OT Notes I Kings 8, August 26

1) This is a marvelous model prayer. it can be adapted, and shortened, for all sorts of dedicatory purposes. 2) Please consider v. 27 Can God indeed dwell on earth.Dwell itself creates a sermon as one goes through its placements. Shakan/dwell is directly linked ot the transfiguration booths/tabernacles. One could use it to speak of the Incarnation. We could consider the issue of the finite containing the infinite. 3) another way to go is that the temple appears to be an axis mundi, a centerpoint, a thin place, an axial portal between heaven and earth. One could also use this as a communion meditation on real presence. 4) the lectionary cuts out 46-53 but it is a deep consideration of prayer, even in the midst of a predicted exile. (If one wants to be historical about it, rest assured that this is a later editorial edition, or the entire prayer comes form the hand of the writers of this section of Kings. 5) v. 10 brings back the cloud from the Exodus story. Again cloud is an image that one could work with in a variety of ways, especially its obscures and shines. If you have a science fiction background, i am sure countless examples come to mind. If one enjoys astronomy photos, one could speak of say the Magellanic cloud. 6)How did people hear v. 25? how would Christians interpret it? 7) 28-30 offer a nice summary of prayer as communication and offer lots of avenues for a sermon on prayer, or the importance of corporate worship, or a sermon on one's sanctuary where the community gathers. I suppose one could go the individualistic route and speak of one's heart as a sanctuary as in the popular song, make me a sanctuary. 8) In a time when we struggle with the notion of the alien, llok at the remarkable inclusion of the alien or the foreigner in 41-43.