Today's Readings
As we conclude Advent today, we once again see a theme that runs through Advent, that of beginning and end. In John the Baptist, we have the end of prophecy and the beginning of the Kingdom of God. In the Annunciation, the visit of Gabriel to the Blessed Virgin Mary, we have the end of the time of promise and the beginning of the time of fulfillment. And Advent also commemorates the end of the world, which we call the end of the world because it is our world and we are used to it, but it is really the beginning of the next world.
Our readings today carry this theme. In our Gospel, Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist gives one last prophecy, the last prophecy of the Old Testament. It is like the prophecy of Abraham, and the prophecy of Balaam, and the prophecy of Moses, and Isaiah, and Ezekiel, and Malachi, and the other Zechariah, except that it is being fulfilled even as he speaks.
What is the difference between us and someone 3000 years ago? They did not have cars or smartphones or computers. They did not know anyone who had been to the moon. But the greatest difference is not any of this. The greatest difference is that they did not have Jesus. Of course, Jesus existed. He is God. He has always existed and always will exist, but he had not come yet in a body, he had not yet lain in a manger.
This difference is captured by Zechariah at the end of his prophecy: “By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will visit us, to shine on those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death.” Back then, death cast a shadow across one’s whole life. No matter how good life was, whether the emperor of Rome or the richest man in the world, the looming prospect of death overshadowed every pleasure.
But it is not so for us. The dawn from on high, Jesus Christ, has come, and just as the dawn out there is destroying every shadow, so this shadow is being destroyed. Death remains, but it no longer casts a shadow over life. We do not have to be afraid of death anymore. It no longer signifies destruction. It is an end but also a beginning.
Daily Homilies
December 23, 2011 - Friday of the Fourth Week of Advent
Today's Readings
I suppose that many of you are currently in the midst of preparation. Christmas Eve is tomorrow and there are many things to be prepared: food, decorations, last-minute gifts and cards, stockings to be hung by the chimney with care, cookies to be frosted, a turkey to be defrosted. I would bet that some of you have even made a list. You want to be ready. We all agree with the Whos down in Whoville that Christmas is more than presents and roast beast, but such things must still be prepared if they can be. If everyone showed up for the Christmas dinner and nothing was ready, a moral lesson about the true meaning of Christmas would not go over very well.
And if we prepare our homes and tables for honored guests and families, how much more ought we prepare our hearts for the Lord! The Lord is coming, but who can stand on the day of his coming? Will our work and preparations endure? Of course, we are in the position of children, as a mother helps her children make cards for their father, so the Holy Spirit is preparing us for the coming of the Lord. God prepares us for himself, which means that we will have no excuse on the day of his coming if we are not prepared. God will not accept us if we are unprepared, but he will prepare us if we cooperate with him.
There was a time, back in November, when Christmas seemed a long way off. Plenty of time to do what needed to be done. Now Christmas begins tomorrow. From where we stand now, it might seem like the end of the world or our own death is still a long way off, but it will come. On that day, we will stand before the throne of God. We will see Jesus face to face. No excuses will be accepted. We would not even have the courage to offer any. Now is the time of preparation, then it will be too late. Let us make use of this time, good use of this time. We do not have time to kill; we do not have time to waste. The time to prepare is now.
I suppose that many of you are currently in the midst of preparation. Christmas Eve is tomorrow and there are many things to be prepared: food, decorations, last-minute gifts and cards, stockings to be hung by the chimney with care, cookies to be frosted, a turkey to be defrosted. I would bet that some of you have even made a list. You want to be ready. We all agree with the Whos down in Whoville that Christmas is more than presents and roast beast, but such things must still be prepared if they can be. If everyone showed up for the Christmas dinner and nothing was ready, a moral lesson about the true meaning of Christmas would not go over very well.
And if we prepare our homes and tables for honored guests and families, how much more ought we prepare our hearts for the Lord! The Lord is coming, but who can stand on the day of his coming? Will our work and preparations endure? Of course, we are in the position of children, as a mother helps her children make cards for their father, so the Holy Spirit is preparing us for the coming of the Lord. God prepares us for himself, which means that we will have no excuse on the day of his coming if we are not prepared. God will not accept us if we are unprepared, but he will prepare us if we cooperate with him.
There was a time, back in November, when Christmas seemed a long way off. Plenty of time to do what needed to be done. Now Christmas begins tomorrow. From where we stand now, it might seem like the end of the world or our own death is still a long way off, but it will come. On that day, we will stand before the throne of God. We will see Jesus face to face. No excuses will be accepted. We would not even have the courage to offer any. Now is the time of preparation, then it will be too late. Let us make use of this time, good use of this time. We do not have time to kill; we do not have time to waste. The time to prepare is now.
December 22, 2011 - Thursday of the Fourth Week of Advent
Today's Readings
If you look around the world, if you watch the news, you might be worried about where the world is headed. It all seems to be going to Hell in a handbasket or maybe a racecar. We humans ruin this world and everything good in it with our selfishness and greed. Some people are looking for a politician who can save us, but we already have a Savior. Jesus came and saved us, and he is coming back. In the meantime, he would do more if we would only let him.
Mary said that all generations would call her blessed, and so we have. For the past 2000 years she has continuously been referred to as the Blessed Virgin Mary. She did not say that all generations would call her blessed because she did great things. She said that all generations would call her blessed because the Almighty has done great things for her.
There is a temptation to think of a great person as someone who has done great things. Mary turns that idea on its head. Indeed, the great thing that Mary did was allow God to do his great things. Her heroic feat was allowing God to work. In the Blessed Virgin Mary, from her Immaculate Conception to being crowned Queen of Heaven and Earth, God accomplished marvelous things. Of course, the greatest of these was the Incarnation, in which God himself took flesh, took DNA, from the body of the Blessed Virgin and formed a body for himself.
Just imagine the great things God would accomplish if we would let him! We do not let God work because we are too conventional: the world watches TV so we watch TV, the world buys and buys and buys stuff, so we go shopping. To be a saint it is necessary to be unconventional, unusual, to be weird. Not every strange person is a saint, but no saint was ever normal. The one way that is definitely the wrong way is the well-worn path that the whole world is going down.
Once we have decided to not be like everyone else, we have to decide who we are going to be like. For that, we cannot choose a better example than Mary. Mary, who never prevented God from working in her life, who was devoted to Jesus from the Incarnation to the Cross, who always believed in the Resurrection, is the most unusual human person in the history of the world. We should be weird, like Mary.
If you look around the world, if you watch the news, you might be worried about where the world is headed. It all seems to be going to Hell in a handbasket or maybe a racecar. We humans ruin this world and everything good in it with our selfishness and greed. Some people are looking for a politician who can save us, but we already have a Savior. Jesus came and saved us, and he is coming back. In the meantime, he would do more if we would only let him.
Mary said that all generations would call her blessed, and so we have. For the past 2000 years she has continuously been referred to as the Blessed Virgin Mary. She did not say that all generations would call her blessed because she did great things. She said that all generations would call her blessed because the Almighty has done great things for her.
There is a temptation to think of a great person as someone who has done great things. Mary turns that idea on its head. Indeed, the great thing that Mary did was allow God to do his great things. Her heroic feat was allowing God to work. In the Blessed Virgin Mary, from her Immaculate Conception to being crowned Queen of Heaven and Earth, God accomplished marvelous things. Of course, the greatest of these was the Incarnation, in which God himself took flesh, took DNA, from the body of the Blessed Virgin and formed a body for himself.
Just imagine the great things God would accomplish if we would let him! We do not let God work because we are too conventional: the world watches TV so we watch TV, the world buys and buys and buys stuff, so we go shopping. To be a saint it is necessary to be unconventional, unusual, to be weird. Not every strange person is a saint, but no saint was ever normal. The one way that is definitely the wrong way is the well-worn path that the whole world is going down.
Once we have decided to not be like everyone else, we have to decide who we are going to be like. For that, we cannot choose a better example than Mary. Mary, who never prevented God from working in her life, who was devoted to Jesus from the Incarnation to the Cross, who always believed in the Resurrection, is the most unusual human person in the history of the world. We should be weird, like Mary.
December 21, 2011 - Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Advent
Today's Readings
Our first reading today, from the Song of Songs, is part of a love song. Throughout history, some people have complained that this love song should not be in the Bible. It never even mentions God. These people have such little imagination. The story of salvation is a love story. In this song sung between the lover and the beloved in alternating verses, we have a true image of our relationship with God. He is the lover, and we are the beloved. He tells us to “Rise up, my love, my beautiful one, and come.” He repeats this invitation over and over. God is always saying to you: “Rise up, my love, my beautiful one, and come.” It is not flattery. He loves you, whether anyone else does or not. He sees you as beautiful, whether the world says you are or not. He is calling you. How can you resist?
Our Gospel today shows us what the beloved of God should be like. Mary was in a hurry. She went into the hill country with haste. Was she running away? No. She was in a hurry because there were things to be done. She goes to her cousin Elizabeth, to help her during her pregnancy. How unselfish this girl is! She does not think of her own needs; she thinks about what would help someone else.
When she received God’s gift to the world in her own womb, she did not withdraw into hiding; she went out into the world. She went forth as the Christ-bearer. She wanted to give what she had received. She does not greedily hold on to the gift given to her by God; she immediately, and with haste, gives it to the world, beginning with Elizabeth.
No gift from God is as great as the gift of his Son to the world. In Jesus Christ, God gave himself to the world, but this gift of love was not given to everyone at once. This gift was entrusted to one person – Mary, the Mother of God. God relied on Mary. He trusted Mary. So it was that the whole world received God’s gift through Mary. No one has received Jesus Christ except through his Mother. Though Peter and Paul preached Jesus to the ends of the earth, Jesus entered this world in one particular place, and that place is the womb of the Blessed Virgin. All generations will call her blessed.
Our first reading today, from the Song of Songs, is part of a love song. Throughout history, some people have complained that this love song should not be in the Bible. It never even mentions God. These people have such little imagination. The story of salvation is a love story. In this song sung between the lover and the beloved in alternating verses, we have a true image of our relationship with God. He is the lover, and we are the beloved. He tells us to “Rise up, my love, my beautiful one, and come.” He repeats this invitation over and over. God is always saying to you: “Rise up, my love, my beautiful one, and come.” It is not flattery. He loves you, whether anyone else does or not. He sees you as beautiful, whether the world says you are or not. He is calling you. How can you resist?
Our Gospel today shows us what the beloved of God should be like. Mary was in a hurry. She went into the hill country with haste. Was she running away? No. She was in a hurry because there were things to be done. She goes to her cousin Elizabeth, to help her during her pregnancy. How unselfish this girl is! She does not think of her own needs; she thinks about what would help someone else.
When she received God’s gift to the world in her own womb, she did not withdraw into hiding; she went out into the world. She went forth as the Christ-bearer. She wanted to give what she had received. She does not greedily hold on to the gift given to her by God; she immediately, and with haste, gives it to the world, beginning with Elizabeth.
No gift from God is as great as the gift of his Son to the world. In Jesus Christ, God gave himself to the world, but this gift of love was not given to everyone at once. This gift was entrusted to one person – Mary, the Mother of God. God relied on Mary. He trusted Mary. So it was that the whole world received God’s gift through Mary. No one has received Jesus Christ except through his Mother. Though Peter and Paul preached Jesus to the ends of the earth, Jesus entered this world in one particular place, and that place is the womb of the Blessed Virgin. All generations will call her blessed.
December 20, 2011 - Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Advent
Today's Readings
We can thank King Ahaz that he did not ask for a sign. I am confident that whatever sign he would have thought of would be nothing in comparison to the sign he was given. He might have thought that it was very deep, but it would have been shallow in comparison to the depth of the mystery of the Incarnation. He might have thought that it was very high, but it would have been transcended by the height of God himself, who is the child to be born. He was right to not choose the sign, though it frustrated Isaiah.
When Isaiah made King Hezekiah a similar offer, he had asked the sun to go backward in the sky. Imagine all that was involved in reversing the rotation of the Earth without the planet breaking apart. This is an easy thing for God, who holds the world in his hands, but we should be amazed nonetheless. Yet this sign was a little thing compared to the sign that King Ahaz received.
Of course, Ahaz was not around to see the fulfillment of the sign. It would be over 700 years before the sign was fulfilled. Ahaz was as long before the coming of Christ as St. Thomas Aquinas was before our time. So this prophecy is not recorded for Ahaz’s sake but for ours, so that we would know that centuries before it happened, God knew what he was going to do.
The Lord has all of history planned out. While the dinosaurs were still wandering the earth, he knew about Adam and Eve and their sin. Before he made Adam, he knew that we would need a savior. He breathed life into the first man knowing that someday, thousands of years later, some humans, descendents of that man, would kill him. God is never surprised by what happens.
God did not delay the coming of Christ. He told Ahaz that it would happen and for 700 years it did not happen. Then, when the time was right, in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to the town of Nazareth, and a virgin conceived and bore a son and named him, Jesus, which means “God saves”, but he could also be called Emmanuel, which means “God is with us”. So also, it has been almost 2000 years since he said he would return, and he has not. Someday, though, he will.
We can thank King Ahaz that he did not ask for a sign. I am confident that whatever sign he would have thought of would be nothing in comparison to the sign he was given. He might have thought that it was very deep, but it would have been shallow in comparison to the depth of the mystery of the Incarnation. He might have thought that it was very high, but it would have been transcended by the height of God himself, who is the child to be born. He was right to not choose the sign, though it frustrated Isaiah.
When Isaiah made King Hezekiah a similar offer, he had asked the sun to go backward in the sky. Imagine all that was involved in reversing the rotation of the Earth without the planet breaking apart. This is an easy thing for God, who holds the world in his hands, but we should be amazed nonetheless. Yet this sign was a little thing compared to the sign that King Ahaz received.
Of course, Ahaz was not around to see the fulfillment of the sign. It would be over 700 years before the sign was fulfilled. Ahaz was as long before the coming of Christ as St. Thomas Aquinas was before our time. So this prophecy is not recorded for Ahaz’s sake but for ours, so that we would know that centuries before it happened, God knew what he was going to do.
The Lord has all of history planned out. While the dinosaurs were still wandering the earth, he knew about Adam and Eve and their sin. Before he made Adam, he knew that we would need a savior. He breathed life into the first man knowing that someday, thousands of years later, some humans, descendents of that man, would kill him. God is never surprised by what happens.
God did not delay the coming of Christ. He told Ahaz that it would happen and for 700 years it did not happen. Then, when the time was right, in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to the town of Nazareth, and a virgin conceived and bore a son and named him, Jesus, which means “God saves”, but he could also be called Emmanuel, which means “God is with us”. So also, it has been almost 2000 years since he said he would return, and he has not. Someday, though, he will.
December 19, 2011 - Monday of the Fourth Week of Advent
Today's Readings
Zechariah is really severely punished. He just asked one question: “How am I to know this?” Where did he get this question? He got it from Abraham. It is the exact question that Abraham asked when God told him that he and Sarah would have a son even though they were very old. So when Zechariah is told the same thing, he follows the example of Abraham, but instead of being given a sign like Abraham received, he is given a different sort of sign: he is punished by having his ability to speak removed.
So what is the problem? The problem is that in 2000 years, there should have been some spiritual progress. What was good enough for Abraham who was the first to believe was not good enough a hundred generations later. Just as we ought to be more spiritually mature than the early Christians after 2000 years of Christianity, so Zechariah ought to be more spiritually mature than Abraham.
This is not to say that Zechariah is better than Abraham, or that we are better than the early Christians. Who is the greater artists, Da Vinci or the first caveman to paint an animal on the wall? Who is the greater scientist, Einstein or the first person to map the stars? The point is that Zechariah had the benefit of Abraham’s experience, so he should not have asked Abraham’s question.
Contrast this conversation with another conversation that Gabriel had. Mary asked a question too, but her question shows a wisdom and spiritual maturity that the old priest lacked. She simply asks, “How can this be?” She does not doubt. She simply wants to know how she is going to become pregnant and yet remain a virgin her whole life. She does not ask for proof, just a little clarification.
Of course it is not fair to compare Zechariah to Mary, the Immaculate Conception, the sinless girl who would never sin. None of us is going to look very good in comparison with Mary, but that is just the point: Mary is exactly what we ought to be; her “let it be” is exactly what we ought to say. Mary is the perfect disciple. Zechariah erred by looking back to Abraham as his example, but we will never go wrong if our example is Mary.
Zechariah is really severely punished. He just asked one question: “How am I to know this?” Where did he get this question? He got it from Abraham. It is the exact question that Abraham asked when God told him that he and Sarah would have a son even though they were very old. So when Zechariah is told the same thing, he follows the example of Abraham, but instead of being given a sign like Abraham received, he is given a different sort of sign: he is punished by having his ability to speak removed.
So what is the problem? The problem is that in 2000 years, there should have been some spiritual progress. What was good enough for Abraham who was the first to believe was not good enough a hundred generations later. Just as we ought to be more spiritually mature than the early Christians after 2000 years of Christianity, so Zechariah ought to be more spiritually mature than Abraham.
This is not to say that Zechariah is better than Abraham, or that we are better than the early Christians. Who is the greater artists, Da Vinci or the first caveman to paint an animal on the wall? Who is the greater scientist, Einstein or the first person to map the stars? The point is that Zechariah had the benefit of Abraham’s experience, so he should not have asked Abraham’s question.
Contrast this conversation with another conversation that Gabriel had. Mary asked a question too, but her question shows a wisdom and spiritual maturity that the old priest lacked. She simply asks, “How can this be?” She does not doubt. She simply wants to know how she is going to become pregnant and yet remain a virgin her whole life. She does not ask for proof, just a little clarification.
Of course it is not fair to compare Zechariah to Mary, the Immaculate Conception, the sinless girl who would never sin. None of us is going to look very good in comparison with Mary, but that is just the point: Mary is exactly what we ought to be; her “let it be” is exactly what we ought to say. Mary is the perfect disciple. Zechariah erred by looking back to Abraham as his example, but we will never go wrong if our example is Mary.
December 18, 2011 - Fourth Sunday of Advent
Today's Readings
There are two kinds of debt. The first kind is like credit card debt or a car loan or a mortgage. We receive a benefit for nothing, so we owe an equivalent amount. If you receive a car, you owe what a car is worth. This is your debt. This is the same kind of debt that we incur when someone does us a favor. We owe them a favor. This is also the kind of debt we owe to God. He gave us this planet and the air and the food and life itself. We owe him a lot, and we can never pay him back because anything we have we got from him, including our selves. We owe God this first kind of debt, but he can never owe us this kind of debt. What can we do for God? He needs nothing. He is perfectly happy. If he did want something, he could create it.
However, he can owe us the second kind of debt. The second kind of debt is what we owe through a promise. If we make a promise, we are in debt to the keeping of the promise. Although we are never obligated to keep any evil promises, any other promise is just as binding on us as the first kind of debt. When you make a promise, you put yourself in debt. Since God can make a promise, he can be in this kind of debt. Since God has made many promises, he is in this kind of debt.
What does God owe us? He promised Noah that he would never flood the earth again. He promised Abraham that he would make him the father of many generations. He promised Moses to bring the Israelites into the Promised Land. He makes lots of promises. He promised Ezekiel that he would give us hearts that know his will. He promised Jeremiah that he had plans for his welfare.
So God and you have this in common: you look over your credit card bills and see how much you owe. Sometimes you have to think for awhile about what this charge is and that charge. God looks at the Bible filled with so many promises and sees what he owes. Does God ever look at all those promises, wondering when he ever promised this or that? Of course not, he is God; his memory is quite good.
But we might wonder why he promised so much to a people who can do nothing for him. The answer is simple: he loves us. Like a father who promises his son the world, like a mother who promises her daughter happiness, like any parent who makes unreasonable promises to their children, so God has promised us so very much. We can be sure, however, that God is good for it; he will keep his promises. With God, nothing is impossible, and he would not promise what he did not intend to fulfill.
In our first reading today, we see God make a promise to King David. In our Gospel today, we see that promise fulfilled. God promises David a son, an heir who will reign forever. God promises David that his throne and his house will endure forever. For awhile it seemed as if God would not keep his promise. For over 500 years, the throne of David lay dormant. The descendents of David were poor, not kings.
Then God sent the angel Gabriel to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary. Promise fulfilled. King Jesus will be king forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end. Up until that day, a person could have wondered about the promise of God, but when it was fulfilled, it was fulfilled.
It is the same with all the other promises of God. Jesus promised us a room in his Father’s house. You can be sure of that room. It is waiting for you. It might be possible to doubt the promise of God, but someday there will be no doubt anymore. Hopefully, on that day, you and I will be resting comfortably in the rooms he prepared for us.
God has made so many promises, and every one of them will be fulfilled. And when they are fulfilled, they will not be fulfilled in a meager way. God’s promise to David was amazing enough, but the fulfillment in Jesus Christ is far, far greater than anything David could have imagined.
God has made so many promises because he wants us to love him in return. We stand between gift and promise. We have been given so much, and we have been promised even more. The gifts prove that God is rich enough to keep his promises. The promises prove that we are still in need. If we had everything we wanted, we would not realize that what we really want is the giver and the promiser. If we had everything we would not have a longing for God.
This world is good, but it is not good enough. The world only seems evil at times because it is not good enough. What is loss if not the loss of something good? Because this world is good but not good enough, because we stand between gift and promise, we can freely love God. We have the ability to choose to love God, and we have good reason to do so.
God is wooing us with gifts and promises. He wants us to love him, not because he needs our love, but because there is nothing greater in this universe than to love God. God himself is the greatest gift he can give to us. To love God is to be happy. To love God freely is to be freely happy. God has given us the opportunity to be in love with him.
When we do love God, we will find that he loves us more. David tried to do something for God today; he wanted to build a house for Ark of God. Instead, God did something better for David. “You are going to build me a house? You are going to build me a house?”, the Lord says, “No. I will build you a house, and it will last forever.”
There are two kinds of debt. The first kind is like credit card debt or a car loan or a mortgage. We receive a benefit for nothing, so we owe an equivalent amount. If you receive a car, you owe what a car is worth. This is your debt. This is the same kind of debt that we incur when someone does us a favor. We owe them a favor. This is also the kind of debt we owe to God. He gave us this planet and the air and the food and life itself. We owe him a lot, and we can never pay him back because anything we have we got from him, including our selves. We owe God this first kind of debt, but he can never owe us this kind of debt. What can we do for God? He needs nothing. He is perfectly happy. If he did want something, he could create it.
However, he can owe us the second kind of debt. The second kind of debt is what we owe through a promise. If we make a promise, we are in debt to the keeping of the promise. Although we are never obligated to keep any evil promises, any other promise is just as binding on us as the first kind of debt. When you make a promise, you put yourself in debt. Since God can make a promise, he can be in this kind of debt. Since God has made many promises, he is in this kind of debt.
What does God owe us? He promised Noah that he would never flood the earth again. He promised Abraham that he would make him the father of many generations. He promised Moses to bring the Israelites into the Promised Land. He makes lots of promises. He promised Ezekiel that he would give us hearts that know his will. He promised Jeremiah that he had plans for his welfare.
So God and you have this in common: you look over your credit card bills and see how much you owe. Sometimes you have to think for awhile about what this charge is and that charge. God looks at the Bible filled with so many promises and sees what he owes. Does God ever look at all those promises, wondering when he ever promised this or that? Of course not, he is God; his memory is quite good.
But we might wonder why he promised so much to a people who can do nothing for him. The answer is simple: he loves us. Like a father who promises his son the world, like a mother who promises her daughter happiness, like any parent who makes unreasonable promises to their children, so God has promised us so very much. We can be sure, however, that God is good for it; he will keep his promises. With God, nothing is impossible, and he would not promise what he did not intend to fulfill.
In our first reading today, we see God make a promise to King David. In our Gospel today, we see that promise fulfilled. God promises David a son, an heir who will reign forever. God promises David that his throne and his house will endure forever. For awhile it seemed as if God would not keep his promise. For over 500 years, the throne of David lay dormant. The descendents of David were poor, not kings.
Then God sent the angel Gabriel to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary. Promise fulfilled. King Jesus will be king forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end. Up until that day, a person could have wondered about the promise of God, but when it was fulfilled, it was fulfilled.
It is the same with all the other promises of God. Jesus promised us a room in his Father’s house. You can be sure of that room. It is waiting for you. It might be possible to doubt the promise of God, but someday there will be no doubt anymore. Hopefully, on that day, you and I will be resting comfortably in the rooms he prepared for us.
God has made so many promises, and every one of them will be fulfilled. And when they are fulfilled, they will not be fulfilled in a meager way. God’s promise to David was amazing enough, but the fulfillment in Jesus Christ is far, far greater than anything David could have imagined.
God has made so many promises because he wants us to love him in return. We stand between gift and promise. We have been given so much, and we have been promised even more. The gifts prove that God is rich enough to keep his promises. The promises prove that we are still in need. If we had everything we wanted, we would not realize that what we really want is the giver and the promiser. If we had everything we would not have a longing for God.
This world is good, but it is not good enough. The world only seems evil at times because it is not good enough. What is loss if not the loss of something good? Because this world is good but not good enough, because we stand between gift and promise, we can freely love God. We have the ability to choose to love God, and we have good reason to do so.
God is wooing us with gifts and promises. He wants us to love him, not because he needs our love, but because there is nothing greater in this universe than to love God. God himself is the greatest gift he can give to us. To love God is to be happy. To love God freely is to be freely happy. God has given us the opportunity to be in love with him.
When we do love God, we will find that he loves us more. David tried to do something for God today; he wanted to build a house for Ark of God. Instead, God did something better for David. “You are going to build me a house? You are going to build me a house?”, the Lord says, “No. I will build you a house, and it will last forever.”
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