July 18, 2021 – Eighth Sunday after Pentecost
Kenya, in East Africa, has many different ethnic groups each with their own language and culture. One of those groups is the Maasai. They are a nomadic people who settle in one location for a while until it’s time to move on. When they move they take only their most prized possessions, their cows.
One day, some Christian Missionaries from Europe decided that the Maasai people needed to hear the Gospel. And so, they came to the land of the Maasai and did what missionaries traditionally did. They built a church. They told the Maasai that the church building was an important place to come and worship God.
The Maasai were excited, and they came to church. They worshipped and celebrated. But when it came time for these nomadic people to leave that location, they left the place of worship behind and wandering into the desert to find a new place to call home.
The Christian missionaries were confused, and wondered what happened. How could they leave the church so easily?
The missionaries searched until they found the same group of Maasai people living in the new place. Once again, the missionaries built a new church and invited the Maasai to come. They came and worshipped and celebrated.
But one day they left their new place of worship and once more wandered into the desert. This time the missionaries were upset. They had built two churches that the Maasai had abandoned. The Maasai seemed to be happy to be in church. What was the problem?
When asked the Maasai responded. They said they loved God and were excited about God’s promises. But they said they didn’t need a structure in order to worship God. They were a nomadic people and buildings were not important to them.
What was important to was that they carry God in their hearts. And so God is always with them. As they move from place to place, they worship God and celebrate wherever they are. They carry symbols in their minds, God in their hearts and celebrate their place in the household of God.
Then the Maasai asked the missionaries, “If God is always with you why is the church building so important?”
In the continued story of David we see the Israelites settling into Jerusalem, making it their permanent home. David wants to build a permanent structure to house the ark of the covenant, a place that would be God’s permanent home among them.
The prophet Nathan, who makes his debut in this passage, first approves of David’s plan. Then Nathan gets word from God that David does not have permission to build a temple to “house” God. God’s freedom is at stake here. God will not be confined to any one location.
The Psalm asserts that God’s covenant is forever and expands our imagination and hope in the greatness and graciousness of God’s promise. God will not be limited.
This is what Jesus is about and what the Good News is about. It breaks down barriers and is inclusive.
Robert Frost wrote, “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall.” We live in a world of walls. Dividing walls are everywhere we look.
Think about the language we use. We often talk about ‘those people,’ or ‘their kind.’
Often ‘they’ are strangers in our midst, people from another country, with accents or a different shade of skin with different customs or religion or different ways of being family.
Sometimes ‘they” don’t come from a different country but live in a different part of town or attend a different church or no church at all. Whoever they are they are different.
We are all in need of reconciliation as Paul says in the Epistle this morning. We ought to look carefully at who we are in God’s eyes and where we fit in the larger scheme.
All are called in Christ Jesus to be one, both Jew and Gentile. The barriers have been broken down. God has made “one new humanity in place of two”. A new creation has occurred, a new people of God from people who once were enemies.
We are not saved because we have done all the right things. What saves us, as Paul reminds us, is that we all have access to God.
All are chosen by God and all are loved by God.
How far are we from God? Not far at all. How far are those who are different than us, from God? Not far at all because through Christ, walls have been broken down.
We need to begin to look at those we call “strangers” and see them not as different from us, but as essentially the same.
Paul invites us to look at others in a different light, the light created by God.
David wanted to build a house for God. God offered to build a house for David, an everlasting Kingdom. This kingdom will never be destroyed because it is built by the one God calls “my son”.
We are all called to the holy temple, the house that God builds and we are all made part of that house by the Spirit of God, a house without walls, a kingdom without end.
