Go and tell my servant David: Thus says the Lord: Are you the one to build me a house to live in? I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent and a tabernacle. Wherever I moved about among all the people of Israel, did I ever speak a word with any of the tribal leaders of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, "Why have you not built me a house of cedar?"

                                                            2 Samuel 7:1-16

Dear friends and colleagues in the Gospel,

            David made the classic mistake of gift giving. He didn't ask the recipient what s/he wanted. Instead, he assumed that God would like something that he himself enjoyed. Actually, that's the second mistake of gift giving. The first mistake is not even thinking about the gift you want to give away until after you're already sure you have everything you want to keep. Clearly David could have gotten God under shelter right away, if he'd thought it was important.   Then later he could have built his own cedar house, while the rain fell on his head. A gift of leftovers is a disingenuous gift. The only true and gracious gift is the offering of first fruits - the gift you give in order to make sure that the one who receives it is cared for first, even if the bounty runs out. First fruits is the offering worthy of God.

            The second mistake derives, of course, from the first. If I don't consider anyone else's needs until my own desires are met, my whole focus and attention is likely to be given over to what I want. So then, when I'm satisfied, it seems natural to assume that what has satisfied me can be used to satisfy the other just as well. In the practical world we live in, we often think we can count on the envy of those who have less to influence them to want what is held by those who have more, or so we often calculate.

            But God, in this story, is too wise, and sees the trick. S/he knows that the house that David gives will only confine her/his holy Spirit, into an even smaller box than David made to be his own house to live in. So God objects and takes control: "Did I ever ask anyone to build me a house?" God asks. "Don't you see that I've been moving about, always among my people? The gift I really want is freedom."

            Sometimes I think our buildings and our rules, our doctrines and our images of God are mostly ways we seek control of God. But God is not boxed in easily, and mostly that's a good thing.

            May the Spirit of God flow freely through the life of faith.