January 22ndPsalm 132
A Missionary God
The pagans beside whom Israel lived viewed the gods as capricious and contingent (dependent)—the gods were angry and required appeasement, and they were needy and required help. Therefore, paganism saw humans as created to fill in the gods’ deficiencies. Humans offered food to the gods as sacrifices, built houses for the gods with temples, and fought the gods’ battles as soldiers. Simply put, pagan gods needed humans to accomplish their missions, and a person’s value was determined by their usefulness to the gods.
Sometimes it seems we Christians believe the same. We love to quote Mother Theresa:
“Christ has no body now but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes through which he looks compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good. Yours are the hands through which he blesses all the world. Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are his body. Christ has no body now on earth but yours.”
In Psalm 132 we find this impulse in David. Here is a king – a man after God’s own heart – who wishes to build God a temple (see the full story in 2 Samuel 7). David feels some guilt that he is living in a house of cedar (a lavish home with products imported from Lebanon) and that it is not right that the Ark of the Covenant – the seat of God’s presence with Israel – should be housed in a tent. Thus he proposes building a temple, but God says no, ‘you are not the one to build me a temple.’
Of course, it is not wrong to serve God or to want to participate in God’s mission. Just as it was not wrong for David to desire to build a temple (house) for YHWH. The problem is when we think God needs our service, or when we find our value and identity in our service for God rather than our communion with him. We need not impute impure motives to David here, but the facts seem to indicate that he thinks he’s doing God a favour with this act. God indicates that He has no need of such a favour.
Note the form of this psalm: verses 1-10 are a prayer of the current king who makes a vow to God and asks God to bless Israel. Verses 11-18 are God’s reply. It is God who will make a vow/promise to David; it is God who will satiate the poor with bread, and cause the people to shout with joy. God is the one who brings true shalom.
The psalm plays on the word ‘house.’ God promises that God will build a house for David, an enduring dynasty that will culminate in an anointed one (Messiah) who will usher in God’s kingdom. Christians believe this Anointed One is none other than Jesus of Nazareth.
What the psalm is saying is that the hope of Israel rests not on the pious acts of Israel or of King David, but on the double promise of God to choose within the covenant both the person of David as God’s son, and the place Zion, God’s footstool. The priests and the people are invited to act out these promises sacramentally, in worship.
On January 21, 2025 Anabaptist Mennonites will celebrate the beginnings of the Radical Reformation, that Spirit empowered movement that has spread to 86 countries with more than 2.3 million adherents.
Mennonites believe in faith in action. We’ve never been much good at writing systematic theologies, instead we go out and help people in the name of Christ. We take a fair bit of pride in MCC, MDS, MVS, WITNESS, and MEDA, to name just a few. [1]
And yet . . . if we are worshipping and remembering faithfully, we recognize that we are not doing mission for God but rather we are enlisting in God’s mission to redeem the world.
The missionary initiative comes from God alone … In the words of South African Missiologist David Bosch; ‘Mission is seen as a movement from God to the world; the church is viewed as an instrument for that mission. There is church because there is mission, not vice versa. To participate in mission is to participate in the movement of God’s love toward people, since God is a fountain of sending love.’
The deepest reality of life in the Spirit depicted in the NT is that the disciples of Jesus rarely, if ever, go where they want to go or to whom they would want to go. The Spirit prods us into boundary-breaking, border-crossing places that marks where She is active.
This can give our church great confidence. We are participating in God’s mission which may often take unexpected turns and twists. So we learn to be humble (about our gifts) and nimble, to follow the wind of the Spirit.
In this 500th year of our church’s life may we remember rightly, worship joyfully, and serve authentically as we seek to live into God’s mission for the world.
PRAYER
You who open doors and dismantle barriers,
open our hearts to praise you,
that we might live the full truth of who we are,
that we might live as neighbours and friends,
no longer strangers and enemies;
open our hearts to the transforming power of your love,
that we might forgive and reconcile…
that we might be your people,
one body in one Spirit,
to tell your grace to all the world.
We pray in the name of the One
who walked among us as
Saviour, brother, and friend. Amen [adapted from VT 862]
[1] We do love our acronyms!
Mennonite Central Committee
Mennonite Disaster Service
Mennonite Voluntary Service
MC Canda Witness
Mennonite Economic Development Associates