2 Samuel 7: 1-16 (links validated 11/22/23)

New Resources

  • A Gift for the God Who Has (Is) Everything

    by Jim Chern
    Some years ago, I remember going out to dinner with my Mom and Dad on a Saturday Night after Mass. In a quick move, I grabbed the check from the waiter to pay for the meal. While my Mom was very touched by the gesture, my father was kind of reserved about it – he said “thank you,” but I could tell he wasn’t thrilled about it. When we got home later, and Mom was in another room, he brought it up again and said I shouldn’t do that again. Not that he wasn’t grateful for it – but I couldn’t quite tell if he thought as a priest I couldn’t afford to do something like that for my parents, or if it was an Italian pride thing (which I remembered similar “fights” over the check going on between my Grandfather and my father). In a typical Father-Son dialogue/debate (which, being Italian, of course, got louder), I know that I got more dramatic, saying, “How do I get in trouble for taking my parents out to dinner???” At this point, Mom came in and told my father to stop it and leave me alone. It took me a long time to appreciate, sadly probably not till after he had passed away, that the back and forth over paying for a bill wasn’t that my Dad’s ego being hurt or that he felt I couldn’t afford to do it. It was that for my Dad, his taking his son out to dinner was a way of his continuing to “take care” of his son just as he had all my life. Especially as a grown man and now a priest, there weren’t a lot of ways that he could still be a Dad like he had been for me all my life, and that was one of his things. All He wanted was for me to be the best son and “father” as a priest I could be in return. That was what made him proud. That was the only gift he really wanted. For David and all of us, there’s only one thing the God who has everything doesn’t have and desperately wants. How do we give Him our hearts in the way He desires, in the way He deserves?...
  • God's Eternal Realm

    by Bob Cornwall
  • Exegesis (2 Samuel 7)

    by Richard Donovan
  • Advent 4B (2023)

    by Cameron B.R. Howard
  • Advent 4B (2023)

    by Stephen Riley
  • The Building Is God's

    by Eleonore Stump
  • Advent 4B

    by Howard Wallace et al
  • Advent 4B (2023)

    by Samuel Zumwalt

Illustrated Resources from the Archives

  • Preaching Helps (Proper 11B)(2018)

    by Doug Bratt
    I have always found the term “worship wars” to be bitterly ironic. In Jesus Christ, after all, God has given God’s adopted sons and daughters both peace with himself and rest from our sometimes-frantic scramble to save ourselves. God has also graciously equipped God’s adopted sons and daughters to live in peace with each other. Yet we sometimes wage war with our fellow Christians over things like worship styles and content. We contest every square inch of ground that is music, liturgy and even the proclamation of God’s Word. Sometimes those battles even seem most pitched on the Sunday that is the day of rest for many Christians. Is it any wonder, then, that not just Sunday’s activities but also its tensions sometimes leave us more exhausted at 8:00 p.m. than we were at 8:00 a.m.? Yet this exhaustion might present those who proclaim 2 Samuel 7 with an chance to explore how we might open ourselves to God’s gift “rest” from those worship battles.
  • Advent 4B (2017)

    by Doug Bratt
    Neal Plantinga notes that Augustine sometimes introduced himself to other Christians by letting them eavesdrop on his extended prayers to God. Some of his confessions take the form of praise in which he confesses God’s greatness and goodness. And sometimes he confesses his sins of self-deception, lust, and conformity to the evil of peers. Sometimes Augustine even sounds anxious, as if his prayer is what Plantinga calls “therapeutic self-examination.” Very often Augustine’s prayers exhibit real beauty...
  • Advent 4B (2014)

    by Scott Hoezee
    One of the most mind-boggling spectacles I’ve ever seen is a short science movie titled Powers of Ten (the recent IMAX film, Cosmic Voyage is a recent update of this film). You can view the original film here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fKBhvDjuy0 Many of us no doubt saw this movie in a high school physics class. As the film opens, you see a close-up view of a young couple spreading out a picnic blanket on a grassy section of Chicago’s Grant Park. Then every ten seconds thereafter the camera pulls back, each time increasing its distance from the couple by one more power of ten. First the camera pulls back just one foot; ten seconds later it pulls back ten feet; ten seconds later it pulls back one hundred feet and then one thousand feet and then ten thousand feet and so on. At first you can still see the young couple. But soon you can pick out only the small square of their picnic blanket in the midst of the larger Grant Park. Seconds later Grant Park itself has been reduced to a small green patch as you can now see all of Chicago and the southern curve of Lake Michigan. Next Chicago disappears as you see the whole United States. Then you see the whole planet earth, then even our own sun starts to shrink into an ordinary looking star. Within just a couple of minutes the picture has pulled back to the outer limits of the Milky Way galaxy and soon thereafter to the edge of the known universe. Once the edge of space is reached, the camera then quickly hurtles back through space, finally zooming back in on the couple in Grant Park. All in all the film is a stunning reminder of how small we are compared to the vastness of the universe...
  • Advent 4B (2008)

    by Scott Hoezee
    ("One of the most mind-boggling spectacles I've ever seen is a short science movie titled Powers of Ten [the recent IMAX film, Cosmic Voyage is a recent update of this film]. Many of us no doubt saw this movie in a high school physics class....")
  • I Will Build You a House

    by Charles Hoffacker
    Mary Oliver closes her poem "In Blackwater Woods" with lines that apply to various loves, including attachment to praiseworthy projects. Here is what she tells us: To live in this world you must be able to do three things: love what is mortal; to hold it against your bones knowing your own life depends on it; and, when the time comes to let it go, to let it go. Against the unavoidable death of whatever dream we hold as though it were life itself, listen again to the resurrection promise spoken to David––and to us: "Are you the one to build me a house to live in? I declare to you that I will make you a house."...
  • Sermon Starters (Proper 11B)(2021)

    by Stan Mast
    Sometimes a rousing hymn after a sermon will do as much as a great story to drive the message home. As I worked my way through this powerful passage, two hymns began to echo in my mind, one about the present fulfilment of God’s promise to David and the other about the future fulfillment. Rejoice, the Lord is king! Your Lord and King adore. Rejoice, give thanks and sing and triumph evermore. Lift up your hearts, lift up your voice. Rejoice, again I say, rejoice! His kingdom cannot fail; he rules o’er earth and heaven; The keys of death and hell to Christ the Lord are given. Lift up your heart, lift up your voice. Rejoice, again I say, rejoice! He sits at God’s right hand till all his foes submit, Bow down at his command, and fall beneath his feet. Lift up your heart, lift up your voice. Rejoice, again I say, rejoice!...
  • Sermon Starters (Advent 4B)(2020)

    by Stan Mast
    This text about “houses” is particularly relevant for those of us who have just lived through the troublesome times surrounding the succession of the United States presidency. Who would be the next king? Who would decide? With deep suspicions on both sides, there was high fear throughout the country. In our text, the word of the Lord settled the issue of succession once and for all time. Jesus will be King, no matter who sits on the throne of any nation. And that gives his servants deep comfort and high hope, even if the “wrong” candidate ascends the throne of any country. Remember, God’s word does not fail, even when it seems as though it has. The King is coming!
  • Tearing Down Walls (Proper 11B)(2015)

    by Jim McCrea
    Between my second and third trips to Israel, the Israeli government built a massive wall enclosing portions of the West Bank from Israel proper. The wall is 26 feet high and either is or will eventually be 430 miles long. Israel built it as a form of protection from terrorist attacks and they call it the “wall of separation”; however, the Palestinians call it a “wall of apartheid.” What is clear is that the wall causes huge delays for Palestinians traveling to and from the West Bank. At the same time, Israel also created three zones in the West Bank: those open to Israelis only, those open to Palestinians only and those open to anyone. We ran into those restrictions during our visit to Bethlehem, a Palestinian town that’s located inside the wall. Our regular tour guide was Israeli so he was not allowed to come with us. Instead he had to arrange for a Palestinian guide to take us to Bethlehem and he called us anxiously when the crowds at the Church of Nativity meant that our trip took longer than he expected...
  • Building or Growing

    Art and Faith by Lynn Miller
    Shown here are two different artistic visions of the Tree of Jesse. The top image is a 12th-century stained glass window at Chartres Cathedral in France. Jesse is at the root with a series of humans sit on the trunk of the tree (like Zacchaeus, maybe?), proceeding in an orderly fashion up to Jesus who sits at the top of the tree with a dove descending on his head.
  • A House in Ruins

    Art and Faith by Lynn Miller
    When you picture a nativity scene, how do you imagine the structure? Barn, shed, lean-to, cave? It has been imagined in all those ways. Artists use the structures of their own time and place as the setting for the birth of Jesus. Which means that Martin Schongauer puts the nativity under a Gothic arch and vault (below). Despite the variety of architectural styles, however, the artists of many historical images paint the stable, shed, cathedral, etc., as a ruin. The ruins symbolize humanity in need of redemption. The ruin is the state of the world...
  • Now What Do I Do?

    by John Pavelko
    The bell rang for the Council of Elrond to begin. Representatives from all the races were summoned by the High Elf to attend. Glorfindel and Erestor from Elrond's household, Glador from the Gray Havens, and Legolas offered the wisdom of the elves. Gloin and his son Gimli attended for the dwarfs. Boromir and Aragon were invited to represent the race of men and women and Gandalf, the wizards. This was an elite council with an important task. Each ambassador possessed great powers, wisdom, and years of battle experience. Sitting among these great lords and nobles were two hobbits. In appearance they were the most unlikely members of the council. They held no great power within themselves. They had little to offer. An army of hobbits could easily be defeated by a platoon of men. But none had a more prominent role to this Council than the aged Bilbo Baggins and especially his nephew Frodo son of Drogo. After introductions, Elrond retold the Tale of the Ring. Sauron had made it in the fires of Mordor and engraved on its surface were the words of doom: One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the Darkness bind them...
  • A Home for God

    by David Russell
    Problems can come about when we focus too much on institutions and structures. There is an anthem our choir sings, written by Baptist Ken Medema. I love the words: Come build a church with soul and spirit, come build a church of flesh and bone. We need no tower rising skyward; no house of wood or glass or stone. Come build a church with human frailty, come build a church of flesh and blood. Jesus shall be its sure foundation. It shall be built by the hand of God...

Other Resources from 2021 and 2022

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Other Resources from 2017 to 2019

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Other Resources from 2015 and 2016

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Other Resources from 2011 to 2014

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Other Resources from the Archives

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Children's Resources and Dramas

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