In the verses the lectionary leaves out Solomon wonders if God whom “the highest heaven cannot contain” will be found in the sanctuary built by human hands. Solomon’s plea and prayer is that when people gather in the holy house God will be present. But more than that Solomon prays that God will be merciful so that sin will be forgiven and sin’s consequences mitigated. When the heavens are shut up and famine inhabits the land, when plague and pestilence and blight consume the people’s strength, God will see the plight of God’s people and provide. We no longer associate a single place as the location of the Divine presence but there is something to be said for a house that is a home. And as it turns out we’re the ones that need a house that we can call God’s home so that we have a place to go when troubles grow too great to bear alone. Reminds me of a Willie Nelson cover of a song by Tom Waits classic “Come On Up to the House”.
And the sky is cracked
Come on up to the house
The only things that you can see
Is all that you lack
Come on up to the house
All your cryin don't do no good
Come on up to the house
Come down off the cross
We can use the wood
Come on up to the house
Come on up to the house
Come on up to the house
The world is not my home
I'm just a passin thru
Come on up to the house
There's no light in the tunnel
No irons in the fire
Come on up to the house
And your singin lead soprano
In a junkman's choir
You gotta come on up to the house
Does life seem nasty, brutish and short
Come on up to the house
The seas are stormy
And you can't find no port
Come on up to the house
There's nothin in the world
there's nothin in the world
that you can do
you gotta come on up to the house
and you been whipped by the forces
that are inside you
come on up to the house
well you're high on top
of your mountain of woe
come on up to the house
well you know you should surrender
but you can't let go
you gotta come on up to the house
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