2 Samuel 7:1-14a

Ephesians 2:11-22

Pentecost 7

July 23, 2006

            A friend gives you a beautiful vase as a birthday gift.  You respond by saying, “Thank you.  I have just the right place for that.”  And you put it on a particular table in the living room.

            As we make our journey through life each of us seeks our “place.”  A place where we feel needed, useful, and happy --- and comfortable.  For many of us Neillsville is just the right “place.”

            But sometimes we are “put in our place.”  This doesn’t feel so comfortable.  It feels pretty bad.

• John Hope Franklin, the great African-American historian, was told his “place” was in the segregated world, but instead he found his place as Professor of History at the University of Chicago.
• In the past gay people felt that their place was “in the closet”, but more and more gay people now find their place right among the rest of us, “out of the closet.”
• None of us likes to be put down or  “put in our place.”

Neither does God.  Way back in history King David of Israel thought he was going to do God a favor.  He was going to find a nice “place” for God.  David thought he was going build God a special palace.  A Temple, if you will.  But God had other ideas.  God told David: 

“Look, fella.  I took you out of the pasture and made you a prince.  Don’t think you can do me any favors.  You can’t contain me in a mere building. Someday your son can build me a building ---- but that will never contain me.  Neither you nor he will ever control me.  You may be king, but I’m God.”

            This is part of our history with God.  At one time people had “household gods”.  You can read about them in the pages of the Bible.  Little gods who protected little houses.   If you read the pages of Genesis you will come upon the story of Rachel stealing her father’s “household gods” in chapter 31.

            The God who confronted David was no household God.  This was the Creator.  The God of Israel and the Universe.  David’s God and our God.  But we still get it wrong.  Like David we want to put God “in his place.”  We want to domesticate God.  We want God to be the god of our household.  The God of our place.  But God will have none of that.  God could not be contained by David’s building and God is not contained by our buildings.

            Kenya, in East Africa, has more than 40 different racial and ethnic groups – each with its own language, distinct culture, and way of life. One of these ethnic groups is the Maasai people, who live in both Kenya and the neighboring country of Tanzania. The Maasai people are nomadic – that is, they travel from place to place, settling in one location temporarily before it is time to move on. When they move, they take with them only one thing: their cows, which are considered sacred.

            One day, some Christian missionaries from Europe decided that the Maasai people needed to hear the gospel. And so, the missionaries came to the land of the Maasai and did what they traditionally did: they built a church. They told the Maasai that the church building was an important place to come and worship God.

The Maasai people were excited, and they came to church. They worshipped and celebrated and knew God. But, when it was time for the nomadic Maasai to leave this location, they left this place of worship behind and wandered into the desert to find a new place to call home. The Christian missionaries were confused, and wondered what had happened. Didn’t the Maasai people like this church? How could they leave it behind so easily?

            The missionaries searched until they found the same group of Maasai people again, living in a new place.  The relieved missionaries built a new church there and invited the Maasai to come. For a time, the Maasai people came and worshipped and celebrated and knew God. But, one day, the Maasai left their new place of worship and wandered into the desert again to find a new home. This time missionaries were upset. They had now built two churches that the Maasai had walked away from. The Maasai seemed happy to be in church; why would they leave it for the desert?

            The missionaries looked around again until they found the new location where the Maasai were now living. And, for the first time, they asked the Maasai why they kept leaving the church house. Wasn’t God’s house important to them? Didn’t they respect the church?

            And, for the first time, the Maasai responded. They said they loved God and they were excited about God’s promises. But, they said, they didn’t need a structure in order to worship God. They would always move from place to place. Buildings have never been important to them.

            What is important, the Maasai explained, is that they carry God with them in their hearts. And so God’s place is always with them. As they move from place to place, they worship God and celebrate when they come together – with great joy in the open land – without a building. They carry symbols in their minds, God in their hearts, and celebrate their place in God’s household.

            Then, the Maasai asked the missionaries, “If God is always with you, why is a church building so important?”

            Today we are gathered in a church building.  We want to keep up our church building and, in fact, we want to improve our church building.  For this reason many of us have made contributions to the remodeling fund or have made promises that we will contribute in the future.  We want to have a nice building.  Our ministry will be helped if we can have an elevator, more open space, air conditioning, and better audio visual equipment.

            Our building is important to us.  This building is a symbol of who we are.  But we know that what is more important than any building is the people who worship there and the spirit in which they worship.  In two years we will begin the 50^th anniversary celebration of our United Church of Christ in Neillsville.  We are not celebrating a building, but we are celebrating a people.  Like the Maasai of Kenya we realize that God is in our hearts.  When we began to meet we had two buildings.  We used the buildings that had belonged to the Congregational Church and the E&R Church.  Even though we used two buildings we quickly became one people worshiping one God and building one community of faith.  This is the wonderful reality which we will be celebrating in 2008 and 2009.  As our committee meets to plan for those years we have already been recalling stories about the founding of our church.  Most of those stories have been about people, people who were willing to give up old loyalties to old buildings and venture forth to become a new people, united in Christ.

            Along the way since 1958 this church has found a place in this community.  I believe it is a good place.  We are not exactly the same church we were back in 1959.  We can think of ways in which we have grown and changed ---- sometimes easily, sometimes painfully.  We have grown in our sense of mission.  We have grown in our faith even as we have cherished the faith of those who have gone before us.

            As we pursue our mission I believe we need to take our cue from Jesus more than from David.  David had a great vision of God’s place.  This place was a palace.  Jesus had a great vision of God’s place.  This place was not found in a palace, but rather along the highways and byways of his country and would extend to the four corners of the world.

            Some of the people who eventually heard about this Jesus were Maasai nomads in Africa.  They were taught the faith by European missionaries.  In turn they taught the faith back to these European missionaries when they told them:  “God’s place is in my heart.”  May God’s place always be in your heart.  And may your place always be in God’s heart.

Amen.