Accepting God's Timing: God's Covenant with David

This week's scripture reading is from 2nd Samuel in the from the 7th chapter.

When the King was settled in his Palace and the Lord had given him rest from all his surrounding enemies the king said to the prophet Nathan. Look I am living in the theater Palace but God's chest is house in a tent. Nathan said to the king go ahead and do whatever you were thinking because the Lord is with you. But that very night. The Lord's word came to Nathan. Go to the my servant David and tell him this is what the Lord says you are. Not the one to build the temple for me to live. In. In fact, I haven't lived in a temple from the day. I brought Israel out of Egypt until now instead. I have been traveling around in a tent in a dwelling. Dropped my traveling around with the Israelites. Did I ever ask any of Israel's tribal leaders who I appointed to Shepherd my people why haven't you built me a theater Temple? So then say this to my servant David this is what the lord of heavenly forces says. I took you from the pasture from following the flock to be leader Over My People Israel. I've been with you wherever you've gone and I've eliminated all the enemies before you. Now I will make your name great like the name of the greatest people on earth. I'm going to provide a place for My People Israel and plant them so that they may live there and no longer be disturbed. Cruel, people will no longer trouble them as they had been earlier when I appointed leaders Over My People Israel. And I will give you rest from all your enemies. And the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make a dynasty for you. When the time comes for you to die and to lie down with your ancestors, I will raise up your descendant one of your very own children to succeed you and I will establish his kingdom. He will build a temple for my name and I will establish his Royal Throne forever. I will be a father to him and he'll be a fun to me. Whenever he does wrong, I will discipline him with a human rod with blows from human beings, but I will never take my faithful love away from him. Like I took it away from Saul am I set aside in favor of you? Your Dynasty and your kingdom will be secured forever before me your throne will be established forever. Nathan reported all of these words and his entire Vision to David

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might my own journey into Ministry was quite a long one. from when I first started

Asking other ministers about how they knew they were called to be ministers which by the way, they answered with the simple answer that if you're called to be a minister. There's nothing else you can do your you can't prevent God for making you one.

When I started that process until 4 when I start the process until when I was ordained with more than 8 years.

And when I got started in that process, I talked to many people and some people. took three or four years at that kind of the minimum and some people took 10 or more years to finish that process. And what I discovered very early on is that the American church is at least fall basically into two categories one is a church government where the denomination thinned out. priests 222 churches and the church is have little or no say in who their priest will be the Roman Catholic Church. Does this the the United Methodist Church in the US does this?

And the second type of church is a church where the congregation has the majority of the day or sometimes the entire say in who they're their Minister will be these like the Carnation churches Presbyterian churches reformed Lutheran Churches. Everything is it in the in the first system. Usually one is ordained. By the bishop in those churches cuz if those are always the kind that are that are have a government that is top-down and the bishop or games and then you're you are ordained and you look for a call or you were sent somewhere I should say but you your date as soon as you're finished with your whatever your process is and then you are sent to serve somewhere. But in the second kind which is much more common, really. You are you finish ordination process? And then before you are actually ordained you're putting the status as kind of limbo status for your ordained Apple pending a call the Presbyterians the the the lutherans the United Church of Christ that they UA. and even the episcopalians in the u.s. Do it this way and so The nightmare stories I heard when I first started this process, where are these people who? When they got to the end of their process could not find a call and call is just a fancy Church word for a job right today. They got to the end of the neck. They couldn't find employment at a church and they couldn't find employment at a church as a pastor. They their animation with an ordained them because the only reason to ordain them with other they could serve at congregation as a pastor. so Alter my process. I was worried about this because I had heard of people who had gotten to the end of the process and both to give you a Unitarian Universalist Church where I started and the UCC the United Christ both sides both those churches. I had talked to people who would waited five ten years after they finish the process before they're finally for the finally come to call and were ordained.

If I looked through my entire process I looked for I knew that I needed somewhere to go at the end. I needed somewhere to land. I need somewhere to be called to. And so I was really focused on that early my process. I I looked to the US military. I looked into doing military chaplaincy. I got very very close to joining the US Navy. I just had to finish all I have to do is with go to to do the the medical exam and everything everything else was done and then I decided to take my wife out and decided that was a bad choice for me my family and if I got to do it and then When I got into the UCC and I and I came back to Austin I thought well, there's nowhere for me to land. So I should I should really create a place in my life and I have talked about the possibility of starting a church for a long time starting right after we got back from from Berkeley when we back to Austin. Really enjoyed and really connected with the community in Berkeley that we are a part of and there was nothing like that in Austin and we thought we should we should create something like that community and that we had thought about that. But I mean really the reason for that was more because I was worried about where I was going to land. How I was going to get ordained. And there I did my internship at Trinity Church of Austin in in Austin, Texas. And now it's really good and then I found out about a church start in the area called open Cathedral. It was starting in o Poquito the Fantastic community in in Leander, Texas, which is a suburb of Austin. And when I when I went and spoke to the the church planter the minister who is planting the church there it would have been a minister for several years and he was coming to Austin for the purpose of planting this church and I met with him and I was I want to be involved to come to meeting early meetings, you know, I introduce myself to people really trying and I was talking to him about what I saw if my role what my role would be in the car gation that's kind of an assistant Minister because I felt like because I was working full-time and it would not be feasible for me to stop working full-time. I was going to have to be with a cold by vocational minister of but part-time Minister basically Because I was going to do that. I knew I would need to be an assistant Minister somewhere cuz I knew there would be no church that would be able to pay me to be there full-time instrument. And send part of the part of a call and in most of these denominations include being paid for your work very hard to convince our nation committee to ordain you to call. We are not actually being paid for your for your work is really interesting possible. It's just difficult. So I was trying to kind of push my way in here, but it really wasn't my ego pushing me into that. It was not with that Community needed. It was not what God was calling me to do. It was my own ego trying to give me a way to to try to think of any way. I can to to get what I wanted. And so I eventually that the minister there who was a great guy sat me down and then told me this is not for you. This is not we who you are not what we need in this is not what you need and you have to not be involved anymore with this community and it was hard to hear that because I really like the community for small is really nice and good people. But he was right. I mean what I wanted and what they needed were very different things and I wasn't listening to what God was telling me to do. I would I was I was pushing my own will something that I've been guilty of many times in my life pushing my own will and not listening to it around me and I listening to God so then I thought well, I'm did the fingertip eternity. Maybe Trudy will hire me on as an assistant Minister. And so I kind of created a position for myself at Trinity as the minister and got them to hire me as an assistant Minister and then when I completed my my University work and I've gone through Midol II the psychiatric assessment. I had you know, written sermons and Fifi's and papers and you know gone to denominational meetings and Meg bunch of people and been in front of committees in the very thing I used to feel a thing to do to call an ecumenical council where they invite all of the churches in your area to send people to represent them and they basically Grill You is kind of like a thesis defense it basically Grill you on you write a paper and ordination paper and they really on your paper on your beliefs and everything cuz I had that experience and all that was done. I would approve coordination pending call and I thought the trendy would hire me and really they probably would have and then I'm sure that would have gone through I wouldn't hire this at the minister they all let me like she there was going well and that would have been an opportunity to be ordained that I would be ordained in the UCC, but I knew then I felt it. I felt it then that that was really me pushing my needs on to the car gation. it wasn't really that the car gation needed that it was that I needed that and I was using my experience the car gation to to create opportunity for what I needed which is really not good and don't even know I was doing I think I was doing good work there and people like you there in and I had a great experience for the wrong reasons, I think. Which is unfortunate cuz it was a really good. It was a good experience. It was very important in my discernment.

How many times do we been in a situation where? But we want and what God wants for us are vastly different things.

Yeah, this is this is where we find. King David in R&R reading Sol What's back up a bit for David? Because a lot of happened and laughed our last reading we heard we heard about the birth of Samuel who was a prophet. And how Samuel's mother Hannah devoted Samuel to service in in God's Church.

so Samuel grows up becomes head of the temple where he is and eventually you've told by God to anoint Saul to become king of Judah and Israel because the Israelites want to have a king. They want to be like all the other nations around them and have a king. And God says listen to that idea if he was a bad idea, but since you want it, so badly will do it and God chooses Saul to be king. But Saul doesn't follow God's laws and disobeys God on several occasions. if a guy becomes angry with Saul Now if all is fighting with the Philistines in a very large giant of a man, the Philistines name Goliath comes out and fall offers a reward to anyone who can kill Goliath and David, David is just a Shepherd David comes and defeats Goliath in a very famous scene. I cut off Goliath's head with glass stone sword. And Saul puts David in charge of his armies and the people David it does really well in the band. The people of Israel really come to Love David and Saul even promises David the hand of his daughter in marriage cuz his daughter is in love with David. But Saul becomes jealous because the people love David more than they love him. And so he tries to have David killed. There's also some stuff in here about Falls kind of descent into madness, but he tries to have David killed but David is keeps thanks to warning from Jonathan who is Saul's son. And Jonathan is is talked about as the one who David loved and there's a lot of interesting subjects in here. I think honestly from from reading the text just plainly I feel like the relationship between David and Jonathan was very special. Maybe it was simply a deep friendship maybe with more than that on the text doesn't really say it just says that they that they loved each other very much. Play Jonathan Warren Stephen and David Escape. Then we'll David gone. So I'll send his daughter to marry somebody else instead of David. Later on David had the chance to kill fall, but he spared him because he says that he will not raise a hand against God's anointed of God had anointed Saul to be king. Then in a big battle fall and Jonathan both. I know it's a horrible thing. David is distraught over Jonathan's death. David is anointed king by Samuel. I'm in Judah the South butt in the north falls son is supposed Chef is anointed king and Savannah War ensues between the two of them and David eventually comes out Victorious is supposed that bus boy Chef is killed and David becomes king of United Israel Kingdom Israel and Judah and brings. Peace and I bring the time of peace and prosperity to the kingdom Wii. I talked in the past about how accidental the next are there are kind of myth and then we get kind of into Legend and things we're pretty sure David was an actual person there. There's a there's a lot of there, There's not a lot of evidence but there is evidence from other sources outside the Bible the line of David and so I'm it's highly likely that the David was an actual person. And I just kind of the point of the Bible becomes more about history as we would think of history today. so David becomes king and he brings this piece to his his land and you have a big Palace built out of feeder calf feeder is a very expensive thing to build something out of it. You have to bring it from the from the mountains. So it's a very expensive so powerful to theater in anything. So, you know my Palace built of feuds here, but God house it's still a tent. What do you mean by this again? I'm leaving by the end of last week, but God had given command to Moses on Mount Sinai by how to build the Tabernacle with the large tent that could be taken down and move with the people through the desert and then reconstructed to be that worship place. So it's like it's like a church, but it's on the movie the tent on the move. So he says yeah, we should build God house out of out of Cedar like my house. And Ethan who is his kind of kind of a religious leader his prophet of the put this point to Samuel has died. Nathan Nathan says, yeah, you know, I mean you're so in touch with what with with God and what God wants if you want that then must be what God wants go ahead and do it but then got companies in a dream and says tell David that he is not the one to build my house, but rather by the house of him, I will make his dynasty Reign Over Israel forever and his son will the temple forgot.

David is a very important person in the Jewish.

Bible nothing in the the scriptures and he seen his kind of the archetype of obedience to God. and his son Solomon who will build the temple is off 15 is a very important very kind of archetypal leader, but this idea that that God would keep the reign of David the the dynasty of David on the throne of Israel has been very important to the to the Jewish people ever since

you know, the story is often that usually that the point of this bit of texting people give a sermon on I think you have to talk about the dynasty of David because God saying that the David would be king over Israel forever leads us into Jesus later. Jesus is said to be a descendant of David. They see him as being you know from the line of David the House of David being a king like that, but I think there's a more interesting plot to this little bit of text, which is that David really wanted something. David had was thankful to God for all that. It happened for for all of the success of his success and and the piece that the God had brought. And God wanted to show his and God David wanted to show his appreciation by building a material thing for God what he was right, in the end this part of the world. You know, what you you can think of this. I like it to death by the other the Romans did this kind of thing. The Greeks did this kind of thing the people of India and Asia did the thing in Japan great rulers would build temples to two gods that they wanted to gain favor from the same kind of thing. David wants to build a temple to God to continue to gain favor from God because God has been so good to David so far. Any feels like how can you leave God living in a tent when he had this night palette? The God says no, it's not it's not you. I'm it's not your time. You delve your son's time. Your son will do this for you. It's not it's not for you to do this. Rather, I'm going to make a house out of you. I'm going to and he goes with God goes into this long discussion about that. But I want to focus on the first bit of the night and not your time. You know, God works on a completely different time scale than we do. You know, we we are finite beings. We are limited through our understanding of time and space are living very short in in the Universal scope. You know, our our son is billions of years old are plants been around for millions of millions of years. And we've been here for such a short amount of time as the human race in. Our own lives are so short in that in that large. Scope of time and God works in a completely different way God who is unlimited was not not limited by our understanding of the passage of time of not willing to buy on our understanding of space. Can see our lives. As a component that important piece on much larger Mosaic of existence. and so I think it's really hard for us to grasp. the time scale that God works on And I think I've tried maybe we'll try me. Maybe you'll have tried to force God into the shape that they want God to have. They tried to force God into words and ideas that limit God because our own understanding is limited. But instead we just have to embrace the fact that we can never really know. God always resists being simplified. You know dear the Israelites wanted desperately to enter the promised land after they left Egypt. They really wanted to go they kept asking God to take them to the promised land but God kept them in the wilderness for the Bible the 40 years before he was just at a number them in a whole lot so it could be it could be for you literally years it cost with me a long time, but they were kept in the in the desert and for the entire generation God waited for every one of the previous generation to die and for their children to be in charge before they were let into the Holy Land. The entire generation of Israelites. All I wanted was to be in the Holy Land, but they never got their God never gave them never let them go there. David wanted to build the temple for God. That was I was recruited in David's own desire to receive blessings. It was not you know, I don't think he had any kind of ulterior motive. But I mean just he was hoping that God will continue to bless him and me and instead God's have no this is this is not your time. Your your son will do this, but this is not for you. You will never see the temple built.

When the Babylonians defeated Judah & Exile that you dnd's that you DM the next style clung to the same. Hope that one day God would would take a descendant of David and put that person back on the throne of Israel and get rid of the Babylonians and get rid of all of the people who would control the Rowland and that their Kingdom would be back to how it was before we backed up to ask the readings say, you know to be stable and not be attacked by their enemies and all these kinds of things. And that really led to the the creation of this Messiah content they were looking for for a messiah someone from the from the House of David. He would come and free from all of its oppressors. And when the Messiah finally did come during the rule of Rome over Israel. It wasn't in the form of a warrior king as they expected but in the form of a poor profit. An outcast someone who ate with the unclean and argued with the religious experts.

And some people didn't a lot of people didn't believe that this person could be the Messiah because he had not done the things that that the Messiah was supposed to do. The Messiah was supposed to be a king. The Messiah was supposed to come in and start a Ward and and conquer the enemies of Israel in bed. Bring his real back of the power and sit on the throne the Throne of David. Instead Jesus came and was executed by the Roman government for treason. In the most embarrassing way possible the most horrible way possible. How could this be the Messiah? How could this be? The one that God has sent to free Israel from their oppression, but it wasn't their physical oppression, but their spiritual oppression that he was sent for. You know in that. in the time right after Jesus those who did follow him felt like he did that. He return eminently Jesus and said that he would come back and then nobody would know when that would happen if they should all remain Vigilant because he could come in anytime and his followers took that to mean that within their own lifetime. Jesus will return and we see this in the in a lot of the writings the apostles especially in Paul who tells the better to not get married because because getting married is just going to complicate things for you. And since Jesus is going to come back before you die. Anyway, you better to not get married and have to deal with that right, but if you are married to go ahead and be with your with your spouse because that's that's better then than being then. Adultery, but but better even than that, it's not going very wrong. That's because like I said, I'm pretty sure that that Paul thought that that Jesus has come back within his own lifetime. And as the apostles begin to die, and it passed on to the next Generation in the Next Generation if you'll be in to realize that Jesus is not coming back anytime soon. Then people became worried and then they wanted because of their own. Misery and their own difficult life. They wanted Jesus to come in return and save them from that until they started looking at the text and trying to find ways to figure out when Jesus would come and there have been many times in the past 2000 years when people have written prophecies based on various numerical understanding of the text based on on different wording and translation than and whatever they try to determine exactly when Jesus will return And save them from this horrible world affectively. But there's no way for us to know that I mean the Jesus even tells if there's no way for us to know that and we forget in those moment that God work on a completely different time scale than we can we do this is one of the arguments against Universal salvation is people say well, you know, if someone if someone decides that they will not accept God that they will not turn to go back toward God who is God to force them. It's got horses in the turn back then that's not a choice. But that assumes that is something that someone could forever turn away from God given given full and complete real understanding of the truth, you know, right in their face proof of the truth of God's love that they could still continue against their own good. They're their own. What what's good for them again for good for them could turn away is continuously forever. I just don't think that's possible. I think God will eventually convince them to turn back toward God and then to be reunited with God because God has forever. And the concept of forever is so hard for us to grasp as finite beings that are limited in our own time and space. so

I think you know what God tells us and in many of these stories is not to look at our own motives. Not not to to look to our own motives and our own behavior.

Tubidy the nice-looking Dory goes I'm not enough not to let our egos driver. Sorry. I got a trip up there. That's what are you going to drive us? I mean when when Jesus talks about be ready because if you come any time he's not saying we should be figuring out exactly when that is so that we can maximize our own our own chance of you know of being a being let into heaven, you know that there's a really funny line and one of Simpsons episodes were talking to you. I think it's the part about being a bad person birth while just repent on my deathbed and they're like all good points to get out. You know, that's not the point. The point is to change your life to live more in the way. The God wants us to live to be good to one another to improve the world. We live in

Recently, there's been.

Analyze everything laugh 5200 years. There's been this this kind of what I would consider to be a dangerous branch of American Christianity and it come into existence. It's really focused on the end times really focus on an event. They they often called The Rapture. When those who are chosen by God will suddenly be taken away and everyone else will be left to live in in misery for Thousand Years with a lot of information about this online if you're curious and I'd really like to do a more detailed turn on this later, but the short version. I don't believe in that but the focus on that focus on the end warped their understanding of the Gospel I think because it becomes about me becomes about how do I perfect my odds of getting and how do I convert everybody? Cuz oh my God if my, you know, if my brother doesn't doesn't accept God then when the Rapture comes in 24 months he's going to be keeps going to be left here. And I know you like that can't happen, you know, so I got everything I can to convert him instead of thinking what can I do to make to make the world a better place? How can I believe more like how God wants me to live? When Jesus talking about in the text about it could come at any moment. His point is not trying to figure out when that is going to have to always live your life in such a way that you'll be happy whether I am, because you died or the incomes because Jesus returns you want to live your life in such a way that you will feel like you did a good job. You did all you could do like you're always trying to improve yourself and do better.

I think that. We should not try to force God in their own ideas of time. but Focus instead

on our telephone making a better place.

Go back to my story from earlier after I was approved for ordination. I was offered this job in Tokyo. Actually, I was offered a job in Tokyo right before Meineke medical Council. right before I was approved for ignition and I accepted it because I felt like God was really telling me this is something that I should do and people told me then that Japan would change my Outlook on Ministry and they're absolutely right and when when I got here I took intentionally took a year off from Ministry. I went to church on a regular basis and I I tried to help out with the homeless ministry here in Tokyo by making food for the homeless and things but I I purposely didn't didn't take on any kind of leadership role for a year so I could really think about what God is calling me to do and after that I felt like I had a much better understanding and I was able to pursue things much more intentionally and then At exactly the right moment that I personally appeared. For me to start this car gation and it was it was on God's time. None of my time. I think that's that have been a really important lesson for me.

I said God sees Our Lives as one piece of a much larger mosaic. a very important piece a piece that without us that Mosaic would not be the same but not be what it is, but still The time scale of the got operate on her so much larger than our own. So often when we still stuck we can frustrated with our lot in life. We we wonder why God has brought us to where we are where we should go how we're going to get past this how we can possibly survive. When we find ourselves that situation we should stop and we should take a deep breath and we should offer a prayer of thanks to God for what we do have for what God has given us and we should ask God to give us clarity. Ask God to give us wisdom about God's will for us now. We shouldn't use this into as an excuse to stay in an abusive relationship or a dangerous situation or not stand up for those who are oppressed or need to know sometime people can use if idea. Well, it's just God plan as an as an excuse to maintain the status quo and that's just not true. But in our regular have normal daily struggles We often just need to remind yourself that God, it's God was ultimately in charge of our lives and and not us. God has a plan for us, but it's much longer than what we can see right now.

so sometimes we have to accept God's timing.