Theme: Both Old Testament and Gospel portray the theme of God building a house, a kingdom or a people. In the Old Testament text, King David desires to build a temple for God but finds out that God is going to be the One building a house (dynasty) of David's descendents. In the Gospel, Angel Gabriel informs the Virgin Mary that God is going to build up his Kingdom through the son she was to conceive through the Holy Spirit.

COMMENTARY

Old Testament: 2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16
David wants to build in Jerusalem a temple for the Lord but Nathan, the prophet, forbids it in the name of the Lord. The drift of the message is that the Lord doesn't need such a house. From the time of the wilderness wandering, his special abode has been the Tabernacle. Some scholars regard much of this passage as a later…