Dedication Sunday - our church buildings

Sermon preached at 11am Eucharist at St Catherine’s, Catherine-de-Barnes, Solihull
19th October 2008, Dedication Sunday, Year A
(A shortened version of this sermon was preached at the 8am Eucharist at St Alphege, Solihull)

Readings: 1 Kings 8: 22-30 [Hebrews 12: 18-24] Matthew 21: 12-16


Our Old Testament lesson today was part of a prayer made by King Solomon as he dedicated the huge temple that he had built in Jerusalem. This happened perhaps round about 950 years before Christ. Let’s do a quick re-cap on some of the history so we understand what this was all about.
After Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt to freedom in the Promised Land it took the Israelites three hundred years or so to consolidating themselves in the Promised Land. Then King David had many military successes. The nation became more secure and he established a capital for the people of Israel at Jerusalem. King David longed to build a permanent temple for the Lord in Jerusalem, but God told him that this work would be completed by his son Solomon. After David’s death Solomon was king. He was a wise king and became immensely wealthy. These were the real glory days of the Kingdom of Israel. Solomon did indeed build a temple for the Lord. It was a huge project and Solomon spared no expense. A massive and wonderful temple was constructed, and it was decorated with much gold and bronze and many fine things.
When the temple was competed a huge dedication festival was planned (1 Kings 8). [The arc of the covenant, which represented God’s presence with the people of Israel, was brought down from Mount Zion. Inside the arc were the two tablets of the Ten Commandments on which God’s covenant with Israel was based. The arc was placed in the holiest past of the temple and mysteriously a cloud appeared and filled that whole part of the temple so all the priests had to come out to get away from the cloud.] The whole people of Israel were assembled and King Solomon made a great speech explaining all about the temple and why it had been built. And then Solomon had made a great prayer to God reminding God of his promise that his “name shall be there” and asking that God would listen to the prayers of the people who prayed there.
Solomon’s prayer was a very long prayer, but we got the start of it in our Old Testament reading. And in this part of the prayer Solomon says a very interesting thing. He says, “Even heaven … cannot contain you [Oh God], how much less can this house which I have built contain you!” God is everywhere, so it is not really that God is in any way more present in the temple in Jerusalem or in our own church buildings, than he is present anywhere else. Rather the point is that the temple in Jerusalem, and our own church buildings are places dedicated, that is to say they are set aside for God, for the worship of God. [And the fact that they are set aside for God, does limit what else can go on in them. In our gospel reading we heard Jesus casting out the buyers and seller and money changers. Jesus says that the temple should not be a den of robbers but rather should be a place of prayer.] And hopefully, because this space is set aside for God, there will be things here like our stained glass, like our altar, which point us towards the presence of God. Also hopefully here there are less distractions, less other things going on, and so in this space in particular we will be aware of the presence of God.
And in the church we always do what we can to build the presence of God, to become more attentive to the presence of God, to grow in awareness of the presence of God. Above all we do this through our worship. Let’s just pause for a moment to remember the special ways that God is present to us as we worship here in this place.
First of all, as we gather here for worship, we meet in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and Jesus has promised that where two or three gather in his name, there he is in the midst of them (Matt 18: 20). So it is important that we truly gather in the name of Jesus, in his essence, in his reconciling love, and then Jesus will be present in the midst of us, and we will feel our hearts burn within us, like the disciples on the road to Emmaus.
Then perhaps most obviously, we celebrate the Eucharist here. Christ becomes present to us in bread and wine; we share in his body and blood, and he shares his life with us.
Then, in this place, we read the bible. God becomes present to us in his word proclaimed. We try to allow the word of God to enter into, to change our attitudes and behaviours so that Christ is us may grow in us.
And the presence of God is of great value to us. It is a life giving presence that nurtures us and helps us to grow. The presence of God, helps our relationship with God to grow, helping us to understand who we truly are. The presence of God helps us as individuals and all together to become the people God created us to be. Certainly the presence of God can be uncomfortable. It can make us aware of our sins, of those parts of our lives which are not aligned with God’s will. It can make us aware of the hollowness and fragility of large parts of our lives. It can make us aware of our lack of commitment, our failures to put God in the first place in our lives. But as we work through the pain and discomfort of these realisations, the presence of God assures us that we are loved, that we are forgiven, that we are called to life in Christ. By the presence of God we are healed and made whole.
Now the presence of God does not depend on a church building. It depends on God and on us. But as a place set aside for God, with less distractions, the church building can certainly help us to focus and to do all our part. It is certainly a good place to seek the presence of God. So let us give thanks to God for our Church buildings. Let’s seek to dwell always in the transforming presence of God and let’s allow our church buildings to help us.