Going Forth

August 25, 2024 homily on 1 Kings 8:22-30, 41-43 by Pastor Galen

“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!” – 2 Kings 8:27

Going Forth

This morning we come to the end of our sermon series on the topic of worship. We’ve looked at the various aspects of our worship service, from the Gathering, to the Call to Worship, Confession/Passing the Peace, Hearing the Word, Prayers of the People, and Benediction. And now today we talk about the closing of our worship service, the “Going Forth.” The reality is that our worship doesn’t (or shouldn’t) end when the piano stops playing, and when we blow out the candles, or even when we leave the building or finish reading the sermon or turn off the livestream. In some ways, that’s when worship is just starting, as we go out into the world and seek to live each and every moment of every day to the praise and glory of God.

Throughout this series we’ve examined various events in the life of King David and his son, Solomon, to see what we can learn from them about what it means to live a life of worship. Neither David nor Solomon were perfect, but they did strive to honor God with their whole lives, and when they made mistakes they turned back to God in repentance and trust. Through the ups and downs of their lives, they sought to give God the glory and praise that God is due. 

A God Who Cannot Be Contained

In our Scripture reading today, things come full circle, for if you remember a few weeks ago we saw that David brought the Ark of the Covenant back to Jerusalem accompanied by a joyful procession. He learned through a very difficult experience that happened during that parade that worship involves not just joy and celebration, but also reverence and respect for God. After the Ark was returned to Jerusalem, he began to feel bad that the Ark of the Covenant (which symbolized God’s presence among the people) was housed in a tent, while he lived in a house made of cedar. He wanted to build a temple for God, but the prophet Nathan told him that one of his descendants would be the one to build the temple. 

Now today we see that it was David and Bathsheba’s son, King Solomon, who built the temple. And in today’s Scripture reading Solomon prays a prayer at the dedication of the temple. And in his prayer, he recognizes, among other things, that the temple that Solomon had built for God is nowhere big enough to contain God’s presence. In fact, even the whole world could not contain God. The temple, therefore, was not THE dwelling place of God, but rather a place where God is present, and a symbol of God’s presence among the people. 

In truth, God is not just present with us here, in God’s “house,” but also when we go forth to live our lives. God is present with us when we are in our homes, and at our schools and jobs, when we’re walking down the street, when we’re driving in our cars or riding on the bus. God is with us when we’re washing the dishes, and sending emails. God is with us each and every moment of the day, wherever we are, and wherever we go. God’s presence cannot be contained in a building. God is with us wherever we are.

The Cloud of Presence

What happens when we come together to worship is that we learn to recognize God’s presence among us. Indeed, this is what happened during the dedication of Solomon’s temple. Earlier in 1 Kings chapter 8, after the priests brought the Ark of the Covenant into the temple for the dedication, the Bible tells us that “a cloud filled the house of the Lord, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord” (1 Kings 8:10-11). God’s presence was palpable — so intense that you could almost touch it. The priests couldn’t even carry out their priestly duties because the presence of the Lord was so strong. And it forced Solomon to realize that God is so much bigger and powerful than any of us could ever imagine.

Have you ever experienced anything like this in worship? Maybe not a literal cloud of God’s presence, but God’s presence was so strong you could almost feel it?

I was at a church service one time where the pastor never even get up to preach because the Holy Spirit fell upon the congregation in such a powerful way during the musical portion of the worship service. People were crying and weeping and coming forward to the altar to pray. There was such a strong feeling of God’s presence, and the preacher didn’t want to interrupt that, and so the preacher just put aside his sermon notes, and the congregation just lingered in a time of prayer and worship that lasted the whole evening. It was a memorable experience of God’s presence, and one that reminds me that God is so much bigger and more powerful than our own plans and agendas.

God doesn’t always show up in such a tangible way when we come together in worship, but part of what happens when we gather for worship is that we help each other learn to see and recognize God’s presence among us wherever we go. 

One way we do this is through sharing stories and testimonies of how we’ve seen God at work over the past week. Sometimes we do this during the Passing of the Peace/Question of the Day. Sometimes we do this during our time of fellowship before and after the service, or through our sharing of prayer requests and praises. 

God-Sightings

In the campus ministry I used to work for we sometimes called testimony time “God-sightings.” We shared stories of how we had seen God intervene and work miraculously in our lives over the past week as a way of helping others see how God might be at work in their own lives. Students shared stories about God helping them with a quiz or test that they had failed to adequately prepare for, or their financial aid miraculously coming through when they didn’t think they were going to have the finances to pay their tuition. Through sharing these stories when we gathered together each week we helped each other see and recognize God’s work in our own lives throughout the week.

But it’s not just our testimonies and praises that help us see how God is at work. Our Scripture lessons testify to how God has been at work throughout the ages. And our songs and hymns testify to God’s work in our world and in the lives of the hymnwriters who wrote the songs. In some ways, hymns are often testimonies set to music. Think about the song, “He Touched Me:”

Shackled by a heavy burden, Neath a load of guilt and shame,

Then the hand of Jesus touched me, And now I am no longer the same.

Since I met this blessed Savior, Since He cleansed and made me whole,

I will never cease to praise Him; I’ll shout it while eternity rolls.

He touched me, O He touched me, And O the joy that floods my soul!

Something happened, and now I know, He touched me and made me whole

Or what about Amazing Grace?

Amazing grace! How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me!

I once was lost, but now am found; was blind, but now I see.

And how about In the Garden:

I come to the garden alone while the dew is still on the roses,
and the voice I hear falling on my ear, the Son of God discloses.
And he walks with me, and he talks with me, and he tells me I am his own;
and the joy we share as we tarry there, none other has ever known.

Hymns like these tell the stories of how God has shown up in their lives. And they help us see how God is at work in our own lives too. I hope we carry the hymns with us in our hearts and minds as we go forth. I hope the songs and hymns we sing in church ring in our hearts and minds throughout the week, and the Scripture passages we read capture our imagination so that throughout the week, wherever we are and whatever we are doing, we can learn to see and sense God’s presence among us. I hope our times of worship together remind us that God’s presence is beautiful and powerful, and cannot be contained, and that God is with us wherever we go.

“They Shall Hear of [God’s] Great Name”

There’s one other point I hope we take away from this story of the dedication of the temple. And that is the ripple effect that can happen when we gather together in worship and experience God’s presence among us, and learn to see how God is at work in our daily lives. Because when we see and experience God at work, that flows outward to everyone we see and encounter throughout the week.

In Solomon’s prayer at the dedication of the temple in 1 Kings 8, Solomon prayed to God, saying, 

When foreigners…come from a distant land because of your name —for they shall hear of your great name, your mighty hand, and your outstretched arm—when foreigners come and pray toward this house, 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 (1 Kings 8:41-31).  

Solomon’s prayer was that even those who didn’t go to “church” would hear about God and be drawn to worship the Lord. He prayed that God would answer the prayers of everyone who called upon the name of the Lord, no matter who they were or where they came from. 

“…So that all the Peoples…May Know”

Over the past few months, our church has received multiple requests from groups looking for meeting and event spaces. Several of these requests are from groups and individuals not directly connected to our church, but they’ve heard about the hospitality we’ve extended to others. A few weeks ago, within the span of 1 week, I received requests from no less than 3 AA groups looking for a place to meet. At least one had been given our contact information by the leader of the Monday evening AA group that meets here in this very space. Although schedule-wise it might not work out for us to host them, I’ll never forget the words the leader of the group said. He mentioned that he attends the Monday evening AA group that meets here in our church, and he said, “We really like meeting in the church. It’s a sacred space.”

After that conversation, I’ve been thinking about the variety of people who are drawn here to our church building for various reasons. Some come to receive food at the food pantry on Wednesday mornings. Others come for piano lessons, or art lessons, or to attend the AA meetings. Starting in a few weeks we’re going to be hosting a line dance class for seniors (through the Action In Maturity organization), and starting next Fall we’ll host a Montessori School that will be renting our church’s second floor. Folks come to our church building because there is something they need or are longing for — food, or community, or to grow as artists or musicians. My hope and my prayer is that whoever sets foot in this building, whether they ever come to one of our worship services or not, would see and experience the presence of God here in this place, and that through that encounter they would be drawn to call on the name of Lord and turn to God in trust, and to experience God’s presence with them wherever they go.

May God’s name be glorified and magnified and proclaimed in our midst this morning. May we “see” and experience God’s presence among us, and may we learn to see and experience God’s peace and presence with us, wherever we may go.  Amen!

Questions for Personal Reflection:

1. Have you noticed any “God-sightings” in your own life recently? How can you become more aware of God’s presence in the ordinary moments?
2. How does gathering with others for worship help you recognize God’s presence more clearly? What role does community play in your spiritual journey?
3. What does it mean to you that God cannot be contained in a building or a specific place? How does this understanding impact your view of worship and daily life?
4. Reflecting on the lives of David and Solomon, what lessons about worship and repentance resonate most with you? How can you apply these lessons to your own life?
5. Solomon’s prayer included a desire for others to be drawn to God through the temple. How can your life and actions help others see and experience God’s presence?