Taking Up Residence
Rev. Mark Schaefer
Kay Spiritual Life Center
August 23, 2009
1 Kings 8:22-30, 41-43; John 6:56-69

1 Kings 8:22-30, 41-43 Then Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands to heaven. 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 for your servants who walk before you with all their heart, 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. 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.' Therefore, O God of Israel, let your word be confirmed, which you promised to your servant my father David.
     "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! 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; 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. Hear the plea of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place; O hear in heaven your dwelling place; heed and forgive.
     "Likewise when a foreigner, who is not of your people Israel, comes from a distant land because of your name--for they shall hear of your great name, your mighty hand, and your outstretched arm--when a foreigner comes and prays toward this house, then hear in heaven your dwelling place, and do according to all that the foreigner calls to you, so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your people Israel, and so that they may know that your name has been invoked on this house that I have built.

John 6:56-69 Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever." He said these things while he was teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum.
     When many of his disciples heard it, they said, "This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?" But Jesus, being aware that his disciples were complaining about it, said to them, "Does this offend you? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But among you there are some who do not believe." For Jesus knew from the first who were the ones that did not believe, and who was the one that would betray him. And he said, "For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father."
     Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him. So Jesus asked the twelve, "Do you also wish to go away?" Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God."

I. BEGINNING

So, here we are (or here we are again)--at the beginning of another school year. The excitement of welcome week is fading. The calories from pizza, cupcakes, and s'mores have been spent (or have taken up residence in places we'd rather they'd not). The freshmen have moved into their new homes. The upperclassmen have moved in and gotten everything ready to get back in the swing of things. We're finally about to get settled into the new year. We're all about ready to take up residence in our homes for the year.

For many of you, that involves living in a “residence hall”, which is a place that doesn't really feel like home. For one thing, there's an awful lot of cinderblock walls around--most of us did not live in homes constructed that way. For another thing, there's this stranger living in the room with you, whom you'd never met prior to a few days before the start of the school year.

For those of you who live off campus, the only “home-cooked meals” you get are the ones you cook yourself, and for some reason, they don't quite seem the same as the home-cooked meals you had before. And then there's this odd phenomenon of the laundry room or worse: the Laundromat, where not only do you have to do your own laundry, you have to pay for the privilege.

Add to that, you've come to a new city. A great city, but sometimes the novelty wears off quickly, and you begin longing for the things of home. The things that had been familiar are suddenly different. The people don't talk right out here. They call “pop” “soda”. They don't know how to make a decent slice of pizza. You can't find a decent cup of coffee. They don't make wings here like they do back in Buffalo. The subway doesn't run all night. Why is it so humid? You call this humid-- why is it so dry? You can't believe you're living in the South. You can't believe you're living with all these Yankees.

It doesn't quite feel like “home”.

II. Home

What do we mean when we say something is “home”? There are all kinds of clichés about home that we like to drag out:

“There's no place like home.”--This one is not particularly instructive. All we glean is that home is special. We knew that already.

“A man's home is his castle.”-- This one is a legal statement, and phrased in somewhat sexist terms. And it's not exactly true, either. There are all kinds of things you aren't allowed to do, even if you do them at home.

“You can't go home again.”-- This cliché is a relatively accurate one, that you will only really begin to understand at Thanksgiving or Christmas break. But it does suggest that whatever “home” is, part of it is a certain idealized memory or impression that sometimes comes into conflict with the reality. As I said, wait until Thanksgiving or Christmas, or the first time you go back to visit your High School.

“Home is where the heart is.”-- This is perhaps a little better and getting to the truth of the matter. Home is where our emotional center is. Where our loyalty and fidelity lie. Where our spirit finds rest. But what defines that emotional and spiritual center?

Well, the old hymn that we sing today says, “Happy the home when God is there.” For the Christian, a home is a place where God's presence can be keenly felt. A Christian home should be “Godly”--that is, those who dwell within should experience the love of God and know that God dwells with them.

But that raises an interesting question: where does God live? How do we know where God is?

III. GOD'S HOME

A. Building the Temple

In the passage we read from 1 Kings, we read of the story of Solomon building the Temple in Jerusalem.

The story of the construction of the Temple is presented in 1 Kings with a great amount of detail as to the fixtures within the Temple and the splendor of the house that Solomon had built for "God's name." Indeed, the Temple would be the center of worship in Judah for the next four centuries. Its destruction at the hands of the Babylonians would be a catastrophe of unparalleled proportions during the Babylonian Exile. Its rebuilding as the Second Temple would be a sign of renewal and restoration for the Jewish people after a generation in Babylon. The destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans five centuries later would cause another great crisis in Judaism. So important to Jewish faith is this great edifice that the only surviving remnant of the Temple, the Western Wall of the platform upon which it was built is the holiest site in Judaism to this day.

And so it might surprise us to learn that the construction of the Temple was not without controversy. And the Prophets were often as suspicious of the Temple as they were of the Monarchy that had built it.

Prior to the construction of the Temple by King Solomon, the center of Israelite worship was in the Tabernacle. Now, the tabernacle was a moveable sanctuary. The tabernacle itself was made of a four walls of fabric walls, surrounding a Tent of Meeting, where the Ark of the Covenant was kept. It had been the sanctuary the Israelites had used in the forty years in the Wilderness. During the time of the Judges, before the rise of the Monarchy, the Tabernacle had been Israel's sanctuary, moving around among the people. A nomadic sanctuary for a nomadic people.

B. Putting God in a Box

The prophets believed that one of the many things that changed when the monarchy came along was the domestication of God. That is, when King Solomon built the temple, the people's attitude about God began to change. God went from being free and mobile, to domesticated and safe. The God who was more a mascot for the State than a power that stood above and beyond politics and human power. God was no longer threatening. God was on our side. And safely locked up in the Temple where she couldn't cause any trouble.

We can too easily do that to God. To box God in. To imagine that God is confined to places. When I first started here at AU, I was told that in addition to "the flaming cupcake", Kay was also known as "the God box". That name is a warning: we do have a tendency to put God in a box. To limit God's freedom. To imagine God is constrained.

C. The Freedom of God

But God is not constrained. God is free. When the first temple was destroyed by the Babylonians, it was a theological crisis for the people of Judah. God's house had been destroyed! But how was that possible? As the people came to understand, God was not limited by the temple, or by the people's narrow understandings. And it was in that period of Exile that the Jewish people began to understand more fully than they ever had before that God was God everywhere and for everyone. There was no place outside of God's being. There were no people whom God did not know and care for. There was nowhere one could go where God was not.

Even in the midst of Exile and tragedy. Even among the pagan Babylonians. Even removed from the Land that had been promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God was still with them. God's home was among the people.

IV. Our Home in God

That's a good thing to remember as you seek to make ourselves a home here in college. You may feel that you have left home. It may not have sunk in yet. It may have sunk in already. You may feel homesickness from time to time. But it is in those places of alienation, those places of exile, both great and small, that we find God is already there.

God is not confined to some Temple on the mount. God is not only in the communities where we feel safe and everything is familiar. God is not something you left behind at home. God is here. With you. Now.

In tonight's Gospel lesson, Jesus is instructing his disciples on the spiritual bread that brings life. At the beginning of his lesson he says to them, “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me and I in them.” Jesus is telling the disciples that in their act of communion and fellowship, they abide in him and he in them. “Abide” is just an older word for “live” or “dwell”. Later on, another author, writing for the same community as the author of John's gospel will write: “God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.”

I asked earlier how do we know where God lives. This is how we know: when we abide in love, we abide in God. God is with us. God is present.

For those of you who are new to campus, you have come to a community that is one that abides in love. For those of you who are feeling separated from home, or who may as the semester moves along, this community can be “home”. Don't take my word for it, talk to the upperclassmen, who since the time they were freshmen, have helped to make this community a home for themselves and for so many.

Because when we create communities of love and welcome for all, we abide in love, and God abides in us.

When we create a community of celebration and remembrance of the story of our salvation as a people, we abide in love, and God abides in us.

When we work for justice, we give voice to those who have no voice and hear the cry of the oppressed, we abide in love, and God abides in us.

When we serve those in need, remembering the poor and the disadvantaged, we abide in love and God abides in us.

When we create real fellowship and build strong relationships with one another, sharing not only in the bread and cup, but in table fellowship and genuine community, we abide in love and God abides in us.

When we share our story with others who need encouragement and hope, to cast out the fear of the world, we abide in love and God abides in us.

When we create community centered on God, we find that we dwell in love and God dwells in us--and we have made a home for ourselves.

V. END

The places we will reside will change. Over the courses of our lives, we will live in many different places : our childhood home, our parents' house, a college dormitory (at first on the south side, then when you can't take the noise anymore you move to the north side), a host family's home abroad, an off campus apartment in a group house, a place of your own in a high rise, a brownstone in the city, a parsonage (God help you), a house of your own.

We will travel to many places. We will meet many people. We may feel at times adrift, or in a strange place, alone and longing for home.

But wherever there is genuine Christian community, there is home. Even in those places and times of exile and alienation, God is there--and there is home.

Welcome home.