It was a very important day – actually a very important eight days – for Solomon and the Israelite people. They had worked for years to build the Temple in Jerusalem. By most accounts it had actually been completed for about nine months before they dedicated it. They had been waiting for the perfect time to have the dedication celebration. The celebration takes place during the harvest time, a time of abundance. In this passage from 1 Kings we hear about the pomp and circumstance of bringing the Ark of the Covenant into the Temple and King Solomon’s dedicatory prayer.

Even a quick reading of the previous chapters will give an idea about how ornate the Temple was. There were vessels of bronze and golden cherubim. There was precious olivewood and cedar overlaid with gold. There were costly stones that formed the foundations of the Temple. It must have been some sight to see.

The Ark was carried into the Temple by the priests and accompanied by much sacrificing to God. Then, after they had placed the Ark in its resting place, the priests were driven out of the Temple by a great cloud of "thick darkness." The cloud was so thick that the priests were unable to minister in the Temple.

Can you imagine that? After all the work the people had put into building the Temple and on the first day the priests are driven out and unable to minister in it? Ah yes, but the reason they could not minister in it was because the very presence of God had come into the Temple. A thick and mysterious darkness had filled up the house and driven the priests out. This cloud that filled the Temple would have reminded the people of how God had been present with them and their ancestors throughout history. From the cloud that lead the Israelite people out from bondage in Egypt to the cloud that covered Mount Sinai when Moses received the Ten Commandments. God had often appeared in the presence of a cloud.

Last Saturday as I was preparing for our bike ride to Camp Hat Creek a thick fog rolled in. Around 6:00 am, I noticed that I couldn’t see the tree line out back because of the fog. I began to get concerned that this would affect our bike ride. It would not be safe for us to be out on the road with this thick fog. But as the time for the ride arrived and the group was gathered, the fog had begun to lift and the ride went on as planned.

Then on Monday, I was driving back from moderating a couple of session meetings in Charlotte County and there was steam rising from the road. It had rained and as the rain evaporated from the hot asphalt, it created a thick steam that seemed even denser when my headlights hit it. I slowed from my usual driving pace and kept a sharp eye out for what might be hidden or blocked from view in the steam.

In this moment, what had been so clear was obscured. The edge of the road was no longer a crisp line but a fuzzy boundary. Upcoming curves with cornfields on either side became merely fuzzy turnings of a gray surface among a sea of green. Things that had been clear were no longer clear.

It was like when you go to the eye doctor and they put that contraption over your eyes. At one point, the doctor makes everything blurry and asks you to choose which is the better of the blurry "Ns" projected on the wall. "Is it better A or B, B or C." To be honest that is one of my least favorite parts of going to the eye doctor. I like to see things crisply. I don’t like choosing between the lesser of the blurry images. I would much rather choose a focused image.

I had the privilege a few years ago when I visited an art gallery to see a display of Claude Monet’s paintings. Monet’s most famous painting "The Water Lily Garden" is not made up of crisp clean lines. As you stand back from the painting you can tell that there is a bridge with a stream flowing underneath it and there are flowers blooming all around. But the painting merely gives you that impression of a bridge and water and flowers. Hence it being labeled "impressionistic" style.

As you step closer to the painting, you can see the great blotches of color that Monet used and the rough, short brush strokes that left chunks of paint on the canvas. Though far away you get the impression of the bridge, up close it looks as nothing more than random splotches of color. Some art historians have argued that Monet had bad eyesight or perhaps was plagued with cataracts and therefore he painted the world as he saw it through blurred vision. But yet I think there was more to the way that Monet painted the world than bad vision or poor focus. I think he was trying to say something more through sharing his impressions of the world around him.

I am certainly not an art historian nor am I a qualified art critic but as I walked around this display of Monet pictures I began to feel as though perhaps Monet was calling those who look upon his paintings to see the world differently. Most anyone with artistic ability can replicate a scene or tableau on canvas. But Monet was doing more than copying the scene he saw in front of him in the garden. He was blurring the lines and calling us to work to see what was there and be surprised by what we discover.

After the Ark of the Covenant is placed in the Temple, the priests are driven out of the Temple by a cloud. As the cloud engulfs the Temple, Solomon turns to address the crowd. To those looking on, the Temple would have been obscured by the cloud. Perhaps it looked more like the impression of a Temple rather than the Temple itself. It is from his obscured place that Solomon prays for the people. It is from the outskirts of the cloud that Solomon addresses God and prays for God’s listening ear.

With the Temple obscured by this cloud of the presence of God, Solomon praises God for God’s faithfulness to the covenant he made with Solomon’s father, David. With the impression of God behind him, Solomon prays for God to listen to the prayers that the Israelites will offer at the Temple. But Solomon doesn’t stop there. He also prays that God will listen to the prayers of foreigners – those who come to visit and worship God in this Temple. Obscured by the cloud, Solomon prays at the Temple.

Solomon acknowledges that the structure that human hands have built cannot contain God. God does not dwell in the Temple because God is too big to be limited by such square footage. As the people looked on and heard Solomon’s words and saw the Temple obscured by the cloud, I wonder what they were thinking. Looking on at the Temple as though Monet had done an impression of it, I wonder what the people were thinking?

The people who had gathered in Jerusalem that day had come to worship God. They had brought their offerings to God and they were given the opportunity to see the very presence of God in a cloud of thick darkness.

Last year, when I was flying back from visiting some of Eric’s relatives, we flew through some clouds. As I looked out the window of the plane, I saw a whole new landscape up there in the clouds. The puffy structures looked like you could just walk across them as you would across rolling hills in the countryside. As I watched the clouds and daydreamed I saw figures outlined in the clouds: a face, a turtle, a cat. But as soon as I saw them, they would change and erase the image I had seen before.

I kind of wonder if faith is anything like seeing figures in a cloud. At one instance it is clear what is there in the clouds and in the next instant, it is gone. But if we continue to look upon the clouds, and keep our mind open we will not see the same figure as before but will be blessed with another glimpse of something else.

Faith doesn’t paint in sharp lines but is more of an impressionistic style. If we stand back far enough we get the idea of what is pictured. But as we are in the midst of our life sometimes the journey of faith just looks like a bunch of random blotches of color with inelegant globs of paint on the canvas of our life.

From the thick darkness in the Temple that day, the people were given the impression of the focus of their faith. Do not despair if you are unable to paint your faith with sharp lines. Faith is not about being able to replicate a still life on a canvas. Faith is about being able to impress upon others the love of God.

Glory be to the God of the impressionist,

The God of the sculptor,

The God who dwells in clouds of thick darkness.