Building the temple of God

Preached at St Alphege Church on Sunday 6th April 2008 at 6.30pm Evensong.
Third Sunday of Easter

Readings: Haggai 1:13 – 2:9 1 Corinthians 3:10-17


Our readings this evening are all about building the temple of God. They approach this theme in different ways. As time passes, understandings deepen, and we see a development in what is meant by “building the temple of God”.
First of all we heard the choir sing Psalm 48. This is a song of praise to God, written because of the greatness of city of Jerusalem, which King David had established as the seat of the Kingdom of the Israelites. The psalm sets out the way that God’s chosen people like to think about Jerusalem. It mentions the temple in Jerusalem, where the people ponder the steadfast love of the Lord. It mentions the strong fortification in Mount Zion, the hill that overlooked Jerusalem, and by which Jerusalem was defended. It says that the foreign kings trembled when they saw the strength of the fortifications on Mount Zion. Jerusalem was a safe and secure centre for the kingdom of God’s people, with the temple of Jerusalem right at its heart.
But then we see a complete contrast in the reading from the book of Haggai. In this reading God’s chosen people, now called the Jews, have returned to Jerusalem and are starting to rebuild the temple following the most devastating and traumatic period of their history. Round about 600 BC the Judeans had been conquered by the Babylonians who came from the area that we now call Iraq. This was an absolutely catastrophic experience for the God’s people. Jerusalem was completely overrun. Many Judeans were killed and their bodies left unburied in the street. The temple in Jerusalem was first plundered and then destroyed completely. The remaining Judeans, or most of them, (certainly all the leaders and educated people) were taken off to Babylon where they lived as slaves in exile. Psalm 137 tells us of the torment and bitterness of the exiles. But with the great suffering came a great purification. God taught his people to focus on Him and on His laws. And then after about 70 years of exile God delivered his people back home again in a miraculous and extraordinary way. Babylon was conquered by the Persians and King Cyrus of Persia encouraged the Jews to go back to Jerusalem and he encouraged them to rebuild the temple. This was a wonderful deliverance, beyond anything that the Jews could have hoped for. But the task of rebuilding the life of the nation in Jerusalem and of rebuilding the temple were still fraught with difficulties and progress was extremely slow.
In the passage that we read we heard God, through the prophet Haggai, stir up his people to get on with this work. Above all he encourages them. He says, “My spirit abides among you, do not fear.” He asks if there is anyone left who can remember the temple of old. Although the new temple still appears poor and insignificant compared to the great temple of old, God assures the people that he will make it great. “In a little while…I will shake all the nations, so that the treasure of all nations shall come, and fill this house with splendour” says the Lord of Hosts. “The latter splendour of this house will be greater than the former,” says the Lord.
In our New Testament reading from 1 Corinthians, St Paul compares himself to a skilled master builder, because he has laid the foundations of the church in Corinth. After Paul had left Corinth, Apollus, a well respected Christian of the early church (Acts 18:24), had continued to build and develop the Church in Corinth. We know that Paul wanted Apollos to be a church leader in Corinth (1 Cor 16:12) and that he was infuriated that the church in Corinth sometimes divided itself with some saying that they followed the teaching of Paul and some the teaching of Apollos (see 1 Cor 1 10-13).
Of course when Paul talks about building the church in Corinth he does not mean a physical church building, rather he means the Church, the people of God, the body of Christ. Paul describes the Church as the temple of the living God (2 Cor 6:16, see also Eph 2:21) and he sees himself, and others, as builders of that temple. He emphasises that Jesus Christ is the foundation of the Church (1 Cor 3:11). He goes on to say that that the work of himself, Paul, of Apollos, and of the other different people who have worked to build up the church will be tested by fire. What does this mean?
Well a physical temple building built of gold and precious stones will be resistant to fire, whereas a temple built of wood, hay and straw will easily burn up. The quality of a physical temple can therefore be tested by fire. A well built temple will endure fire, a more cheaply built temple will be destroyed by fire. Similarly if a church is solidly build on the foundation of Jesus Christ and on Christ Crucified (1 Cor 1 18 & 22 also 2:2) then it will stand the test of fire. This presumably means the test of suffering, of persecution, of loss.
So just as many different stones are built together to make a temple building, so we, the different members of the church, are being built together into a temple, a dwelling place for God where God lives by his spirit (Eph 2:21). Paul’s analogy is a very good one. The different stones in a temple building each have different functions, and so it is in the Church. Some stones are more visible than others. Some stones carry more weight than others. Some stones are beautifully carved, some more ordinary looking. But all of the stones have a role, and if any of them were missing then the building would lack something. And so it is with us in the church. Over time God carves us, or moulds us to fulfil the purpose he has for us in the church. We have different roles by which we serve one another within the life of the church. We need to be attentive to God in prayer, and attentive to the Christians around us in order to discern our role, and how we fit in. With love, we each need to serve the other people in the church, in the specific way that God wants us to serve. Also we need to receive service from the other Christians in the church with joy and thanksgiving. We each need to trust God, knowing that by following his will we will find roles that sustain us and fulfil us and lead us on the path to heaven.
But for a temple to be a temple it must be the dwelling place of God. We all know that God is present in his church through his Word proclaimed and through his sacraments, but God is present in other ways too. In 2 Corinthians 6:16, Paul quotes the prophets to explain that when we are formed together to be the temple of the living God, God will live with us, and walk about among us. He will be our God and we shall be his people. Similarly in Matthew 18:20 Jesus promises that he will be present in the midst of people united in his name. This means that when we meet together as church we must meet together united in the name of Jesus, following the commandments of Jesus, especially his New Commandment of mutual love. When we do this Jesus is present in our midst.
And in this there is a wonderful hint of the future promise of God. In the book of Revelation chapter 21 we can read about the New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God. In the New Jerusalem God makes his home among the mortals and dwells with them. The New Jerusalem is built of gold and of the most precious stones and it shines with the glory of God. There is no sun or moon, for all is illuminated by the glory of God. Most interesting of all, there is no temple in the New Jerusalem for the whole city is the dwelling place of God. And all the glory and honour of all the nations are brought to the New Jerusalem and all the nations will walk by the glorious light of God.
So let us allow God to form us into his living temple the Church. Let’s do what we can to help God build up his Church. Let’s be united in the name of Jesus, so that Jesus is present in the midst of us, and let’s prepare ourselves to be good citizens of the New Jerusalem where there is no need for a temple because God dwells in the midst of all his people. Amen.