Los Alamos Church of Christ
The
Altar of the Ordinary
Worship in Wonder
King David wanted to build God a house. David loved the LORD, his God, so much
he could not stand that his God lived in a tent. David, at the height of his reign as
King of Israel had finished building himself a palace in his new capital of
Jerusalem. David, then, brought the
Ark of the Covenant into the city with much celebrating. David danced before the LORD as the Ark
entered the city.
1 Chronicles
16:1-3They brought
the ark of God and set it inside the tent that David had pitched for it, and
they presented burnt offerings and fellowship offerings before God. After David had finished sacrificing the
burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, he blessed the people in the name of
the LORD. Then he gave a loaf of
bread, a cake of dates and a cake of raisins to each Israelite man and
woman.
It was a party! A party for the ark of God in
Jerusalem. David
sang…
1 Chronicles
16:8-11 Give thanks
to the LORD, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done.
Sing to him, sing praise to him; tell of all his wonderful acts. Glory in his holy name; let the hearts
of those who seek the LORD rejoice. Look to the LORD and his strength; seek
his face always.
The next thing on David’s agenda was to build
the LORD a house. David calls
Nathan in and tells the prophet, “I am going to build the LORD a great
house”. Nathan says, “Go for
it!”
But, later that night, God appears to Nathan
with a different answer.
1 Chronicles
17:4-6 "Go and tell
my servant David, 'This is what the LORD says: You are not the one to build me a house to dwell
in. I have not dwelt in a house
from the day I brought Israel up out of Egypt to this day. I have moved from one tent site to
another, from one dwelling place to another. Wherever I have moved with all the
Israelites, did I ever say to any of
their leaders whom I commanded to shepherd my people, "Why have you not built me
a house of cedar?"'
God never asked for a house. God was happy without the Temple. God is fine being on the move! God traveled with the children of Israel
from Egypt to the Promised Land.
God did not need David to build him a house.
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Well, the next morning, Nathan goes back to
David and gives him the bad news.
Picture the scene… David has
the blues prints for the Temple spread out everywhere. David is busy giving orders to stone
masons and purchasing lumber and hiring goldsmiths… when Nathan enters. There is silence. Nathan tells David he can’t build God a
house… the bad news. But Nathan
then reminds David of who his God is.
1 Chronicles
17:7-8 "This is what
the LORD Almighty says: I took you from the pasture and from following the
flock, to be ruler over my people Israel.
I have been with you wherever
you have gone, and I have cut off all your enemies from before you. Now I will make your name like the names
of the greatest men of the earth.’”
God enjoyed being with David out in the pasture
following the sheep around.
Everywhere David went, God was right there! God doesn’t want to be confined to a
house. God enjoys being loose to go
wherever he chooses. And he chose to be with David!
That is the point I want to make this
morning. God is not interested in
being confined to a house. God
wants to be with you every moment of
every day.
-God wants to be with you when you are in the
“pasture”.
-God wants to mosey along beside you by the
still waters.
-God wants to hold your hand through the valley
of the shadow of death.
-God wants to sit with you at the banquet
table.
-God wants to defend you in the presence of the
one who is your enemy.
God wants you to dwell with him. God wants you to believe Psalm 23. Read it with
me.
Psalm 23:1-6
The LORD is my
shepherd, I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness
for his name's sake. Even though I
walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are
with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the
presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD
forever.
That is what God wanted for David. God remembered when David wrote Psalm
23. God cherished those moments
alone with David and a bunch of sheep. God did not want to be confined to
staying at the house. God loved the
songs David sang to him in the pastures.
That is what God wants with you. He wants to be in your thoughts. God wants to accompany you on your
journey into righteousness. He
doesn’t want to be left back at the house when you are facing danger. God wants to laugh with you at the
banquet table. God wants to have
your back in the confrontations.
God’s goodness is flowing all over you. He wants you to live in with him.
So, Nathan told David, “No, you are not going
to build my house. Instead, God
wants to live with you all the
time”.
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But we are like David. We want to build houses for God. There is something a little scary about
our preoccupation with buildings for God.
God doesn’t need a house.
Yet, we seem to need to build them.
Don’t get me wrong. Our church building is a blessing. I love our beautiful building… with all its…
functionality. I have spent, who
knows how many, hours in this building over the last 24 years. Did you know today is our 24th
anniversary of being with you here in Los Alamos? No one has spent more time in this
building than me over the last 24 years.
It is a place I love.
Yet, as Barbara Brown Taylor says, “All good
things cast shadows”. There is a
dark side to having buildings for God.
-Do we build God a house so we can choose when to go see him?
-Do we build God a house instead of having God
stay at ours?
-What happens to the rest of the world when we
build four walls and call it a church?
-What happens to the riverbanks, the
mountaintops, the deserts, and the trees?
-Does a church building confine God to an
address? “2323 Diamond Drive;
that’s where you’ll find God.”
Last week, I told you we were going to an
opposite place to discover God. I
told you we were going to attempt to draw closer to God in the everyday places
of live. I told you that the
challenge was to engage the most ordinary physical activities with the
most exquisite attention.
Perhaps, this is going to be a harder challenge
than I suspected. We know how to
draw closer to God in church.
-Let’s sing better songs. Let’s pray better prayers. Let’s get a better preacher. Bad idea. Here’s a better
idea…
-Let’s have better food at our
fellowships.
-Let’s have better classes for our kids and
adults.
-Let’s have better programs for helping the
hurting.
-Let’s invite more people to come to
church.
-Let’s get everyone plugged into church.
All of that is good! No one has worked harder at all those
ideas than me. But the shadow side
is…
- Religion becomes how we do church.
-Drawing closer to God becomes how we do things in this
building.
-We only think about God when we are
here.
What happens when we walk out to the parking
lot and get in our cars and drive off?
-What do we do, then?
-What do we think, then?
-Where does God go when we drive off the
parking lot? He is left back at the
building. He is confined to 2323
Diamond Drive.
How do we escape our thinking that God is at an
address? How do we worship at the
Altar of the Ordinary?
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I think we need to take some advice from… Jesus. Jesus was never too keen on temples,
anyway.
Matthew 18:1-4
At that time the
disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of
heaven?" He called a little child
and had him stand among them. And
he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little
children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like
this child is the greatest in the kingdom of
heaven.”
At least, part of what Jesus was saying, is the
wonder in a child. Although our children love to come to
church and we work hard to keep it that way, children don’t need a church
building to be in wonder of God.
-A beetle meanders across the patio and a kid
stops. As long as the beetle is
moving across the concrete the kid is stuck watching… in wonder. The beetle is a mystery which absorbs
them. The kid sees God in the
wonder of the beetle.
-If the moon is out during the day… a kid will
notice. “Look, grandpa, the moon.”
“You are right. I didn’t even see
it.” Because it is just the
moon. But, a kids notices God in
the wonder of the moon!
-Left over French fries and ducks at Ashley
Pond leads to all kinds of wonder.
“Look here comes the ducks to eat my French fries.” Stay away from the geese they are mean…
but the ducks and the huge Coy in the pond. There is the wonder of
God.
-A sandbox and a garden hose becomes a world to
create. A kid can spend hours
enjoying the wonder of sand creations.
-A dandelion becomes an adventure in wonder;
blowing the little things to the wind.
The greatest in the kingdom of heaven are those
who are humble enough to give exquisite
attention to the ordinary things of
God. Children worship regularly
at the Altar of the Ordinary.
Assignment: Be a kid for a while. Take some time this week to be in
wonder. Look for an opportunity to
watch something. Take some time to
ask, “I wonder how that works?” Be
amazed.
This is not going to be easy for us,
adults. We have names for things
like Scarab Beetles and those are Mallards and that is the moon it comes out
during the day because it is rotating… yata yata yata… Once we name things and explain things,
we lose the wonder of things.
But, wonder is the beginning of worship. Be begin to worship at the Altar of the
ordinary when we start noticing the wonder-full world around us. So, practice some wonder this week. Got it?
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David did not build a house for his God. But his son, Solomon did. I think that must have made God a little
sad. He wasn’t allowed to move
freely wherever he wanted, anymore.
He was confined to an address; #1 Dome of the Rock Street, Mt Zion,
Jerusalem. Instead of him being in
the lives of the people of Israel, they came to him with their sacrifices… to his address.
Even after the Temple was destroyed, twice, people still go there, today,
attempting to draw closer to God. They put little notes in the cracks of
the Wailing Wall. To me that is a
little sad.
Our God is bigger than any temple. Our God cannot be contained in the universe, must less a building. We are called to worship God all over
His creation. In wonder we begin to
worship at the Altar of the Ordinary.
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