God Gets a House—Lectionary Reflection for Pentecost 14B (1 Kings 8)

1 Kings 8:22-30, 41-43 New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

²² Then Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of the whole assembly of Israel and spread out his hands to heaven. ²³ He said, “O Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven above or on earth beneath, keeping covenant and steadfast love with your servants who walk before you with all their heart, ²⁴ the covenant that you kept for your servant my father David as you declared to him; you promised with your mouth and have this day fulfilled with your hand. ²⁵ Therefore, O Lord, God of Israel, keep for your servant my father David that which you promised him, saying, ‘There shall never fail you a successor before me to sit on the throne of Israel, if only your children look to their way, to walk before me as you have walked before me.’ ²⁶ Therefore, O God of Israel, let your word be confirmed that you promised to your servant my father David.

²⁷ “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Even heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, much less this house that I have built! ²⁸ Regard your servant’s prayer and his plea, O Lord my God, heeding the cry and the prayer that your servant prays to you today, ²⁹ that your eyes may be open night and day toward this house, the place of which you said, ‘My name shall be there,’ that you may heed the prayer that your servant prays toward this place. ³⁰ Hear the plea of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place; O hear in heaven your dwelling place; hear and forgive.

⁴¹ “Likewise when foreigners, who are not of your people Israel, come from a distant land because of your name ⁴² —for they shall hear of your great name, your mighty hand, and your outstretched arm—when foreigners come and pray toward this house, ⁴³ then hear in heaven your dwelling place and do whatever the foreigners ask of you, so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your people Israel, and so they may know that your name has been invoked on this house that I have built.

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                Does God need a house? David wondered about that, but Nathan reported that God was just fine dwelling in a tent (2 Sam. 7), so that’s how it was. David had a nice house to live in, while God enjoyed the nomadic life that a tent provided. But now that David has passed his kingdom onto his Solomon the question comes up again. Does God need a house? This time the answer is, yes God would like to have a nice house. We see the preparations for building a Temple come up in 1 Kings 5, where Solomon shared his intention to build a house for God because God had promised David that his son would build a Temple. So, a temple was built, beginning in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign (1 Kings 6). When the Temple was completed, it was time to dedicate the building. The text for the week shares Solomon’s dedicatory speech.  

                Now, the question of whether God needs a house to dwell in is one that often gets raised. After all, if God is omnipresent. That is, if God is everywhere then God doesn’t need a place to sleep. Now, whether we need a place to encounter God is a different question. We humans have largely answered that question by building sacred spaces to accommodate our need to gather for worship. They can be grand or quite simple. Having spent time in some of the great cathedrals of Europe, including Westminster Abbey, St. Paul’s Cathedral, the cathedral at Speyer (the largest Romanesque church in Europe), along with several others, I will confess to experiencing a bit of awe in spaces like that. I’ve also preached in simple clapboard church buildings. Recently I had the opportunity to visit the newly enlarged mosque in a nearby town. The prayer hall is at once simple (no chairs) but magnificent. But size isn’t everything. During my visit to England some years ago I got to worship in Christopher Wren’s magnificent St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. It is exquisite, and yet I found the much smaller Christ Church Cathedral in Oxford, much more inspiring as a worship space. I will also confess that I find modern auditorium-style buildings to be less than inspiring. The sound system might work well in that space, but it feels more like a concert hall or theater than a place to gather for worship. But still, the question remains do we need such spaces if we’re hoping to encounter God? Many people are starting to say no. There is a growing sense that buildings can get in the way of what God is doing.

                Let’s keep these questions in mind as we ponder the reading from 1 Kings 8. Solomon had built a magnificent Temple, and he conscripted a lot of laborers to build it. That act of conscription would come back to haunt his successor Rehoboam. Our reading begins in verse 22 of 1 Kings, where we read Solomon’s prayer of dedication. However, we might want to step back to the beginning of the chapter, where were told that Solomon gathered the people for a festival. The priests brought the ark of the covenant from the Tabernacle and placed it in the temple. Sacrifices were made, and Solomon gave a speech in which he let the people know that he had completed a task his father wanted to undertake but was told to let his son fulfill that calling (1 Kings 8:14-21). So the day had arrived when he could dedicate this monument to the God of Israel.

                Our reading begins in verse 22 of 1 Kings 8 with Solomon standing before the altar in the presence of all Israel. He spreads his hands out toward heaven and begins to pray. He addresses the LORD, the God of Israel. He declares to God, before the people, that there is no God like Yahweh, either in the heavens or under the earth. Now, the way Solomon addresses God, you get the sense that he’s not suggesting there is only one god (monotheism) but Israel’s God while recognizing that other gods might exist (henotheism).  Whatever theology stands behind Solomon’s prayer, he is sure that even if other gods exist, none are as great and glorious as the God to whom he is praying, the God for whom he has built a house. That is because Yahweh keeps the covenant and is steadfast in loving God’s servants as they walk before God.  It is this covenant-keeping nature of God that Scripture highlights. The people may fall short and require some remediation on God’s part, but God remains faithful to the covenant. In other words, God is trustworthy.

                Solomon doesn’t forget his father. He reminds God of God’s covenant with David. It’s a covenant that was fulfilled in this Temple. David didn’t get to build it, but God covenanted with David so that his son and successor could build the house for God. Solomon also reminds God of the other promise, the promise that David’s throne will never be without a successor. Now, if as many scholars believe, 1 Kings was completed during the exile, that throne was, at least for the moment vacant. But the promise remained, a promise for the people to hold on to.

                Getting back to the Temple itself, Solomon acknowledges that God is too great to dwell on earth. God exceeds the highest heaven. Therefore, he knows that this building that he’s dedicating to God cannot contain God. Such a God would be too small to worship. Nevertheless, Solomon asks God to take notice of this house. After all, did not God say that God’s name would be set on this place so that God might heed the prayers offered toward this sacred space? The prayers needn’t be offered in that space, they simply need to be directed toward it. We might think of Muslim prayers directed toward Mecca. The Temple is a place of prayer, but it’s also a focal point for prayer.  Julianna Claassens notices that Solomon speaks of the Temple as a “house of prayer where people can come and bring their deepest joys and greatest sorrows before God, a mode of praise and lament modeled regularly in the psalms” [Connections, p. 248].

The lectionary passage skips down to verse 41. In doing so, we skip over a series of declarations and requests as to what takes place in the Temple. Verses 41 to 43 are interesting in that they address the foreigner who might come to the Temple from far away because of God’s name attached to this place. So, when a foreigner, assumedly a non-Israelite, prays toward the Temple, Solomon asks that God will hear their prayer and do as they ask, “so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your people Israel, and so they may know that your name has been invoked on this house that I have built” (1 Kings 8:43). There is a hint of inclusion here that shouldn’t go unnoticed. Turning again to Julianna Claassens, she notices that the human tendency to exclude, to “keep the house clean and ordered and pre and free of foreigners, barbarians, and all those who are considered to be other or inferior—is already foreseen and countered in 1 Kings 8:41-43, when this temple is explicitly named a house of prayer for the foreigner” [Connections, p. 248]. In doing so, as Ron Allen and Clark Williamson note, Solomon “assumes that God is the God of all peoples everywhere. Israel’s faith gave it to understand that Israel and the Gentiles were to be a blessing to each other” [Preaching the Old Testament, p. 179].

                Solomon’s prayer of dedication is beautifully stated, especially when he speaks of the Temple as a house of prayer for the foreigner as well as the Israelites. Of course, if we go back to the discussion of the building of the Temple, including the references to conscripted labor, then questions emerge. As we ponder that question, we might again consider the spiritual value of our church buildings, most of which only get used a few hours a week. Might the money spent on the buildings be better used in other ways? That is a question many are asking. Then there are debates over the form that church buildings take. Should they be designed to evoke worship and praise or should they be more utilitarian? Again, I can’t help but think about my visits to the great cathedrals in Europe, some of which took centuries to build and may still be in the process of building. So, what is the purpose of a church building? Over the centuries the people building them have done so for a wide variety of reasons. Since monarchs or wealthy nobles built many of these grand buildings, they often reflected the desire of the patron to honor themselves as much as God. They usually reflected the tastes of their patrons. Some of these buildings centered on the altar and others on the pulpit. But, at the end of the day, even Solomon understood that God didn’t need a building. So, the question is, do we need a building to serve as a focal point for our worship, fellowship, and service, as we seek to encounter God anew?  I can’t answer for everyone, but as much as I enjoy being out in nature, there is something about gathering in a dedicated sacred space to pray and worship God. While the call to pursue justice is a central part of our calling as God’s people, we do need to stop and pray, whether in a building or not.

                Since this reading involves the dedication of a sacred space, I will close with a prayer of dedication for a church building from Chalice Worship [the worship book for the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)]:

Almighty God, to whose glory we celebrate

the dedication of this house of prayer.

We praise you for the many blessings

                                You have given to those who worship here;

                And we pray that all show seek you in this place may find you,

                And being filled with the Holy Spirit

                                May become a living temple acceptable to you;

Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.   

                                                                —Chalice Worship, p. 226.