ways Solomon never could have imagined.
Conclusion: Final image: did you notice that Solomon begins the prayer standing with his arms extended and finishes on his knees!
the image of Solomon on his knees reminds us of the weight of turning to God in prayer, in awe knowing that the one who hears our prayers does indeed answer; with answers that can overwhelm us with the new possibilities God has in store for us.
No comments:
Post a Comment