God is building a House

Fourth Sunday of Advent Year B

Many of you older folks would recall this old ditty which barely passed off as an entrance hymn back in the 70s and 80s, “God is building a house ... that would stand.” The upbeat melody and repetitive brain-liquifying lyrics which sounded like a toddler’s action song was hardly inspiring but the simple message is honestly quite profound. It reinforces a truth that is being communicated to us this Sunday in our readings: “God is building a house.”

The first reading has David ruminating over the prospect of building a house for God - the Temple, was literally a house of God (Beth-El). David was done with all the warring, the destruction, the tearing down of his enemies’ houses. Now during a lull in the fighting, a relatively peaceful time of his reign, he decides to dedicate the rest of his life and legacy to building and his first major project would be his utmost priority - a Temple dedicated to God. For a long time and during the Israelites’ wanderings from Egypt to the Promised Land, a portable temple, a mere tent, had been used to house the ark of the covenant. David could sense the ridiculous disparity between him and God. Whilst he was now living in a regal palace, God’s house remained a humble make-shift temple.

One would think that God would be pleased and would have immediately accepted the offer. Surprisingly, and perhaps not so surprising after all, God rejects David’s offer and then makes a counter offer. God doesn’t need David to build a house for Him. God makes it clear that the only one who could build an everlasting house is God Himself; He promised to eventually “raise up” an heir who would establish an everlasting throne and kingdom. See the irony? Instead of David building a house for God, it is God who is going to build a house for David. So where is this magnificent edifice which God had promised to construct? The answer is found in the gospel.

The Theotokos—the Mother of God—is the House of God built for the salvation of man. Eastern Christian hymns describe our Lady as the “container of the Uncontainable God,” and “the womb of God enfleshed.” Many of the early Church fathers spoke of Mary as the new ark of the covenant. “Mary, in whom the Lord himself has just made his dwelling,” the Catechism remarks, “is the daughter of Zion in person, the ark of the covenant, the place where the glory of the Lord dwells” (CCC 2676).

Mary, created without sin, and accepting in faith the call of the Lord, became a living, breathing House of God - a new ark of the covenant. “Full of grace, Mary is wholly given over to him who has come to dwell in her and whom she is about to give to the world” (CCC 2676). As God once dwelt in the tabernacle among a nomadic people, He now comes to dwell, through a woman, among men—pilgrims journeying toward their heavenly home. “For the first time in the plan of salvation and because his Spirit had prepared her, the Father found the dwelling place where his Son and his Spirit could dwell among men” (CCC 721).

David longed to build a temple and his son Solomon did build the temple, but only God could and did create a sinless, human temple. Only God, because of His power and love, could become so small and humble so that He might save us. It is God who reaches out, who dwells among man, who becomes flesh and blood for our sake. Nothing, the angel Gabriel explains to the young Jewish virgin, “will be impossible to God.”

“Let what you have said be done to me.” With those words, Mary demonstrated the proper response to God, bursting with faith and trusting love. Opening herself to God’s word, she was filled with the Word who is God. Filled with the Holy Spirit, she became the throne of God.

“Behold,” exclaims the Akathist (Eastern Orthodox) hymn, “heaven was brought down to earth when the Word Himself was fully contained in you! Now that I see Him in your womb, taking a servant’s form, I cry out to you in wonder: Hail, O Bride and Maiden ever-pure!”

During Christmas we cry out in wonder at God’s greatest masterpiece, the house where He would dwell, not built by mortal hands but by the hand of God Himself. Now that the house is ready, it’s time to welcome its occupant - Emmanuel - God-with-us. A house could be a 1000 room palace or a squalid hovel, but if its occupant is God Himself, the dwelling takes up the splendid honour of being the House of God. Today, we honour Mary, the House of God, and on Friday, we welcome the occupant of her womb and worship Him as the Son of God.

It may not be a proper hymn or even a Christmas Carol, by any stretch, but it may be good to bellow that ditty at the top of your voice, ”God is building a house! God is building a house! God is building a house that will stand!” This is the great secret hidden for endless ages but now revealed to us in this age, a news that St Paul tells us in the second reading demands broadcasting so that it can reach all peoples “to bring them to the obedience of faith.” Christ our Saviour is Coming! On Christmas Day, He will be born!