1.
Please
pray with me. May the words of my mouth
and the meditation of our hearts be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock,
and our Redeemer. Amen. The Pentecost season began with a clear
message that the Gospel is to go out to all the world. That day it was heard by
Jews from every nation, but in our Bible lessons for this weekend we see what
was implied there. Beginning with the Jews, the Gospel is for all people. Our lesson from 1 Kings comes from Solomon’s
prayer at the temple dedication. Although heaven and earth can’t contain God,
he has located his name with that building in Jerusalem. This is an anticipation of Jesus’ miraculous
incarnation. Solomon prays to the Lord to hear the foreigners who come to the
temple for his name’s sake so that all may know his name. In Galatians, St Paul
emphasizes that there is only one Gospel for all people and those who would
make the Church only a Jewish sect must be rejected. Luke 7 tells of the
servant of a Gentile centurion who’s near death. In the centurion’s prayer for
healing, Jesus calls attention to the centurion’s faith. Jesus grants a healing
miracle to the centurion’s empty hands of faith. This event is part of Luke’s
emphasis of salvation going out to all nations.
Our message today is taken from 1 Kings 8 and is entitled, “Lord, Use Your House to Reach Others,” dear
brothers and sisters in Christ.
2.
The
struggle of a person on a faith journey is to know in whom to believe. When a
person says, “I don’t believe in God,”
a good response is, “Tell me about the
God in which you do not believe.” Often the God revealed in such a
conversation doesn’t resemble the God in today’s reading. When Solomon begins
his dedicatory prayer over the temple in Israel, he stands with open arms, a
posture of receptivity and supplication. His prayer is relational. The very
action of openness is shown of his relationship with the God of Israel whom
Solomon has come to know.
3.
1
Kings 8.22–24, 27-28, 41-43 says, “Then
Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in the presence of all the assembly
of Israel and spread out his hands toward heaven, 23and said, “O LORD, God of
Israel, there is no God like you, in heaven above or on earth beneath, keeping
covenant and showing steadfast love to your servants who walk before you with
all their heart, 24who have kept with your servant David my father what you
declared to him. You spoke with your mouth, and with your hand have fulfilled
it this day.27 But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the
highest heaven cannot contain you; how much less this house that I have built!
28Yet have regard to the prayer of your servant and to his plea, O LORD my God,
listening to the cry and to the prayer that your servant prays before you this
day, 29that your eyes may be open night and day toward this house, the place of
which you have said, ‘My name shall be there,’ that you may listen to the
prayer that your servant offers toward this place. 41 Likewise, when a
foreigner, who is not of your people Israel, comes from a far country for your
name’s sake 42(for they shall hear of your great name and your mighty hand, and
of your outstretched arm), when he comes and prays toward this house, 43hear in
heaven your dwelling place and do according to all for which the foreigner
calls to you, in order that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and
fear you, as do your people Israel, and that they may know that this house that
I have built is called by your name.”
4.
Solomon’s
prayer acknowledges that the God to whom he is praying is not like the other
gods who are conjectured in the heavens or even beneath the earth. This one God
is unique and distinct. This God has made a covenant with the people of Israel.
This God has made promises. This God is steadfast in love. This God is loyal.
In relationship with this God, Solomon and the people of Israel are shaped as
they walk with their whole heart and their whole selves in God’s presence. The
whole of Scripture is the drama of how people are shaped by their continuing
understanding of and their unfolding realization of who this God is who has
promised to be with them. This God guides them, loves them with steadfastness,
is the source of life, and is even life in death through our Lord Jesus Christ.
5. Who are the other gods that people
search after aimlessly? It’s true that we’ve searched for alternatives. Human beings have sought out other false gods
to attach to their lives. Human feet
have traveled far and wide to discover that which fits the god of their own
desires. Mountains have been climbed,
seas crossed, and dreary wildernesses crossed in the hunt for a god to guide
and govern according to humanity’s ways.
It is true many false gods have been adopted, many deities have been set
up for worship. Many pieces of wood and
stone have been shaped and molded to serve humanity’s purposes. But, there is no other God! Why the search! We wish to create a god in our own
image. We would have a god that performs
in accordance with our own desires and wants.
We would shape a god who will do as we bid and perform as we
command. But, there is no other
God! These other gods, the false gods of
our own making, are only as reliable as the human beings who make them up. They can’t provide or protect, for they must
be provided for and protected. They
can’t help or rescue, for they must be helped and rescued from the attack of
those who scoff at them. What God are
these false gods? What comfort do they
provide? No other people have a god like
our God! That’s why King Solomon prays
that the Lord would use the temple to reach others so that all mankind would
know and believe in the one true God.
6.
To show more what this God is like, our
lectionary passage takes up the issue of “foreigners.” These people aren’t of
the people of Israel, yet they have heard of the name of God, have experienced
God’s mighty hand, have known God’s outstretched arm, and therefore have come
to worship in the temple. This was a distinctive note in Solomon’s prayer. In
400 BC, there was conflict between foreigners who were part of the worshiping
community and those who were opposed to their participation. Solomon’s words
indicate that the foreigner who is faithfully seeking to worship God is to be
heard by God. All shall know the God who makes promises and whose love is
steadfast in His Son Jesus Christ. Isaiah writes, “And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord … to love the name of the Lord … and hold fast my covenant—these I will bring to my
holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer … for my house shall
be called a house of prayer for all peoples” (Isa. 56:6–7).
7.
When
the foreigner demonstrates his trust in God by asking him for things, Solomon
asks the Lord for three things. First of all, that the Lord “hear from heaven, your dwelling place.”
As Solomon had made clear earlier in his prayer, the Lord was in no way
confined to the temple Solomon had built. Heaven still was, and still is, his
home. Solomon asked the Lord to listen to the prayers foreigners offered at the
temple. God does promise to hear those who are in a right relationship with him
by faith. That was as true for people of the Old Testament (Ps 34:17) as it is
for people today (Mt 7:7–11). Second,
Solomon asks the Lord to give the foreigner what he asks for. While all prayers
are answered—yes, no, or wait—Solomon asks that in this case the Lord will
answer yes to whatever the foreigner asks. His concern isn’t simply that the
foreigner get what he wants. He has a higher motive. Solomon’s concern is for the building of the
foreigner’s faith and the Lord’s reputation. When the Lord answers prayer with
a no, it’s nothing to be criticized. He knows what’s best. But “no” answers
don’t demonstrate God’s power to help so clearly as when the Lord answers yes. When
he does what people ask, then his power is displayed, the promises of his Word
are confirmed, and people are moved to tell others about the good things the
Lord has done. Then, “all the peoples of
the earth may know your name.”
8.
Solomon
prayed that such a coming to know God’s name would lead people to associate the
Jerusalem temple with God’s name, to know that the worship there was the center
for the true worship that the true God had established. Practicing the true
worship God had ordained would build the foreigner’s faith even further and
cement his relationship with God. It’s important to remember that even though
the Old Testament temple no longer is the place where the Lord dwells among his
people, he hasn’t withdrawn his presence. In Jesus, God dwells among us (Jn
1:14). Jesus said, “Destroy this temple
[referring to his body], and I will raise it again in three days” (Jn
2:19). Our Savior has replaced the temple. Now through Jesus all people are
drawn to the Father, all prayer that comes to the throne of grace in his name
is heard and answered.
9.
The highest heaven can’t
contain our God, much less any construction made with human hands, but the Lord
has chosen to dwell with His people. He
has chosen to place His name upon us through our baptism and be present with us
in our midst. He has chosen to become
flesh and walk among us in His Son Jesus Christ. He’s chosen to rescue and redeem us from sin
and death so that we might also dwell with Him.
The Lord dwells in our midst this day as He continues to come to us in
His Word and the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. No other god is like this! The Lord dwells in our midst this day so that
we might dwell with Him in His heavenly mansions one day for all eternity! Amen.
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