Lectionary 9 (C) – 1 Kings 8:22-43; Galatians 1:1-12; Luke 7:1-10
At Christ Lutheran, West Boylston, MA
When the ancient Israelites finally settled in their promised land, it took quite a while to really establish themselves. Centuries of fighting against the prior inhabitants for land and resources, difficulties establishing leadership in a land where religious judges and prophets were the only recognized powers, and the challenge of organizing a people and society marked by differences between tribes and family lines made for a very slow process of settlement. It wasn’t until the rule of King David that they finally got around to converting the old worship space, the movable tent-of-meeting that they used in the desert, into a permanent and appropriate temple that accurately reflected the greatness of their God.
And so, when David turned to building of that temple, the scriptures tell us that God stopped him in his tracks. Because of his sin with Bathsheba, David would not be the one to build a house for God; instead, his son Solomon would do so. But God would make a house for David instead–a royal line that would last into perpetuity.
Our Old Testament reading is from Solomon’s speech at the dedication of the temple. That speech is long, and much of it is cut out of our reading today. In it, Solomon sees the temple as a sign that God’s word is trustworthy. The temple was completed in Solomon’s time, just as God said. He recognizes too, that God’s other promises will be trustworthy–that God will establish a royal house in Israel, that God will keep his covenant of relationship with the Hebrew people even if they turn away, that God will always bring healing and protection to the land, that even foreigners will see this temple as a sign of God’s presence and trustworthiness.
And we know that Solomon was right. Christ is the fulfillment of the royal promise, and stands as ruler over the whole world forever. Through Him, all people are reconciled to God even in their faithlessness. God remains active in our world, working for healing and wholeness for all of creation. And in the Church, people of every type have drawn into God’s covenant and learned to trust God’s faithful word.
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When the Roman centurion sent people to approach Jesus on his behalf, it must have taken a lot of courage. The Hebrew people were being actively oppressed by the Romans, financially taxed into poverty, kept a subject people. The Roman army was strong, and dealt with even the smallest dissension by wholesale slaughter of peoples. They were hated and feared, and rightly. So even with the stamp of approval from some of the Jewish elders, this Roman centurion was one of the bad guys. Or rather, he wasn’t just a bad guy, he was a military leader of the enemy of the Hebrew people.
And so, when he turned to Jesus for help, by all rights he should have expected rejection. No wonder he sends word again and says, “I am not worthy to have you come under my roof.” Because Jesus, the gospel says, went with them. That’s all it says. No justification of his decision to go, no pronouncements of God’s power or authority. Jesus just goes with them.
The centurion takes this as a sign of the trustworthiness of his word. So much so that he believes Jesus doesn’t even need to be present to bring healing. “Only say the word,” he says, “and my servant shall be healed.” He knows that if God says it, it will come true.
And we know that it does. The servant is in good health when the messengers return to the house. And this centurion is only the beginning of things to come. The good news is carried to the gentiles and eventually, people of every nation are brought into the community of the gospel we call the church. Together we are all drawn into God’s covenant and have learned to trust God’s word.
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When Paul writes his letter to the Christian in Galatia, he is really angry. After a florid greeting, he begins: “I am astonished at the promptness with which you have abandoned the good news that was preached to you and decided to follow some other message. There are troublemakers among you who want to change, to pervert the good news of Jesus Christ! Don’t listen to them! Why, even if I myself, or one of God’s angels in full glory, came and preached something to you that was different from the gospel, you should curse them!”
And so, Paul goes on to explain the problem. Someone’s been teaching them that, in order to become part of the gospel community, there are certain requirements they have to fulfill. It’s not wholly clear what those are: Some think that you need to be circumcised, while others have been talking about eating practices, and still others about gaining the approval of certain Christian leaders. But Paul insists that none of this matters. It’s not what you do. It’s not even who you are. It’s WHOSE you are. The gospel Paul proclaims belongs to Jesus Christ. And so do the Galatians.
God’s promise is salvation and new life which comes not from us but from God. And God’s word is trustworthy. It doesn’t depend on our volition. It doesn’t matter whether our heritage or practices make us Jews or gentiles. He says it doesn’t even matter whether we’re male or female. It only matters that we are in Christ Jesus. If someone says otherwise, they are calling God a liar. That’s what has Paul so angry. He knows that we are drawn together as one into God’s covenant, and we can trust God’s word.
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When we gather together here in this place, I suspect we all have worries about the future on our minds–if not loud and obnoxiously in our minds, then at least tucked away in the back somewhere where we think it won’t bother us. For our own lives, we worry about retirement funds, the well-being of our children or grandchildren, the ability to provide for our families, the future of our school or work, what the next ten years, five years, five months will look like. For our congregation, the worry might be how we’ll continue to exist, with such a small community of people on Sundays, with a budget that makes it difficult to do anything that costs money, in a world that seems to have decided that church and religion isn’t worth the hassle on Sunday mornings when there are so many other things we could be doing.
And so, when we could be delighting in all the things God is doing here in our midst, we find ourselves caught up in worry. Why is that? Why do we fall into the trap of thinking that it all depends on us, that we need to work just a little harder to fix all these things, because if we don’t it will all fall apart?
A few weeks ago, when Bishop Hazelwood was here, he told us a story about a congregation filled with elders, slowly dying away. About how this congregation could not figure out how to attract younger people to the community so that its life and traditions could carry on. About how, finally, they decided not to try anymore; that they would take the resources they had and used them and maybe go out with a bang. About how they approached a local elementary school, and at the suggestion of the principal, began reading stories to children, and how those children’s test scores and literacy abilities grew, and how parents began to find out about this congregation’s ministry, and how people started to come to the congregation.
It’s an exciting story. But if all we take away from it is the idea that we should go ask our schools what we can do for them, we’ve taken the wrong message away from it.
What did that congregation really do? They stopped worrying about their church’s business, and started trusting in God. They remembered that God’s is faithful, that they have a part of God’s covenant, that they can trust God’s word. They stopped worrying about the church, and started being the church. And that’s when everything changed.
Sisters and Brothers, God has promised us a great many things. God has promised us that we will have new life in Him, that we are His creation and He is still at work, creating new things in us. God has promised us that we are not alone, that Christ is ever by our side and will be with us always in all of our struggles, healing and restoring us to new faith, even to the end of the age. God has promised us that we will be filled and refilled again and again with the Holy Spirit, who will whisper to us the assurance of our salvation through the Good News, ever stirring us on to better and better things. God has promised us all this and more, going as far as death on the cross to show us how trustworthy His promises are, and we can count on them.
Our God is ever faithful, and in our lives and in our community, we can trust His word. Amen.